Dennis Kennedy

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June 30, 2004

For the Next Few Days - "Scraps and Workshop"

As my previous post indicated, the Dennis Kennedy Law Firm Annual Retreat has begun.

I?m not planning to post anything new in the sense of topical until next week, but I came up with an idea to maintain a blog presence.

One of the most fun albums of the 1970s was a double album from NRBQ called "Scraps / Workshop," which was technically a reissue of two separate albums. I wanted to borrow the "scraps and workshop" concept and the NRBQ approach to "let's have fun and put it out there."

I noticed that I have a bunch of lists, starts on articles, unused blog post ideas, notes and the like that are just sitting around. Some are quite interesting and extensive, in my humble opinion, but are unfinished or unpolished.

I thought it might be fun to take the NRBQ spirit and post a few of them from time to time over the next few days to let them see the light of air and maybe generate a few ideas for you. Pull up an RC Cola and a Moon Pie and let's have some fun.

Posted by dmk at 12:58 PM

The Dennis Kennedy Law Firm Annual Retreat

It's time for my first annual retreat and that's what I'll be doing for the next few days.

I would be the first to admit that the whole notion of a law firm retreat strikes fear in the heart of any law firm partner who has ever attended one, for good reason, but it strikes me that now is the right time for this kind of exercise and I am determined to try to do it right.

I have three things working in my favor. First, we were able to obtain world-class law firm retreat speaker Dennis Kennedy to speak at our retreat. I can't wait to hear what he will have to say about effective use of technology in the practice of law, where the practice is headed and, in particular, the notion of client-driven technologies. Second, I have vowed to avoid at all costs the three worst features of most law firm retreats and partner meetings - interminable and aimless discussions of associate reviews, contentious debate over amendments to the partnership agreement that seem like they should be non-controversial but you cannot figure out exactly why people are so exercised over, and lengthy explanations of firm finances backed up by indecipherable spreadsheets displayed in fonts to small to read. All of these have been banned from our annual retreat. Third, we have an agenda that has real and substantive issues.

Here?s the current agenda:

1. Where the Heck are We Today? I started my solo practice a little over a year ago. If you subtract out the time it took for a longer-than-expected recovery from "minor" surgery, I'm really at a good one-year point and we are halfway through 2004. It?s a good point from which to step back and assess everything, including whether the use of the royal "we" for a solo practice is appropriate.

2. Eating My Own Dog Food. I know, this phrase all but belongs to Microsoft, but it makes a lot of sense for me today. Why do the shoemaker?s children never have new shoes? Several of my smartest and best advisors have recently asked me the question: "What advice would you give yourself if you came in as a consultant to yourself?" That strikes me as a very good question.

I have great advice and ideas that I give and would like to give to clients. How good am I at implementing that advice in my own business? What's the holdup? Let's tally things up and see where my practice stands based on my own principles and the practices I advocate and discuss in my articles and presentations. Among other things, portfolio management is a key item.

3. The "Blow Out" Epiphany. There's a new reality show on Bravo called "Blow Out," which follows the startup of a new shop for Jonathan Antin's hairdressing business in Hollywood. I saw an episode last week and then caught another episode and a repeat this weekend. To my credit (even though my wife spotted it sooner), I realized halfway through the second show that I watched that I was watching myself in Jonathan, or at least what I was heading toward becoming. What were the clues? Oh, things like watching him install outlet boxes, physically switch phone lines, and generally try to do everything himself when he has a group of great people around him. The question: am I trying to do too many things myself? What do I do about it? To those of my friends who have been hinting to me about this - I think I'm finally starting to get your point, but you might want to be a little more direct next time - remember the 2 by 4 and mule metaphor.

4. Collaboration Opportunities and Necessities. By the way, I don't have to think too hard to know what the answers are to the questions in point 3. The real issue is to decide what to do about it, especially since I increasingly realize that I am in regular contact with the largest group of bright, accomplished people who I admire and trust than I've ever been around in my life. It's a virtual group rather than a local group, but I think that raises mainly logistical issues.

At least three topics on the table:

A. The "virtual" legal secretary or administrative assistant. I had a great conversation at ABA TECHSHOW with Sharon Quaintance at Law Docs Express about what they are doing in the area of "virtual" legal secretaries and how that might help me. It's time to follow-up. [Note: Done! Email sent.]

B. Hiring the proverbial "bright college summer / part-time intern." I have too many projects that are close to done that require work that I'm not finding time to do. It's frustrating. I had a phone call last week where I was advocating the use of a college intern in another context and gradually realized that it also makes sense for me as well. Nailing down the idea, putting together the job description and ad are all on the agenda. If you are reading this and might be interested or know someone who might be interested, let me know.

C. Throwing Open the Doors on Potential Collaborative Projects and Relationships. This is the big one, but it makes so much sense. I've already started to do more co-written articles, so, psychologically, I'm more open to the concept than I have been in the past. However, I really want to throw the doors open and consider a wide variety of ideas, projects and other relationships, with the idea of making myself more "web-like" than "silo-like." If you've ever wanted to work with me on something on float a collaborative idea by me, now is the time. For example, I'm thrilled with what?s happening as a result of joining the Advisory Board of LegalRA.com, a new entry into the legal research world that gets many, many things right and is creating a fantastic tool that includes several important features that I have wanted for a long time. Check it out and tell them I sent you. (I'll write more about this in the future, but the "My Library" section of the service is what will blow people away.)

Let me restate the obvious. I've said this many times in many ways, but the current world of legal bloggers is tailor-made for jump-starting collaborative efforts.

5. The Product Line. I?m sitting on more content and intellectual property than many people dream about. It's a matter of unlocking it and turning it into products. That's a huge priority for me this summer and a big piece of the hiring an intern idea.

6. Services as Products and Packages. If the billable hour model is busted, then flat rates, service packages and products are clearly the way to go. It's a matter of creating the packages and then marketing to the right people in a way that they can understand. That's easier said than done.

Here are two illustrations:

A. Executive Review Express. I offer a reasonable flat rate service where I will review and give you comments and negotiating approaches on an IT agreement or software license within one day or three days, as you choose. Many people have been very curious about how successful this package has been, because they think it is a compelling package, especially since both other lawyers and my own clients could use the service. My conclusion is that the results to date have been disappointing. I believe that the problem is one of marketing rather than concept, but I'm not sure.

B. Put Dennis on Your Technology Committee. When I came up with this idea, I thought it was the best business idea I ever had. The concept: for a fixed price, you get Dennis to take an overview survey of your firm's technology, participate by phone in your firm's tech committee meetings, and take advantage of my expertise and industry contacts. Brilliant, right? I've found no interest whatsoever. Again, is the problem marketing, conceptual, or, as I now believe, institutional (an unwillingness to bring outsiders in to see, if you will, how the sausage is made)?

On the agenda - creating and marketing these types of approaches. Help me out on with some reactions to this idea. One of my uniquenesses is that I practice computer law at a high level and I'm also one of few attorneys who understand what software is out there, how it is and can be used, et al. Given that, why wouldn't someone want a package where I "audit" your existing software licenses and help you set up license management practices? As a benefit, you also get my insights into software practices, program usage, purchasing methods that don't make practical sense. Other idea fragments on packages - Your IT General Counsel, Total License Audit, Helpdesk for Your IT Contract Administrators.

