SEARCH: (LinkedIn OR Twitter) (lawyer OR attorney OR “law firm”)

Perhaps the greatest thing I learned in Library School is the understanding of Boolean Searching.  When put in the right context, understanding the proper use of “AND”, “OR”, “BUT NOT” and the proper placement of parenthesise “()” can make your searching a lot better.  Even in the age of Googling, Boolean is still a skill that is needed.  

I’ve been testing some of my searching skills while reviewing the TweetDeck software that I evaluated last week.  I noticed that good old Boolean searches work better in the TweetDeck than they do when you search in Twitter’s search interface.  At the same time, I was seeing A LOT of decent information that people were sharing via Twitter.  Blogs they just read, conferences they were attending, articles, new websites, new software, etc.  And, if the right type of Boolean search is set up, TweetDeck will chime in and let me know when someone has mentioned the topics I’m interested in.  All without clogging up my email.
So, I can get updates like Kevin O’Keefe telling me how many people have viewed his LinkedIn Profile in the last 4 days:
Or, I can see my recent posting on my search using twitter search:
This updates about every minute.  I’m liking what I’ve seen so far.  Although it isn’t perfect, it is a nice search tool to have.  One big problem that I haven’t been able to find a “fix” for, is the fact that if you re-do your search, any previous postings that have been returned to you before, will no longer show up in your search.  So, during the tweaking process, you’ll feel a little frustrated that some of the good twitter postings no longer appear in your results.  I’ll post a note on this blog if I find a way around that issue.
Of course, this got me thinking of different ways to use Boolean searching, and then having automated ways of searching Internet resources.  Then I tried to mash some different RSS feeds into my Google Reader to see how that works.  Creating a RSS feed using the Google Blog Search, and another RSS feed using the Twitter Search, I created a Widget for my iGoogle account and had the results feed to me there.  
Plugging in the RSS feeds, I created my own gadget that displays the results of both Twitter and Google Blog Search.  And, the flexibility of the gadget allows me to modify it as I see fit.

“The Florida Supreme Court has erected a safety fence outside its building and is beginning repairs to its basement, where water seepage has destroyed some 12,000 books during the last two years.”

Two years?? Really??

This is one of those stories that just beg for the question of “what did they think they were doing??” Putting valuable items in a basement, and then acting surprised by the laws of physics (you know, the one that states that water runs downhill! — something else runs downhill… but, this is a family-friendly blog.)

I’ve worked on projects to replace library collections in the past, and it is amazing how often that good people, with good intentions, can assume that bad things just won’t happen to them. They put some of their most unreplacable treasures in places that are exposed to natural disasters, and assume that it will be safe there until we have the time and money to give it the care that it needs.

Here’s a suggestion: Only put furnature from IKEA in the basement! At least that can be replaced at a pretty reasonable cost. If you put something of value in the basement, then expect that something bad will happen to it. And, when it does finally happen to you, please remember that you are not the victims of the situation, but rather a contributor to the situation!

I’ve been hearing some rumblings about the Adobe AIR product, and its ability to make web products work in a desktop environment.

