99 Windows Freeware Programs You May Not Know Of
Aseem Kishore over at Helpdesk Geek offers an impressive list of 99 of the best Windows freeware programs you may not know of. -M [Thanks, Carol!]
NTEN Presents: Beth Kanter & Allison Fine
NTEN is hosting an Ask the Expert session with Beth Kanter and Allison Fine on Wednesday, October 28 at 2 pm Eastern. Beth and Allison will take questions about what social media means for organizations and how organizations can adapt and leverage the tools instead of simply reacting. This session is free for NTEN members. - K
Delivering the Message with a New Medium: National Pro Bono Celebration Week 2009
Yesterday in my post "Thanking the Lawyers Who Go Above and Beyond: National Pro Bono Celebration 2009," I mentioned the message of National Pro Bono Celebration--recognizing volunteers who help increase access to justice and encouraging more legal professionals to participate. (Or in the words of the Montana Justice Foundation: "Recognize, Recruit, Mobilize!")
What I didn't know was that the medium that organizations would be using to deliver this message would be video. (Okay, so I had a hint when I highlighted Maryland's video, but I didn't know how popular video would be.) At least six states have posted videos praising lawyers who provide free legal services and encouraging others to get involved:
- Alabama: Alabama State Bar Pro Bono Week Message
- Arkansas: Perspectives on Pro Bono
- Florida: One Promise Florida
- Illinois: CBA/CBF Pro Bono Week 2009 Kick Off Video with Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne M. Burke
- Maryland: National Pro Bono Week 2009
- Ohio: Pro Bono Celebration
All are nice examples of how video can be used to promote an event and a cause.
So, am I missing any? Let me know in the comments. - K
Maryland Pro Bono Celebration Video
Even the Chief Judge of the Maryland Court Appeals is involved in the National Pro Bono Celebration. He's part of a short video that talks about how providing pro bono legal services is important to ensuring justice. My favorite part, hearing from a lawyer about how he started providing pro bono legal services, starts about 4 minutes in.
For those who don't recognize the city landscapes, they are from around the University of Maryland Law School in Baltimore. - K
Thanking the Lawyers Who Go Above and Beyond: National Pro Bono Celebration 2009
The ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which is the foundation for the ethical and professional guidelines that lawyers follow in most states, includes a rule that encourages lawyers to provide free legal services to people who cannot afford attorneys:
Every lawyer has a professional responsibility to provide legal services to those unable to pay. A lawyer should aspire to render at least (50) hours of pro bono publico legal services per year. In fulfilling this responsibility, the lawyer should: provide a substantial majority of the (50) hours of legal services without fee or expectation of fee to: (1) persons of limited means or (2) charitable, religious, civic, community, governmental and educational organizations in matters that are designed primarily to address the needs of persons of limited means . . .
To recognize the many lawyers who provide free legal services, the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service organized the National Pro Bono Celebration. Together from October 25-31, communities around the United States will celebrate these individuals and the amazing work that they do.
So this week, you'll see a lot of news about activities celebrating legal volunteers. The best part: many of these events are opportunities to provide free legal services. So if you want to get involved, you can. Check out the Celebrate Pro Bono website to see an interactive map of local events. (And if you are reading this post on or after October 31, it's not too late. Help is needed throughout the year, not just this week. Check out the National Pro Bono Opportunities Guide for local pro bono programs that you can work with.)
I promise, you'll feel good about helping others, and you might even have an enjoyable time. I know that I did. On Saturday, I helped out at the Baltimore Pro Bono Day, ushering people to meet with attorneys. Almost everyone came out of their attorney meetings more relaxed, and I even saw a few smiles. A huge thank you to all of the attorneys, law students, and legal aid staff who turned out. In four hours, over 100 people received legal help! - K
Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change
Today Technola is participating for the second year in Blog Action Day, an annual event founded in 2007 that encourages bloggers to post about the same issue on the same day, thereby triggering a global discussion on an important topic. Last year’s theme was poverty, an issue very close to our hearts, which we wrote about here (be sure to check out the comments). This year’s theme is climate change.
There are, of course, many different angles in which to explore the issue of climate change. Our choice, which we hope you’ll join us in reflecting upon, is the impact that climate change has on low-income individuals and communities. To spur your reflection, here are a few resources:
- Designing Climate-Change Legislation That Shields Low-Income Households from Increased Poverty and Hardship, The Effects of Climate-Change Policies on the Federal Budget and the Budgets of Low-Income Households, and How Low-Income Consumers Fare in the House Climate Bill, all reports by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities;
- Climate Change's Unique Impact on Low-Income Communities, a blog post by Dan Lesser on the Shriver Center’s blog, The Shriver Brief;
- Green Housing and Climate Change, by Enterprise Community Partners; and
- Climate Change and America’s Poor, by Living on Earth, a weekly environmental news and information program distributed by Public Radio International.