6. The Latent Market for Business Legal Services. Richard Granat and others have spoken and written for years about the "latent" market for legal services. To drastically over-simplify, the idea is that there is a large middle class group of people who have definite needs for legal services, but who cannot afford, do not understand the benefit of, or otherwise do not use the services of lawyers. As a result, they "go it alone" or do nothing, often to their detriment.

I believe that the same idea applies in the business context. In the latent market for business legal services, you find a large number of businesses where owners, executives (often CFOs) and others make "seat of the pants" legal decisions on their own for many of the same reasons Granat and others discuss. Another portion of this market routinely "underlawyers" the problem - i.e., uses a general lawyer for issues that should be addressed by lawyers who practice in the specific area. An example would be a company that has its real estate lawyer looking over software licenses.

In either case, mistakes are likely to be made. When I describe my practice as "providing consumer protection for businesses entering into important technology contracts," I have the picture of this latent market for business legal services in mind. These are the people I can and want to help. At the annual retreat, I want to take some time to think about this concept, its implications and approaches to target this latent market, especially in ways that take advantage of Internet delivery of services, products and collaborative efforts.

7. Channels, Sponsorships and Advertising. Earlier this year, I did a small experiment with sponsoring and advertising with respect to my web efforts, given that my website drew over a million hits last year. The pace is even higher this year and the percentage of hits going to my blog has reached 60%. As a result, you will find logo sponsorships from CaseSoft, Fios, Worldox and Tabs 3 on various pages on my website. I?ve all-but-decided to forego writing product reviews and turn my focus instead to using the Dennis Kennedy channel to create a limited number of sponsorships from vendors that I like and would recommend, are doing cool things, or make sense for my audience. The upcoming redesign of my website will reflect more of this ?channel? approach. In the legal space, it is still unclear if this approach will be approved (and in what form) and how best to do it. Unfortunately, there have been recent stirrings in ethics regulations that more restrictive advertising regulations of all kinds are ahead for lawyers, with a justification/focus of the "dignity of the profession" involved. Since a vocal group of lawyers have suggested that lawyers should not mention the fact that they like such "common" things as NASCAR on their blogs (I guess that the #48 decal of Jimmy Johnson I put on my laptop to help keep an eye on it during airport screenings would be problematic to them as well), the howls about advertising or sponsorships on law firm websites will probably be forthcoming. My reaction: get a life!

8. New Tech. No, not stuff I want. I want to look into technologies that make sense for me, my clients and the delivery of legal services. No mysteries here - I write regularly about these things in my articles and on my blog. The big one that I keep rolling around in my head is web services (the dot Net variety, e.g., MySmartChannels)). Personal KM, CaseMap 5, OneNote, Tablet PCs, RSS, and "generation 2" document assembly are other good examples.

9. The Impending Health Insurance Crisis. There's no question that I love my move out of the firm environment and my new approach. However, the fly in the ointment is health insurance - namely a COBRA election that will run out this fall. Although I hate the idea of hanging out a "will take employment for health insurance" sign, the fact remains that the health insurance system is a disaster area for small businesses, the fact that health insurance availability is so tied to traditional employment in a society that increasingly sees independent businesses is a train wreck waiting to happen, and I don't see anything in the current election campaign that gives me a good feeling. If you have ideas, I want to hear them, but both pricing issues and availability issues can easily move any solo business (including mine) back to an employment model. That's going to take some thought.

10. Other Ideas Rattling Around. I have a bunch of notes, ideas, lists, articles, books and the like that I need to take some time to pay attention to and think about. I have a lot of follow-up to do just on people I've met in the last few months. Lots of ideas for clients, friends, readers of this blog and others. There is the small matter of collecting and harvesting those, turning them into action items using the David Allen model, and then working with my "priorities advisor," Wendy Werner, to develop a solid going-forward approach. I'm energized and I haven't even started yet.

As always, I welcome input, suggestions, recommendations, questions, ideas for paying me money and the like. Email me at dmk@denniskennedy.com.

Posted by dmk at 12:56 PM

June 29, 2004

Do You Feel Safer Now? FBI Computer Network Delays

Have you ever read Barbara Tuchman's March of Folly? It's a book that I want to put on my re-reading list as appropriate for this time, but the idea of revisiting those themes in the environment of today's news is a little scary.

Did you see this one?

Report: FBI antiterror computer system delayed - Virtual Case File won't be ready this year, article says

I have to admit that my mind drifted off to the Tuchman book after reading these two paragraphs:

"The newspaper quoted one FBI official who suggested the Virtual Case File program, designed to allow agents to share information easily, "might ultimately have to be abandoned."

FBI Director Robert Mueller had lauded the system as one that would help agents make the types of connections that were missed before the attacks of September 11, 2001."

Are you feeling safer now? Anyone? Anyone?

Maybe I'm an alarmist, but this story strikes me as being cause for major concern.

In this context, think about this story: "Someone's Listening In - FBI pushes for 'rewiring' of broadband networks. And, if you have the stomach for further inquiry, consider the impact of the lack of adequate computer tools in the scenarios raised in "Intelligence is not static."

I have the highest respect for the FBI agents I have met over the years, but how can they do the work without the adequate tools?

I'll leave you with these sobering thoughts from the CNN article:

"A staff statement recently issued by the commission investigating the attacks of September 11 highlighted how antiquated technology had hampered the bureau's ability to detect terrorist activity.

"The FBI's primary information management system, designed using the 1980s technology already obsolete when installed in 1995, limited the bureau's ability to share its information internally and externally," the statement said in part. "The FBI did not have an effective system for storing, searching, or retrieving information of intelligence value contained in its investigative files."

My question: as we march forward in the Global War on Terrorism, do we really think that the odds favor the slow of foot, or those marching down the paths Tuchman describes?

Anyone feel safer out there now?

Posted by dmk at 02:53 PM

June 24, 2004

Will Work for Referrals

I learned a long time ago that one of the best questions you can ask anyone in business is "how will I know when I have someone I can refer to you?" As a result, I'm always pairing up people I meet with service providers I already know.

Unfortunately, I keep forgetting to learn the flip side of referrals - making sure that people know when to refer someone they know to me. It's kind of a major deficiency, if you think about it.

John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing shares a couple of getting referrals tips as part of his pre-announcement of the release of his new ebook and audio program, Referral Floods.

While you are there, don't miss his post called "Educate Your Referrals." Excellent advice. And "Referrals are a Matter of Motivation."

Oh, what the heck, take a few minutes and read through the archive. I guarantee you'll get some great ideas that you can really use.

Posted by dmk at 07:40 PM

How Do General Counsels Select Law Firms

There's been a small flurry of great articles about the current state of the art among general counsels of corporations for the selection of outside counsel. All are worth reading by any lawyer who has or wants corporate clients.

First, Bridgette Herschensohn's "How Do General Counsel Select Law Firms?" summarizes the key points from a recent seminar on this topic that featured a number of cororate general counsels. She highlights five key concerns for corporate counsel. They probably will not surprise you, but I want to highlight two observations. First, corporate counsel seem to use practices that guarantee that (1) they will all keep looking at the same set of large law firms and hoping that these firms will changes and (2) smaller, innovative firms amd lawyers will never get on the hiring radar. This practice is a big deterrent from lawyers looking to leave large firms and create technologically innovative firms. Second, point #4 refers to "the added-value factor." Here's the simple translation - alternative billing practices ideally implemented with technology and service enhancements.

Legl market guru Larry Bodine, in his usual incisive fashion, covered another similar seminar and posted about it in his blog at "Getting Into the Corporate Counsel Mind." He sets out four practical lessons, some of which are in line with the points from Herschensohn's article and some of which are diametrically opposite.

