Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration : Lawyer Collaboration Tools & Technologies : Dennis Kennedy & Tom Mighell : Wiki, Web 2.0, Sharepoint

In September, I posted Is Online Word Processing on the Rise?, which included a poll asking readers what tool they primarily use for word processing.  Microsoft Word won hands down, with 58% of the vote.  Google Docs came in near the bottom with 12%, and there were no votes for other online word processing tools.  These results are similar (if not a bit higher) to the findings of Compete, which measured traffic to Google Docs; the results are summarized here.  It found that although traffic to Google Docs grew 158% in the past 12 months, only about 2.4% of the adult online population was using the service.  Even more interesting is the statistic that the average user only spends about 5 minutes per month on the site.

What can you do on a Google Docs page in only 5 minutes per month?  Certainly not create a full-fledged document.  Whatever is going on during those 5 minutes, the Compete study demonstrates that Google Docs attracts primarily casual users, and that online word processing services still aren't ready for enterprise use.

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Lucie Olejnikova and Jessica de Perio Wittman have written an excellent article, The Case for Collaborative Tools: Long-distance teamwork on a shoestring budget.

Their summary of the article:

"This article shares a bit of our  experiences (the exciting and the frustrating moments), and outlines how we used free online collaborative tools to make the long distance seem short. This article also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of long-distance collaboration and how to apply the same tools and principles to a variety of work settings, such as law firms, firm libraries, court libraries, public libraries, and academic libraries. In addition, we mention the psycho-sociological aspects of a long-distance, Web-based communication, as well as its impact on project administration and budget."

Of special interest is the survey they took and the results they obtained about use of collaboration tools. I also like the focus on free collaboration tools and the way they tested out the ideas we have in our book.

Excellent insights, important conclusions and highly recommended. Excellent work. It also helps confirm our belief that law librarians will be the leaders in the early stages of adoption of collaboration tools.

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Bill Ives has posted a great series of posts on real-world experiences with Microsoft SharePoint. He characterizes SharePoint as the "most common platform for enterprise 2.0."

The posts cover a set of four sessions at a conference on “Real World Sharepoint Experiences”sponsored by Knowledge Management Associates.

The four sessions covered:

Dispatches from the Front Lines

Training Approaches

Sharepoint Best Practices Conference

Upcoming Sharepoint Investment Areas

Doug Cornelius also liveblogged the same conference at his post "Dispatches from the Front Lines - Themes and Trends in SharePoint Use."

Both posts give you access to great information about the ways people are using ShaprePoint in the real world filtered for you through the eyes and ears of two very knowledgeable experts.

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