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

Creative Commons is "a nonprofit dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright." They provide six free licenses that you can use to license your creations:

• Attribution
• Attribution Share Alike
• Attribution No Derivatives
• Attribution Non-Commercial
• Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike
• Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives

A while ago, Hugh Calkins asked whether the legal aid community should be licensing its community and self-help materials under Creative Commons licenses in his posts Creative Commons and I Get All the News I Need on the Boing Boing blog (Episode II).The legal aid community seems to be slowing warming to these licenses. Technola is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License, and the LSNTAP website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Personally, I really appreciate Creative Commons licenses, especially when I'm looking for a picture to add to a presentation or post. Flickr, an image-sharing site, lets you search for Creative Commons-licensed content, which means that I can quickly find pictures that I can use without violating copyright. However, I struggle with how to comply with the attribution requirements of the license. Recently, I came across a great post, How to write attributions for the Creative Commons licensed images you use on your blog from In Propria Persona, that sets out guidelines to follow: add the label "[title] by [person], used under a Creative Commons [license type] license" with links as appropriate. A great, simple way to comply.

Have you been using Creative Commons licenses to license your content? Have you been using Creative Commons-licensed content? What have you been doing to comply with the attribution requirement of the license? - K

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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

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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

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Last week, the Center for American Progress released a report "And Justice for All: Prioritizing Free Legal Assistance During the Great Recession." To celebrate the release, the Center hosted an event where leaders from the national and Washington, DC access-to-justice communities discussed "Narrowing the Justice Gap: Legal Services for the Poor in an Economic Downturn."

This event featured two panels:

• Panel One: Legal Services on the National Stage. Peter B. Edelman, Professor, Georgetown University Law Center; Ted Frank, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research; Don Saunders, Director of Civil Legal Services, National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA); Moderated by: Joy Moses, Policy Analyst, Poverty & Prosperity Program, Center for American Progress
• Panel Two: Poverty Law in the District of Columbia. Susan M. Hoffman, Public Service Partner, Crowell & Moring LLP; Jonathan M. Smith, Executive Director, Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia; The Honorable Inez Smith Reid, Associate Judge, District of Columbia Court of Appeals; Moderated by: Steven L. Grumm, Board President, Washington Council of Lawyers; Director of Public Service Initiatives, National Association for Law Placement

My biggest take away from the panels: Our community needs to have more of these public conversations.

The Center was very smart and invited Ted Frank to participate. Mr. Frank does not support funding legal aid organizations with federal money. This alternative viewpoint provided for an interesting discussion. (And Mr. Frank, thank you for being willing to participate. Speaking as the sole dissenter on a panel in front of what I imagine was an audience that largely disagreed with what you had to say probably wasn't easy.)

For me, however, rather than disagreeing with what he said, I was amazed at how misinformed he was about legal aid and pro bono legal services. His misconceptions are especially scary because he's a national expert. Most people have less knowledge about what legal aid organizations and pro bono programs do than he does.

This tells me that our community needs to look for more opportunities to talk about what we do to correct these misunderstandings and remind people that most cases don't generate fees, and most legal aid and pro bono attorneys aren't taking the "sexy" cases. This is also important advocacy on behalf of low-income communities. Unfortunately, this type of advocacy can easily take a backseat when resources are tight, and we want to direct as many resources as possible to client services.

That said, we also need to remember to be open to what critics say. Mr. Frank had several suggestions and ideas about how to serve poor communities better. I don't think most of them will work, but why not brainstorm? Solutions often show up where you least expect them.

Check the video out. It's a little long (2 hours) but worth watching. I'd like to hear what you think about it. - K

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Brian Rowe, Access to Justice Board Extern at the Washington State Bar Association, will be speaking at the 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference on fair use and user generated content. Holly Ross, Executive Director of NTEN, interviewed Brian about the panel he's put together. Her interview, 2009 NTC Preview: Brian Rowe on Fair Use and User Generated Content, is posted on the NTEN blog. - K

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Late last year I mentioned that the FCC had proposed a plan to offer free wireless Internet service to Americans. Not unexpectedly, the FCC didn't take action before the end of the year as some had predicted. However, the new administration has included six billion dollars in their proposed economic stimulus plan in order to improve Internet access in underserved areas. As digital divide advocates have long recognized, increased access to the Internet will provide both short- and long-term economic benefits. (Thanks to Molly French for pointing this out.) - K

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The Wall Street Journal reports that the FCC has proposed a plan that would provide free wireless Internet to Americans, but both telecom providers and consumer advocates object to it. Consumer advocates dislike the plan because the service will be required to filter out pornography and material not suitable for children; the telecom providers object for the obvious reasons. The FCC will likely take action on this plan at its December 18 meeting. - K

