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

Public Counsel today launched the first ever mobile phone app that connects clients in need with pro bono attorneys. The app provides three ways for users to connect with Public Counsel:

• Refer a case - send Public Counsel information about a person who needs legal help;
• Take a case - find pro bono opportunities and email Public Counsel for more information or to take a case; and
• Provide an update on an existing case - current Public Counsel pro bono attorneys can provide a case update.

The Public Counsel Force for Good app is available free for download for iPhone and iPad. More information is available here. -M

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[Editor's Note: The following post is by the Shriver Center’s Web and e-Communications Director, Michelle Nicolet. It shares data from a recent survey by editors of the Clearinghouse Review on the use of online tools and resources by legal aid advocates. We asked Michelle if she would write up the results of the survey in a guest blog post for technola, and she was kind enough to agree. We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. –M]

Legal aid advocates have an array of online resources at their fingertips. Moreover, the growth of social media offers new ways for advocates to connect with and learn from one another. But which resources are advocates using? A recent survey conducted by the Editorial Team of Clearinghouse Review: Journal of Poverty Law and Policy attempted to learn more about poverty lawyers’ current use of online resources.

The survey, conducted in April and May 2011, received 285 responses from legal services and other advocates working in 43 states. By a wide margin, the most popular online resource used for legal research or professional development is listservs, which are used by 81% of respondents. Other popular resources include government websites (72.9%), webinars and webinar recordings (64.4%), Westlaw (53.5%), statewide websites (53.5%), and the respondents’ own programs’ websites or intranets (48.9%). Lesser used resources include podcasts (7%) and law-related blogs or “blawgs” (25.1%).

Respondents show more willingness to read online than ever before. When asked how an online-only version of Clearinghouse Review would affect their use of the journal, 38% said they would be more likely to read the Review, and 48% said their use of the Review would not be affected. Only 14% of respondents said that they would be less likely to read the Review if it were only available online. This is a significant shift from just a few years ago. In a 2007 survey, 81% of respondents reported that they did not regularly read Clearinghouse Review online.

Some of the increased willingness to use online resources may be traced to the availability of content on mobile devices. Over 45% of respondents to the survey reported reading web content on a mobile phone or tablet device, with 73% of those reporting that they read content on a mobile device daily. Clearly, the next generation of legal aid websites should be mobile-friendly to ensure the broadest accessibility by advocates.

Only 29.1% of respondents indicated that they use RSS newsfeeds to stay on top of relevant news and information. Although this is a slightly higher percentage than reported in a similar 2007 survey, it still seems surprisingly low and possibly presents an opportunity for training.

In addition, although more respondents reported using social media than in earlier surveys, professional use of social media is still quite limited. The most popular network for professional use, LinkedIn, is still not used by a majority of respondents. Even Facebook and YouTube, which a majority of respondents reported using for personal reasons, are scarcely used by respondents to connect with one another professionally. The potential impact of social networking to support communication and collaboration around poor people’s issues remains largely unrealized in the legal services community.

The editors of Clearinghouse Review are grateful to the survey respondents for their input. Through the Review and related content, we seek to promote coordinated affirmative advocacy efforts, support an emerging generation of advocates for social and economic justice, and foster a sense of community among legal aid and poverty lawyers. The information collected in this and other surveys will be extraordinarily helpful as we plan future content for Clearinghouse Review.

 

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Last week, LSNTAP's Brian Rowe posted an article about videos that use visuals. In it, he pointed to Ignite as an example and encouraged everyone to attend a local Ignite event.

I wholeheartedly second his suggestion and want to encourage you to take it a step further. If your city doesn't have it's own Ignite event, be the one in your community to start it. With the help of O'Reilly's guide and some planning, it's not difficult and is an excellent way to bring your community together to discuss interesting ideas and, possibly, raise a little money for a good cause. 

For example, Ignite for a Better Baltimore was recently held to bring together Baltimore's social enterprise community and featured 16 speakers who are working to change the community for the better. Money received from ticket sales will fund an Ignition Grant. Videos from this event are available online.

A Work in Progress/Progress in Work by John Herron

(I'll admit I'm horribly biased about the Ignite for a Better Baltimore event. Together with Alex Rinsler and the support of Mike Subelsky and Heather Sarkissian, the people behind Ignite Baltimore, I helped coordinate this event.)

Skeptical about starting up an Ignite event or need a few ideas? What about having an Ignite event at a bar association conference and invite people to speak about their pro bono practice? Or have a training event that has family law experts talk about the law or share moments from their practice? - K 

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Every year M+R Strategic Services and NTEN publish the eNonprofit Benchmarks Study, which analyzes data from small, medium and large nonprofits in a range of sectors (including "rights"). This year’s report culls data on email messaging, online fundraising and advocacy, social media, and text messaging from 40 nonprofits. The Study also includes a helpful glossary of terms. You can download a copy of the 2011 study here (your name and email are required, but you can opt out of receiving emails from M+R and NTEN if you like). -M

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Nonprofit techies will be gathering in D.C. this week for the 2011 Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC). If you’re planning to attend, be sure to check out “Transforming Advocacy for the 21st Century,” a panel that includes Tony Lu (Pro Bono Net), Adam Stofsky (New Media Advocacy Project), Jane Ribadeneyra (LSC), and Glenn Rawdon (LSC) on March 19 from 3:30pm to 5:00pm. Kate will also be leading a session with Dawn Crawford called “Beginner Social Media - Where Do I Start?” on March 18th from 7:00am to 8:00am. More information about the NTC, including details about the online conference for those that can’t make it to D.C., is available here. - M

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Jakob Nielsen wrote an interesting piece for his Alertbox feature this week that shares some data from a study of 60 nonprofit websites. The findings suggest that completing the donation process on nonprofit websites took users 7% more time on average than it took to complete an e-commerce checkout process, that making non-monetary donations is difficult, and that people don’t use social networking tools to research non-profits or make donations. There’s good news, however, for those in the legal aid community who use the web to recruit pro bono attorneys: users gave a “stellar rating” for finding how to volunteer at a nonprofit organization. –M

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The ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service and its project, the Center for Pro Bono, recently launched the Pro Bono Exchange, a new blog covering pro bono legal services delivery.

Our intent is for this blog to be a venue where people interested in the expansion of the pro bono legal services delivery system can discuss of and reflect on how that might be accomplished. Together we can exchange ideas about exciting new models, what’s happening in various practice settings, approaches for changing the culture of pro bono, the role of leadership and much more.

More on the work of the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service is available here. The website for the ABA Center for Pro Bono, which inlcudes a wealth of information and resources to support, facilitate, and expand the delivery of pro bono legal assistance, is available here. -M

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Mike Monahan asked me what the public interest "Tweet of 2010" was, but I have no idea. The community has posted too many for me to remember the one that should be the Tweet of 2010. That said, a tweet this week from the Legal Counsel for the Elderly seemed to wrap up the year nicely.

Mike didn't ask for a blog or blog post of 2010, but I did look back and put together a short list of what I consider the year's best.

•  PSLawNet's Public Interest News Bulletins - At the top of my list is PSLawNet's weekly summary of the community's top news stories.
• Jessica Stuart's The Beauty of Connection - Written for the National Pro Bono Celebration, Jessica expresses her appreciation for the work of pro bono and public interest lawyers and makes it easy to understand why she does the work she does.
• AVLF's Pro Bono Briefs' The Face of Unexpected Homelessness - The Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation blog posted the heart-wrenching story of a staff member's childhood experience being homeless.
• State Bar of Texas' Pro Bono Profiles - During the National Pro Bono Celebration, the State Bar of Texas posted nine profiles of pro bono attorneys: Robert Black, Quanah Parker, Lyla Malolepszy, Nancy Hui, Michelle Reed, Michael Stukenberg, Prof. Larry Spain, Starlett Carter, and Naomi J. Bang.
• Mike Monahan's Lawscape - Mike's posts are great reads because he isn't afraid to talk about the not-so-public side of pro bono program coordination, like in Just waiting for bread and Ennui.
• LASDC's Making Justice Real and TRLA's Press Room - Blogging regularly takes a lot of time and effort. Both the Legal Aid Society of DC and Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid produce a lot of thoughtful content and show how legal aid programs change their clients' lives.

