Web-Tones

The Media 2.0 Moniker

Link: Are You Paying Attention?. This 2.0 moniker  is entirely overused but does serve as an effective mnemonic for where change is happening. And as we all know, almost always (from a business perspective) where there is enough change happening then the $$ follows. Right now, and for the forseeable future (oh lets say about at least the next year or so), media will continue to be THE hot topic. There is no doubt that Web 2.0 technologies have transformed journalism as we know it, BUTthe interesting question is what other industry transformations lie ahead?

Face Time & Video

There is a danger/paradox of becoming disconnected when we spend a large part of our time in the "online world." Being online is obviously becoming more and more a requirement in the western world and everywhere else as well. Here's a podcast about the importance of "face time" in business and here why "face time" is an absolute requirement in China.

The importance of seeing and hearing to our "lizard brains" is one of the reasons that Internet video is quickly becoming the "next killer app" (best way to describe it despite the cliche). But even this is no substitution for the real thing.

I often go to the spa as a way of "social networking"--not because I am looking for professional contacts but simply because I enjoy sitting in a coed sauna and chatting with the "old timers" (read retirees) about everyday stuff. It makes me feel "plugged in" socially in a much more profound way...
 

Liberal Arts Geeks

Link: Dealing_with_Darwin: Dateline Davos: The Shifting Power Equation. Geoff doesn't post often but when he does it is usually quite insightful. Here he comments on many different kinds of power shifts but particularly on the shift from those that don't communicate well to those that do. This idea is also captured in a manifesto by Steve Hardy entitled "The Creative Generalist" here. It is, according to Geoff, the antithesis of the "revenge of the nerds."

While I agree with this for the most part (i.e. a shift to the liberal arts enabled) I would qualify that and say that the shift is to the "geeky liberal arts enabled"--a kind of techno literacy is still required but it is much less engineering centric.

Short is good

Link: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Honey, I shrunk the culture. There is something that feels right about "short" for lots of day to day informational needs. Probably that is just the nature of things in the wired (always on) universe. Sure, a long read has its place and is not going away, but it certainly feels like short is becoming more and more relevant.

Business Blogs

Link: Business Blogs: How to Build A Better Blog: Top 5 Reasons to Start a Blog for Your Business. I think that this post is dead on for the most part. There is a huge untapped market for people that realize that something important is going on and are putting a toe in the water. Fear (of all things tech) is probably the biggest "hangup" but a certain percentage will overcome this.

The biggest untapped market are professionals and academics, but I suspect that this is the proverbial "tip of the iceberg"--this game is just getting started.

Six Degrees of Separation

Grant Griffiths points to a post that describes one of the reasons that the concept of six degrees of separation is such a powerful one. You are either getting plugged into the network or not. It is difficult to explain the idea that you feed the network and the network feeds you unless you start participating in the dialog and experience first hand how this works!

Kevin's explanation of why linking to the competition is important is insightful because it is a "crystalline" example of the network effect.

2007 Year of Internet Video

While 2006 was the year that YouTube took center stage, 2007 is destined to be the year of Internet video. The legal community is already starting to experiment as featured in the post from MyShingle.

When attorneys start experimenting with cutting edge technologies you know that the time for mass adoption by the general business community has already arrived, since historically the legal industry has lagged (slow to adopt) technologies that appear "edgy."

That said, I suspect that the power and allure of context sensitive rich content (CSRC) might just turn the conventional wisdom on its head, with the leaders defined as those most willing to be creative risk takers.
 

Enabling Law 2.0: People, Process & Platform

What is LawTechTV (LTTV)?

Glad you asked. It is the new direction for the Web-Tones blog that will feature “chalk talk” videos on various legal technology topics: applications, knowledge management, marketing/new media, practice management, infrastructure and more.

This content will be brought to you by Web-Tones, with “a little help from my friends.”

LTTV is a legal technology consulting firm that helps clients with online marketing(including SEO), technology and infrastructure strategies enabling them to effectively participate in Law 2.0. If you are interested in experiencing the difference check out our services here. To contact us click here.
 

Stay tuned…

Software Mutation: Predicting the Missing Link

Link: Software Mutation: Predicting the Missing Link. Good stuff here, especially as it relates to data, this is what the good doctor has been ranting about for years now. It's the data that creates the "lock in" and unleashing it has important implications.

Video Blogging & Podcasting

Anyone interested in video blogging and podcasting, and before long there will be tons of people interested, should get this book. It is authored by a couple of industry veterans and makes sense out of the moving parts that make up the domain. Sure you can piece together the story by brute force web searching, but having a trusted set of tour guides makes much more sense.

The applications for these enabling technologies are vast (see chapter 3) and I believe that the authors' are just scratching the surface. Certainly they will have an impact on KM and may in fact redefine what is meant by it. The content sensitive rich content (CSRC --you heard it here first) digital universe that I explored here is quickly becoming reality.

All that said, it seems like the authors' missed an opportunity by not having videos that support their writing. It is always more effective marketing when you demonstrate that you are "eating your own dog food."

Emerson & New Media

Ralph Waldo Emerson explores the power of symbols in his essay "The Poet" (audio iTunes version here ) where he describes their importance not only to poets but to everyone. The true poet being simply the most effective user of them, rendering the natural & spiritual worlds transparent through their use.

Emerson, if he were still with us, would not have been surprised by the rise of "new media" and the democratization of publishing and computing that it has unleashed. The masses also have the same desire for human expression that we attribute to the poet, as Emerson recognized, despite the fact that their abilities are constrained and their particular genius is limited.

It is the human desire to create and to express, coupled with enabling technologies, that has fueled the growth of the web. Now that the genie is out of the bottle there is no predicting where the muse of the masses might lead, but it should be an interesting ride.

Enterprise 2.0

It seems that these days everything has a 2.0 "moniker" associated with it. We have Web 2.0 and Law 2.0 and now Enterprise 2.0. What is it you ask? Essentially it is a name given to a set of  emerging technologies (e.g. wikis & blogs) that have the following characteristics/capabilities called SLATES: (search, linking, authoring, tagging, extensions, and signals). These capabilities, and perhaps the term itself, were first identified (I think) by one of its leading proponents: Andrew McAfee (Associate Professor Harvard Business School). McAfee writes not only with the clarity of a top notch academic but like someone who is an IT industry veteran, a rare combination!

In any case, I stumbled unto Enterprise 2.0 during my research on "Search, KM and the Practice of Law" and managed to throw in a late reference since the concept as described by McAfee & others (Dion  Hinchcliffe of ZDNet) embodies much of what I was describing, albeit the general principles and not within a law firm context. In any case, this is certainly a space to watch for anyone with an interest in KM platforms...