The boys over at WebResourcesDepot (WRD) put out a snapshot of 27 Adobe AIR products — a posting that became so popular that it caused their site to go down. (If only the GeekLawBlog would be so lucky!!)
So, I thought I’d go over a few of these, and see if they hold any promise.
  1. TweetDeck This one has been blogged about pretty extensively, and seems to be a good mash-up of the different things you can do with Twitter. I get to see: a)all the tweets of those that I’m following b) any Replies c) all Direct Messages d)Global and Local Searching e) Create Sub-Groups from those that I follow f)TwitScoop for all the Buzz Tweets g) 12seconds.tv updates (which I have no idea what that is, and it doesn’t seem to interesting enough to research This one is definitely worth a look.
  2. Google Analytics Reporting Suite My fellow GeekLawBlogger, Lisa, gave me the story on using Google Analytics to monitor web traffic and the importance of tracking certain bits of information for Search Engine Optimization and other important (read “geeky”) stuff. Since I have a couple of NINGs for thelibrary community, I’ve been using Google Analytics to monitor traffic. I was content with the interface that Google has for its analytics, but once I pulled that same information up using this Suite, I really began to understand all of the in’s and out’s of what Analytics had to offer me. I like the layout of this suite, and it really puts the information out there in a way that I can better understand the trending of my site visits. If you use Google Analytics, you’ll want to look at this sweet, suite.
  3. uvLayer If I were 15, I’d probably think this was one of the coolest apps ever. Products need to be careful about saying it is something similar to the UI wall in Minority Report… I’ve seen Minority Report… Having access to the UI Wall in Minority Report is my dream… You, my friend, are no UI Wall in Minority Report! (But, my hero Johnny Chung Lee is going to create one for us!!) Enough ranting about the UI Wall…. The uvLayer product is actually cool, but only if you are into online video and chatting about online video. You can connect to your Facebook or AIM or some other IM products and share these videos in a cool way. But, again, I’m not 15, and I don’t really need this product. So, if your 15, check it out… otherwise, it is just not something I’d suggest.
  4. ConceptShare Okay, this one is kind of cheating by putting it in the Adobe Air category because it is mostly a web-based product, and they have a Desktop Companion that uses Adobe Air. However, I’m impressed with the overall concept (pardon the pun) of this product. ConceptShare allows you to collaborate with others on projects – ranging from web site design to video commercials, or pretty much any project you need to collaborate. ConceptShare is very interactive, it allows multiple users to work on projects simultaneously, and is very, very visual. Think of it as a mix of Web Page Development, SharePoint, Extranets, and interactive conferencing and chat software. It is a professional-grade product, and not exactly the easiest thing to use straight out of the [virtual] box. But, if you are a marketer, or someone that needs to collaborate on visual products (marketing projects, engineering projects, web page development, etc.) then this might be the product you’ve been looking for. Very, very slick. Oh, and it isn’t free, either. Guess I should have started off with that statement. But, it does have a 30-day trial that will let you kick the tires and see if it fits your needs. If you are a heavy collaborator on graphical design projects, then you might find this product is exactly what you need.
  5. WebSnapshot This one I like a lot because of its simplicity. Type in an address to a website, and it will give you an image of that website. There are a number of times that I wanted to add a snap shot of the website in my research results, and this product makes it quick and easy. There aren’t a lot of bells and whistles, and that can be a good thing. One enhancement I would like to see, is the ability to load mulitple websites at one time. This one is I definitely will take advantage of in the future.
If you would like a review of any other Adobe Air products, just let me know. If you want to see what else is out there, you can go to the Adobe Air Marketplace. Note: Per comment suggestions, there is also a website called Refreshing Apps that also has review of these products and more, and you can comment and score the apps.

TIP: Whatever You Do, Don’t Offer Online Collaboration

There is a lot of good information out there about using technology to collaborate directly with clients.

The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technology: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell Don’t read it. It might give you ideas about offering up to clients the ability to see, review and edit their documents with you online. Since peoples’ expectations are for more real-time services, make sure you use older, slower delivery options. Another dangerous tool to avoid: online surveys like Survey Monkey or Zoomerang. Clients will like these since they give them a convenient opportunity to tell you what they like and don’t like about your services. Talk about NOT annoying. And to top it off, clients may tell you something you don’t want to hear, causing the backfire effect of annoying you.

Conclusions

Using technology can be challenging. Using technology to annoy clients is an art form. Just remember: Whichever technologies you choose, follow our ‘best practices’ and you will be sure to get your clients’ undivided attention.

TIP:  Under No Circumstances Personalize Anything for the Client One of the best ways to annoy your client is to remind them that they are just one of the cogs of your great legal empire.  Taking the time to personalize a communication and making the client feel that they are important to you, is just wasting your time in your efforts to annoy them.  If you see something that one of your colleagues has written to his clients, and it may be relevant to your client, what ever you do, DO NOT FORWARD IT on to your client with a simple note saying that you saw this and thought it was relevant to your client’s business.  Nothing is more annoying than talking with your client weeks later and saying – “Oh, yeah…  We put something about that out a few weeks ago, but I didn’t think to send it to you.” Perhaps you’re tempted to create an Extranet for your clients to make it easier for them to share documents back and forth with you — or, to keep them abreast of the status of a matter without having to call you to ask about it. One of the highest levels of annoyance comes when a client has to call you for an update on an open matter, and then you later bill them for their inconvenience.  Putting together an Extranet would only make the client feel that they were involved in the matter, and that you were taking the time to make sure they had access to relevant information on their case.  What’s so annoying about that? 

TIP: Use Technology to Deliver Boring Stuff

A classic, annoying favorite of ours is building PowerPoint presentations with tons of text in small font on each slide. Don’t bother utilizing graphics, videos and other visually appealing tools. The only thing that makes this approach better is if you read the text to them. An annoying PowerPoint is meant to make the point and not to just emphasize it. So include the whole point, the entire point, word-for-word.

Here’s another tried-and-tested annoyer. When you hold a client teleconference or web-conference, don’t bother with more sophisticated tools like auto-mute for attendees. If an attendee puts the conference on hold and they have ‘hold’ music, everyone will be struggling to hear you above the music. Classic!