So what did I miss? Looking back, what blogs or blog posts do you think should make this list? - K

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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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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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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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technola has been nominated for The Mobbies 2010, a competition for outstanding Maryland blogs and bloggers. If you are a registered Baltimore Sun user or interested in becoming one, your vote would be appreciated.

And if you're voting, I encourage you to vote for the Maryland Legal Aid Newsroom, too. This blog is published by the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau and is a good example to look at if your legal aid or pro bono program is interested in launching a blog.

You should also take a look at several other worthy law and nonprofit blogs that have been nominated.

• Audacious Ideas
• Baltimore Heritage
• Bottom Line, Business Insights
• Generation J.D.
• On the Record

Whether your organization is blogging or thinking about blogging, you should come away with a few ideas that you can use to make your blog better. (And if you're not thinking of blogging, perhaps looking at these blogs will make you start!) - K

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This is the last National Pro Bono Celebration Blogging Round Up. Seventy-eight posts were published by 46 people, who signed up to publish a post recognizing providers of pro bono legal services during the National Pro Bono Celebration. This last list of posts includes those published from Friday, October 30 through today, November 5.

• Collaboration for Good - V. Mary Abraham, Above and Beyond KM
• End Of Pro Bono Week Long Live Pro Bono Attorneys - Ken Montenegro, Ken's (Pro)posterous Posts
• Focus on Pro Bono: Douglas J. Rosinski - Robin Wheeler, SC Access To Justice Weblog
• Focus on Pro Bono: John Tenney - Robin Wheeler, SC Access To Justice Weblog
• Guest Post, New York Bankruptcy Lawyer Jay Fleischman - myShingle.com
• Nearly 200 get free legal advice on Pro Bono Day - Maryland Legal Aid Newsroom
• Pro Bono: Seeking To Help - Tim Eigo, AZ Attorney
• Pro Bono Summit in Oklahoma - Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, Inc.
• A Time To Recognize People Too Often Unrecognized - Kate Bladow, technola

Bloggers who didn't sign the pledge also published quite a few posts about the Celebration. A total of 33 bloggers drafted 46 posts. Those posted between last Friday and today include the following:

• Partnering pro bono - Ann Bergen Willoughby, Pro Bono Committee, Legal Aid Society of Cleveland
• Pro Bono Pledge - Sally Kane, Legal Careers Blog
• Pro bono reception more than Juan Williams - Danny Jacobs, On the Record

The National Pro Bono Celebration and "pro bono" were even highlighted in the Blawg Review #288 on Paul B. Kennedy's The Defense Rests.

Thank you to everyone who participated. You created an inspiring slate of posts. If you missed any of them, you can go back and read the previous National Pro Bono Celebration Blogging Round Ups:  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6.

And if you are sad to see the end of these round ups, you're in luck. The UK National Pro Bono Week starts on Monday, November 8 and runs through November 12, and their bloggers are warming up, so you should have several blog posts from their celebration to read.  - K

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This is the second to last round up of National Pro Bono Celebration posts, where I've been listing those who published a post to recognize providers of pro bono legal services. At the end of Thursday last week, a total of forty-two bloggers had fulfilled their pledge! Thursday's posts are as follows: 

• 2010 World Pro Bono Week — Houston Law Firms & Corporations Team Up to Provide Pro Bono to Houston Community - Elizabeth Black Berry, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP at 3 Geeks & a Law Blog
• An Epic Journey - Tim Eigo, AZ Attorney
• Celebrating National Pro Bono Week - David Curcio, Jackson Walker LLP at 3 Geeks & a Law Blog
• Celebrating National Pro Bono Week: Feldman Shepherd - Amanda Walsh, The PR Lawyer
• Celebrating National Pro Bono Week: Why Law Students Should Volunteer Now - Laura Bergus
• El Paso Times — El Paso lawyers take part in pro bono celebration - Cynthia Martinez, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid
• Focus on Pro Bono: Jonathan Edwards - Robin Wheeler, SC Access To Justice Weblog
• Focus on Pro Bono: Margaret “Marti” Bluestein - Robin Wheeler, SC Access To Justice Weblog
• Listening Post #19:Lawyers as Rescue Workers: A Pro Bono Week Reflection - Sharon Browning, JUST Listening
• Pro Bono Week! - Jodi Feldman, Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia
• The Overlooked Obvious - Saul Segan, The Huffington Post

Bloggers who didn't sign the pledge continued to post, too.

• 5 Reasons Why Pro Bono Is Good - Ian Ferguson, The Sociable Lawyer
• Celebrating National Pro Bono Week - Ann Atalla, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.
• Making Time to Do It — Pro Bono Publico - Emily J. Hufnagel and A. Gabriel Bass, Bass Law Firm
• National Pro Bono Week Celebration in the AACPLL - Anne Arundel County Public Law Library
• President's Blog: The Price of Justice - Patricia A. McGuire, Trinity Washington University
• Pro Bono Profile: Quanah Parker - Benet Magnuson, Texas Bar Blog
• Pro Bono Profile: Robert Black - Benet Magnuson, Texas Bar Blog
• The benefits of pro bono work - Sheila Grady, USC Gould School of Law

If you missed them, go back and read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 of the National Pro Bono Celebration Blogging Round Ups. You can also subscribe to technola by email (on the top right side of the page) or by RSS to be notified when the new round ups are posted. - K

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On Thursday, eight new bloggers joined the ranks of those who fulfilled their promise to publish a post recognizing those who provide pro bono legal services, making the total number thirty-six. Thursday's posts are as follows:

• All Together Now: Partnering with Pro Bono Counsel to Advance Social Justice - Katherine E. Walz, The Shriver Brief
• Celebrating National Pro Bono Week: Curtin & Heefner LLP - Amanda Walsh, The PR Lawyer
• Celebrating Pro Bono: Listening Generously - Scott Kuhagen
• Focus on Pro Bono: Chelsea Leathers - Robin Wheeler, SC Access To Justice Weblog
• Focus on Pro Bono: Douglas Rushton - Robin Wheeler, SC Access To Justice Weblog
• Focus on Pro Bono: Paul D. de Holczer - Robin Wheeler, SC Access To Justice Weblog
• Happy Pro Bono Week! - Laren Spirer, Sweet Blog o' Mine
• New York Department of Homeless Services Study Violates Research Ethics Principles - Dr. Mary McLaughlin, Emotional Education Services, LLC
• Pro Bono Appreciation Week 2010 - Cat McConnell, Aging & Law in West Virginia
• Pro Bono: Global Law - Tim Eigo, AZ Attorney
• Rappaport Center for Law and Public Service Celebrates Pro Bono - The PSLawNet Blog
• The 80/20 Rule - Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, Inc.
• The Beauty of Connection - Jessica Stuart, The Ramblings
• Why I do Pro Bono Work & the American Brain Tumor Association - R. David Donoghue, Chicago IP Litigation Blog
• Why I serve - Jeff Brown, State Bar of Wisconsin

Bloggers who didn't sign the pledge also continued to post articles about the National Pro Bono Celebration.

