Information Overload!

There is too much information available over the Internet. There are news sites, newsletters, search engines, blogs, message boards, podcasts, news readers, news feeds, and wikis. I am constantly finding and checking new sources of information like widgets for weather. And, that doesn't include all the old sources of information like calendar alerts, favorite lists, voice mails, faxes, IM, and cell phone messages, not to mention newspapers, postal mail, and my favorite "post-it memos". What is the best strategy for information management?

First, you have to organize. What information is critical vs. interesting? Which are news sources vs. reference sources? Which form of communication is most efficient? How can I find the information I need quickly?

Second, you have to find the best tools. By "best", I mean which tools are best for the way you work. If someone wants to get my attention, email is still my first priority. I do everything I can to filter out nonessential email (by using the Rules and Alerts feature in Outlook) into separate mail boxes. That way only clients and personal contacts appear in my Inbox.

Third, you have to customize your news sources. I like the notion of having a personalized newspaper by selecting my favorite news feeds and favorite blogs. The only problem is that I need a personalized editor (the old fashioned newspaper kind) to avoid all the less interesting information that inevitably gets mixed in.

Fourth, you have to be inventive. There is just too much information and too many different tools. You have to continually think of new ways to use existing (meaning "free") tools that will make your life easier.

I was intrigued by Erik Heel's suggestion to use the "shared items" feature in Google Reader, which makes it easy to tag news items and share them with your friends (or your blog readers). So, I tried it. You will notice in the lower right hand column of this blog a section called "News" where I quickly tagged a few articles I thought were interesting. It's a nice alternative. Rather than post a news feeds with random articles, I simply tag the articles I want to share as I browse through my morning newspaper.

The new Google Reader made me realize that RSS feeds are essential to the distribution of blogs. No one has time to check a blog site every day. I would expect in the near future, if a blog doesn't make its content available by an RSS feed, no one will read it. Even traditionals news websites need to make available by feeds. The days of "surfing the web" may be numbered.

Today, there are more and more ways to filter out information on the Net. One example is Dave Taylor, who uses Newsgator to do sophisticated keyword searches to track the buzz about the book he authored. The blog and the newsreader may be fast converting users from actively going out and searching the web to passively specifying what information and waiting for it to be brought back from the web.

For my law practice, what I would like to do is to create a customized news readers for each different legal subject matter. For example, a customized newsreader for finding new articles on LLC formation or software licensing. I can imagine the newsreaders of the future would allow me to specify key words, author ratings, content ratings, and various style settings with smart logic that over time more and more reflect my preferences.

How do you keep track of all that information? What kind of customized news sources can you envision?

Which are the best legal blogs?

The great power of the Internet is the facility with which information can be shared. As a result, we all learning from one another all over the world. So, who are the best thought leaders in the legal community and how do I find them?

Now that I am officially in the blogging world or "blogosphere" as it is more popularly known, I feel compelled to find out who are the leaders of this universe of knowledge. I started by doing a search on Technorati, which Mark Doerschlag of Mark's Guide kindly pointed out was one of the key directory for blogs. Technorati tracks the links made when bloggers comment on one another's website. The more bloggers who link to your site and the more links they use, the higher your blog is ranked. After the first week, The Virtual Lawyer has 3 links from 2 blogs and is currently ranked 1,693,770 out of 69.2 million blogs tracked by Technorati (not bad top 3% in just 8 days!). I guess that means there are at least 67 million lower ranked blogs that I don't have bother reading.

So, of the roughly 1.7 million active blogs (or more if they are not tracked by Technorati), which ones relate to lawyers and how do I find the really good ones? Having no clue, I started by doing a Google search for "best law blogs" and a search for "best law blawgs" came up with a number of great blog review sites. Here are the ones that I found most useful:

Robert Ambrogi's LawSites: Votes are in: Your top law blogs
The 2006 Weblog Awards: Best Law Blog
Blawg Review: Blawg Review Awards 2006
Blawg Review: BlawgWorld 2006 Review

After looking through some of these reviews, I concluded that the "best" sites were the ones with the legal subject matter I was most interested in. I found the quality and consistency within a blog column varies a lot and that the subject matter can vary alot. The blogs that appeal to me the most are the ones that reflect the author's true personality. I also like blogs that are highly focused, but have a blogger who is broad minded and minimizes (if not totally avoids) any selling of his or her services.

