People are collaborating more than ever before.  There are more collaboration tools and technologies than ever before.  Yet, the actual adoption of collaboration tools seems to lag behind the desire to use them.  In this episode, we discuss the gap between tools and people in collaboration, the common challenges faced when implementing collaboration tools, especially ones used by lawyers, and our best recommendations for improving the adoption of collaboration tools and technologies in 2012.

Link to the episode:  Making Collaboration Tools Work in 2012

Segment 1:  Making Collaboration Tools Work in 2012

Segment 2:  Revisiting – wherein we discuss some legal tech issues that we left out of our last episode, Pardon the Legal Technology Interruption 2011

Segment 3:  Parting Shots

Did technology rock the legal world in 2011, or was it a sleepy little year for legal tech?  What were the tech highlights and lowlights for 2011?  In this episode, we pay homage to one of our favorite shows, ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, and offer up a wide-ranging, fast-paced and highly-opinionated review of what transpired in legal technology during the past year.

Link to the episode:  Pardon the Legal Tech Interruption

Segment 1:  Headlines and Oddsmakers

• Headlines
• eDiscovery
• Social Media
• Using Social Media for Non-Marketing
• Not Your Marketer’s Social Media:  Ten Ways Lawyers Can Benefit from Non-Marketing Uses of Social Media
• Cloud Computing
• iPhones, iPads and Macs
• Oddsmakers – what are the odds that:
• 2012 will be the year the Blackberry loses its place as the smartphone most used by lawyers?
• Tom:  25%
• Dennis: 40%
• Lawyers will be using LinkedIn more than their Outlook contacts in 2012?
• Tom:  15%
• Dennis: 30%
• Lawyers will start bringing their own computers to work next year?
• Tom:  25%
• Dennis:  40%
• Most lawyers will still be using Office 2007 in 2012?
• Tom:  75%
• Dennis: 100%

Segment 2:  Word Up

• Lawyers should think of new software development like predictive coding and IBM’s Watson as ______
• Tom:  Salvation
• Dennis:  Friends
• A recent survey reporting that 94% of the AmLaw 200 law firms plan to use blogs in their social media marketing initiatives is ______
• Tom:  Interesting
• Dennis: Hallucinatory
• The day of doing most of your legal work on a smartphone is ____
• Tom:  Distant
• Dennis: Here
• Keeping up with all of the developments in legal technology has never been more ______
• Tom:  Exhilarating
• Dennis:  Daunting

Segment 3:  The Big Finish

Many social media users have been surprised recently by changes to the design and user interface of the web pages and apps they have been accustomed to using with these services.  These kinds of changes have been happening for quite a while, but this round of changes seems to have created a backlash from longtime users.  Are these kinds of changes fair or foul?  In this episode, we discuss recent interface changes by Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others, the response to these changes and the rollout of the changes, and the implications for users as they rely more and more on cloud services.

Link to the episode:  Who Moved My Social Media Cheese?

Segment 1:  Who Moved My Social Media Cheese?

• Twitter Gets a Major Overhaul
• Facebook Timeline

Segment 2:  Revisiting Our Gift Guide

• One more plug for Sonos
• Powerstick – quick charges of your mobile devices
• Prankpack Gift Boxes
• Amazon Prime
• You can get laser printers under $100

Segment 3:  Parting Shots

‘Tis the season for gift-giving….and the season for technology gift lists.  Technology makes for great gifts – even for lawyers.  In this episode, we roll our our own technology guide for lawyers, give some of our favorite buying tips, and give lots of suggestions for your own wish list.

Link to the episode:  Holiday Tech Gift Guide

Segment 1:  Holiday Tech Gift Guide

• Other great tech gift guides
• The Digital Edge Podcast:  Tech Toys for the Holidays 2011
• 2011 Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers at Reid My Blog!
• Some of our favorite sources for tech gifts
• Cool Tools
• Gadgeteer
• Engadget
• Lifehacker
• Keeping Track of your Wish List
• Amazon Wish Lists
• Evernote