A word of warning: When giving online presentations, interactive web tools should be avoided. Do not, we repeat, do NOT give clients an opportunity for real-time participation. If they have a question or comment to share about the presentation, make them put in the extra effort to remember and ask you later.

I’m interrupting the “Tech Annoyances” to make a comment on the Presidential debates.

Listening to the 2nd installment of Obama vs. McCain last night, I heard both of the candidates say that one of the best ways to make health care in America more affordable is to improve the technology and make patient records available electronically.  [skip ahead to about the 51st minute of the debate.]

Now, I know that many viewers saw that answer as an Information Technology issue, but for those of us in the “business”, I’d say that it is really a Knowledge Management issue.   It will be a KM issue to pull data from multiple databases, and set up the network of risk analysis programs against that data to prevent those preventable health care errors that injure or kill thousands each year.  It will be KM that will be working with Doctors, Nurses, and Pharmacists to construct the work flow of health care technology, all the way from proper data entry to verifying that there are no dangerous drug interactions.
Many of us have heard of the nearly tragic story of Dennis Quaid’s twin newborn’s accidental over dosage of Heperin.  Situations like that can be reduced not solely by improving the technology in health care, but, by increasing the ability to leverage the information against existing data, and producing a process that improves the ability for health care professionals to make informed decisions, and be given the overall risks associated with a procedure (ranging from administering drugs to operations.)  That, my friends and fellow Americans, is what Knowledge Management is all about.
Yes, technology is a great resource, but it cannot by itself make health care more efficient.  Knowledge Management is the key to making health care and IT  more efficient. 
In the words of Bruce Dickinson,  “Health care has a fever, and the only prescription… is more KM!”
 

TIP:  Make It Complicated for the Client (the more difficult, the more satisfying) The more technologically advanced you make your web site, the more your clients will see you for the technology wizard that you are.  One of the best ways to annoy your clients is to assume that they are all using Internet Explorer (IE) version 7, and then use the most advanced plug-ins available.  Since some of your clients are still using an older version of IE, or may even have the audacity of using another web browser like Firefox, Chrome, or Safari, this will give them the extra motivation of taking the time to upgrade to IE 7 just to view your very cool site. Another best practice is to not test your flash or javascript inserts and send out a presentation that is completely unusable.  Your client will benefit by being able to send out the “Friday Funny” to his peers showing just how useless your communication really is.  If it is really good, they’ll send out the “Friday Funny” on a Wednesday. Since all of your recipients are using high-speed Internet services, they want you to test the limits of their e-mail attachment capabilities.   A great way to do this is to print out a high-quality document with lots of colors, and then scan it into a high-resolution PDF document.  Nothing says “I don’t know what I’m doing” better than a 15 Mb PDF document that has only two pages of content.  They would probably send this to their peers as another “Friday Funny,” but their peers’ email boxes would reject it because the attachment is too large. 

TIP: Provide Content Rarely and Irregularly

Blogs are HOT and in demand, so this best practice will take some effort … Not. Since people prefer blogs that are regularly updated with fresh, compelling content, this is another easy best practice: You should only post up information on your legal topic blog when you feel like it. This will likely coincide with when your work slows down, and you have time and really need more clients. This has the added advantage of impacting your writing style, so it comes across as desperate.

Oh – and think about all the Web 2.0 tools you can use, especially those social networking sites like LinkedIn. This social networking, where people participate in online communities, can be powerful. Best Practice: Join, but don’t add anything to the group. Or if you have an urge to contribute, send out connection invitations to people you don’t really know. A potential downside to joining these sites is that you may end up connecting with old contacts who could send you work.

TIP: Send A LOT of Content Daily email newsletters are perhaps the best thing you can do to annoy your clients each every morning. Clients truly desire the minutia of legal issues like “European Practice” or “Corporate Finance” and giving them anything less than a daily newsletter on such generic legal topics would be a serious disappointment.
This works extremely well for those clients that cannot figure out how to create a rule to send these newsletters straight to their trash folders. For those lucky few, they can truly see you are the expert in your field, and that you must be available to work on these issues immediately because you have a lot of time on your hands to write these annoying daily newsletters.
Some firms tailor their newsletters to make sure that the right content is going to the right clients. Taking the time to understand what issues effect your individual clients and then dissemenating targeted information in an as needed manner is breaking every annoyance rule we’re attempting to lay out for you. So, remember, dump as much information as you can, as often as you can, to as many clients as you can! That’s truly annoying.