• Leigh Panettiere of Sandulli Grace, P.C., Advances Pro Bono Legal Project for Veterans - Leigh Panettiere, Sandulli Grace Online
• LexisNexis Webcast: Alternative and Pro Bono Career Exploration - UF Law Center For Career Development
• Pro Bono Profile: Lyla Malolepszy - Benet Magnuson, Texas Bar Blog
• Pro bono reporting requirement results in more pro bono & donations - Prof. Alberto Bernabe, Professional Responsibility
• Texas Lawyers for Texas Veterans Legal Clinics - Judy Marchman, Texas Bar Blog 
• To Know What One Ought To Do - Bruce Cameron, Rural Lawyer

If you missed them, go back and read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 of the National Pro Bono Celebration Blogging Round Ups. You can also subscribe to technola by email (on the top right side of the page) or by RSS to be notified when the new round ups are posted. - K

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Another eight bloggers published a post recognizing those who provide pro bono legal services, fulfilling their pledge on Wednesday. This brings the total number of participants to twenty-eight. Wednesday's posts, and a few that were missed earlier in the week, are as follows:

• A Minnesota Pro Bono Primer - Andrea Hable, MSBA Practice Blawg
• A New Pledge - To Strengthen Pro Bono Legal Assistance (Part 4 of 4) - Lewis Kinard, Practical Compliance
• Celebrating National Pro Bono Week: Willig, Williams & Davison - Kristine A. Phillips, Esq., partner, Willig, Williams & Davidson
• Focus on Pro Bono: Kate Loveland - Robin Wheeler, SC Access To Justice Weblog
• Launching A Pro Bono Program: 5 Steps To Success - Susan J. Feathers, Esq., Assistant Dean, Albany Law School
• National Pro Bono Celebration - NALP
• National Pro Bono Celebration Week - Catch up with technology in Pro Bono work! - Eva Crider Reffell, LSNTAP
• Practical Pro Bono - Tim Eigo, AZ Attorney
• Pro & “Low” Bono Services Delivered Online - Steph Kimbro, Virtual Law Practice
• Pro Bono and Social Change - Tony Lu, nunc pro tunc
• Pro Bono Week - Kudos to These Folks - Randy Barnhart, W. Randolph Barnhart, P.C.
• The Freedom of Charging Nothing - Gregory Luce, MSBA Practice Blawg

Bloggers who didn't sign the pledge also continued to post articles about the National Pro Bono Celebration.

• Celebrating Pro Bono Legal Services - The Nbi CLE blog
• Colorado Celebrating Pro Bono Week, as Proclaimed by Outgoing Chief Justice - Zachary Willis, The Learned Lawyer
• Free Legal Clinic Offered To Local "Heroes" - Jim Herrin, The Scoop with Jim Herrin
• Guest Post: Dell Inc. GC shares pro bono story - Lawrence Tu, Texas Bar Blog
• Juan Williams, The Interview - Danny Jacobs, On the Record
• Lawyers recognized this week for pro bono work - Trish Mehaffey, SourceMedia Group News
• Make Time for Pro Bono Work - Ryan Ryder, The Lawyerist
• Marshall's Legacy Recalled as Williams Salutes Pro Bono Attorneys - Jeffrey Raymond, University of Maryland Baltimore
• Montgomery County proclaims this week as Pro Bono Week - Ben Flanagan, al.com
• National Pro Bono Week kicks off today - Christopher Bonjean, Illinois Lawyer NOW
• Pro Bono Profile: Michelle Reed - Benet Magnuson, Texas Bar Blog
• Pro Bono Profile: Nancy Hui - Benet Magnuson, Texas Bar Blog
• Pro Bono Service Gives People Hope - John E. Miley, Oklahoma Employment Security Commission

If you missed them, go back and read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of the National Pro Bono Celebration Blogging Round Ups. You can also subscribe to technola by email (on the top right side of the page) or by RSS to be notified when the new round ups are posted. - K

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Reading through the many posts that you published for the National Pro Bono Celebration, I'm amazed at the variety. Authors chose to profile pro bono programs and volunteers, describe how to set up successful programs, and explain why pro bono attorneys are needed. One attorney described why he provides pro bono services, and another blogger wrote about why pro bono legal services and help for self-represented litigants are important to him. One blogger even went so far as to draft a new pro bono pledge.

True, these blog posts didn't represent anyone in court nor did they resolve any legal problems, but many people who provide pro bono legal services were recognized and praised. And perhaps because of these posts, an attorney or two will decide to take a pro bono case or a paralegal will volunteer to help out with a clinic.

Thank you to the many bloggers who participated in blogging for the National Pro Bono Celebration. I'm stilling pulling together all of the posts from late last week and will post the round ups tomorrow.

More importantly, thank you to all the volunteers who take cases because they understand that "equal justice under law" is important. You help people navigate and fully participate in a complicated system. This matters, not only to your clients but also to our society. Thank you. - K

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[Want to join in? It's not too late. Just sign up on PledgeBank and then, before the end of the week, post your article about pro bono legal services on your blog.]

By Tuesday evening, three more bloggers had published a post recognizing those who provide pro bono legal services, fulfilling their pledge. This brings the total number of participants to nineteen, and many of them have published more than one post! Tuesday's posts are as follows:

• Celebrating National Pro Bono Week - Amanda Walsh, The PR Lawyer
• Celebrating Pro Bono - And Technology - Pam Weisz, Pro Bono Net
• El Paso Times – Lawyers to offer free legal advice at event - Cynthia Martinez, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid
• Expert Opinion: Developing and Expanding Law School Pro Bono Programs - The PSLawNet Blog
• National Pro Bono Week - Bill Pollak, Bill's Blog
• Pro Bono Provider: The Florence Project - Tim Eigo, AZ Attorney
• Spotlight on Wills for Heroes - Jen Santini, epilawg
• Texas Bar Blog – Pro Bono Profile: Michael Stukenberg - Cynthia Martinez, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid

Bloggers who didn't sign the pledge also continued to post articles about the National Pro Bono Celebration.

• Fox's Juan Williams at Baltimore law event tonight - David Zurawik, The Baltimore Sun's Z on TV
• “Juan” interesting keynote speaker - Danny Jacobs, On the Record
• Pro Bono Profile: Michael Stukenberg - Benet Magnuson, Texas Bar Blog
• Pro Bono Profile: Prof. Larry Spain - Benet Magnuson, Texas Bar Blog
• Pro Bono Week - Peter Krumholz, Rocky Mountain Appellate Blog
• Pro Bono Week kicks off with address by chief justice - Mark Cohen, MinnLawyer Blog

If you missed them, go back and read Part 1 and Part 2 of the National Pro Bono Celebration Blogging Round Ups. You can also subscribe to technola by email (on the top right side of the page) or by RSS to be notified when the new round ups are posted. - K

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[Want to join in? It's not too late. Just sign up on PledgeBank and then, before the end of the week, post your article about pro bono legal services on your blog.]

On Monday, another seven bloggers fulfilled their pledge to publish one post recognizing those who provide pro bono legal services during the National Pro Bono Celebration. This brings the total number of participants to fourteen. The posts published on Monday are as follows:

• Focus on Pro Bono: Elliott Tait - Robin Wheeler, SC Access To Justice Weblog
• Focus on Pro Bono: James Gaul - Robin Wheeler, SC Access To Justice Weblog
• For Good - Tim Eigo, AZ Attorney
• Guest Blog Post: National Pro Bono Celebration - Pam Weisz, Pro Bono Net
• Justices to Honor San Antonio Attorneys As Part of National Celebrate Pro Bono Week - Cynthia Martinez, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid
• Pro Bono Week 2010 - Equal Justice Works
• PSLawNet Celebrates Pro Bono - The PSLawNet Blog
• Should Pro Bono Lawyers Help Social Entrepreneurs? - Courtney Ivins, Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation
• TRLA Times – Celebrate Pro Bono - Cynthia Martinez, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid
• Up-Standing Committee: BBA New Lawyers Section Offers Pro Bono Opportunities Through Subcommittee - Jared Correia, Law Office Management Assistance Program
• What Pro Bono Means to Me - Robert Ambrogi, LawSites

I also found several posts about the National Pro Bono Celebration from bloggers who aren't official participants.

