Web-Tones

Search, KM and the Practice of Law

I am writing a paper with the same title and have had a chance to review some of the older literature and some literature that is (finally) law firm specific.

There are exciting things happening in this space and the completed paper will be posted here in a few months, but for now I just wanted to highlight a product that has continued to intrigue me. The name of the product is Confluence from Atlassian Software (www.atlassian.com/confluence). Confluence is a knowledge management "platform" that integrates wikis, blogs, email archives, discussion forums and more.  The entry level price for 25 users is $1,200.00 USD, a phenomenal value.

Now at this price point you might think that their target market is small to medium size enterprises and I am quite certain that a fair number of small businesses use it. BUT, take a look at their customer list and you will find some of the largest names in Tech (e.g. Adobe, EMC, Cisco and surprisingly Microsoft), some of the fortune 500 (e.g. Shell, KFC, BMW and Sony) and two of the large consultancies (Accenture & PricewaterhouseCoopers). Yeah their enterprise licenses are a bit more expensive but not much more ($4,000 USD for 500 users and $8,000 USD for unlimited users).

BTW, if you are a solo practitioner, you can get a two person "personal" license FREE (as in nada). These "boys" are doing something right! More to come...

Open Source Theology?

I was raised Roman Catholic and have always had an "on again/off again" relationship with the Church. First of all there was my reaction against the Roman Catholic church as too much of a worldly institution...something that always gave me pause. Then there was my belief that there was no need to have a priest intercede on my behalf...for better or worse my relationship with the Lord has always been upfront and personal and that is what I always believed that Jesus intended (i.e. wherever two or more are gathered in my name).

Despite these misgivings, I enjoyed attending mass and at a particular point in my life, derived great solace from it. Lots of good work gets done in the Roman Catholic Church because there are, like in many other churches, lots of true believers whose faith is greater than any petty complaints about church doctrine. I agree with C.S. Lewis that the devil is probably quite amused by humans that become church connoisseurs. That said, I never really felt that the Roman Catholic Church was home, just a place I went to be with others that shared a similar faith.

I recently attended a service at the Vineyard Community Church in Maryland. It is a church that my son is an active member and I must admit I had a completely different experience. First of all the pastor was dressed in khakis and an "open" short sleeve shirt with a tee-shirt underneath. He told jokes while delivering a powerful message. He discussed his own familial challenges in a way that seemed not only more "human" but also more relevant because it was more human. Check out the welcome message in the link above and you get a feel for the experience.

I have done some research on the Vineyard churches (about six hundred or so nationwide) and there are some nearby us in Largo, FL. I might just pay them a visit...

Blawggies

Congratulations to my friend Rick "Saint" Georges for his honorable mention in the Blawggies. It is well deserved because no one in law blogging covers new products with quite the same wit and insight as Rick. Rock on!