Although Technola doesn’t typically delve into knotty policy issues (hey, we’re geeks, not wonks!), we hope that you’ll join us and thousands of bloggers throughout the world today for a robust discussion on climate change. See you in the comments section! -M&K
LSC Publishes List of Technology Grants
LSC published a detailed list of the awarded 2009 TIGs on its website. This list contains both project descriptions as well as the amounts awarded. - K
Webinar Today: "Using Social Media to Network with Other Advocates and Promote Your Work"
At 2 pm Eastern today, Matthew and I are presenting "Using Social Media to Network with Other Advocates and Promote Your Work," a webinar hosted by the Shriver Center and based on our Social Networking Primer for Poverty Law Advocates and Organizations article that was published in the July-August 2009 issue of Clearinghouse Review Journal of Poverty Law and Policy.
If you're interested in attending, you can still register. And if you want to follow on Twitter, search for the tag #povlawnet. - K
Loosen Up and Let the Conversations Happen
How do you use social network sites without negatively impacting your privacy or reputation? What is the return on investment (ROI) for you or your organization? Is it just a waste of time? Not knowing the answers to these questions can be unsettling, and often, an organization's first reaction is to avoid social networking and prevent staff from using these sites at work. (In fact, 45 percent of law firms block access to social network sites.) But before your organization takes that step, I suggest that you consider whether tight corporate social media policies help or hinder. - K
Illinois Legal Aid Online Launches "LiveHelp" Project
Yesterday Illinois Legal Aid Online, the organization that oversees client, advocate and pro bono websites and other access to justice technology projects in Illinois, launched its LiveHelp project, which allows individuals to use a web-based chat service to communicate with a “navigator” to help them find legal information on their client website, IllinoisLegalAid.org. The LiveHelp project, which was funded by LSC’s TIG program, supported by Pro Bono Net, and originally spearheaded by legal aid organizations in Montana and Iowa, has now been successfully replicated in several states. For more information about LiveHelp, contact Liz Keith at lkeith (at) probono.net. -M
Passwords Leaked from Major Webmail Services
The BBC, Lifehacker, and many other sources are reporting that Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, Comcast, and Earthlink passwords were made public. While these passwords were gathered through phishing and the incident wasn't the fault of any of the providers, to me it seems like as good of a day as any to change my passwords for these services. - K
Firefox Add-ons for Legal Research
The ABA Legal Technology Resource Center scoured through the Firefox Add-on Directory and found four add-ons that lawyers can use to simplify research. Check out their blog post Firefox for Lawyers to learn more about CiteGenie, Jureeka, Iterasi, and Zotero. - K
Developers Make Data More Useful and Government More Accountable
The Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit working for a more open and accountable government, recently sponsored Apps for America 2 together with Google, O'Reilly Media, and TechWeb. These organizations wanted to demonstrate that developers will step up and make government data easier for the public to consume if the data is available.
The winners were announced at the Gov 2.0 Expo Showcase, and all three of the finalists, and many of the other apps, are worth a look. For example:
- GovPulse.us. Search the federal register by date, topic, or location. Searches can be saved in news readers, so new articles are automatically delivered. For an example, I tried out the phrase "Legal Services Corporation." The entries aren't very exciting, but imagine your organization's advocates getting articles about the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or domestic violence.
- ThisWeKnow.org. Dig into data about a specific location. For my hometown, I found out that violent crime hasn't increased and it's just as homogeneous as when I lived there. (Alternatively, my current town isn't nearly as peaceful.) The front page also includes top ten lists for several topics including unemployment and toxins.
- DataMasher. Map data and look for patterns. A couple of examples: Federal Spending by State / Population Census 2008, % of Total Population in Prison, and Political Party Contributions Ratio. Make certain to read the comments. A warning: this tool makes mapping the data easy, but you need to think carefully before interpreting what you see.
Additional apps have been highlighted on the Sunlight Foundation's blog.
Apps for America 2 wasn't the Sunlight Foundation's first attempt to examine how technology can make the government more open. They have also suggested a facelight for the SCOTUS website and started crowdsourcing tedious tasks. - K
LSC Releases Updated Report on the Justice Gap in America
The Legal Services Corporation recently released an update to its 2005 report on the justice gap in America. Highlights include:
- For every client served by LSC programs, another person who seeks help is turned away;
- LSC programs will not be able to meet the needs of almost 1 million low-income individuals seeking legal assistance in 2009; and
- In the area of foreclosures, LSC programs will have to turn away two for every person served.
The full report is available for download here (PDF). -M
September 2009 Round Up
Another month gone and only three more until the end of the year. Unfortunately, after summer, time seems to speed up, propelling me ever more quickly toward the new year. If the same happens to you and you fell behind with Technola's posts, here are September's top five to catch you up:
- My Name Is Kate and I Am a Listener
- Census Bureau Announces Increase in Poverty
- Social Networking Webinar Now Available Online
- 2009 Court Technology Conference Videos
- New Report on New Media and Social Change
And if you find some extra time, check out these great posts:
- 20 of the 60 Tips in 60 Minutes - Virtual Law Practice
- Social Media Recap from NMC 2009 - CogDogBlog
- Ken Adams: Word Miser - Legal Rebels
- Mobile Technology Best Practices for Nonprofit Organizations - DIOSA
Happy Reading! - K