• Celebrate National Pro Bono Week! - UF Law Center For Career Development
• Celebrating Pro Bono Week - Amanda Runyon, Tarlton Library News
• Get legal advice during National Pro Bono Week - Liz Kay, The Baltimore Sun's Consuming Interests
• ISBA urges laywers to donate time or money to celebrate National Pro Bono Week - Prof. Alberto Bernabe, Professional Responsibility
• National Pro Bono Week - PLI Librarian
• New Pro Bono Resource Center - Kevin R. Johnson, ImmigrationProf Blog
• PLI & Pro Bono Activities - PLI Librarian
• Pro Bono Profile: Naomi J. Bang - Benet Magnuson, Texas Bar Blog
• Pro Bono Profile: Starlett Carter - Benet Magnuson, Texas Bar Blog

If you missed it, go back and read National Pro Bono Celebration Blogging Round Up (Part 1). You can also subscribe to technola by email (on the top right side of the page) or by RSS to be notified when the round ups for Tuesday and Wednesday are posted. - K

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In early September, I challenged bloggers to publish one post recognizing those who provide pro bono legal services during the National Pro Bono Celebration. I had hoped that ten people would sign up to join me, but more than thirty people pledged a blog post for pro bono!

It seems like they are following through, too. On October 24, the first day of the Celebration, eight of the people who signed up had already written at least one post about pro bono legal services. The posts that had been published on Sunday (or prior) are as follows:

• An Opportunity to Serve Those Who Serve Us - Jason T. Vail, ABA Military Pro Bono Project [Republished in Pro Bono Net's newsletter from this week.]
• Volunteer Spotlight: Elena A. Alvarez - Su Sie Ju, Bread for the City
• Volunteer Spotlight: DC Bar Pro Bono Program - Vytas V. Vergeer & Nathan LaBorie, Bread for the City
• Notes From Cloke's Essay, Economic Basis of Law and State - Ken Montenegro, Ken's (Pro)posterous Posts
• A New Pledge - To Strengthen Pro Bono Legal Assistance (Part 1 of 4) - Lewis Kinard, Practical Compliance
• Is There a Lawyer in the Room? - Ryan Hill, Bread for the City
• A New Pledge - To Strengthen Pro Bono Legal Assistance (Part 2 of 4) - Lewis Kinard, Practical Compliance
• A New Pledge - To Strengthen Pro Bono Legal Assistance (Part 3 of 4) - Lewis Kinard, Practical Compliance
• Celebrate Pro Bono 2010 - Free Representation Unit - Will Sumners, ContractExpress.com
• Pro Bono - Colorado Lawyers Committee - Randy Barnhart, W. Randolph Barnhart, P.C.
• Caller Times - This week salutes free legal services - Cynthia Martinez, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid
• National Pro Bono Celebration Week - Ezra Rosser, Poverty Law

I also found one blog post about the National Pro Bono Celebration from a reporter who hadn't signed up to participate.

• Lawyers groups encourage attorneys to give back to community during 'Pro Bono Week' - Michael Sangiacomo, The Plain Dealer

Want to join in? It's not too late. Just sign up on PledgeBank and then, before the end of the week, post your article about pro bono legal services on your blog.

Stay tuned. I'll be posting the links to Monday's and Tuesday's posts shortly. - K

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In early September, I challenged bloggers to publish one post recognizing those who provide pro bono legal services during the National Pro Bono Celebration. Your response has been wonderful. (A special thank you to those who highlighted this challenge on their blog: Bob Ambrogi, Amanda Walsh, and Geri Dreiling.) Twenty-three people have signed up at PledgeBank, and another eleven people have emailed me to say that they'll participate.

If you want to join in, it's not too late. Just sign up on PledgeBank and then, between October 24 and October 30, post your article about pro bono legal services on your blog. - K

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Two last resources to wrap up my online video series:

• Using Video as a Marketing Strategy: Dos and Don't for DIY Lawyers The ABA Law Practice Magazine put together a great article that covers what you should and should not do when creating a video.
• Free Toolkit: The 17 Essential Tools You Need To Produce Your Own Videos Reel Social Media created a toolkit for people who want to put together videos but don't have much of a budget.

That's all I have to say about online videos, at least for now. If you have anything you'd like to say, you can say it in the comments below.

And if you haven't read the other posts in this series, check them out: Creating Videos for Your Nonprofit Website, Are Legal Aid Programs Posting Videos Online?, and The 8 Types of Videos Programs Post Online. - K

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In mid-August, I published tips for creating videos for your nonprofit website and looked at which legal aid programs are posting videos online. After watching many of the posted videos, I've found that they can be classified into 8 types.

1. Organization Introductions

Most organizations have created videos that describe their work and why it's important. For example:

• Legal Aid 2.0: Legal Help is Just a Click Away (Illinois Legal Aid Online)
• Legal Services of Northern California
• Bet Tzedek Is . . .

This is a challenging type of video to create. They need to be short, relevant, and visually interesting. Tell specific stories about your achievements. If you are looking for ideas, check out these award-winning videos: EcoViva, Darius Goes West, I Am the Wooden Floor, Join the Fight, and What Kind of Planet Are We On?

2. Client Stories

These videos focus on one client's story and discuss how his or her problem was resolved. For example:

• Leah (Montana Legal Services Association)
• TRLA TV - Texas Foster Youth Justice Project
• Brenden's Story (Arkansas Access to Justice Commission)

Typically, these videos feature the client and his or her attorney. Again, they need to be short, relevant, and visually interesting.

3. Volunteer Recruitment and Recognition

Especially around the National Pro Bono Celebration, organizations post videos to recognize their volunteers' efforts and recruit more volunteers. But, as Illinois Legal Aid Online demonstrates, these videos can also be used through out the year to encourage participation. For example:

• Volunteer of the Month (Illinois Legal Aid Online)
• One Promise (Florida Legal Services, Inc.)
• Arthur Miller/Pro bono (Thomson Reuters)


4. Law Student Recruitment

These videos focus on what law students and recent graduates can expect if they work for an organization. For example:

• TRLA TV's Law Clerk Chronicles: Meet Eric
• Class Reps 2010 Mt Rushmore (Equal Justice Works)

Not many programs create this type of video. Equal Justice Works is the leader in this area and has a library of videos that they use for recruitment. (It's also a terrific place to find ideas for innovative projects.)

5. Legal Information

Organizations have started using online videos to provide legal information. For example: 

• Downtown Community Court Videos (Justice Education Society)
• Debt Collection -- Part 1: What Debt Collectors Cannot Do (Arkansas Legal Services Partnership)
• Pro Se Court at the Daley Center: Filing a Complaint (Illinois Legal Aid Online)

In the near future, I expect to see organizations post many more videos that walk people through how to resolve all or part of a legal problem.

6. Issue Education and Advocacy
   

This type of video helps people understand how an issue affects a community. For example:

• Conviction, Deportation, and Family Separation (The Society Pages)
• Mississippi Center for Justice - Payday Lending

Programs that are not funded by the Legal Services Corporation are more likely to create this type of video.

7. Tributes

These videos honor one person or a group of people. For example:

• A Tribute to Shelley Davis, farmworker lawyer (1952-2008) (FarmworkerJustice)


8. News and Events

Quite a few programs are posting videos of conferences sessions, award ceremonies, and other events, so that people who couldn't attend can see them later. For example:

• Alter Rules of Professional Conduct to Permit Non-Lawyers to Help Meet Unmet Legal Needs, Says Laurence Tribe (American Bar Association)
• Illinois Legal Aid Online's Jill Becker receives CBF 2009 Chicago Sun-Times Fellowship
• Sam Donaldson for Legal Aid Bureau in MD (Maryland Legal Aid Bureau)

Those are the 8 types of videos that programs are posting online. But there are a few types of videos that I didn't see and would like to.

