Legal Research

Wikis in Law Firms ? An Alternative View?

By Ted Tjaden

A number of colleagues I respect remain excited about ?wikis in law firms? (see Connie Crosby here and Doug Cornelius here as two examples).

I remain contrarian and cynical. Aren?t all major law firms with mature document management systems (DMSs) ?wikified? to the max already? If everyone in the firm has online access to the ?Smith file? or the ?Jones file? and can edit documents, view calendars or other lists of information, access research memos, and post comments, isn?t this ?wiki? personified?

This raises the question: what makes ?wikis? different than DMSs? Is it simply ease-of-use and the fact that wikis can or will arise more organically without central IT control? I concede those two points but if those are the main differences, I am not sure I am getting the ?wiki in law firms? discussion (and yes, I have contributed on ?pure? wikis, albeit on a limited scale).

Please enlighten me (although if I am misguided please be kind in your comments). I remain open-minded and not that cynical.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on February 12, 2008 (boomark / email).