At a practical level, these sites make lawyers' busy lives easier in a way that is almost paradoxical.

Although they reduce the e-mail traffic that goes into lawyers' e-mail inboxes, at the same time, the sites allow lawyers to stay abreast of developments, while capturing all information about a topic in one place, which they can read at their leisure.

In other words, unlike e-mail, which has the tendency to over inform (because people hit the "reply all" button) or under inform (because people are too shy to do so), blog/wiki sites work because they transfer to the lawyer control over how much, how little and when, information is taken in.

At A&O, when a group of people with a common interest require a virtual area to communicate and work collaboratively, whether around a practice area, a project, an event or a specific legal development, having their own blog/wiki site is a popular solution. This is particularly the case where the group is spread over different locations and time zones.

Blog/wiki sites are sufficiently versatile to suit the needs of many different groups. But where these sites have come into their own is in the area of knowledge sharing and knowledge creation.

While it is easy to see how blog/wiki sites facilitate knowledge sharing, far more subtle is the ability of such sites to create knowledge. They do this by giving people a safe and ring-fenced area to chat about anything, however trivial, without worrying about intruding on valuable inbox space. A lively anecdote about a conversation with the German regulator that would seem inappropriate in a global e-mail, would find a perfect home and add to the chatter of a financial services blog/wiki site.

Nuggets of information about a rapidly developing area of law that would otherwise evaporate around a coffee machine, over the telephone or in chats along the corridor, could find their way onto a blog discussion that is read and commented on by, and for the benefit of, a worldwide membership. True to their origins in social software, blogs and wikis foster "in groups" with an open and collegiate culture, where chatter generates more chatter and brings a sense of community to an otherwise geographically and technically diverse group.

A professional support lawyer's (PSL) role frequently involves distributing information in the form of legal updates to lawyers in their group, using e-mail, paper and the firm intranet as distribution media. PSLs also monitor discussions between lawyers via e-mail group traffic or at team meetings to distil gems of know-how.

Blog/wiki sites work particularly well for a PSL because they combine the publishing and interactive elements in one space. This reduces the administrative burden on a PSL to be the funnel through which legal developments are collated, digested, packaged and ultimately published to their group.

At A&O, it is interesting to see that, as different know-how blog/wiki sites become established, depending on the focus of the PSL site owner and the needs of the group, each site is used predominantly in a certain way. For example, a site may be used in the following ways:

To publish updates. The sites combine the real time element of e-mail with the intranet capability to present information in a more user-friendly interface, which is pre-categorised. This can take the place of team meetings and conference calls. It saves the PSL having to do periodic round-up updates, which have to be filed and categorised for later retrieval. On the blog/wiki, members can do a Google-type search or browse by category. A&O's antitrust, commercial, restructuring and financial services groups, and the Luxembourg office, largely use the sites in this way.

At the start of the financial crisis in 2008, a firm-wide blog/wiki set up to discuss hot legal issues was used to keep A&O lawyers' fingers on the pulse. It was particularly useful that the daily round-ups of news affecting the firm’s key clients and business areas could be read on lawyers' blackberries.

As an enquiry line. Enquiries that previously would have been channelled through the PSL have a global platform with which to reach the horse’s mouth. A&O's global litigation group uses the sites in this way to tap the expertise of the rest of the group. Lawyers who would hesitate to send a global e-mail will happily use a wiki to ask questions such as "what jurisdiction is least likely to enforce English law judgments?" and attract a healthy response.

The site allows the litigation group to get on with the important business of sharing information directly with each other, with the PSL stepping in when appropriate. This is the reverse of the traditional enquiry model where the PSL is the first point of contact for their group, only escalating the query to the wider group when the PSL does not have the answer.

To present developments as they arise. At A&O, we have translated relevant sections of the Companies Act 2006 and the Takeover Code into a hierarchy of wiki pages to which the PSL adds research points, practice points or internal advice on a section-by-section basis to form a searchable encyclopaedia of changing regulations.

So, how did we get started at A&O?

Convinced of its potential for knowledge sharing, the central know-how team at A&O worked with the IT department to initiate the first blog/wiki pilot sites. We enlisted the help of external consultants, Headshift Ltd. Headshift not only built the sites and designed the user interface but also advised on softer aspects, such as how to engage lawyers to make the sites a success.

We assumed that lawyers are intrinsically wary of gimmicks, particularly when cloaked in IT. As a result, we created simple blog/wiki sites with functionality pared down to essentials, using intuitive and clearly labelled functions that required little or no training to use (see box "Blog/wiki site features").

By and large, the sites work because they look like websites, are as easy to use as e-mail and are refreshingly informal in spirit. Lawyers do not find the sites intimidating: on the contrary, the sites have managed to capture their imagination.