Dennis Kennedy

This is part 1 of a 3-part retrospective on the year 2008 on DennisKennedy.Blog.

The big news in 2008 at DennisKennedy.Blog was the publication of the book The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technology: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Tom Mighell and me. We're delighted by the response to the book, especially the excellent reviews it has gotten.

However, I can definitely tell you that writing a book takes a tool on your other writing efforts, especially the quantity of blog posts. I'm hoping that 2009 will see a return to a more traditional pace of posts on this blog. In addition to resting after writing the book, I also launched the Twitter-based "microblog" companion to this blog at http://twitter.com/dkennedyblog (or @dkennedyblog in Twitterese).

As I looked back at this blog and my 2008 posts, I noticed that there were three types of post and so I decided to do a three-part retrospective on 2008. Today, I'll cover the first kind of post: posts about other articles I wrote. Part two will cover the other posts I wrote. Part three might be the most interesting: posts I planned to write but never got written.

1. My ABA Journal Column. I write the technology column for the American Bar Association Journal. Probably the best way to find them all is to use this link.

Over the year, I found that enjoyed writing the blog posts about each column as much as I enjoyed writing the columns.

Here are the columns, with links to my post about each and a link to the actual column.

It’s Time to Talk Audio/Video - December 2008 - Rethink the text-based world and thinking seriously about ways to use audio and video delivered over the Internet. http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/its_time_to_talk_audio_video/

Get the (Instant) Message, Dude! - November 2008 - Maybe my favorite column on the year, on ways lawyers can use instant messaging. http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/get_the_instant_message_dude/

Go Green, Save Green - October 2008 - My most thorough discussion to-date of green legal technology -
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/go_green_save_green/

Master Your Disasters - September 2008 - Basics of backup and disaster recovery -
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/master_your_disasters/

Learning 3G-Speak - August 2008 - A primer of the language of mobile communications.
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/learning_3g_speak/

Become a Google Master - July 2008 - Some of my best tips for Google users.
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/become_a_google_master/

SharePoint: A Legal Killer App? - June 2008 - Maybe the most popular of my columns focused on Microsoft SharePoint as a collaboration platform. http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/sharepoint_a_legal_killer_app/

Really Simple Competitive Intelligence - March 2008 - Some really simple approaches to getting useful competitive intelligence. http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/really_simple_competitive_intelligence/

Hiding Assets - February 2008 - Encryption and methods to protect confidential information.
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/hiding_assets/

Tech Greats for ‘08 - January 2008 - I must admit that I still don't understand the title they chose for this column, but the column was a list of New Year's resolutions for lawyers using technology.
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/tech_greats_for_08/

2. Roundtable Articles. I was also involved in two roundtable articles, which exceeded my highest expectations and I recommend most highly.

Competitive Intelligence Roundtable Article. The ABA's Law Practice magazine published an article called "CI Tactics, Tools and Lessons to Be Learned," which featured a who's who of experts on the use of competitive intelligence in the legal profession.

Law Practice in a Time of Great Economic Turmoil - Roundtable Discussion - A stellar cast of experts take a practical look at the impact of the current economic crisis on the legal profession in the Law Practice Today webzine - "What Should You Do Now? A Roundtable Discussion on Law Practice in a Time of Great Economic Turmoil." Highly recommended.

3. Collaboration Tools Articles.

Tom and I found some time to start a new companion blogsite for our book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com (a big thank you to LexBlog where we'll both be posting on topics related to collaboration and the book (follow @collabtools on Twitter for regular updates on the topic of collaboration).

We also wrote a couple of articles on collaboration tools:

Collaborative Technologies: Working with Others Around the Corner or Around the World

Get Smart (starts of page 40 of PDF)

After reading this post, I now realize that I wrote more in 2008 than I thought I had. Hope you enjoy these articles.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter - @dkennedyblog; Follow me - @denniskennedy

Now Available! The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

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