On Law.com. Nathan Koppel's "Courting Shell" covers Shell's recent "beauty contest" to both choose and limit the number of its law firms. Koppel highlights Shell's primary criteria, such as quality, cost-effectiveness and professionalism, but he focuses on the critical fourth factor, one which some law firms, even in 2004, still find surprising, diversity. It's an important article for all lawyers working in the corporate legal market. By the way, diversity could easily be one of my first questions in my proposed "2 by 4" blog feature. I spent a good portion of the 1990s on the steering committee for the St. Louis Minority Clerkship Program and, over the years I've heard opinions from lawyers on diversity issues that still make me shake my head and wonder what planet they came from.

I recommend the best resource I've found on the interaction of corporate counsel and outside law firms. It's Larry Smith's Inside Outside: How Businesses Buy Legal Services. Trust me, you'll thank me after you read it.

Finally, at Law Practice Today, we're working on two theme issues for July and August. In July, we'll focus on electronic discovery. The August issue will address the whole topic of corporate counsel / outside counsel relationships. Please contact me if you have an interest in contributing an article or want to learn about advertising or sponsorship opportunities for either or both issues.

Posted by dmk at 02:29 PM

Garfinkel on Computer Security - Keep It Simple

Simson Garfinkel's "Keep It Simple" article on CSOOnline.com does a nice job of laying out one of the fundamental issues of computer security - how do you balance security against usability.

Garfinkel says:

"If you're not thoughtful about your approach to balancing computer security with computer usability, you may end up with neither."

Amen.

He also notes that a few new developments are helping out us users. "Today, features like file encryption and disk sanitization are built directly into applications and operating systems. The result is that using cryptography to protect a document is now much easier."

Garfinkel advocates something he calls "secure usability":

"A good user interface sitting atop a strong security substrate is a good start, but it's still not enough to create applications where security and usability go hand-in-hand. That extra step?something I call "secure usability"?comes from a user interface that guides the user to secure practices by making other practices difficult or impossible."

His conclusion is definitely worth spending some time to think about.

"I believe that we can ultimately resolve many of the apparent conflicts between security and usability in a way that addresses both concerns. In the case of passwords, the answer would be to use fairly short passwords but to constantly monitor users' behavior to see if they do anything out of the ordinary. If a salesman, for instance, starts trying to download secret plans for an unannounced product, I would want that salesman stopped?even if he authenticated using a password, a smart card and an iris scanner. The balance between security and usability should be fluid, not fixed."

We, the users, have already shown over and over again that we need to be protected against ourselves when it comes to security. I think that Garfinkel may be on to something that will actually work in most situations. As they say, however, the devil will be in th details.

Posted by dmk at 01:43 PM

KM in Law Firms - The Cultural Issues

David Maizenberg at Blogbook.org has posted "Knowledge Management and Law Firm Cultures," which makes some good comments about Ron Friedmann and I's "Strategies for Successful Knowledge Management in Large Law Firms."

He also says:

"I wish they had gone into some of the cultural issues and challenges, because they are numerous and profound. How does one go about massaging the firm culture toward the kind of KM that we all know is becoming a requirement for efficient practice?"

Good point. Fortunately, I have an answer. Several years ago, I wrote an article called "Creating an Environment in Law Firms Where Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Management Will Work" in which I tried to address some of the cultural issues. Although Several years have gone by and some of the technological examples might be a little dated, law firm cultures haven't changed very much.

I like to tell people that if they really want to get a good measure of the level of trust and the general health of a law firm, just check on how willingly lawyers contribute "their knowledge" to KM efforts. For the acid test, though, look at their willingness to contribute their contacts to a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

Posted by dmk at 01:31 PM

June 23, 2004

You Bought It, Now Audit It

Performing IT audits for law firms and corporate legal departments is one of the consulting services that I offer. You would think that this type of service would largely sell itself. However, lawyers are a hard-sell group. In many firms, even an initial assessment will likely help stop the bleeding of cash. I wrote about this topic in "Seven Easy Ways for Law Firms to Throw Away Money on Technology."

But you don't have to take my word for it. Bob Violino's CFO.com article "You Bought It, Now Audit It" does an excellent job of making the case for IT audits, with some great practical examples and some tips for getting the most benefit from the process.

The money quote:

"IT audits frequently begin with a risk assessment, in which an organization obtains an overview of the major systems and applications used to support critical business processes. The intent is to identify existing or potential areas of risk that should be addressed in future IT audits, says Paul Rozek, director of technology services at Jefferson Wells International, a Brookfield, Wisconsin, consulting firm that has seen its IT-audit work increase by 40 percent between 2002 and 2003. Organizations can then prioritize the audits based on the level of risk. That initial assessment can also give executives a good sense of the systems the organization has in place, and whether the company has sufficient expertise and staff resources to conduct subsequent, more-focused audits."

The article also notes that audits can cover a variety of specific areas, including the commonly-overlooked area of software license management. Not to belabor the obvious, but I believe that my combination of tech expertise and my law practice that concentrates on software licensing and IT contracts makes a dynamite combination in the IT audit area, especially when you consider that many organizations seem to prefer to cast a blind eye to these issues, at least until they receive a BSA software audit letter.

Posted by dmk at 08:53 PM

New Electronic Discovery Column - "There Must Be 50 Ways to Store Your Data

George Socha and I's new "Electronic Discovers" column has just been published on the excellent DiscoveryResources.org website.

The column is called There Must Be Fifty Ways to Store Your Data and focuses on the many devices and media on which data can be stored and the many different considerations litigators need to keep in mind when pursuing electronic discovery.

A great comment from George:

"By focusing on the content rather than the medium, you may increase your changes of getting the data you really care about. This is, after all, what we do when we ask for information memorialized on paper. Rare is the request for all pieces of orange paper kept by a company, no matter what is on the orange paper."

Posted by dmk at 12:24 AM

My New 2 by 4 Feature Will Compete with Matt Homann's Five by Five

I was talking with Matt "the [non]billable hour" Homann on the phone this morning and congratulating him on the wildly successful "Five by Five" feature that he has developed. I highly recommend the entire collection - Matt has come up with a cool idea and it's amazing how the simple offer of a "Five by Five" t-shirt has brought out some of the most articulate and thought-provoking ideas about the practice of law you are likely to see outside of Law Practice Today. Sorry, the LPT promos have become a reflex action for me lately. All kidding aside, there is much wisdom in the two Five by Five collections and lots of great ideas that people should implement rather than simply talk about.

By the way, for those playing the game at home, I found myself, like Ernie, wishing that I had written Denise Howell's response this week and Yvonne Divita's response in the first week. Unfortunately, I'm far too young to do that "who's your favorite Beatle?" thing, but I would pick Edge as my favorite U2-er.

Perhaps I digress.

In any event, I suggested several new Five by Five topics to Matt until he caught on that all of my suggestions led inescapably to the conclusions that (1) I was the perfect guest and (2) the questions were so calculated that Matt would have to change the name to One by Five.

By the end of the call, I have to admit that the little jealousy monster had climbed up on my shoulder and was whispering things in my ear. Why indeed have I mentioned Matt's blog posting more than my own lately? Fortunately, the green guy had a great suggestion that I can't wait to implement.

See what you think of this one . . . .

