First off, let me admit I feel a bit self-conscious ("self-referential"
might be more apt) about this post, but I decided not to let that stop
me from pointing out what I think could be a truly valuable wrinkle on
the utility and purpose of blogs—besides, I can’t claim it’s my
idea.  It comes from the former
head of IBM’s Internet Technology
division.

He characterizes blogs as "the first derivative of the Internet," and
sees tremendous promise in their ability to fulfill what once upon a
time it seemed the ‘net itself would do:  Permit everyone to be
a publisher.  Actually he (and I) don’t want "everyone" to be a
publisher; we want people who are experts in particular fields, who are
thoroughly up-to-date, and who have at least a passing ability to express
themselves, to be a blog publisher.  Blogs globalize the familiar
phenomenon, "Ask Sally; Sally will know." 

Moreover, blogs have at least the potential to fulfilll the promise
of Knowledge Management.  He thinks, as do I (see a trend here?),
that the problem with KM is not that it over-promised but that it under-delivered.  After
all, who would argue with the proposition that we should not reinvent
the wheel, that we should distribute best practices, that we should distill
the exact thing law firms sell:  Knowledge.  In reality, of
course, if a KM initiative depends on forced collaboration mandated
from above, the genuine experts are the least likely to share
their crown jewels, and the knowledge-base chronically undershoots the
firm’s real expertise, discouraging adoption, discouraging contributions,
etc.

Fine; now what?  Well, does your firm have a 10b-5 guru?  Challenge
them with a look at The
10b-5 Daily (hosted by a corporate partner with
Wilson-Sonsini in Reston, VA) and ask them to out-do it for internal
use. An expert in practice before the Supreme
Court?  Appellate
practice?  You get the picture.