ILTA has put together a heck of an Enterprise 2.0 track (covering Web 2.0, social networking, blogs etc) chaired by Sean Luman of Bracewell & Giuliani.

I'll be presenting with David Hobbie of Goodwin Proctor at 10:30 Monday in a session entitled 'Enterprise 2.0: What It Is and Why You Should Care.' With specific sessions following on each of our topics, David and I will give an overview of wikis, blogs, Twitter, social networks, tags and mashups and how each has a role in enhancing collaboration, communication, and engagement.

I'm also doing an afternoon session at 1 on Monday on 'Blogs: A Discussion of Current Trends, Benefits and Pitfalls' with Sean Brady of Vinson & Elkins and Mary Abraham of Debevoise & Plimpton.

The Conference running through Thursday is at the Gaylord National on National Harbor over in Oxen Hill, Maryland. I'm happy to come over to DC to meet.

I'm on a couple panels at the ILTA (International Legal Technology Association) Conference at the end of the month, one being on blogs. Asked by co-panelists employed by law firms what I wanted to address, I told them I wanted to challenge attendees to think bigger, to not be afraid to rock the boat at their law firms, and to share with attendees what they really needed to know about blogging to achieve success. I'm a believer that a little inspiration and education can go a long way.

I was told that sounded more like a keynote speech and that the blog session needed to be focused on 'the realities' of law firms. That law firms may not be ready to blog so perhaps internal blogs could be used as a test. That lawyers in law firms were not ready to network with their target audience through the Internet for client development - law firm blogs may be best tailored to better distributing email newsletter-like content.

I was told I wasn't inside a law firm so I didn't understand the reality of things. That to tell attendees how blogs work in the truest sense would not give them the information they truly need. Inspiring them to bring about change in their law firms would only lead to frustration on the attendees' part and lead to them hitting their heads against a wall.

To me that seemed like the goal was to keep attendees in the dark so that they would not hurt themselves or ruffle feathers at their law firms. And God forbid we challenge people in law firms to change the status quo.

Working in a law firm for almost 20 years and working with law firms on networking through the Internet the last 10, I've found breaking through the ignorance to be the greatest challenge to changing the status quo. I've also found a combination of education on the subject combined with a challenge to do better - for you personally and your law firm to be the best method to break through this ignorance.

Seth's post nailed what I believe.

If you want to change what your boss believes, or the strategy your company is following, the first step is to figure out how to be the best informed person in the room.

How do you become informed? Like anything else, through reading, meeting people (online or offline) who are willing to share their expertise, practicing what you are learning, and ultimately teaching others.

Fortunately for you as a lawyer or other legal professional, the Internet community is made up of people who give. You can have fun while becoming informed.

• Read blogs written by thought leaders, in the law and outside the law.
• Engage thought leaders and other people with like interests who are similarly situated through your own blog. A blog on either what you enjoy professionally or personally will get you the needed experience.
• Go to conferences, legal and non-legal, where speakers challenge you to think differently. The legal industry has too much of lemmings following each other, even if it means off a cliff.
• Start to make your case within your law firm. Ask co-workers, including the firm's management, if they'd like to know why all the fuss in Corporate America about social media. Ask them if they'd like to see how competitor lawyers and law firms like are using social media to grow their practices. You're now becoming a real asset to the firm.

Life's too short to accept the status quo. Succumbing to law firm politics leads to stress that makes a job no fun. You were made to achieve greater heights.

Become informed and break through the ignorance.

Here's an excerpt from my August 25, 2006 post on the ILTA 2006 conference.

In what may be the latest sign legal technology innovation is an oxymoron was the total lack of Internet discussion from or about ILTA's annual conference which took place this last week in Orlando. ILTA (International Legal Technology Association) is a leading networking organization allowing for the exchange of resources to legal professionals.

Virtually all tech conferences these days have a steady stream of blog posts reporting live, or at least daily, from attendees. Laptops are open on desktops with near simultaneous reporting via WIFI hookup.

.....When I heard from colleagues that ILTA was on I set up a keyword and tag feed for ILTA from Technorati. I did pick up a few posts over the week but it paled in comparison to other technology conferences.

Leading legal technology folks need to be using blogs and RSS feeds on a regular basis. One, because this medium of business communication (blogs and RSS) is quickly making web sites and email outmoded means of business communication. You need to be taking your firms to the future. Second, advancement of knowledge via offline networking crawls compared the speed at which ideas advance via blogs and RSS.

My post is not meant to be critical of ILTA or their conference. I have heard their organization is very worthwhile and that their conferences are excellent. But if members of ILTA are going to be innovative in their use of technology, they better get with it.

Sitting in my Seattle office today, I'm getting regular blog and Twitter feeds about the presentations at the conference. Some of the blogged summaries are excellent.

Look at the post on a social networking presentation by Doug Cornelius and the post on Interaction Portals by David Hobbie as examples. Think Goodwin Proctor is ahead of the curve in the use of blogs and innovative technologies with guys like Doug and David?

Here's a screen shot from just now of blog posts referencing ILTA in my NetNewswire RSS reader.

Twitter discussion from both ILTA attendees and ILTA observers not in attendance is more rampant than blog discussion. Here's a screen shot of my TweetDeck panel following a global search of ILTA.

I'm no longer buying that lawyers and other professionals in our legal industry are way behind the curve in the use of blogging, social networking and social media. Some may be. But for a growing and influential force, the effective use of technology for communication, collaboration, and networking is very real.

• Ron Friedman
• George Socha
• Nina Platt
• Doug Cornelius
• Chris Dale
• Lawyer KM
• Eric Feistel
• Ross Kodner
• David Hobbie

Presented with Dennis Kennedy yesterday afternoon and chatted with Bruce MacEwen at the reception last evening. So expect to see some blogging from them.

No reason to expect ILTA to ever be Gnomedex when it comes to attendees live blogging the conference. But this is an excellent start. Last year I'm not sure I saw any posts from attendees.

With the growth of blogs, internal and external, at leading law firms, you can expect to see their IT professionals blogging. When they're at ILTA conferences, that'll mean live conference blogging. Big plus not only for attendees looking to network with liked minded folks they'll meet by virtue of blog posts, but also for people unable to attend. And for ILTA conference coordinators live blogging only promotes the value of your conference and drives higher attendance.

For next year maybe LexBlog can organize the bloggers and create an integrated RSS feed from all of the ILTA blogs - one subscription and you get all the posts.

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