Julekalender – 19. december – globalt advokatfirma med weblogs og wikis

I november var jeg i London – og jeg besøgte blandt andet Lee Bryant fra virksomheden Headshift. Headshift rådgiver virksomheder om at bruge wikis og weblogs – internt og eksternt. De er ca. 20 ansatte og har stor erfaring fra mange store organisationer – og derfor også mange gode case-historier, som jeg kunne lære en masse af.

En af historierne som Lee fortalte mig om, var historien om den globale advokatvirksomhed Allen & Overy, som arbejder med både weblogs og wikis internt.

Historien om deres erfaringer er beskrevet i denne artikel hos iWR (Information World Review), hvor head of knowledge management i Allen & Overy, Ruth Ward er interviewet:

Ward and her team began by launching three experimental sites. One was for the professional support lawyers’ (PSL) team, the aim being to explore the use of the technology for communities such as cross-border teams who need to collaborate….

The second pilot site was built for a team of environment lawyers needing to build their knowledge on a new EU directive in the environmental area. The idea was to explore the usefulness of the technology for knowledge projects, in particular for improving processes for creating knowledge about new legislation. The third site was used to publish online newsletters at the office level in one of the firm’s jurisdictions.

I dag er der mere end 20 projekter internt, som har weblogs og/eller wikis og næste skridt bliver redskaber, der også gør det lettere at dele viden med kunderne:

Ward is now excited about the next phase of the project, which will involve rolling out a site to the knowledge management teams of key clients. She sees this as an extension of work that Allen & Overy already does. “We spend a lot of time with key clients. We bring them together and have lots of areas of common interest to discuss. It’s not just Allen & Overy telling our clients what we think works and doesn’t work; it’s about clients sharing their ideas with each other.”

I mange virksomheder ville det vel give god mening? Dels at lukke op for at det kunne blive lettere at dele viden internt på tværs af afdelinger – men også at lukke op for at kunderne kunne hjælpe hinanden?