• Our Gift Recommendations
• MacBook Air
• iPhone 4S
• Lynda.com
• Amazon’s Kindle Touch
• Dennis recommends getting a large second monitor
• Tom on buying a tablet computer – Tom recommends the iPad for lawyers who want to be productive on it, or the Kindle Fire as a great entry-level, less expensive starter tablet
• Dennis recommends two books:  Beyond Bullet Points and Lifehacker:  The Guide to Working Smarter, Faster and Better
• Garmin Nuvi 3790T
• Dennis says that “Solid State Drives Can Bring Magic to Your Computer”
• Subscriptions to file storage or backup services like Carbonite, iCloud or Dropbox
• HyperJuice External Batteries for iOS devices
• Agloves Touchscreen Gloves
• Zoom Digital Recorder
• iM2 Stereo Microphone for iOS Products
• Zvox Speaker System
• Sonos Sound System
• Cocoon Grid-It Organizer

Segment 2:  Tech Stocking Stuffers

• Endomondo Sports Tracker Pro
• How to Gift iOS Apps
• Monster MP OTG400 BK Outlets to Go 4 Outlet Travel Power Strip
• Belkin Mini-Surge Protector
• Waterfield iPhone Suede Jacket
• AppleCore Cable Shorteners
• GetAbstract
• How to gift a Kindle Book
• Dennis wants to get his genome sequenced, but maybe not this year

Segment 3:  Parting Shots

• Best Books of 2011:
• New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2011
• NPR’s Best Books of 2011
• Amazon’s Best Books of 2011
• Posner Opinion Includes Ostrich Photo to Portray Lawyers Who Ignore Precedent
• Opinion:  Monica Del Carmen Gonzalez-Servin v. Ford Motor Company

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Forty-eight hours of video are added to YouTube every minute. Second graders make professional-quality movies using inexpensive cameras and standard software. It’s no surprise that lawyers are tentatively beginning to think about using video in connection with their practices. In this episode, we discuss the growing use of video by lawyers, survey the tools for creating and distributing videos, and share some observations and tips about lawyers jumping into the world of video.

Link to the episode:  Will Video Kill the Lawyer Star?

Segment 1:  Video Killed the Lawyer Star

• How Lawyers are Using Video
• Embedding a YouTube video on your web site

Segment 2:  Revisiting:  Can Software Replace Lawyers?

• Technology-Assisted Review in E-Discovery Can be More Effective and More Efficient than Exhaustive Manual Review - Richmond Journal of Law & Technology
• Watson.  It’s Elementary. - Institute for the Future

Segment 3:  Parting Shots

• Google’s Multi-Factor Authentication
• LinkedIn Mobile App

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From IBM’s Watson to Apple’s new Siri to the growth of predictive coding in e-discovery, it’s been a heck of a year for computers catching up to humans.  Lately, there’s been a lot of discussion about the question, “Can software take the place of lawyers?”  Can it, or will it?  In this episode, we discuss the latest software advances and the likely impact on lawyers, how lawyers might benefit from these advances, and how worried lawyers should be about competition from machines.

Link to the episode:  Can Software Replace Lawyers?

Segment 1:  Can Software Replace Lawyers?

• Armies of Expensive Lawyers, Replaced by Cheaper Software
• Predictive Coding Explained
• Predictive Coding Still Not Ready for Prime Time‘
• Judge Peck and Predictive Coding

Segment 2:  Revisiting:  iPads for Lawyers - wherein we discuss the phenomenon of tablet computing, and put forward our thinking on why they are so popular among lawyers and others.

Segment 3:  Parting Shots

• Share Your Outlook Calendar by Email
• Microsoft Fix-It Solution Center

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iPads are making serious inroads into the work environment, even for lawyers.  What role might the iPad play in the daily lives of busy legal professionals?  In this episode, we are joined by special guest David Sparks, author of the new book iPad at Work, to discuss the potential benefits of using an iPad in legal work, practical iPad tips, and how the iPad and iPad apps are changing the way lawyers use technology.

