RSS

The most popular tool cited in the study was RSS or Really Simple Syndication. All of the firms interviewed had implemented RSS or were in the planning stages. Many interviewees held that RSS was a useful tool which changed the way people received information, making it more relevant to the user. Now it seems that firms are exploiting this attribute further, giving their users more control over the information they receive.

The most common way of displaying RSS feeds is on the firm's intranet, both on the homepage or on sub-pages that relate to different practice areas. Firms stated that newsfeeds could be made up of external and internal sources. External sources included legal or industry-based journals and magazines, while internal sources consisted of newsletters, internal articles and blog posts. Most companies used internal software such as Microsoft Sharepoint intranet technology to facilitate RSS feeds. One firm said that individual fee earners and information professionals used, and were encouraged to use, their own RSS readers, for example, Google Reader, to store and keep tabs on their own newsfeeds. More recently, two international law firms have introduced an “iGoogle” or “Netvibes” type intranet homepage, which allows users to personalise their homepages. Users can add RSS feeds available from the main intranet which are relevant to them. One of the firms stated that they could display RSS feeds from internal sources including their wiki sites and external sources such as BBC News. The feeds are displayed in small boxes or ‘widgets’ which can be moved around the page. This personalised functionality further empowers users to collate and manage information that is relevant to them.

The helpful storage capability of RSS has been emphasised as a key attribute. Many managers stated that their firms had problems with email particularly the large volumes of email sent and received. Global firms stated that fee earners and information professionals alike were drowning in literally hundreds of emails a day. Furthermore, information such as newsletters, policy or know-how updates sent out by email, often got lost in the ether, were quickly deleted, or not stored efficiently. RSS was stated to be a useful tool to alleviate this problem. The Reader allows for a separate area for information to be sent to and stored in. This means that informative or recurring emails, for example newsletters, could be converted to RSS feeds and sent to a Reader, rather than to an inbox, thereby reducing email flow and the number of emails clogging up in boxes. The Reader can then usefully store the information and users can also pick and choose the articles or themes that are beneficial to them, increasing their control over the amount of information they wish to receive and read. It may be too rash to say that RSS is the solution to overcrowded in boxes, but from this study, it seems it is a helpful step in the right direction.

Managers also highlighted the marketing capabilities of RSS. A magic circle firm noted that RSS could be used as an efficient way of keeping in contact with clients. Blogs, articles, information on events or seminars emanating from the firm could have the option of being subscribed to via RSS by clients. As long as these are consistently updated, the company can keep in regular and easy contact with clients or other useful contacts and do so in a way that is not intrusive, as opposed to constant emailing.

It became apparent that RSS had practical implications for information and knowledge management too. An obvious example of this is the information provision feature of RSS, the simple and quick relaying of useful and tailored know-how, updates and current affairs information. RSS feeds are consistently updated, allowing for current, real time articles and news. These features of RSS were highlighted as simple, yet extremely beneficial for information retrieval, particularly in very busy law firms.

Recommendations: RSS

Email has been said to be entrenched within firms' working culture, but can lead to information overload and poor productivity. If firms are planning to employ Web 2.0 tools such as RSS as alternatives to email, then a substantial cultural shift is required and lawyers must be made aware of these alternatives. RSS feeds should be in an obvious place on a firm's intranet so that employees can subscribe and get familiar with using them. Firms should allow employees to have the option of using RSS readily available to them, so that they reconsider relating messages, maybe from newsletters or notices, solely through email. They should also publicise RSS through meetings or seminars on the topic. If possible, firms should offer simple processes for allowing publications to be subscribed through via RSS, and publicise this internally.

Blogs

Blogs were still a little way behind in being thought about and implemented in my original study. The perception of blogs as being online journals was still very prevalent within many firms and some information managers dismissed blogs as unadaptable to the corporate environment, but more recently firms are seeing new potential for blogs and are exploring other uses for this format.

A number of firms are using blogs as a new platform for their internal newsletters. The blogs were edited and updated by a number of employees, rather than just one individual. Issues discussed included introducing new members of the team, mentioning birthdays and giving out information on conferences, internal events and more social occasions. A major UK-based firm had set up their blog as an internal newsletter that focused on technical, IT issues and updates and two magic circle firms are increasingly swapping their firms' internal newsletters over to blog formats.

The commenting feature found in blogs has been seen as a real advantage, as it often adds value to the information that is already there and creates new topics to debate. This has been said to increase interaction between employees and interest in the posts. It was noted that this feature was denied to traditional newsletter formats, but was clearly a valuable tool. Another feature of blogs is storage of articles. One magic circle firm praised the fact that information in blogs can be categorised and made searchable with certain software such as Microsoft Sharepoint. This is a useful tool, allowing the blogs to become databases of information as well as opening up their potential to be platforms for a range of information resources, from newsletters or departmental updates, to a log of enquiries and answers.

Managers in a magic circle law firm and a major UK- based firm held that blogs could be external and written for clients or outside parties in general. One of them had sanctioned a public-facing blog maintained and updated by lawyers in the IP and Technology practice teams. It was made up of practical articles on legal or regulatory developments within the information technology industries, including information on intellectual property rights, data protection and e-commerce and distance selling. The commenting feature on blogs was in place to allow clients to engage in debates, discussions and dialogue in real time concerning the article, a deliberate marketing tool. Another global firm has more recently initiated a blog focusing on intellectual property. They stated that readership levels outside the firm were high, and that one of the benefits of the blog was that it allowed lawyers to write articles that reached clients directly, as opposed to writing articles in journals. For this firm, blogging is a more direct marketing and knowledge sharing approach. These external-facing blogs were stated to allow firms an alternative, modern new platform for sending out information, which could benefit current clients and draw in potential ones.

