On September 18^th, 70,000 people will descend on San Francisco for Salesforce.com's Dreamforce conference. For four days people from around the globe will learn how to better use the leading web based CRM system, and look for other applications and services found in the enormous ecosystem of consultants, apps and independent software vendors, like us. We'll be busy at booth 237 and connecting with our partners, but if you were one of the lucky ones to find a hotel in the city, be sure to stop by – at least for the booth swag!

In the September/October 2011issue of The Pennsylvania Lawyer, published by the Pennsylvania Bar Association, practicing attorney and technology consultant, Shannon Brown, provides a very thoughtful and informative primer on the "why's and wherefores" of cloud computing. His article offers some important background for attorneys attempting to understand the "alphabet soup" of current cloud computing terminology.

Quite literally, #ABATECHSHOW is held in the beautiful basement of the Chicago Hilton. I was debating between the words 'basement' and 'bunker', because of the unique marble architecture surrounding the building – giving quite the bunker-feel at times. While feeling very safe from anything in the outside world, the downside, was a near total disconnection and isolation as my AT&T iPhone continued to read "searching…" for most of the event. I had to connect to the "outside" world so I could participate in the silent conversations happening in the room I was sitting in. Yes, Twitter was ABLAZE the entire show, and in all of the sessions. It created a type of unseen energy and current in the session, as the speaker would say something, it was instantly voted on through Twitter, giving the sentiment of the crowd, or at least those of us online.

Remember recess in elementary? That's right, a hundred kids running at full speed in different directions, headed for unknown destinations, totally oblivious of who would be there and why? Exciting, yes. Fun, yes. Total mayhem, you bet. The Cloud Computing industry is growing at a break-neck pace, recess is out, and it's time to make some sense of the chaos.

Collaboration is a broad and well trodden topic; in fact, it was Salesforce.com's theme at their event of the year, titled "Collabor8". But just because Salesforce.com can throw around phrases like "collaborative software", or taking a "collaborative approach" in their business vernacular, it doesn't make it any easier to grasp in a real sense, nor to implement in a real-life, competitive and fast-paced environment, especially if your business has nothing to do with Salesforce.com.

Standing with a fist raised in the air, chanting "Bernard come back, Bernard come back", I felt as though I was in a positive mental attitude, MLM event, getting geared up for yet another year of break-neck sales.

But no, thank goodness…I was one of the 30,000 attendees at Salesforce.com's Dreamforce event in San Francisco participating in a Marc Benioff marketing stunt to combat Microsoft Dynamics guerilla marketing tactics with their "I Didn't Get Forced" campaign.

Is it game over for server based document management?

That was the headline in the latest edition of the American Legal Technology Insider Newsletter.

In his newsletter discussing the issue, Charles Christian pointed out recent developments in the traditionally conservative legal market as a signal that the dog days of server farms and boxed software are all but over.

"Are the days of traditional document management systems and traditional DMS vendors coming to a close? For example, over the last two months the cloud-based document management specialists NetDocuments have signed up eight new (legal) user sites, (six law firms and two offices of general counsel) and while some of the smaller sites are new to the concept of a dedicated DMS, the latest wins also include Open Text swapouts at Van Cott Bagley Cornwall & McCarthy in Salt Lake City and Lynn Tillotson Pinkler & Cox LLP in Dallas."

The All New NetDocuments - Rich Functionality. Enhanced Design.

In the spring of 2011, NetDocuments users will get a new user experience. Without sacrificing any of our industry leading functionality and reliability, we have redesigned the user interface to improve navigation and simplify the management of documents in the cloud.

The Makeover Process

This is the most significant update in the 12 years since NetDocuments opened it's doors and paved the SaaS document management highway. "We pulled together a highly qualified team of experts to enhance the NetDocuments user interface and to address areas that would greatly improve the user experience, while at the same time creating an attractive design that is more pleasurable to use. By using familiar design patterns and a more structured framework, the interface should require less investment in setup and also be easier to gain proficiency," said VP of Marketing, Leonard Johnson.

The NetDocuments legal team is excited about their trip to Los Angeles in June for LegalTech West Coast, which will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center on June 23rd and 24th.

During the show, the legal team, consisting of Matt Duncan, Keith Schneider and Kirsten Walker, will be hanging out at booth #325 and will be talking SaaS, cloud computing, document management and legal technology all week. Commenting about the event, Matt Duncan said, "LegalTech West Coast 2010 represents a great opportunity for us to meet with many of our existing law firm customers in the region, as well as connect with other firms that are growing increasingly interested in cloud computing and SaaS."

Post Authored by Danny Johnson of the NetDocuments Marketing Department

I am one of the youngest employees here at the NetDocuments Orem office, if not the youngest (I'm 24), and if my calculations are correct, I am one of only two non-married employees at the company. So near the end of 2007, as the Twittershpere was reaching a Twittical Mass, the good folks in our marketing department, specifically Leonard Johnson, decided that it was time for us to join the party and see if social media was all @NikiBlack and @AdrianDayton had cracked it up to be. So after about a year and change of tweeting, we are believers. We've drunk the Kool-Aid, downloaded the iPhone app and continue to ride shotgun in the Twitter bandwagon.