"The Two By Four (tm)." It's based on the old mule training proverb that you need to whack a lawyer, er, mule with a two by four just to get the mule's attention. It will be a weekly collection of of four items from two well-known experts of things that most businesses already know or are already doing that it will take a whack from a two by four to get lawyers and law firms to pay attention to.

Since we're talking about lawyers, maybe I should call it Four by Four. Let me know.

Unfortunately, I have no ideas yet to match the comedic stylings of Evan "The Funniest Blawger" Schaffer (see, e.g., "Types of Lawyers #4: The Lawyer Who Carries Another Lawyer?s Briefcase") and Anonymous "Another Pretty Darn Funny Blawger, If Like Me, You Like That Kind of Humor and Spent Most of Your Career in Large-ish Law Firms" Blogger. Anonymous served notice on Evan today that Evan might have a little competition in the comedy category via Anonymous's "Diary of an Anonymous Lawyer" post. Anonymous also used this post to move way up on the charts in the "blawger most likely to get a book deal out of this blogging thing" list, even though my money is still on the "one of the law professors" betting option.

Note: No mules were injured in the writing of this post.

Posted by dmk at 12:11 AM

June 21, 2004

Strategies for Successful Knowledge Management in Large Law Firms

Highly-regarded legal technology consultant, Ron Friedmann, and I have published a new article called "Strategies for Successful Knowledge Management in Large Law Firms: Lessons Learned from Experiences with Document Management Systems."

We've written the article as a point - counterpoint dialog with the idea of making people think. One thing that has made me think is that in the small and medium-sized law firms, lawyers have gotten great results with Worldox for document management or TimeMatters, PracticeMaster or another case management program. In part, that's because the sheer volume of information is less of an issue, but I also think that thre are some structural issues at play as well.

I really like the following quote from Ron that appears in the article:

"U.S. business has spent the last 20 years re-structuring and developing new and more efficient and effective processes. Why do lawyers think they are different and why does the market insulate lawyers from these pressures?

Why indeed? I recommend this article to everyone who thinks about these types of KM, technology and business processes. Our idea is to start a conversation. Let us know what you think. Or, let us know if we can help you in your efforts at your firm.

Posted by dmk at 12:15 PM

June Issue Moves Law Practice Today to Top Tier of Legal Publications

OK, I'm a little biased because I'm an editor and member of the Law Practice Today board, but the June issue has reached beyond the goals we originally had for this publication. I'm sure that you will agree that in terms of content, the webzine has reached the top rank of publications covering the legal profession.

There are twelve solid articles on a variety of aspects of the practice of law (VoIP, document management, trust, marketing and technology tips, best law fir websites, to name a few), all of which will reward your reading efforts. We've gotten some of the best known law practice authors as well. Highly recommended.

I also learned this morning that in just a couple of days we've almost broken our record for most-forwarded articles. That's with almost no outside publicity yet.

My contributions include a thought-provoking dialog on document management with the noted legal tech consultant Ron Friedmann called "Strategies for Successful Knowledge Management in Large Law Firms: Lessons Learned from Experiences with Document Management Systems" and my bi-monthly "Strongest Links" column on great web resources to learn about Voice over IP.

Law Practice Today is a great publishing vehicle for authors who want to reach a tech-savvy legal audience and who don't want to wait for timely articles to appear in print. If you are interested in writing for LPT, let me know. We are also beginning to open LPT to sponsorship and advertising opportunities. If interested, let me know and I'll get you routed to the right people.

Posted by dmk at 12:00 PM

June 20, 2004

Kano Analysis in IT

Fascinating article from The Viewpoint of an Entrepreneur blog.

Nari Kannan's article begins with an example that I know from personal experience is true. If a company provides a free lunch for employees, within a few months people start griping about the quality or repetition of the food.

Kannan goes on to provide an overview of Kano analysis. Consider this passage:

"Kano Analysis is credited to Noriaki Kano, a Japanese engineer who classified customer requirements into three classes:

Dissatisfiers or Basic Requirements - These are absolute must haves in any product or service. If they are there, nobody gives you credit. If they are not there, customers are upset very much. Like you go to Kinkos and all self-service copiers are down and you cannot make the copies you wanted yourself.

Satisfiers or Variable Requirements - These are extras that if present, makes a customer happier. Like all the same features but price is less or price is the same as a competitors' but something extra is thrown in.

Delighters or Latent Requirements - These are things that a customer is not expecting at all but is absolutely delighted to get. Like a company completely replacing a product when what you expected was a repair.

For IT, the above analysis provides invaluable insights into dealing with business. The key insight is that a Delighter today could become a Satisfier tomorrow and a Basic Requirement the next day!"

Now, what might this mean for you?

Posted by dmk at 09:41 PM

Tom Peters: Brand You Survival Kit

Tom Peters has a new article on his "brand called you" theme in the June issue of Fast Company, which I recommend to your attention.

I liked this quote:

"We survive by staring change in the eye--and adapting. . . . A passive approach to professional growth will leave you by the wayside."

It's no secret that I believe that most lawyers and law firms are way too passive in their response to today's world of change. This article may give you a few ideas for ways to move into the active minority.

Thanks to the PR Machine for the pointer and the clever comparison of the article to a Madonna set-list.

Posted by dmk at 09:22 PM

June 18, 2004

Missouri Nanotechnology - Standing at the Molecular Crossroads

Late last year, my friend and personal biotech guru and attorney, Kevin Buckley, and I wrote a white paper on the state of nanotechnology in Missouri. I wanted to bring it out to a wider audience, both becaue I think it is quite good and because I'd like to see our ideas get a bigger audience and produce some results. The paper is called Standing at the Molecular Crossroads: Report on Nanotechnology in Missouri.

If you are in a state that's working on bringing together and developing your nanotech industry and community, please feel free to consider, borrow and use our ideas (but please attribute them to us). We're also more than happy to talk to people in greater detail about the white paper, our perspectives and our more recent ideas.

Posted by dmk at 10:45 AM

June 17, 2004

My Converation with MySmartChannels

One of the things I love to do most is to learn about cool new technologies. Today was a great day for that.

I had a long phone conversation with Peter Cid\terella and Bill French at MyST Technology Partners about what they are doing with their MySmartChannels and MyST Web Services Platform. There are times when I feel that I'm one of about a half dozen lawyers/legal tech consultants who keep thinking about web services.

I'm always on the lookout for ways new technologies, such as web services, can be applied to the practice of law, and we spent a fair amount of time talking about that today, giving me some good ideas in that area. We also talked at length about the "is document management broken?" issue and where we are these days in knowledge management, including the promise that blogs hold in KM.

However, I was fascinated by their approach to web services, channels, feeds and aggregation. In fact, I stepped out of my quasi-journalist mode and began to care somewhat less about what could be done in connection with the practice of law and more in ways that I, along with others who "get" this, might do some very cool things. It makes quite a few things that I've been thinking about seem far more possible than I had imagined. It also suggested a number of possibilities for some of my legal and consulting clients that I want to share with them.

Take a look. If you see some of the same things that I see, let's talk. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to a continuing conversation with Bill and Peter about what they are doing and ways to use it. I don't often get too "evangelistic" about a specific technology (other than CaseMap), but, depending on what I learn, the MyST technologies may push me in that direction.

More about things MyST-related:

EcontentMagazine article on web services

Into the MyST blog RSS feed

Think Outside the Feed blog RSS feed

SmartStream Alliance

Bill French on "disruptive technologies"

Posted by dmk at 09:54 PM

Tips for Making More Usable PDF Files

I recently wrote a very favorable book review of Carl Young's Adobe Acrobat 6.0: Getting Professional Results from Your PDFs. Unfortunately, my book review will not appear in print until a month or so from now.

