Technola : Public Interest Law & Technology Updates & Commentary : Matthew Burnett & Kate Bladow : Tech Advice for the Non-Profit Legal Sector

Here's a quick wrap up of technola's top posts for 2010. First, the most popular posts based on the number of page views.

1. A2J Author 3.0 Released
2. Recently Released Legal Resources
3. Will You Blog With Me?
4. ESRI Announces Mapping Software Donation Program
5. 2010 "Future Trends in State Courts" Explores Social Media in the Courts
6. NTIA Announces Two BTOP Grants Focusing on Increasing Access to Justice
7. Public Libraries and Access to Justice Conference Materials
8. Are Legal Aid Programs Posting Video Online?
9. Online Video Series Wrap Up
10. Listen to Archived Virtual LegalTech Sessions

And then the most popular posts based on engagement (page views, comments, links clicked, and so on) as rated by PostRank.

1. Will You Blog With Me?
2. NTEN NTC: Lots of Tech Conversations Online and Off
3. A2J Author 3.0 Released
4. Technology Sessions at the 2010 Equal Justice Conference
5. Lex Mundi Launches LawForChange.org
6. National Pro Bono Celebration Blogging Round Up (Part 2)
7. National Pro Bono Celebration Blogging Round Up (Part 1)
8. We Love the Cloud; We Hate the Cloud
9. Broadband Adoption in Low-Income Communities
10. Gov 2.0 Expo Looks at Technology and Transparency

Happy Reading! - K

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Starting in 2011, the Report of Current Opinions (RECOP) will be released by Public.Resource.Org. RECOP will contain the slip and final opinions from all of the federal and state appellate and supreme courts. These opinions will be formatted, have full star pagination, and will not have any restriction on reuse.

Public.Resource.Org, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is undertaking this project for at most two years with the help of its Law.Gov partners, including Fastcase, Justia, Stanford, Princeton, and Cornell. By 2013, Public.Resource.Org wants the government to step up and "provide the basic primary legal materials in a way that meets the strong consensus arrived at in the Law.Gov Principles."

Most self-represented litigants and legal aid clients won't be dramatically affected by RECOP, but it should have some impact. Legal research will potentially be less expensive for legal and pro bono attorneys, and in the long-term, a legal system that functions better and is more transparent, which are the aims of RECOP and Law.Gov, benefits everyone.

If you want more information about RECOP, check out these articles:

• The Report of Current Opinions - Carl Malamud
• Public Domain Group to Begin Weekly Release of all Federal and State Appellate Cases - Robert Ambrogi
• More Details on RECOP from Fastcase’s Ed Walters - Robert Ambrogi

Also, additional information about RECOP will be sent to the Law.Gov email list in the middle of January. - K

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Several new blogs have been added to technola's Blogroll under "General Legal Aid and Public Interest Law Blogs," including the Pro Bono Institute's The PBEye and Richard Zorza's Access to Justice Blog. This brings the total number of blogs covering public interest law to forty-three. Am I missing any? - K

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Want to wish your co-workers "Happy Holidays!" with a little something but don't have any money to spend? Here comes Google to your rescue again.

Recently, they released Teach Parents Tech, a site that helps you put together a tech support care package for your parents and other people who may need computer help. Quickly, you can draft a personalized email and add videos that cover everything from adjusting the time on your computer's clock to browsing the web with tabs to resizing a picture.

So take a couple of minutes to create a care package for a co-worker who would appreciate it. Perhaps, you'll even find a video or two to incorporate into a care package for yourself. - K

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On behalf of LSNTAP, Joyce Raby and I presented the webinar "Using Social Media to Engage Your Supporters" in early November. The recording and materials from that session are now available online, and Joyce has a short summary on her blog, Bits, Bytes, & Bikes.

If the webinar doesn't answer all of your questions, don't worry. Joyce and I will be presenting a second, more in-depth session, "Conversing Online: Using Social Media to Engage with Your Community" at the LSC TIG Conference, Come prepared to see how legal aid and pro bono programs are using social media, to find where people are talking about your organization and issues online, and to walk away with ideas for how your organization can start experimenting with social media. - K

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Quarterly, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County hosts the Visionaries in Information Technology Forum. Peter Jungck, the Vice-President/CTO of CloudShield Technologies, Inc., was their latest speaker and explained why technology systems need to be protected from unknown as well as known threats.

As I listened to him speak, I jotted down three highlights to share with you:

• Security threats come from a variety of sources: script kiddies, hackers and crackers, insiders, competitors, organized crime, and cyber warriors. (I've listed them in order of increasing technical skill and resources.)
• Mr. Jungck encouraged the audience to approach securing systems as if "your network is already compromised and you will never be completely secure." Scary, huh? Think about it--how many people have touched your computer before you got it? Those people have compromised your computer before it arrived at your office.
• Everyone in an organization has some responsibility for security. HR may not be responsible for deleting user accounts when a staff member is fired, but they are responsible for notifying the IT Department that the accounts need to be deleted.

Want to hear Peter Jungck's entire lecture? Shortly, it should be posted on UMBCtube, UMBC's YouTube channel. - K

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Yesterday the LSC announced the latest round of TIG grants. A total of 30 grants worth approximately 3.3 million were awarded to legal services programs in 25 states. The full press release is available here. -M

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