Mediawiki as a Patent Law Firm’s Knowledge Management System
The Invent Blog®:
The Law has a number of maxims. For instance, “in court, never ask a question you don’t already know the answer to.” One of my favorites is “never do work someone else has already done for you.”
I’ve followed that (later) one to the letter…compiling hundreds of “nutshells,” “summaries,” and “cheat-sheets” stored in a folder on my file server; dozens of draft e-mails for easy “cut-and-paste” usage; MindManager mind maps; a three-ring binder on my desk called “The Deskbook”; and countless other knowledge collecting “buckets.” My own personal knowledge management system (hopefully Jack Vinson would approve).
The problem with such a hodge-podge knowledge collection system is that it isn’t easy to share. Sure, if someone in my office were to ask me a question, I could likely point them directly to where I previously summarized the answer (or forward it to them by email)…but I had a hard time (1) getting others in my Firm to ask for help and (2) training them where to look for the information I had previously compiled.
In reworking our network at our office, I came upon a solution….
Due to a hardware failure, we recently added a new server. Having a friend that was a huge fan of “ClarkConnect,” I decided to give it a try. I had my IT guy (independent contractor) take an old, out of service computer the Firm had lying around (along with an extra network card pirated from another computer) and install ClarkConnect on it.
ClarkConnect is a Linux based server/gateway. Traffic from our Internet connection goes through the ClarkConnect box before going out to our network (switch/hub). The ClarkConnect box (for $85/year):
Provides core server applications
- mail, web, VPN, backup, file and print services…
Protects network and data
- antivirus, antispam, firewall, intrusion prevention…
Enforces Internet usage policies
-…