In the meantime, take a look at this review of the book and consider adding this book to your PDF toolbox. There are many things to praise about the book, and I recommended the book and used some of the points from the book in my recent presentation on Adobe Acrobat for Lawyers.

Posted by dmk at 09:06 PM

June 16, 2004

Dennis's Summer Reading: Thunder Run - An Amazing Story

I was checking out the "new books" section at the library a few days ago and noticed a book called Thunder Run, by David Zucchino. I'll admit that the linguistic similarity to "Thunder Road" brought out my Springsteen antennae.

One of the blurbs described the book as the story of the tank battles fought by American soldiers as they took Baghdad. Having seen the Patton movie a month or so ago, I'm now into the tank aspects of military strategy. So, the book went into my take home stack.

Now, I thought that the book was about the drive from Kuwait to Baghdad. I have assumed from the beginning that the strategy and tactics of that campaign would be studied in depth for years and I wanted to get a better understanding of it.

However, that's not what the book was about! In fact, it was about something far more limited and, ultimately far more interesting than the big campaign. In fact, it opens a window on the future that we all would be well-advised to consider and, in many ways, illustrates some of the ideas you will find on the thought-provoking and essential Global Guerillas blog of John Robb, especially the notion of "swarming."

Here's what troubles me. I probably followed the news from the Iraq war to a greater extent than the average person and I've read a good number of books and articles on the subject. It befuddles me that I had no idea of how the city of Baghdad was taken until I read this book.

"Thunder run" refers to fast armored strikes conceived of and run during the Vietnam war. In a way, they are like the boat runs a young John Kerry made during his service. You can look at them in a number of ways, but they sure seem like an operation designed to draw unfriendly fire.

If you don't know the story of the "thunder runs" into Baghdad, you have to read this book. It's an amazing story that we all should know, in which an insanely small number of US soldiers with a few tanks, Bradleys and Humvees essentially ran a gauntlet into the center of Baghdad and essentially "ended" the early part of the war in a few days.

If you think that they don't make soldiers like the ones who fought on D-Day, you might change your mind after you read this book. What these soldiers accomplished almost defies description and they turned what could have been a catastropic loss into what appeared, at least according to the news reports I remember and the analysis of the pundits, to be an easy victory. Let me just say that after I read this book, I felt that the level of medals handed out should be upped a notch or two and I wanted to shake the hands and thank each of these soldiers.

If you like reading thrillers, as I do, this book had me reading it from cover to cover in one session, never sure what would happen next, just like a good Robert Ludlum novel. I found Zucchino to be a compelling writer in every sense.

What you see is a combination of strategic brilliance and folly, firepower and restraint, preparation and invention, the real dangers of the siloed branches of our military, and a memorable illustration that the plan is the first casualty of contact with the enemy. What you also see is a good glimpse of the war of the future.

The book raises a lot of questions, to no surprise. The big one for me is: have we geared up to fight the preceding war? Maybe bigger is: what are we doing to show that we've learned anything from what has happened so far?

The "insurgents" are exploiting military weaknesses and gaps that you will see in this book and probably will get even better at it. You'll have a few more of your own (maybe, what do we use helicopters for? or what does it mean to say that "we need more boots on the ground"? or at what point does "swarming" make it possible to overcome superior firepower?).

However, you'll be struck by the story of this battle and the soldiers who fought it, the clash of two different worlds shown by the defense of Baghdad, the thin and moving line between victory and defeat, and the human stories that deserve a much wider audience.

Trust me, Thunder Run is a book that you want to make room for on your summer reading list.

Posted by dmk at 10:39 PM

Spread the Meme - A Balanced Approach to Copyright Reform

Via the Lessig Blog:

Well-known intellectual property law scholar Michael Geist (who can also write columns that non-academics can read and understand) has a new column that advocates a balanced approach to copyright reform and is an article that deserves a wide audience, says Larry Lessig, another well-known intellectual property law scholar (who writes books and articles that are a bit harder for non-academics to read (especially because of the too-tiny print in his first book, at least to these aging eyes) and understand.

I agree.

We may come at these issues from different places and want different results, but, if all interests have a seat at the discussion table and play a role in shaping the results, then we'll reach better results than the current state of affairs in the U.S. where many, many people believe that the entertainment industry drives all legislation in this area for its own benefit.

Why do I have my doubts that this issue will be discussed in the 2004 presidential campaign?

Posted by dmk at 09:31 PM

FTC Shows That People Are Getting the Lesson of the CAN-SPAM Act

From the excellent GigaLaw.com site:

FTC Says "Do-Not-E-mail" Registry Could Make Spam Worse

"A national "do not e-mail" registry would do little to prevent the proliferation of junk e-mail and could even make the spam problem worse, said the Federal Trade Commission in a report. The FTC was required to produce the report for Congress under a provision of the federal Can-Spam Act, which went into effect in January."

I gave a presentation that discussed spam last week. For my opening, I argued that the CAN-SPAM Act had all but eliminated the spam issue. I noted that since the enactment of the CAN-SPAM Act, as best as I can tell from the stats that I've found:

+ Spam now constitutes a miniscule 70% of all Internet email.

+ A mere 50% of spam contains viruses, spyware or other malware.

+ A whopping 0.3% to 1% of mass emailings comply with the CAN-SPAM Act

+ Spammers are cowering in fear from the zero prosecutions to date.

Ok, I was making a rhetorical point to get my audience's attention. However, the spam problem seems to have grown exponentiallly since the Act came into effect.

Putting together a "Do Not Spam" Registry seems like it would create the ultimate target for spammers who want to harvest "live" email addresses. I would expect that database to be penetrated, copied and distributed in short order. I can't imagine how violations of the list would be enforced and, as the 99+% non-compliance rate with CAN-SPAM suggests, how many expect that most spammers would care about the registry.

Oh, yeah. I forgot. We could get a few small players and well-intentioned individuals who couldn't figure out the rules or made little mistakes and were easy to catch. That will help.

Why not do some simple things that would help? Here are a few:

Stop automatically sending out "you sent a virus" warning messages - there's little chance these days that it actually came from the "sender of record" and it's fair to say that these messages now constitute a substantial portion of all spam and use up bandwidth for the rest of us. What's the point?

Stop opening attachments that you do not expect (even if they come from someone you know) or are not in a format you expect.

Stop clicking on links in unsolicited commercial email messages.

Stop opening messages you think might be spam and spend a minute or two learning about web bugs and other ways spammers can find that you have a live email address.

The bad news is that user behavior is what keeps spam rolling and growing. If you rely on spam filters, but use spammer-friendly habits with your email, you are part of the problem - like the driver with one foot pushing the accelerator and the other pushing the brake at the same time and wondering why the car isn't working right.

It's good to see the FTC willing to back away from a "create a new law" approach in this area.

Posted by dmk at 09:09 PM

June 14, 2004

Matt Homann's Five by Five

When I talked with Matt "the [non]billable hour" Homann this past weekend, he told me how excited he was about his first "Five by Five" feature. Now, I see why.

Matt's idea is to get a group of five experts to give lists of five ideas on a number of topics.

The first Five by Five covers "What are the five worst mistakes a lawyer can make when marketing to a female potential client? Alternatively, what are the five best things a lawyer can do to secure a female's business?"