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The National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel just published its inaugural quarterly newsletter, Civil Right to Counsel Update, which provides updates their work and information about advocacy and research related to a civil right to counsel (a.k.a. "Civil Gideon"). To subscribe, go to their website and enter your email in the subscription box on the lower left corner of the page, then fill out the form. Their October 2008 issue is available here. -M

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On October 30, 2008, the Coalition on Human Needs is offering a live webcast on the current crisis in the economy and in housing, and what Congress and a new Administration may do about it. Presenters include Jared Bernstein (Economic Policy Institute), Barry Zigas (Consumer Federation of America), and Deborah Weinstein (Coalition on Human Needs). For more information, visit the Coalition on Human Needs website. To register, click here. -M

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If you haven't seen it yet (it was just featured in this week's LSC update), be sure to read "Who's Putting a Price on Free Legal Aid?" by Terry Carter in the September issue of the ABA Journal, which looks at the problem of legal aid domain cybersquatting. To learn more about how cyber-piracy impacts the legal aid community and how to protect your program, check out these resources available on LSNTAP. -M

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If you heard about the recent ruling that said that open source licensors are entitled to copyright infringement relief and want to learn more, The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU had a short segment that explained this ruling's importance. - K

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An ABA Journal article about the Standing Committee on The Delivery of Legal Services hearings on the delivery of legal services through technology at the ABA Annual Meeting in New York City. -M

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I've been collecting lots of little bits and pieces of information with the hope of turning them into full blog posts, but I haven't. So today, instead of depriving you of these valuable tidbits any longer, I'm throwing open the doors and inviting you to enjoy the smorgasbord.

• 100 Unbelievably Useful Reference Sites You've Never Heard Of. This site links to a long list of reference sites. You'll find the typical links to dictionaries and quotation references, but you'll also find resources that cover prescriptions and illnesses, technology concepts, and pop culture. (Thanks to Kevin Wenzel for passing this along.)
• Texans on Justice. Check out the submissions in the State Bar of Texas's YouTube video contest. Participants were asked to create videos on the theme "Texans capturing the promise of justice for all."
• Recent Studies on Pro Bono Practice in the US. The Legal Ethics Forum summarizes a Law & Society conference panel on pro bono.
• Sources for Congressional Voting Records. Idealware has posted links to sources for congressional voting records to make your research a bit easier.
• Public Interest Legal Technology Resources. The ABA Site-tation posted descriptions of the major legal aid technology resources and players.  - K

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From the Shriver Center:

Advocates who are pursuing a right to counsel in civil cases, as well as those who simply want information about the issue, now can access a new online source: the website of the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel at www.civilrighttocounsel.org. The site, which is updated regularly, contains news of recent developments; descriptions of advocacy efforts and links to relevant documents; information about the justice gap, the coalition, and how to become involved in its work; the need for a right to counsel in civil cases; links to journal and newspaper articles; and much more.

-M

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Typically we use Free Friday as an opportunity to share free online tools and technology resources. However, given that this particular Free Friday happens to land on the 4th of July, it seems apt to use it as an opportunity to honor an organization that has contributed a great deal to digital freedom: the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Founded in 1990, the EFF defends digital rights, from free speech to privacy and innovation to consumer rights. Among its many cases, the EFF has successfully challenged the constitutionality of internet censorship laws, kept corporations from spying on consumers, defended the confidentiality of online journalists, and established that computer code is speech and deserves First Amendment protection. So, as you celebrate the 4th of July today, why not join the EFF today and make a lasting contribution to digital freedom.

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Challenge number one of placing novice attorneys in remote offices - supervision. And what you've been doing to supervise those attorneys may not being cutting it, according to the Maryland Court of Appeals. E-mail and phone are not enough according to Chief Judge Robert Bell. He says, "You don't rely simply on the electronic record. You must check the docket." To read more about this case, check out the ABA Journal or The Daily Record.

So what does this mean for your organization? How do you supervise advocates in remote offices? How does technology play a role in that supervision? Leave a comment below and let us know. - K

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"Faced with increased demands for legal assistance from low-income Americans, several representatives of legal aid groups will appear before a congressional panel later today to help make the case for additional funding." More here.

LSC President, Helaine Barnett, and Board Chairman, Frank Strickland, last month testified before a House Appropriations subcommittee to present the case for a $471 million budget request for FY 2009, including $5 million for the Technology Initiative Grants Program (TIG). The full FY 2009 budget request is available here. -M

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