• Remixes and Mash Ups
  NTEN community members help fund scholarships for the Nonprofit Technology Conference. To motivate them, NTEN staff promise a reward if the community donates a certain amount. For the past two years, the reward has been video remixes of memes featuring NTEN staff and community members. For example: NTEN Community Rhapsody and Put a Ring On It - NTC Scholarship. The key is picking the right meme and the right situation. (Perhaps it's autotuning the NLADA Annual Training keynote? Then again, maybe not.)
• Interviews
  Mark Horvath is using video to make people aware of homelessness. He's posting unscripted interviews with people who are homeless at InvisiblePeople.tv. Unlike client stories, these stories may or may not have happy endings. Two great examples from Mark's many videos: Darryl and Jean and her children. Could the community use this technique to remind the public, funders, law makers, and others that their neighbors, friends, families, and supporters need legal help, too?
• Responses to Current Events
  Robert Egger, founder and president DC Central Kitchen, was very upset by Rush Limbaugh's characterization of nonprofits and their employees, so he used video to respond promptly and with a very strong message. (Please note that this video contains potentially offensive material.) While I'm not suggesting organizations should word their message as strongly as Robert Egger, perhaps your organization could respond creatively to currents with video.

So are organizations creating other videos? Are there other types that organizations should consider creating? Speak up using the comments below. - K

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ESRI, the company behind the leading geographic information system (GIS) software, announced a new donation program for nonprofit organizations last week at the Gov 2.0 Summit. Now nonprofits can get ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Server, or an Enterprise License Agreement for only the administrative fee. Interested, eligible organizations should register for additional information.

ESRI's CEO, Jack Dangermond, made the announcement during "Open Data and the Future of Mapping and Location Based Services," a session where he and Bernard Szukalski, another ESRI employee, showed how mapping data can help people and organizations interpret the massive amounts of data local, state, and federal governments make available.

Several legal aid programs are already mapping data with GIS software to help them advocate for their client communities. Matthew previously pointed to a presentation from Legal Services of Northern California's Race Equity Project that describes how maps helped to support expert testimony and show a town discriminated when providing water services. More information about the Race Equity Project and how they support their work with mapping are available online. Also several programs worked with the Legal Services Corporation Office of Inspector General to evaluate mapping and identify how to help programs take advantage of its potential. Materials and lessons learned from this study are available online.

Numerous resources are available for programs that want to learn more about GIS software and mapping:

• The Illustrated Guide to Nonprofit GIS and Online Mapping (MapTogether)
• GIS Mapping Resources (Legal Services of Northern California)
• A Few Good Mapping and GIS Tools (Idealware)
• GIS Mapping (LSNTAP)

Also, LSNTAP is hosting a series of GIS trainings. The next training is on September 16, and more information is available on LSNTAP's site.

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The BlogHer community likes to recognize their favorite blog posts. It started with the Community Keynote, a session at the BlogHer Annual Conference where bloggers are invited to read their posts. But as the community grows, the tradition does, too.

This year, in addition to the Keynote, BlogHer recognized 90 posts as 2010 BlogHer Voices of the Year. In late July, I was notified that my post My Name Is Kate and I Am a Listener was selected as one of the 90 posts. I was thrilled to be included among the likes of Joanne Bamberger, Tracey Gaughran-Perez, and Liz Henry.

But I evidently didn't read the notification email well because it wasn't until recently I found that my post was inspiration for a terrific piece of art by Kalani Cropper, "Listen."

You see, all of the 2010 BlogHer Voices of the Year were used as inspiration for custom works of art and are now being auctioned to support long-term Gulf Coast recovery efforts.

Interested in bidding on this piece? Do it soon. It's only available until September 20. - K

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Thank you for your fantastic response to yesterday's "Will You Blog With Me?" post. Currently, 15 people have signed up to blog with me, and another three or four have emailed to say that they'll blog. But that doesn't mean that the rest of you can't join in. If you are interested, you can sign up here. - K

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Bloggers, I challenge you to publish one blog post between October 24 and October 30 in honor of the 2010 National Pro Bono Celebration. I am, and Tim Eigo, Scott Kuhagen, and Mike Monahan have pledged to join me. You should, too.

The National Pro Bono Celebration is a big deal. Last year, every state participated. Nearly 600 events were held. A number of legal aid organizations, pro bono programs, and bar associations created videos. Hundreds of people posted messages to Twitter and Facebook. But only a few bloggers published posts to recognize the lawyers and paralegals who provide free legal services to those who can't afford to pay.

I had hoped that more bloggers would reflect on their experiences, recognize their colleagues, and use the opportunity to talk about pro bono legal services. So this year, I want to see bloggers involved. Will you pledge to publish one post during the National Pro Bono Celebration? (And if you don't have a blog but want to sign up, let me know. Perhaps I can find a blog interested in a series of guests posts.)

Your post doesn't have to be elegant or elaborate. Just tell us what pro bono means to you. Perhaps you could tell us

• why you take pro bono cases;
• why access to the courts is important;
• about a memorable pro bono case;
• why you admire a colleague's pro bono service;
• about the pro bono program you work with;
• about a legal issue faced by low-income people that is related to your blog's topic;
• where lawyers can sign up for pro bono cases; or
• where people can find free legal help.

And you don't have to be a lawyer to join this challenge. Feel free to sign up if you were helped by a pro bono attorney, know that your clients or customers have benefited from free legal assistance, or if your business supports pro bono or legal aid organizations.

At the end of the week, I'll gather all of the posts together and list them on techno.la. (This will be in addition to my National Pro Bono Celebration post.)

Bloggers, you know that you'll be blogging that week. Why not join the celebration? Sign up here.- K

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Yes. Legal aid programs are posting a lot of video online. In fact, after scouring YouTube and Vimeo, I found that 65 legal aid programs had posted almost 600 videos. The table below shows a break down by funding source.

Program Funding	# of Programs	# of Videos
LSC-Funded	41	164
Non-LSC-Funded	24	428

If you'd like to see the videos that programs have posted, a list should be available shortly on LSNTAP as an update to Eva's previous post about legal aid programs on YouTube.

Did I find and count all of the access-to-justice videos on YouTube and Vimeo? No. I saw several videos about pro bono legal services posted by bar associations and law firms that I didn't count. (For an unfiltered list of these videos, search "pro bono" on YouTube or "pro bono" legal on Vimeo.)

Are these even all of the videos posted by legal aid programs? Probably not. YouTube and Vimeo are easy to search and look through, but not all legal aid programs have made their videos easy to find and identify as videos from a legal aid program. For example:

• I searched for all of the LSC-funded programs using their names. If the organization didn't include its name in its profile, their videos wouldn't appear in these search results.
• I searched the terms "legal aid," "pro bono," "legal services," "access to justice," and a few other variations. If these terms weren't in an organization's profile, their videos wouldn't be in these search results.
• I looked at who organizations were connected to. For example, Atlanta Legal Aid Society has "friended," or connected to, five other legal aid organizations, which makes them easier to find. If you haven't friended or been friended by any other legal aid programs, I wouldn't have found your videos this way.

So what can you do to make your videos easier to find?

• Create an account for your organization. Don't have a staff member post your videos under his or her account.
• Fill out your profile. Include your organization's name, logo, a brief description, your website's address, and your city and state.
• Name and describe your videos clearly so that people know what they are about.

When writing video names and descriptions, think carefully about what words people will use to search for your videos and include those words. For example, if you are posting a video about filing an answer pro se, you would probably want to include the words "court" and "without a lawyer" in the description for the video.