The responses are fantastic and deserve a wide audience. The interviewees include Kirsten Osolind, Michelle Miller, Anita Campbell, Yvonne Divita, and Jennifer Rice, all of whom have excellent blogs.

There is a tremendous amount of wisdom and practical advice in these posts. I've cringed in meetings when I've seen many of the "points to avoid" repeated by male attorneys. Great stuff.

Posted by dmk at 10:26 PM

Missouri Solo and Small Firm Conference Rocks!

I just returned from the Missouri Bar?s annual Solo and Small Firm Conference, which is widely-known as the premier event of its kind in the country. The 2004 conference was a complete sellout, registration was closed two weeks before the date, and roughly 700 lawyers attended (out of slightly more than 800 lawyers who are members of the Solo and Small Firm Committee). Linda Oligschlaeger, her colleagues at the Missouri Bar, David Ransin, and the planning committee once again outdid themselves.

It?s difficult to imagine a conference that is more fun and people-oriented. I met lots of great people, many of whom I?d only known of by email, and got the chance to learn lots of new things.

I also continued my streak of having really great co-presenters. I, perhaps foolishly, agreed to give six presentations at the conference, but only two were solo. I got my first chance to co-present with Bruce Dorner, one of the top legal tech consultants for small firms and solos in the country and a terrific speaker. We presented on Troubleshooting Computers (which collected many of our best tips and was well-received) and on Wireless Networking (a topic in which there was a lot of interest). Those were fun and Bruce is a joy to work with.

I also got to do a computer forensics and e-discovery presentation with John Mallery. I was really pleased with the approach that we took to this subject and the response we got. John is not only very knowledgeable, but his history includes 15 years of working as a standup comedian. I?ll work with him again any time. We had fun and got a number of comments about how well we worked together. Better yet, I had someone who I didn?t know tell me that our computer forensics presentation was the best one they saw at the conference. I admit that it?s only one vote out of 700, but it?s still nice to hear.

Finally, I finished the conference with Bruce Dorner, Natalie Thornwell (one of my fellow TECHSHOW Board members) and Reid Trautz ? all prominent ABA Law Practice Management Section members and national speakers ? doing a 60 Tech Tips in 60 Minutes presentation that was very fun. It?s great to be on stage with a group of excellent speakers, all of whom are comfortable and easy to work with, with a great give-and-take. Reid is such an inventive presenter ? his last two slides had the audience breaking out into cheers, at 4:00 on a Saturday afternoon!

I always find that I learn new lessons every time I speak. Two key lessons from this conference were: when the projector is hanging from the ceiling, you cannot turn it on without a tech person, and never download and install an update to a program you plan to demo in a session without testing it beforehand (my apologies to those I promised the full Adobe Acrobat 6.0 demo, but hope that I made a reasonable recovery).

I also got to have some extended conversations with my good friend Bob Wiss of CaseSoft and Matt ?the [non]billable hour? Homann, and get in a short vacation with my family. Not too bad at all. Now I turn to catching back up on everything else.

Posted by dmk at 01:22 PM

June 10, 2004

Tom Peters Moves to Blog Format

I'm a big fan of Tom Peters and it's great to see that he is moving his web site to a blog format. Apparently, he is still making a decision about RSS feeds.

Tom . . . RE-IMAGINE! RSS IS WHERE IT'S AT!!!

Posted by dmk at 10:57 AM

June 09, 2004

A $3 Answer to Document Management

IBM has pre-announced a new approach to document management, according to Transform Magazine, with attention-getting pricing. More fodder for discussion for those interested in the current state of document management systems. The very least impact it will have is to require other alternatives to create per seat per month price comparisons.

Posted by dmk at 06:38 PM

June 07, 2004

Ronald Reagan, Rest in Peace

I went to law school at Georgetown from 1980 - 1983. I don't think that it is possible for any president to make a greater impression on you than the one in office while you live in DC, and I've never found anyone who didn't live in the DC area the day Reagan was shot who has the kind of feelings that those of us there did and still do. I haven't been back to DC in 21 years, but I have to admit that there's a big part of me that feels like the right thing to done is to make it to the Capitol rotunda in the the next few days.

I've known for a while that the inevitable announcement of his death would sadden me greatly, in part because of the dignity and eloquence of his last note and the way his family handled the decline and deterioration of his Alzheimer's disease and in part because of knowing what the disease takes away. It surprises many of my friends that I'm a Reagan fan, but I came to that later in life (after I learned that you could like people and not have to agree with their politics). There was something about that "Mr.. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" that turned my opinion. I wrote a little bit about some of this a while backfor those who might be interested.

In contrast to the noise, yelling, pessimism vitriol, unwillingness to admit mistakes and lack of humor that characterizes today's political debate, it's good to see that the Reagan memories bring us back to notions of civility, avoidance of personal attacks, decency, optimism and humor, especially the ability to make a joke at your own expense) that are so characteristic of the Reagan approach. When I saw Walter Mondale Saturday night telling warm stories and laughing while describing his 1984 campaign against Reagan (and compared it to the recent ranting, screaming performances of Al Gore). it made me a little sad about what has changed over the years.

In fact, as I spent most of Saturday evening watching the Reagan coverage, I was struck by how the idea of story-telling is so closely tied to my memories of Reagan. And, such great stories. With endings like, "and then the Cold War was over."

When I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a constant, nagging fear of nuclear war. I remember walking across the campus shortly after I turned 21 and thinking, "I guess I'm going to have to decide what to do after I graduate - I really thought they would have blown everything up by now." I think surveys from that time show that my view was not uncommon.

It's hard to underestimate the relief that came as we gradually realized that the Cold War was indeed over and the threat of nuclear annihilation had left us as a daily concern. Part of the funk and depression I'll always associate with 9/11 was that an equally great, but more random and unpredictable, danger had returned and would stay for a long time and could appear, unlike the nuclear annihilation we imagined in elementary school, without a build-up or warning.

Most of the time, you'll never find a bigger technology optimist than I am. For me, it's the communication, creation of communities, connections to others and the ability to share than means the most to me. Frankly, I lost a lot of that optimism after 9/11, when I felt that the trend and momentum of the early wave of the Internet was lost and that we could well slip backward to a different, isolated world with inflexible and intolerant visions.

Lately, my optimism has returned, due to blogs and RSS and the community they've created. It's amazing to me.

But, I have two stories to add about Ronald Reagan.

The first reflects a much different time. In the fall of 1980, I walked over to see a rally for candidate Reagan at the Capitol. One of the benefits of being in DC was that you could see these kinds of things in person and I believe that I'd seen President Carter live earlier that fall (interesting that my Reagan memory is so vivid and I'm not even sure if I saw Carter). I was able to walk up to maybe 20 feet away from the side of the podium (as I said, these were different times, especially in security practices). In fact, Jack Kemp stood beside me and introduced himself to me and shook my hand (a thrill since I was a fan of the AFL Buffalo Bills - not surprisingly, he was shorter than I expected from my childhood memories). When I first saw Reagan, I was surprised that he seemed to be about my height, since he always gave the impression of being a much taller man. That said, I noticed that he had that aura of a larger presence that I've later come to know as the "star" factor. Unfortunately, I didn't meet Reagan and this story has no great punchline. It's just a nice memory.

