A major milestone in the Zivley Law Firm technology upgrade has occurred today – Perry Zivley published hisfirst blog post!
When you have a moment, click on over to The Zivley Blog and show Perry what it feels like to receive comments.
The Photo above is featuring Craig Whitley of Texas Website Designs showing Perry how easy it is to publish a blog post using the WordPress platform.
Today was a great day =)
-Authored by Jamie Parks on Nov 21, 2006 at 01:10 AM
For anyone who has followed Real Lawyer News since its conception in September you may be wondering what has been going on with the Zivley Law Firm’s technology transition.
Even if you’re not wondering – I received an e-mail this morning from Massachusetts’ infamous media and technology lawyer Bob Ambrogi over at LawSiteswhich has prompted me to write the following post.
Ambrogi Asks:
“What’s happened with your experiment with the Zivley’s? Can’t tell from your blog whatever came of it.”
– Bob Ambrogi
Thanks for your inquiry Mr. Ambrogi.
From the outside The Zivley Project may appear to be on slow M..O..T..I..O..N… but from the perspective of the halls within The Law Office of Perry Zivley everything is really coming together faster than they expected.
Thanks to Craig Whitley over at Texas Web Designs, the primary landing site for ZivleyLaw.com is nearing its final stages of development.
To give you a preview Perry has decided to go ahead with the ‘beta‘ launch ofThe Zivley Law Firm website. Click on the link to take a look, but please keep in mind that he is still adding a few multi-media elements like clips from deposition videos as well as a couple of other articles that he’s authored and various other points of interest.
You can also find a section on the new Zivley Law website in the top navigation bar, under the “media” tab directing readers to the Zivley Blog.
Although The Zivley’s venture into the blawgosphere has still consisted primarily of reading blogs, please do bare with them. They are both very excited about publishing their blog and are really looking forward to interacting with the community and fellow blawgonauts.
I know it has seem somewhat silent around here lately… but rest assured, I am working on a few interesting posts for the future – just been getting all of my pixels down the right paths.
I’d like to thank all of you who have subscribed to Real Lawyer News and who have linked or told people about my blog. I enjoy reading all of your blogs and watching the wonderful conversations that blossom around them.
Until next post, may all of your conversations be real and meaningful!
-Authored by Jamie Parks on Nov 16, 2006 at 09:01 PM
…but you gotta be willing to jump in and swim if you want to catch IT.
A few weeks ago I was linked in to an attorney blawger that I believe all solo practitioners and big firm lawyers should closely be paying attention to. His name is Charles “Chuck” Newton, he is a Texas lawyer, a father of four and husband to Jane who is also a lawyer.
Chuck does not maintain a traditional office that most consumers typically associate with law firms. He has no waiting rooms for clients to cool their heals, no reception area in which to be ignored, no meeting rooms for client visits, no file room in which to lose files, no law library, no messy private office for the firm’s attorneys to hide. There are no walls with licenses and diplomas hanging on them, no rec room to chat with staff over coffee and donuts, and his firm’s shingle hangs from no building. Go look in any phone book and you will not see acheesy ad for Chuck’s law firm. He answers his own phones, reads and responds to his own email, faxes and snail mail.
How does Chuck’s law firm accomplish such a thing? Well IMHO, it looks like hegets things done because he doesn’t need to rely heavily on anyone to do stuff for him, but instead utilizes the miracles of information technology:
There is virtually no person that cannot be reached, and no document that cannot be received or delivered, by phone, fax, email or snail mail. Chuck believes that staying connected allows him to tear down the barriers that keep him from his clients and their objectives.
Chuck is so on to IT that IT truly does radiate from his smile, just look at the picture of him below. This guy sees IT clear as day… He see’s the future – NOW. He knows that we are all in the middle of a paradigm shift and he sees the beautiful future that is presenting itself for those willing to see IT.
“Think about what technology is all about. It is about effortless collaboration and effective communication with those around you without the need for filters. The whole purpose of technology in aThird Wave society is to knock down thestructures that bind us, and to cut the levels of management and support help that hold us back. In short, these technologies substantially improve what? The productivity of all of those lawyers that become attuned to and use the new, cheap technologies.” -Chuck Newton
We are indeed heading toward David Brin’s transparent society of collaborative technologies. I’d like to believe that we are a culture of team work and a nation of unity, but lately there has been so much division. Who knows if it was policy or religion or just pure fear that caused us as a people to be broken asunder and segregated, but is it not apparent that we are all slowly but surely coming back together again? In a third wave world there are no walls and we are all the connector and the connection - Linking IN, teaching IT, and spreading IT all around the globe.
-Posted by Jamie Parks on Oct 25, 2006 at 01:07 PM
Perry has a server and a new desktop, Monique (Perry’s legal assistant) got her new machine, and Harriett now has a laptop. I’ll keep the specification details short. Lets just say Perry called DELL and explained his goals. He requested the best value for his dollar and packages started showing up at the law firm. I’m relieved that the hardware is finally out of the way, now maybe we can start getting down to the business of blogging =)
Perry’s first college room-mate, Dave Broeckleman of Strategic Network Consultants, has successfully got the Zivley Law Firm server up and running.Dave says he has been trying to get Perry away from using AOL and peer to peer networking for many years. Nevertheless, he was thrilled to be helping Perry with the hardware upgrade. He has now successfully migrated all of the Zivley Law Firm directories over to the server and has also set Perry up with a new e-mail address at his zivleylaw.com domain.
Perry is happy because he no longer has to wait 10 minutes each morning for his machine to boot up and he doesn’t have to rely on a peer to peer network to manage his data. The days of the computer constantly being thrown into lethargic mode every time his paralegal needs to access a shared directory on his hard drive are finally over!
Now it’s time to begin testing the realusability of this upgrade. As of now, Perry’s filing system will not change that much, he typically nests his relative client files within their respective directories on his hard drive. Now he will just be storing all of that data on his server drives.
To better manage the wealth of knowledge living within each case that Perry handles, he hopes to soon be able to easily tag (add meta data) into every file that he or his paralegal creates — word docs, spreadsheets, presentations, deposition transcripts, photos or videos. Each element of every case that the Zivley Law Firm handles will not only be redundantly backed up in to perpetuity but as it is being archived, the data base will be growing infinitely smarter. By each author having the capability to instantly wrap the content of a file with meaningful meta data a tremendous value will be packed in to any search query made on the firm database in the future. Tagging is a great way to share legacy information among colleagues at a law firm. I wonder how many law firms are guilty of inefficiently managing their knowledge bases?
Knowledge Management is a whole other topic worth exploring in a separate post so I’ll save it for later. I just wanted to send out a quick update to catch everyone up on the happenings at the Zivley Firm. I realize it has been a while since the last time I published, and believe me I know all about consistency being key. So find it in your heart to forgive me and I’ll do my best to have some engaging footage to publish again next week. On that note, I’ll leave you with a short movie that I made in hopes of bringing you a little closer into the upgrade process over at the Zivley Law Firm. Until next time, may all your days be real and meaningful. Thanks for dropping by!
=Posted by Jamie Parks on Oct 13, 2006 at 11:34 PM