Web-Tones

Outlining & Mind Maps

I recently started using a program to create "analytical frameworks" useful in answering law school exams. It is a brainstorming tool from Mindjet that essentially lets you quickly visualize text for a better understanding. I would describe it as power point drawing on steroids--providing a quick way to "draw" relationships between ideas. The tool is now "morphing" into additional uses (e.g organizing a paper on knowledge management within the legal industry) & the applications seem endless: 1) mapping case info; 2) creating high level project plans; 3) collaborative decision making etc. Mind Manager allows the embedding of other objects(e.g. pointers to Word Docs & Excel, & URLs) & exporting to your favorite office productivity apps; for me it works in place of the "lost outliners" that Doc Searls & others have been ranting about.

Related Tags: Outliners, Searls

SkypeCasts-VoIP Rocks!

The future lawyer Rick Georges hosted his first SkypeCast yesterday & while there were a few glitches the technology worked pretty much as advertised. I am quite certain that future casts will get better & better as all the particpants learn more about the features & functionality. The amazing part is that participants simply downloaded the Skype client & "plugged in" without much more instruction than that. Here's the kicker, these were attorneys (not exactly known as techno geeks) of various ages, including a boomer from CA who is > 60 years young & still going strong--enough said.

Related Tags: Law 2.0, Web 2.0, Skype, SkypeCasts

There is something interesting happening on these internets...

Markets as Conversations-So What?

This piece here by Timothy Grayson (Funnel of Love) is the most on point commentary as to why interactivity (from a marketing perspective) matters. Notice the universality of the application--it applies to firms of all sizes and shapes--including law firms. There are other treasures on the same page (see link above) that I will be return to shortly. Grayson has captured the essence of 21 Century Marketing (his words) with simple & compelling clarity and it is no wonder that he and the good doctor are such (apparently) good friends. Markets are conversations indeed!

The big so what is interactiviy (done right) is how you turn "suspects into dollars!"

Get A Clue

For many of us the cluetrain was the seminal work that drove us to blogging. The idea of markets as conversations became the "aha moment" regarding the power of what was happening on the net. Never mind that as economics (or marketing) it may have missed the mark here & there. Its central thesis remains as relevant today as it was in the early days (circa 2000). Just look at all the signatories (names both big & small) that paid tribute back then & continue doing so now I suspect.

My favorite Cluetrain quote is from Chris Locke "We are not seats or eyeballs or end users or consumers. We are human beings - and our reach exceeds your grasp. Deal with it." If I had one book to recommend to an attorney (or anybody else) this would be it. Grok it and you might just get a clue.

Wealth of Networks (reprise)

Just finished Benkler's masterful tome Wealth of Networks (available as a pdf here ) and it was well worth trudging through the near 500 pages! This seminal work will be read for years to come, because it pulls together in one place, a starting point for analyses, important across multiple dimensions, that lay the foundation for the networked economy.

Related Tags: Benkler, Lessig, Wealth of Networks, WN, Web2.0, Web 2.0