Law Technology

Collaboration Tech: Around the Corner or Around the World

By Dennis Kennedy

This month's issue of the ABA's Law Practice Magazine is out and it has an international theme. Lots of good articles, but I especially wanted to highlight an article called "Collaborative Technologies: Working with Others Around the Corner or Around the World," by Tom Mighell and me.

We based the article on some of the main themes of our new book on collaboration tools and technologies. This article is designed as an short introduction to the topic of collaboration tools. The sidebar addresses the all-important issue of collaboration culture and sets out some tips for handling cultural issues in your collaboration efforts.

The money quote:

Today it?s relatively simple for any lawyer, regardless of firm size or budget, to collaborate with clients, colleagues, co-counsel, experts or even opposing counsel in nearly any corner of the world. The difference? The rise of the Internet as a communications tool.

I also like this quote, which illustrates one of our aha insights while we wrote the book - the notion of co-evolution:

The ways that people work together shift over time, which can affect your culture of collaboration. More important, the introduction of collaboration technologies can also change the culture of collaboration. If handled properly, the tools and the culture will co-evolve.

Check out the article to get an idea of why I think that collaboration is the most important topic in technology today.

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

Follow me on Twitter: @denniskennedy.com

The new book: The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Join the book's Facebook Group here. Now available on Amazon.

Technorati tags: legal technology collaboration collaboration tools Law2.0 collaborative technology coevolution

Full post as published by DennisKennedy.blog on July 23, 2008 (boomark / email).