An article by Lynn Traverse on Law.com got a lot of hits on the interweb.  She offers strong advice to law students about what you post about yourself online.

Every professional should heed the advice, however.

Advice to Fall Recruits: Keep Your Cyberspace Clean

A fellow SLLP member sent a link to a great blog: The Rapid eLearning Blog.  Tom Kuhlmann works for Articulate, but his tips are appropriate for virtually any rapid development tool.

Check it out.

I’ve had a Gmail account for a few years now.  Their logo still has the word “beta” in it.

I used to ask, “When are they going to take ‘BETA’ off the logo? Aren’t they ready to release the final version?”

Now I get it.  When your business is about constant improvement, you’re always in beta mode.  Those Google kids are pretty smart.

How about your firm’s learning systems?  As soon as you complete a desktop upgrade, another one is coming down the project stream.  One training manager says that her firm is always upgrading something, so she doesn’t even call them events anymore.  Upgrade is a state of existence.

Maybe we should put the word “beta” in our Learning System’s branding.  Permanently.  Give your community the impression that you are always improving your processes, improving your content, improving your delivery of services.  You’re never done; you’re always in beta mode.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to the next project meeting.

We were invited to particpate in several Adobe roadshows that are taking place in the eastern region this month.  The focus is on how firms have used Adobe products to accomplish green initiatives.

Our story is a little odd, in that we never planned to go green, we were simply trying to apply good business practices and instructional design to our content.  In doing so, we’ve greatly reduced the carbon footprint of the training department.

We love telling our story.  You can read about it on the Adobe Customer Showcase page.

We’re looking forward to the rest of the roadshow dates.

This week we scheduled a web meeting with our colleague on the west coast.  We wanted to review options for pre-hire assessments for secretaries (there’s a good topic for a future post).  So our teammate attempted to start a web conference so that she could share her desktop.

She got an error message saying the conference server was busy, and please try again later.  Strike one.

So I had her try another conferencing site.  But she did not have the client application on her machine, and in our locked-down environment at the firm, couldn’t install it.

Strike two.

We considered postponing the meeting, but I had one last idea.  I logged into my Acrobat.com account and launched Adobe ConnectNow, a Flash-based application.  I sent an invitation to our west coast colleague, who logged in with no issues. I then enabled her to share her desktop, and we proceeded with the meeting.

What are the lessons here?  First, you need to check and double-check your web conference capabilities before the meeting time. This meeting was fairly low key, but there have been plenty of times where the audience was much more important and the schedule less forgiving.

You need to have a backup solution ready. I’m sure there are others, but I really like Adobe ConnectNow. An Acrobat.com account is free, and it allows you to connect to two other computers for a web conference. You can share files, desktop, whiteboard, web cam, pretty much all the basic things you need for a web meeting. You can delagate sharing to participant desktops, or let them remote control yours.  And all you need is a browser and Flash.  Of course it won’t be your main solution, but for basic point-to-point meetings, this is a great one.  And it’s free.  

Did I mention that it’s free?

Your lawyers, especially the ones who do a lot of web meetings, should have their own account.  It may be that last trick in their bag that saves a client conference.

I attended a 3-day class on Sharepoint 2007 this week.  Lots of info, but in the end, design and governance (the political aspects of IT) are the main hurdles of implementation in a law firm. Who is going to determine What gets seen by Whom? Access and editing are simple tasks in the environment, but when you have a few hundred owners of the organization, the discussion of rights to do those things gets a little dicey.

While driving home yesterday, my father in-law called and asked if I would stop by to help with a project on his front porch. He’s repairing the awning, the beams are rotted and need to be replaced. He rigged a temporary cover and needed me to help him place it over the front door — a ply wood board, a shingle roll tacked on with roof nails.  He drove his pickup into the front yard and used it as scaffolding to install the cover.

What does my father in-law’s front porch have to do with Sharepoint? Tools and materials are needed to achieve a desired outcome, but somebody has to design the project. And manage it.

I like MOSS. I think it (or similar environments) are the future of the corporate world. But it is merely the frame for the work, a tool. We need to be careful not to communicate to legal professionals that technology does the Work.  A technology rollout that does not factor in the people management aspect is likely not to succeed.