Link to the episode:  iPads for Lawyers

Segment 1:  iPads for Lawyers

• Our special guest:  David Sparks
• MacSparky.com
• Mac Power Users podcast
• iPad at Work (Amazon or iTunes)
• Apps Mentioned during this Segment
• GoodReader
• Docs to Go
• PDF Expert

• Tom – Agendas – new way to manage meeting agendas
• David – more on iThoughts HD
• Dennis – David’s iPad at Work, Mac Power Users podcast, and MacSparky (see above for links)

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Amazon has just announced a new generation of Kindle devices, including a touch version and the Kindle Fire, a low-cost tablet device. The new Kindles start at $79. Are these iPad competitors, a new category of devices or another harbinger of the Post-PC era? In this episode, we discuss how the new Kindles might help lawyers, whether the platform is now the message, and where the tablet category might go after the death of Steve Jobs.

Link to the episode:  Kindle En Fuego – Next Generation Tablets

Segment 1:  Non-Obvious “Obvious” Productivity Tips

• Kindle’s New Product Line
• The basic Kindle
• Kindle Touch
• Kindle Keyboard
• Kindle Fire
• Pick Your Kindle Flowchart
• Kindle Fire vs. iPad 2 vs. Nook Color:  Specs and Features Compared

• Noteshelf – Tom’s new favorite note-taking app
• Adonit Jotpro stylus – writes like a real ballpoint pen!
• Kindle Review blog
• Calibre E-Book Management Software

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Why are more lawyers than ever using two (or more) monitors at their desks?  Others use surprisingly simple tricks to make their days more productive and their lives a little easier. Once you’ve learned some of these techniques, you often think that they are “obvious” and something you should have implemented a long time ago. In this episode, we discuss a few simple productivity techniques like using multiple monitors that have made a big difference for us, how those tips might benefit you, and steps you can take to make yourself much more productive than you were before you listened to this podcast.

Link to the episode:  Easy Productivity Improvements

Segment 1:  Non-Obvious “Obvious” Productivity Tips

• Using Dual Monitors
• Dual Monitor Setup:  Two Monitors are Better than One
• If you only have one monitor, it’s easy to use ALT+TAB to cycle through all of your open windows
• Use the iPad as a second monitor with the Air Display
• A Quick Way to Turn Two Monitors into Four – from Jim Calloway
• To Control which programs start up when you turn on your computer, go to the Command Prompt and type MSCONFIG.  Go to the Startup tab, and uncheck all programs that you don’t want to open on startup.
• Helpful Keyboard Shortcuts
• WIN+D immediately cleans your desktop, reducing all windows to the taskbar
• Dennis’s article Quick Cuts:  Save Time with a Few Strokes at the Keyboard
• MS Office
• How to turn off automatic hyperlinks in Word
• Using Search in Windows 7
• Use the Windows 7 taskbar as a launchpad for your most-used programs
• Why the Windows 7 taskbar beats Mac OS X’s dock

• Removing Double Spaces from a Word Document
• Ask Dave Taylor
• Lifehacker
• How-To Geek

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From 9/11 anniversaries to hurricanes to earthquakes to power outages and much more, recent events are causing us to consider how our new technologies impact our behavior in emergency situations.  Technology, especially mobile technology like smart phones, has obvious benefits in emergencies and disasters, but our reliance on technology has raised a whole new set of issues.  In this episode, we discuss how new technology is changing our behavior and expectations in emergencies, what lessons we have learned and practical tips people have shared, and preparation and planning lawyers and the legal profession should consider.

Link to the episode:  Technology in a Time of Emergency

Segment 1:  Technology in a Time of Emergency

• Emergency and Disaster Apps
• Emergency Distress Beacon App - iPhone
• Send My Location – Android
• Disaster Alert Network – iPhone/iPad
• Disaster Alert – Android
• Practical Learning and Resources
• 72hours.org
• http://www.redcross.org/
• Ready.gov
• ZAGG Sparq – Power for your iDevice
• Tips for Working Through a Power Outage in the iPad Era
• Discovery Recovery and Business Continuity – Law Practice Management Resources
• April 2011 Law Practice Today on Disaster Planning
• Legal Technology Resource Center Disaster Recovery Resources

• Tom’s new favorite iPad notetaking app – Noteshelf – and the Wacom Bamboo Stylus (Amazon link)
• Dennis on The Unbillable Hour Podcast – Listening to Learn – Legal Podcasts as Educational Tools
• Ready.gov (link above)

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