I learned two more things: (1) there are a number of national luminaries that are universally recognized and applauded as legal bloggers because their names and posts appear the most frequently, and (2) the best way for me to narrow down the list was to find bloggers with similar interests that post a list of their favorite blogs and then cross-reference those favorites with the ones that are "universally recognized" under item (1) above.

Which law blogs do you like the best and why?

Power tools for lawyers?

Some guys want to own a Hummer. Other guys want twin 500HP boat engines. Others want to own superfast computers. The truth is men (and women) like power tools. The tools I dream about (yes, this may sound strange) are power tools for lawyers. I enjoy being able to handle complex business transactions and being able to crank out piles of documents quickly and efficiently. The problem is that most tools for lawyers are pretty poor.

Why do legal publishers still call me by phone, trying to get me to “review” their latest book for a free 30-day trial? Is it because they know once they send it to me, I will forget to return it within the 30-day deadline?

Frankly, I don’t want any more books on paper. What I want is an online resource that is cheap, easily downloaded, and up to date. I want content that changes so frequently that it is not worth my time to download copies. I want to be able to search legal sources quickly to find answers before I forget my question. I want to be able to easily locate sample documents drafted (and used) by experienced attorneys actually practicng in my jurisdiction.

I also want to know what other lawyers use as primary tools in their specific areas of practice. I want checklists and document assembly systems. I want to do less typing and editing and more creative thinking and problem-solving. Why is it that these tools and information don’t exist in one nice easy to find resource accessible by a web browser?

I think the problem is with the centralized publishing model. Legal publishers don’t actually use most of the materials they sell. If they did, they would realize their materials are pretty poor (however, there are a few exceptions like Massachusetts Corporate Forms by Bohnen and Coggins). Yet, the best lawyers usually don’t share their “tools” with other lawyers, except on a limited basis as a “courtesy” or in the course of delivering the final work product to opposing counsel.

Too many lawyers think that sharing information means they are giving away their expertise. Well, I think the opposite. We all can benefit by sharing knowledge. If one lawyer shares information, that will encourage other lawyers to do so as well. One notable example is John Hession of McDermott Will & Emery (formerly with Testa Hurwitz and Thibeault). He and his firms have consistently shared and updated their venture capital financing documents with the MCLE. I'm not expecting lawyers to provide free legal advice, just to share with other lawyers the tools that they use in their practice.

Here is my challenge… if there is any document or information that you would like me to share with other lawyers, send me an email. I will post it on a site made available only to lawyers. The challenge for you is to either (1) provide thoughtful and critical feedback that helps to improve my document or (2) you offer to send me a document of yours that I am interested in seeing.

If you are interested in this challenge, send email to v-lawyer@lexpertise.com.

Will Knowledge Management drive law firms in the future?

There is no doubt in my mind that Knowledge Management ("KM") will drive law firms in the future. In the past, law firms were driven by recruiting the best and the brightest lawyers and developing a reputation for good work. Hiring talented lawyers will be important in the future, but not as important as developing the best KM systems. Why do I believe that? Because the Internet makes people and information more accessible. It's scary to say, but the Internet makes people more of a commodity (not that I believe that personally). With regard to professional services, talent will no longer be the differentiator. The biggest challenge for law firms will be to harness that talent and their reservoirs of knowledge in ways that improve product quality and efficiency. In other words, "Knowledge Management".

Ok, but what is KM? Here are some definitions:

According to Wikipedia, "There is a broad range of thought on Knowledge Management with no unanimous definition current or likely." Wikipedia itself defines Knowledge Management as a "range of practices used by organizations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge for reuse, awareness, and learning across the organisations." The fact that wikipedia spells the word "organization" differently than I do does not give me much comfort in their definition.

The definition of Knowledge Management that I prefer is "Capturing, organizing, and storing knowledge and experiences of individual workers and groups within an organization and making this information available to others in the organization." (Ironically, I found this definition on Google from a link that is no longer working.) It is the collaborative element of this definition that I find compelling. Lawyers sharing information will make all of us better lawyers and more efficient. KM will facilitate the process.

More practically, I think that KM encompases all of the systems, tools, and infrastructure needed to practice law effectively. In an upcoming blog, I will attempt to break down the concept of Knowledge Management into practical terms and identify how law firms can start to lay the ground work now for developing the systems, tools, and infrastructure that I (and most lawyers) will need to access in the future.

What do you think will drive law firms in the future? Will it be KM or something else?