If you want to replicate a profile that is easy to find and nicely set up, I recommend checking out one of these examples:

• Equal Justice Works (YouTube)
• Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (YouTube)
• Legal Aid Association of California(Vimeo)
• Legal Aid Society of Louisville (Vimeo)

I also suggest looking at two additional resources:  DIOSA Communication's YouTube Best Practices and See3 Communication's "YouTube for Nonprofits" webinar. You'll find additional tips, including information about the YouTube Nonprofit Partner program, which provides free benefits for nonprofits.

Now it's your turn. Are you one of the programs posting video online? What tips and tricks do you have for setting up your profile? Tell us in the comments. - K

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On Tuesday, Illinois Legal Aid Online's Multimedia Content Coordinator, Susan Muirhead, talked about how ILAO uses video on its websites in the "Showcase of Statewide Website Innovations" webinar hosted by LSNTAP and Pro Bono Net. A talented videographer, she has created several videos for ILAO, including "LiveHelp Expands Access to Justice" and "Legal Aid 2.0: Legal Help Is Just a Click Away."

As Susan described the videos and her process, she shared several tips. Four that stuck with me:

• Create a script first.
• Don't cram too much in. (ILAO's videos are usually 2 to 4 minutes in length.)
• Vary your clips. People don't like to watch talking heads for long.
• Use your videos to support other website content instead of using them as standalone resources.

The webinar was recorded, so you can go back and listen to Susan's entire presentation when it's posted. But if you can't wait until then to hear all of her tips or you need more background information to put your video together, I found a few other resources.

• The Bay Area Video Coalition has a YouthLink Curriculum that outlines basic filmmaking concepts, pre-production, production, post-production, and advanced production skills.
• Nancy Schwartz reflects on creating her first video and, based on her experience, gives nine suggestions for others who are new to creating videos.
• See3, an "interactive media and marketing firm for nonprofits," has created a Guide to Online Video, an introductory series. You should also check out their Frequently Asked Questions About Video page, their blog post on 5 Questions to Evaluate Your Nonprofit Video ROI, and their session hosted by the Case Foundation, Case Soup Video Recap: How to make award worthy nonprofit videos.

If you've already created a video or two, what resources have helped you and have made the process easier? Are there any tips that you'd like to share? - K

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The National Center for State Courts publishes a yearly journal called “Future Trends in State Courts.” Among the topics explored in the 2010 issue is the role of social media/networking in the courts, including “The New Media Project of the Conference of Court Public Information Officers,” by Chris Davey ; “The Role of Social-Networking Tools in Judicial Systems,” by Travis Olson and Christine O’Clock; and “The Changing Media and Its Impact on the Courts,” by Hon. Tom Hodson. Also included in the 2010 issue is an article by Richard Zorza, “Public Libraries and Access to Justice,” and an article by Justice O’Connor that highlights www.ourcourts.org, an educational project that incorporates online games and other interactive media to teach young people about the rule of law. -M  [Thanks, Claudia!]

 

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Brian Lawlor of Legal Services of Northern California sent Matthew and me an interesting blog post, Tweets Per Capita, about where Twitter is and isn't being used.

Tweets per Capita - WCIT2010 - Sagolla

View more presentations from Dom Sagolla.

Not surprisingly, the countries where people are tweeting most are also typically countries where a majority of the population has access to the Internet.

But, more interestingly, the slides point to several cases where Twitter use increased rapidly after a difficult situation or catastrophic event in countries where most people don't have access to the Internet. For example:

• Iranian Presidential Election, where Twitter was used to protest the results
• Haiti Earthquake, where Twitter was used distribute information and fundraise
• Chile Earthquake, where Twitter was again used to distribute information

Dom Sagolla, who created the post and slides, says that in these situations, Twitter fostered communities and then provided them with a voice. To me, this seems like what social media and social networks are especially good at. They provide a voice to communities, especially when few other communication avenues are available. - K

 

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In April, the Legal Services of Northern California's Findability Project was featured on a Computerworld webinar. (See "Google Sponsors Webinar About LSNC's Findability Project" for the announcement.) If you missed the live session, a recording of that webinar is now available online. - K

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Yesterday Kate spoke at the Gov 2.0 Expo in Washington, DC about courts' use of technology to help self-represented litigants.  The Gov 2.0 Expo brings together speakers on using the Web as a platform for government and citizen participation. You can watch Kate's terrific presentation below. Not only does she highlight the amazing work being done in our community, she also gives voice to those for whom justice is out of reach because they cannot afford a lawyer. - M

 

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A heads up for any casual readers of Beth Kanter's blog, Beth's Blog. It has moved to bethkanter.org and got a new look. If you've been reading the blog via RSS, no change is necessary. (And don't worry. The old blog at beth.typepad.org will still be around for a while.)

For those curious about the design details, it  was done by Rad Campaign, the group responsible for the LawHelp Interactive redesign. - K

 

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Sonia Nazario, who's spent 20 years examining and reporting on social issues like hunger, drug addiction, and immigration, opened the 2010 Equal Justice Conference. In an emotional speech, she explained the difficulties faced by children immigrating to the United States to join their parents and her experiences on El Tren de la Muerta (the train of death) as she traced their journey. For those who couldn't attend in person, the ABA streamed this session live and have posted a recording online. Also available is a short interview with Ms. Narazio about Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), an organization that represents immigrant children, who otherwise would have to negotiate the US immigration system alone.

A side note: As you listen to the beginning of Ms. Nazario's session, several people will refer to protesters. While it's likely not a surprise that the ABA's decision to continue holding the Equal Justice Conference in Arizona was controversial, you may be surprised to hear that on Thursday local advocates protested the ABA's decision. azfamily.com has a short segment on the protesters as well as a quick shot of their song and dance. Was anyone at the conference able to capture the whole song? I couldn't find a recording on either Vimeo or YouTube. - K

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If you missed the session "Knowledge Management: What it is, why it matters, and (Google) options for making what you know findable" at the LSC TIG Conference, you have another opportunity to learn how legal aid programs are addressing knowledge management.

On Tuesday, April 29 at 2 pm Eastern, Google is sponsoring the webinar "Advancing Knowledge Sharing with Google: The LSNC Story," where Brian Lawlor and Mark Sawyer from Legal Services of Northern California will recount their experience implementing an enterprise-level Google Search Appliance, a project they referred to as The Findability Project.

Register online to attend the free webinar. - K

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I search the Internet a lot. I've been known to use Yahoo or Bing on occasion, but I mainly search with Google. (Unless it's breaking news. Then I always search Twitter first.) Over time, I've learned tricks to improve my results, weed out junk, and save time.

Recently, The New York Times compiled a list of 10 Simple Google Search Tricks, which includes many of my favorites as well as a couple new tricks.  The highlights:

• Don't struggle with finding what you want on a site when it doesn't have a built-in search. Use Google's "site:" operator.
• Get rid of unrelated results with the "-" operator. This helps a lot if you want to search "pro bono" but don't want to see anything related to "U2" or "Sonny & Cher."
• Enter an area code, and the first result should be a map of the area it covers.

The one that they didn't mention that I use most often: searching for an exact phrase. You add quotation marks around the phrase. For example: "legal aid" will return pages with the phrase "legal aid" and not just the words "legal" and "aid."

What are your favorite search tips? Do you stick to Yahoo or Bing because of tricks that you've learned? - K

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Yesterday, April 18, marked the start of National Volunteer Week, a national celebration of people who are volunteering and improving their communities. Thousands of projects and special events have been scheduled to recognize existing volunteers and encourage others to become involved. This year marks the thirty-sixth National Volunteer Week, an event that was established by former President Richard Nixon in 1974 and is sponsored by Points of Light Institute and HandsOn Network.

