James Quillinan used to spend the first 45 minutes of every Monday morning at the office telling his co-workers all about the movies he had seen that weekend.

In 1998, the trusts and estates lawyer started putting his reports down into e-mails that he’d send around to a few colleagues at his old firm. They forwarded them to their friends and co-workers, who would then send them to other friends. Today, his e-mailed “Q’s Reviews” have swelled to more than 600 recipients worldwide and are also posted online.