The other story is my favorite to tell when people ask why I loved being in Washington while Reagan was President. DC in those days was a land of giants when you think about it: Reagan and Tip O'Neil, Joe Gibbs and John Riggins, Patrick Ewing and John Thompson, the original pairing of Howard Stern and Robin Quivers. Reagan always gave you the feeling that we was a regular citizen in the White House. He always called World Series and Super Bowl champs after the games and you knew that he watched them. In fact, you often knew that your president was doing the same thing that you were. The press was always after him on this. Once they got the story that Reagan watched reruns of Charlie's Angels in the afternoon. Well, most of us would have just denied it. Not, President Reagan. He said something like, "they are just good detective stories." As so many people have pointed out in other examples - the perfect, self-deprecating and humorous answer. We all wish we could be so comfortable in our skin to be able to do the same. It strikes me as a good thing to have a president who seems to be one of us.

However, the legacy of Reagan became clear to me in his valedictory speech at the 1992 Republican Convention, a speech crowded out of the limelight by some earlier controversial speeches. I've quoted from it at length below, from the point where I realized that I was seeing and hearing something magical and, in its own way, as clear, eloquent and powerful expression of that optimistic and proud strand of Americanism that so many of us, although a little embarrassed to admit, really feel at heart.

Hey, we never get it all the way right, but if we didn't have this outlook, we'd never keep trying.

Here's the quote and I recommend that you take the time to give it a read in the next few days:

"Some might believe that the things we have talked about tonight are irrelevant to the choice. These new isolationists claim that the American people don't care about how or why we prevailed in the great defining struggle of our age -- the victory of liberty over our adversaries. They insist that our triumph is yesterday's news, part of a past that holds no lessons for the future.

Well nothing could be more tragic, after having come all this way on the journey of renewal we began 12 years ago, than if America herself forgot the lessons of individual liberty that she has taught to a grateful world.

Emerson was right. We are the country of tomorrow. Our revolution did not end at Yorktown. More than two centuries later, America remains on a voyage of discovery, a land that has never become, but is always in the act of becoming.

But just as we have led the crusade for democracy beyond our shores, we have a great task to do together in our own home. Now, I would appeal to you to invigorate democracy in your own neighborhoods.

Whether we come from poverty or wealth; whether we are Afro-American or Irish-American; Christian or Jewish, from big cities or small towns, we are all equal in the eyes of God. But as Americans that is not enough we must be equal in the eyes of each other. We can no longer judge each other on the basis of what we are, but must, instead, start finding out who we are. In America, our origins matter less than our destinations and that is what democracy is all about.

A decade after we summoned America to a new beginning, we are beginning still. Every day brings fresh challenges and opportunities to match. With each sunrise we are reminded that millions of our citizens have yet to share in the abundance of American prosperity. Many languish in neighborhoods riddled with drugs and bereft of hope. Still others hesitate to venture out on the streets for fear of criminal violence. Let us pledge ourselves to a new beginning for them.

Let us apply our ingenuity and remarkable spirit to revolutionize education in America so that everyone among us will have the mental tools to build a better life. And while we do so, let's remember that the most profound education begins in the home.

And let us harness the competitive energy that built America, into rebuilding our inner cities so that real jobs can be created for those who live there and real hope can rise out of despair.

Let us strengthen our health care system so that Americans of all ages can be secure in their futures without the fear of financial ruin.

And my friends, once and for all, let us get control of the federal deficit through a Balanced Budget Amendment and line item veto.

And let us all renew our commitment. Renew our pledge to day by day, person by person, make our country and the world a better place to live. Then when the nations of the world turn to us and say, "America, you are the model of freedom and prosperity." We can turn to them and say, "you ain't seen nothing, yet!"

For me, tonight is the latest chapter in a story that began a quarter of a century ago, when the people of California entrusted me with the stewardship of their dreams.

My fellow citizens -- those of you here in this hall and those of you at home -- I want you to know that I have always had the highest respect for you, for your common sense and intelligence and for your decency. I have always believed in you and in what you could accomplish for yourselves and for others.

And whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty's lamp guiding your steps and opportunity's arm steadying your way.

My fondest hope for each one of you -- and especially for the young people here -- is that you will love your country, not for her power or wealth, but for her selflessness and her idealism. May each of you have the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, and the hand to execute works that will make the world a little better for your having been here.

May all of you as Americans never forget your heroic origins, never fail to seek divine guidance, and never lose your natural, God-given optimism.

And finally, my fellow Americans, may every dawn be a great new beginning for America and every evening bring us closer to that shining city upon a hill.

Before I go, I would like to ask the person who has made my life's journey so meaningful, someone I have been so proud of through the years, to join me. Nancy ...

My fellow Americans, on behalf of both of us, goodbye, and God bless each and every one of you, and God bless this country we love. "

It strikes me that there are probably not many better legacies to be known for than to be the one who always said: "Our best days are yet to come."

Posted by dmk at 01:32 PM

June 04, 2004

Noble Ideas That Probably Won't Work Department: #419

Nigeria may use software to nab 419 scammers

From the article:

"Nigeria plans to launch software that would help catch fraudsters who send scam letters via email, known as the 419 advance fee fraud, a meeting on the sidelines of Africa's World Economic Forum has heard.

The new technology, which would identify key words used in such letters, is likely to be made available to Internet service providers and government departments, Mustafa Bello, executive secretary of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission said.

'The introduction of new software, currently under discussion within the Nigerian parliament, will scan emails originating in Nigeria to look for keywords commonly found, especially relating to banking and the country's petroleum industry'" Bello said late on Wednesday after a discussion on the issue on the sidelines of the conference."

Posted by dmk at 09:19 AM

PDF Zone Has RSS Feeds

PDF Zone is great resource for information about PDF, Adobe Acrobat and the Acrobat alternatives. The website and email newsletter consistently have great tips and info. PDF Zone now offers a choice of RSS feeds. As Robert Scoble would say. . . Subscribed! Note that registration info is required to get the feed (although I suspect some people can figure out a workaround).

Posted by dmk at 09:13 AM

June 03, 2004

Email Management - Eating My Own Dog Food

I'll be giving a presentation on email management next week. In the grand tradition of "practicing what you preach" and "eating your own dog food," I felt obligated to make sure that I brought my own email management into shape before the presentation.

Last year, the title of my talk referred to "email managment." This year the title refers to "email triage." I think the shift in terminology reflects reality.

As a general rule, the cornerstone to successful email management is keeping an empty inbox. The sheer volume of email can make this difficult to achieve on a daily basis and I was way behind, but I really had no problem today getting my inbox to zero (down from 343, which reflects only messages to which I cannot easily apply rules).

One of the my new and recommended email practices is using the flags in Outlook 2003. If I have an email I need to respond to in short order, I give it a red flag and move it out of the inbox and into the appropriate folder. I use other color flags to mean different things. I've also set up some saved search folders and can look at the entire set of messages with a certain color flag all in one folder. It seems like a good system.

Unfortunately, red-flagging an email does not mean that you have already responded to it. After patting myself on the back for easily clearing my inbox , I looked into the red flag folder and found . . . 164 items. I knew it was going to be bad, but gee whiz. By working through the list, banging out some easy replies, clearing some red flags that no longer needed to be there and changing the color of some flags, I worked the red flag list down to a much-more manageable, ahem, 93 items, many of which require some kind of thoughtful response that can't be dashed off.

So, to all of you to whom I owe a reply, I say, man, I'm really sorry, and I promise that you'll hear from me soon (and, no, don't think that because I'm posting to my blog that I think that my blog is more important than answering your email - it's just a different thing).

It's another example of why it is better to find "touch it once" systems than "handle it later" systems.