I’m behind the legal blog curve on summaries of ILTA 08, but here goes:

As usual, ILTA produced another great conference.  Most attendees look forward to the colloquy, including me.  The peer exchange, access to experts and vendors in the legal vertical, and just plain fun make it a worthwhile trip.

The Green Initiatives theme was prevalent, from the keynote speech by Tim Sanders, to online session handouts and reusable water bottles.  Donating unused & unwanted conference backpacks to local schools was also a nice touch.

From conversations in my circles, I was a little surprised to hear that so many firms are unofficially preparing for Office 2007, but do not have it on their project calendar for 2009.  The recession economic slow-down is taking its toll on IT budgets.  Of course, as clients begin to upgrade, the pressure for firms to keep up will increase.

SharePoint, on the other hand, is King. It was fun to see what other firms are already doing with the platform.

There was also a lot of talk about law firms and Web 2.0, although I wonder if much of the buzz isn’t from the same 20 or so pundits.  “Wiki” and “blog” were tossed around ad nauseum.  It’s very clear that the legal community should pay attention to (and embrace) this wave. I say this with affection to my fellow legal bloggers, but at times I felt like I was at a Star Trek convention.  Maybe we could all gather in my folks’ basement to play D&D sometime.  I’ll bring my 24-sided die.

I had a great time presenting for the Professional Development track, and the ILTA-U session on creating Elearning for Office 2007.  The latter, however, turned into more of a how-to for Adobe Captivate than how to prepare for an Office upgrade. The Adobe booth was bombed with inquiries after the session, revealing that law firms are interested in more than just Acrobat.

It was great to see many legal learning professionals at conference. While the focus is rightly skewed to CIOs and senior IT managers (I’m always the lowest person on the food chain attending from my firm), analysts and support staff also benefit from the experience.

So thanks, ILTA, and to all the volunteers who participated. See you in DC next year.

The ILTA conference is next week.  I hope to see many of you there.  The User Support Peer Group track is on Monday, with sessions for trainers, help desk, and user support staff.  Good stuff.

Conference sessions are structured into a few mini-themes this year, including Office 2007.  I’ll be hosting a hands-on session on building Elearning for an Office rollout on Tuesday afternoon.  Attendees will get to play with Adobe Captivate, and it should be a lot of fun.

Several SLLP members are also presenting at conference. Great information from some of the best in the industry.

Of course, it’s a great week for networking with colleagues and vendors.  It’s the highlight of my year.  Please introduce yourself if you see me.

Tony Hartsfield

Social Networking on the Web is big in business circles, and the legal market has started to notice. I’ve read sources that suggesting as many as 50% of lawyers in US firms have online profiles on a variety of networking sites. The percentage will likely increase as new lawyers raised on Facebook and MySpace enter the market.

Should legal learning professionals care? Should we be proactive in facilitating the phenomenon? Should we have involvement in a subject that is not really IT?

I’m pretty sure the answer is yes.

We need to be aware of what Web 2.0 tools our lawyers are using to improve their professional standing with clients and colleagues. More than that, we should provide guidance on how to improve their online identity. Which means that, yes, we should have a well-managed online presence, too.

I’ve been noodling with social websites for a few years. You can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, and most recently, Plurk. I also participate in a few discussion forums. Some are targeted to learning: SLLP, ILTA, eLearning Guild, Learning Town, Content Wrangler. Others are related to hobbies and personal interests. I do it primarily because I enjoy the interaction, but I also see the professional benefits of having a Web 2.0 identity.

Where can you be found on the web? How do you represent yourself personally and professionally there? What lessons have you learned that could be shared with lawyers in your firm?

I’m interested in your thoughts on the subject, especially from those of you that are skeptical about social networking on the web, or who come from firms that frown on its use.

And if you’re on any of the above sites, feel free to connect with me.

Elliott Masie, Godfather of e-learning, has a great new post on setting the tone during training.  He says that you define the learner’s expectations in the first three minutes in the classroom.

After teaching for 30 years, I feel that a large number of learners make a thumbs up or thumbs down rating in those sweet 180 seconds.

You have even less time if it’s online content.  First impressions matter.  Even if your performance improves after a faulty start, your opportunity may be blown.

Go read Elliott’s post: The First 3 Minutes of Learning - Oh, So Important