A couple of firms have taken notice of ever popular micro-blogging sites such as Twitter. One firm has experimented with following outside industry-based blogs and Tweets on sites similar to Twitter, though not Twitter itself. They stated that this was allowing them to keep on top of current trends and developments and to pass on this knowledge to their clients. They gave an example in which they followed Tweets of a recent court case as the judgment was being delivered, allowing them to know the outcome before many media sources. Twitter has also been taken up by a major UK-based firm to support some of their graduate recruitment work. This firm has also used a blog to create their own “Twitter-like status updates” to track and publicise internal campaigns.

Recommendations: blogs

Blogs have to be consistently maintained in order to function well. Therefore, they should be written by lawyers or information professionals who have an enthusiasm for their subject and time is allocated to write them. Blogs do not have to relate social information. Often, blogs without a clear purpose or subject area were shown to result in lower readership and therefore blogs should cover more professional or targeted subject matter, similar to a newsletter format.

Wikis

Wikis also turned out to be a highly popular tool within law firms, with many having implemented them, or beginning to do so. Interestingly, many were moving away from the popular wiki model laid down by Wikipedia as new advances in corporate technology are allowing law firms to develop the concept.

Wikis were praised by a number of firms for their ability to enable information and know-how to be consistently revised and amended. A wiki document can easily be shared through large groups of people, each of whom can have editing rights. This can allow the content to be continuously updated, which keeps the information relevant. In the constantly changing world of the law, this feature is highly beneficial. Databases or other formats for information can become full of outdated information quickly, whereas a permanent wiki space means that topics are more likely to be updated on a regular basis. Employees who are interested and informed, who may have just learned of a new change to some legislation or case for example, can easily and instantly edit a wiki to reflect this, sharing their knowledge with the group.

Firms cited numerous topics that their wikis concentrated on, for employees to edit and share. These included articles and know-how on Parliamentary bills, legislation and cases; the Companies Act was one example. One firm had articles on other law firms and advisers and further topics included market trends, industry or sector information, know-how, firm policies on copyright or document execution, and information relating to individual practice areas.

One magic circle firm had a wiki containing information on the financial crisis. In this firm's case, the wiki could be accessed across practice groups as well as globally. The latter offered a number of advantages. For example users in the USA, who were already feeling the effects of the credit crunch, were able to impart useful information and answers to others around the world who had not yet experienced it. They could give information and advice to lawyers in the UK with clients who would be affected. A global wiki gives a useful platform for the firm to build up important intelligence from a range of practice groups, in a range of countries and in real time, allowing information to “cross borders”.

Other interesting uses for wikis included the sharing of and collaboration over more practical internal documents such as minutes, power point presentations or hand-outs for meetings. Previous versions could also be seen and referred to. One international firm had added a wiki to its client extranet. Documents such as project-planning papers and minutes of meetings could be accessed, edited or commented on by the firm's clients during transactions.

New internal technologies are allowing firms to take these project-planning or internal wikis further and their popularity has increased since my study in 2008. Atlassian's Confluence wiki software is one example that has been increasingly mentioned. Confluence is intranet software that is based on wikis, using them as the main feature for the intranet. It allows wikis for internal, project-based documents, with groups or teams able to comment and edit them. One firm was beginning to implement Confluence wiki software as the basis for their whole intranet, as they firmly believed in its capabilities. More recently, two more international firms have implemented Confluence. One currently has it in one department, with a view to rolling it out firm wide to replace their existing intranet. The other firm was working with fee earners and the Knowledge team on their use of wikis. The manager here explained how the Knowledge and Information Services team there were particularly excited by Confluence, using it to record enquiries and their answers, as well as for records of project work. Comments can be made on projects within Confluence and stored. This was said to have two key benefits: emailing was reduced as the comments had already been recorded on Confluence and meetings were more focused as discussion has already taken place online.

Recommendations: wikis

Generating user participation is often cited as the biggest hurdle in implementing a successful wiki. More contributions and better use of wikis often comes from implementing these tools within team spaces of different departments or practice areas. At first it is best to implement Web 2.0 tools in teams who are open and amenable to new technologies. Small teams made up of practice groups or employees working on the same projects, or with the same clients, are useful groups for these tools to work effectively in. Not only will this allow useful information to be shared by everyone in the team, it will make it easier for employees to contribute if they are in smaller groups, made up of colleagues that they know. Wiki use should be rolled out to the rest of the firm gradually. This will also allow for their benefits to be spread via word of mouth. From this study, word of mouth has been shown to be the best way for disseminating these tools more widely. Positive feed-back from teams of employees utilising wikis is the most effective way of highlighting their benefits to the rest of the firm. Journal articles and websites such as www.wikipatterns.com can offer useful advice on the “selling” of Web 2.0 tools such as wikis.

Other tools

A number of other social software tools were cited by firms in the study but they were not thought about as much and restricted to only a few firms. Since my study in 2008, it seems these tools have not increased in their popularity. They will be briefly summarised here.