The sad thing is that I know that I'm really good at email management - it's just that the sheer volume is overloading any reasonable systems, for me and everyone else. I think that the root of the problem is we're trying to make email do too many things for which it is not well suited.

Posted by dmk at 08:35 PM

IT Manager.Net: Here's Someone Who Deserves a Big Raise

Roger Bonine of IT Manager.Net hits a towering home run with his post "Are Document Management Systems Broken?" His post was a response to Cindy Chick's response to my discussion-starter question of, uh, are document management systems broken?

Roger makes his points so well that I simply suggest that you read the post for yourself. I think that it is essential reading for any law firm CIO or IT Director thinkiing about the document management issue. Roger has not only identified the key problems, but, and this is the point I want to emphasize, he has also developed some creative ways to address those problems.

Roger's firm has a tremendous (and probably underpaid) asset. Roger, feel free to take a copy of this post into your bosses and say "Look this guy says I deserve a big raise immediately."

Posted by dmk at 08:11 PM

Tenet and Untenability

I've been thinking how smart I would have seemed if I had posted on this topic last night as I had planned.

George "It will take us another five years to have the kind of clandestine service our country needs" Tenet must have just read the two books I just finished.

The first, Al Qaeda's Great Escape, by Philip Smucker, tells a reporter's view of the Afghan war and the Tora Bora debacle. It's worth a read just to get the colleague's view of Geraldo Rivera's personal campaign to get Bin Laden - hilarious. The story of Tora Bora and, especially, Operation Anaconda stunned this amateur student of military strategy. T

he second, Blood from Stones, by Douglas Farah, tries to unravel the threads of terrorist financing, with chilling impact. There is much to be learned by following the money. Unfortunately, bureacratic turf wars seem to be harming the effort.

Both books paint very troubling pictures and the CIA comes out the worst. It's also becoming clearer that the FBI and CIA are back to their turf wars and that Homeland Security is not calling the shots on homeland security. I suspect that intelligence info is still in too many separate silos. The vulnerabilities we continue to have and tolerate are disturbing, especially when no one is willing to admit that they ever made a mistake.

The most troubling question: is there greater danger in continuing the current course with the same people or opening up a huge window of vulnerability during the natural confusion of a change in administration? That's a tough one. If Kerry can get people to the threshold that he can do a decent job on security, he's probably got the election. I don't think he's done that and I'm someone who actually read the book about his life and war experiences and was impressed. Unfortunately, I was left wondering if the current Kerry is still like the young Kerry. If Kerry asked my opinion, and God knows he does not, floating the names of the people he'd appoint to key positions probably would do the trick for most people.

In any event, there are many reasons for heads to be rolling in Washington. In my mind, it makes sense for Tenet to be the first. Since it's easier to fire the coach than the whole team, the current war between top military officials and Rumsfeld make him very likely to be next. Then the Ridge/Ashcroft battle will probably resolve in favor of Ridge. My wildcard guess, by the way, is that Cheney will step down and move to Secretary of Defense or Homeland Security, leaving Bush to pick a new VP (Rudy G?). In any event, the Tenet resignation will not be a solitary event - there's a lot going on in Washington under the surface. I only hope that people remember to mind the shop while they jockey for position.

In the meantime, follow John Robb's fantastic Global Guerillas blog and try to convince yourself that we are not preparing to fight the previous war.

Reminder: These predictions are for entertainment purposes only, unless I happen to be right. In that case, I reserve the right to claim that I am prescient.

Posted by dmk at 07:51 PM

June 02, 2004

What We Learn From the Lacey Peterson Case #1: Plasma Screens!

Watching the instant-analysis of the Lacey Peterson trial and the reviews of the various performances, I was struck by the one consistent theme. Nearly every commentator was gushing about the way Geragos used . . . (hushed and awed tones . . .) TWO PLASMA SCREEN TVs. Some even repeated the word "plasma" as if catching a glimpse of a miracle. The best part was that one person couldn't really articulate a reason why the screens mattered in the case.

Anyone still have any doubt that we are the TV generation(s)?

Memo to litigators in high visibility cases - the price of entry has now been raised by two plasma screen TVs. If you don't bring them, you aren't a serious player anymore. Forget the jury consultants, the evidence and the color of your suit. Plasma, baby. Top legal tech trend of the year - it's right here.

You heard it here first. For free. Remember that when you are paying litigation consultants top dollar to tell you the same thing.

The remaining question, though, is whether it's better to go with a few huge screens or a smaller individual plasma screen for each juror. I'm leaning toward the big screens. Unless, of course, you can imply that you will let the jurors take the individual ones home and survive the objection with only an instruction for the jury to disregard the comment rather than a mistrial and contempt citation. Just kidding - I wouldn't ever recommend the first choice amd I'd bet on the contempt citation and mistrial every time if you did try it. (NOTE: Last sentence required in the event of humor-impaired readers.)

The new Beck lyric (dedicated to Ken Forton):

Where it's at (for lawyers)

Two plasmas and a microphone.

Posted by dmk at 10:49 PM

TVC Alert: What the @%!& is that Program Running on My Computer?!!

I haven't gotten the hang of the blogrolling thing yet, but I'm trying. As a result, I feel that I'm not making regular enough mentions of the blogs and sites I read, enjoy and rely upon. I want to try to make amends by (1) singling them out in individual posts and (2) working on the blogroll thing.

This morning, I was reminded once again about what a great resource Genie Tyburski's TVC Alert Newsletter is (RSS feed available here). While the newsletter appears on its face to cover legal research issues, it goes way beyond that and brings you tech news, practical computer and Internet tips, great links and tons of other useful info. That's not surprising, since Genie's Virtual Chase site has long been the premier resource for annotated links to legal research resources.

Here's a great example from today's newsletter:

"PC Tip: What Does That File Do?
----------------------------------------------------------
<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1604484,00.asp>
<http://snipurl.com/6t7u>

(1 Jun) Ever wonder what a file that shows up in your system configuration, running tasks or programs lists (Add/Remove) does? PC Magazine's tip reveals a simple way to learn about PC files and what they do. If you follow this advice, you can also discover spyware and adware, which resides on your computer but which your anti-virus and anti-spyware software fail to detect.

I used the method described a few days ago to remove spyware that was too new for detection from one of my home machines. While Add/Remove programs seemed to remove the software, it in fact did not. Between searches at Yahoo and Google, I was able to discover what was known about it and where it hid so that I could remove it completely."

The PC World article she refers to a major find for me, both personally and as the resource I was looking for to mention in an upcoming presentation I'm doing on computer troubleshooting. Being able to understand and evaluate what programs are running on your computer is becoming an essential skill these days. This article is a huge first step in learning what you need to know.

Today's TVC table of contents gives you an idea of the value you can expect on a daily basis:

"HIGHLIGHTS

** PC Tip: What Does That File Do?
** CNet Tests Automated News
** Yahoo Beta Leaves Adware Up to You
** Google Upgrades Intranet Software
** Hurdles in Digitizing Libraries
** Best of Technology in 2004
** Gimpsy: Search by Activity
** Resources: First Amendment Law"

Highly recommended. It's rare that a day goes by where I don't pick up something useful from TVC Alert. I've maintained for quite a while now that the websites run by legal librarians (BeSpacific.com, LLRX.com and LawLib Tech are quick illustrations of what I mean) have come to dominate any list of best legal websites. TVC Alert will show you why I've come to that conclusion.

Posted by dmk at 10:03 AM