As this week progresses, I suspect that you'll see communities leveraging technology to promote volunteerism and events for volunteers. Already few examples exist:

• Blogging: The Case Foundation summarized the history of service in the US on its blog. And in our own community, Pro Bono Net has invited guests to blog about pro bono legal services on their Martindale-Hubbell Connected group. The first post "An Opportunity to Serve Those Who Serve Us" from Jason Vail of the ABA Military Pro Bono Project is also posted on Pro Bono Net's website. 
• Videos: Chapters of the HandsOn Network, the American Cancer Society, and the American Red Cross created videos to thank their volunteers. HandsOn Network also put together a video to promote National Volunteer Week.

If this celebration makes you want to get involved, check out the National Pro Bono Opportunities Guide for local legal aid organizations and pro bono programs that need help. Other non-legal opportunities are listed on the HandsOn Network website.

Are you doing anything to celebrate your volunteers this week? If so, what? Let us know below. - K

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Day two of the NTEN Nonprofit Technology Conference. The morning started with Andrew Sullivan talking about blogging and ended with a awesome lunch with a table of legal aid folks who are learning and thinking a lot about web presence, social networking, and other technologies.

A lot of information is being shared at the conference, but some of the best conversations are happening in the backchannel, or online, where you can participate without being at the conference.

John Merritt Summarizes My Morning at NTC

If you aren't, I encourage you to follow the NTC events that are being made available online through streamed sessions, webinars, and the backchannel. - K

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I recently came across this impressive online database of social media policies, which includes over 100 policies from several different industries. The nonprofit and government section includes examples from both large and small nonprofits and government agencies. For more information on crafting a social media policy for your organization, check out thisrecent post on NTEN’s blog and this white paper on Social Media, Risk, and Policies for Associations. -M

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For over 10 years, the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada and the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas have partnered to teach community education classes covering several areas of law for the public. In order to extend their reach, the law school and legal aid program collaborated with their local PBS affiliate Vegas PBS to record one of their bankruptcy classes. Now this class is available to everyone on YouTube in seven short segments. - K

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The Center for Access to Justice & Technology and the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction released A2J Author 3.0 last week. With A2J Author, non-techies can create user-friendly interfaces that help self-represented litigants fill out court forms and other legal documents. Several states with great A2J Author interviews, including New York, Washington state, and Washington, DC, have been highlighted on Technola previously.

New features included in A2J Author 3.0 include the ability to

• add graphics and videos to questions;
• customize how users exit an interview and let them leave before an interview is completed;
• create new interviews by "cutting and pasting" existing questions or question sets; and
• add a logo to the interview.

You can download A2J Author 2.0 from the A2J Author community website. A2J Author is free for noncommercial use. - K

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Kate and I were recently interviewed by Lisa Kennelly, Editorial Manager at LexBlog. We shared the story behind Technola, how it has evolved, and our thoughts on technology, blogging and the public interest legal community. -M

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Law Technology News (LTN) just published a nice article on LawHelp Interactive (fka NPADO), a document assembly program that helps pro se litigants and volunteer attorneys prepare legal documents online. LawHelp Interactive is managed by Pro Bono Net in collaboration with Ohio State Legal Services Association, with funding by the Legal Services Corporation and the State Justice Institute. -M

 

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PSLawNet, an online resource for public interest law job-seekers, recently launched a new blog covering public interest news and the job market for public interest lawyers and law students. If you’re interested in keeping track of new legal aid and public interest law blogs be sure to check out our blogroll page, which we update regularly. If you don’t see your blog there, and think it should be, shoot us an email at technolablog at gmail.com. – M

 

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The D.C. Bar Pro Bono Program recently launched six interactive online court forms for use by pro se tenants and landlords. The forms include an answer in a residential landlord-tenant case, an application to proceed in forma pauperis, a motion to modify a protective order, a motion to vacate default judgment and quash writ, a motion to vacate dismissal, and a notice to quit for nonpayment of rent. Using guided A2J Author interviews and Pro Bono Net’s LawHelp Interactive service, pro se users answer a series of questions that are used to populate an approved court form that can be printed and filed. The project was done with cooperation from the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, support from the D.C. Consortium of Legal Services Providers, and funding from the D.C. Bar Foundation. -M

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A team of experts from the Proskauer Rose LLP's Not-For-Profit/Exempt Organization Practice has started to blog about nonprofit law at Not-For-Profit/Exempt Organizations Blog. In addition to helping legal aid administrators with issues at their own programs, this blog can be passed on to directors at partner programs as a resource to help them with their questions. - K

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The New York Times recently published an interactive map showing food stamp usage in the United States, which includes the ability to filter by whites, blacks, children, and change since 2007.  Raw data by county, which should be useful to legal services advocates seeking to better understand (and visualize) the specific areas and populations that they serve, is also available for download here (CSV). A related article about record highs in food stamp usage can be found here. -M

 

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You've heard the term "cloud computing," but do you know what that means? Wikipedia tells us that

Cloud computing is Internet- ("cloud-") based development and use of computer technology ("computing").[1] In concept, it is a paradigm shift whereby details are abstracted from the users who no longer need knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them.[2] It typically involves the provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources as a service over the Internet.

All clear now? No? Then check out Common Craft's Cloud Computing in Plain English video. Like their other work, they break the idea down and make it much easier to understand.

If, once you're done watching the video, you want to learn more, here are a few additional resources:

• Cloud Computing for Mobile Lawyers - Law.com
• My Hub is The Cloud - Gin & Tech Tonics
• Cloud computing and taming the desktop - Idealware
• A Map To Better Understand The Cloud Ecosystem...And The Hype - ReadWrite Enterprise
• The Cloud Isn't Safe?! (Or Did Black Hat Just Scare Us?) - ReadWriteWeb

And for those of you who want to read more about the legal issues involved, a set of posts from the Information Law Group:

• Legal Implications of Cloud Computing — Part One (the Basics and Framing the Issues)
• Legal Implications of Cloud Computing -- Part Two (Privacy and the Cloud)
• Legal Implications of Cloud Computing -- Part Three (Relationships in the Cloud)

Hope these resources help clear things up. - K

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I came across a couple of tweets that I wanted to share with Technola readers.

The first is from Andy Carvin. He was tweeting from the PublicMediaCamp held recently in DC.

Andy Carvin's Tweet

 

Although I suspect Andy was referring to natural disasters, what struck me was how true this is for most types of disasters, including funding cuts and bad publicity. When a disaster hits, you need to act quickly. You don't want to spend most of your time figuring out who your supporters are.

The second is from Ashley Schweitzer, which she tweeted from a Social Media Breakfast in Minnesota.

Ashley Schweitzer's tweet

 

Yes, we are all trying to keep the lights on today, but social networking should be seen as an investment. You won't get a giant payback immediately. You need to commit to it and use it to connect with other people. It's from the relationships that you build that good and often unexpected opportunities come your way. - K

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The latest buzz on Twitter is about its new list feature. Users can create lists of people and then read the resulting stream of tweets. For example, Niki Black, a Rochester-based lawyer, blogger, and member of the Rochester Advisory Board of Legal Assistance of Western New York, has created several lists, including lists for her family, people in Rochester, and "legal must follows." Glancing at each list lets her quickly see what those people are talking about.

An Example: @accesstojustice's List of Legal Aid and Pro Bono Programs

 

Twitter's list feature will change your life or is the end of Twitter as we know it, depending on who you talk to. However, given that Twitter just launched the feature fully on October 30, we won't know whether either prediction is true for a while.

What I do know is that many people are building lists. A few interesting ways to use them:

• Group journalists together to see patterns in news coverage. Examples: ABA Journal, NY Times, AnnArbour.com.
• Group employees or affiliates to help people connect with them. Examples: IFRC, Home Depot, Twitter.
• Group people and organizations by interest areas. Examples: Legal Aid and Pro Bono Organizations, Immigrant Rights, Bar Associations.

One nice thing: once someone sets up a list, you don't have to recreate the list. You can follow it. (Greg Lambert of 3 Geeks and a Law Blog was nice enough to document how to add an RSS feed to a Twitter list in case you prefer to use your news reader to follow Twitter.)

If you haven't used Twitter before, look at the Legal Aid and Pro Bono Organizations list. You can quickly see how other organizations are using Twitter. (If I've missed your organization or another that belongs on the list, please let me know.)

And if you need an introduction to Twitter, check out "Twitter 101". - K

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Students in Penn Law School’s Program on Documentaries and the Law have created a series of videos on legal issues impacting immigrants, including notario fraud and the process of hiring and working with a lawyer. The videos are presented in Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Fuzhou. –M [Thanks, Will!]

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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In July, I pointed out several examples of social networking policies. This post has been hugely popular, so I thought that I'd point out another resource Technola readers might find helpful: the Online Database of Social Media Policies. Currently, it has ninety-nine policies from a variety of industries as well as a list of templates. Visitors can also submit their organizations' policies. - K

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Online, I spend time listening, attempting to separate signal from noise.

This started when I was in high school. Occasionally, I would egosurf, or search for my name on the Web. After college, when I began to use a feed reader, my listening became more routine. I could search and quickly add that search to my reader. Then, I could be lazy and forgetful--available stories were brought to me on demand. I didn't have to remember to go and find them.

Slowly, I broadened the topics that I listened for, amazed that I could track what's important and not become overwhelmed. Hitting "Mark All As Read" in a reader is much, much easier than declaring e-mail bankruptcy.

Currently, I listen for information about several specific areas: me, Technola, Pro Bono Net, document assembly, and access to justice (legal aid, pro bono legal services, Legal Services Corporation, and so on). Over time, I've changed these areas, refined the key words and phrases that I listen for, and pulled in new sources as they've surfaced, like Twitter and LexMonitor.

Listening helps me to stay informed. I often "hear" things that I wouldn't otherwise. Listening also gives me the opportunity to observe and participate in conversations that don't, and won't, happen in my offline life. Laura Quinn, Michelle Murrain, and Holly Ross are not going to show up at my house and talk nptech. But they do talk online, and I can meet up with them there. Listening helps me figure out where those good conversations are happening.

Do you listen online? If not, I challenge you to start listening today. Just follow these steps:

1. Go to Google's Blog Search.
2. Search for your name or your organization's name.
3. Check out the results.
4. Refine your search terms, if necessary.
   Do this to make certain you are getting relevant results. For example, I don't have a very common name, so I use (Katherine OR Kate) AND Bladow. But someone with a more popular name might need to be more restrictive, say  ("Jonathan Smith" OR "Jon Smith") AND Massachusetts.
5. Subscribe with your reader or by e-mail, when you are satisfied with your results.

Ta Da! You are listening.

If you are listening already, I encourage you to step it up: refine your key words, add a new source, or move your e-mail alerts to a feed reader.

To learn more about listening, check out these resources:

• Beth Kanter - What is the value of listening to social media channels for your organization?
• Beth Kanter - Listening Literacy Skills: What keywords or phrases have brought you some insights?
• Amy Sample Ward - Live Blogging: 09NTC Mapping Your Social Media Strategy
• We Are Media - Module 1: Listening
• ProBlogger - Set Up ‘Alerts’ to Monitor What is Happening in Your Niche

So now it's your turn. Did you take my challenge? Either way I'd love to hear about what you are listening for, what tools you are using for listening, and any lessons that you've learned so far. If you aren't listening, tell me why not.

Come on. Speak up! I'm listening. - K

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The Hatcher Group just released a new report on how nonprofits are using new media for social change, which is based on a survey of 30 nonprofits working on state-level advocacy issues.  It provides an overview, metrics and strategic insight into several tools, including blogs, Twitter, Facebook and social news sites. The free report is available here (PDF). -M

 

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A Bit of Advice from Sun

Sun's employees know a lot about community building and social networking. They support blogs, wikis, and forums with millions of members. They participate on LinkedIn and Twitter. Sun as an organization had a social media policy, Sun Guidelines for Public Discourse, since about 2004 before most people knew they might need one. So I'm not surprised, and am very grateful, that its employees also pass on bits of wisdom to the rest of us. - K

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For its annual list, the ABA Journal is looking for the best 100 law blogs and is asking you to suggest your favorites. Want to see who's made the list previously or to look for some new reading material? Check out last year's top 100 or the ABA Journal Blawg Directory. - K

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I've looked and listened for people who love document assembly and who are talking about it online, but I haven't been very successful. Either I'm searching the wrong terms or they aren't talking about it. So while I've learned a lot about the Hot Docs film festival in Toronto, I haven't turned up many conversations about LexisNexis' HotDocs software.

Today, however, I was thrilled when I found a post from The Exari Blog that pointed me to Five Document Assembly Blogs/Legal Technology Blogs to Follow. I've added these blogs and the Exari Blog to my news reader and hope to see some good conversations.  - K

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Hopefully every lawyer knows about Rule 6.1 from the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. You know, the one that starts

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.

Lawyers have a lot of activities that they can choose to fill their 50 hours: direct representation, teaching legal classes, writing brochures or web site content for a legal aid organization, and so on.

However, while listening to Twitter, I came across Adrianos Facchetti, an attorney, who "Love[d] the idea that law blog fulfills pro bono requirement." An intriguing, yet slightly unsettling, idea.

Mr. Facchetti got several responses:

• I don't like that idea. My public interest lawfirm has to turn down 100s every month - maybe more. VOlunteer with legal aid. - sarahjessicaESQ (9:45 PM Aug 13th)
• The people who really need the pro bono work would likely not be able to find your blog. No pro bono credit for blogging. - LegalAdmin (9:46 PM Aug 13th)
• I don't think a law blog can rightfully fulfill pro bono requirement--cannot be legal advice (bar regs) or take place of lawyer. - trabernlaw (9:49 PM Aug 13th)
• Absolutely does NOT. Pro bono means for the COMMON good, not that of yr law firm or yr ego. - GoonrGrrl (9:53 PM Aug 13th)
• The problem w/ pro bono is that so many legal marketing consultants say establish a blog to drive business. How prove "good"ness? - BeelJDPhD (11:20 AM Aug 14th)

But Mr. Facchetti isn't the only person suggesting that blogging might fulfill this responsibility. Enrico Schaefer, an attorney from Michigan, wrote "Does Blogging Help Fulfill Your Pro Bono Obligation?", where he concludes that "blogging is perhaps the easiest and most effective way to reach the most people, providing information and assistance" and that "it performs an invaluable service to the scores of the people who simply need real information about a legal issue they are facing."

So I definitely agree that it's a good thing that attorneys blog about legal issues and provide legal information to clients and potential clients. But is it pro bono service? Is Kelly Phillps Erb doing pro bono work when she blogs about taxes? What about Bob Ambrogi and Carolyn Elefant when they post at Legal Blog Watch? What if an attorney did a guest post at Making Justice Real, Maryland Legal Aid Newsroom, or TRLA Press Center? I'm not sure. What do you think? - K

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Common Craft, a company that creates short videos to explain technical and non-technical topics, has released SharePoint in Plain English. Since I've never heard SharePoint mentioned in a presentation without someone in the audience getting a quizzical look on his or her face, I'm excited to see Common Craft cover this software. (For those that currently have that quizzical look, SharePoint is Microsoft's enterprise collaboration tool.)

If you enjoy this video, you should check out the others that I've mentioned before on Technola: What's Under the Hood?; How Not to End Up on a Phisher's Hook; Technology, Plain English, and Whiteboards; and Advocacy, Technology and Elections. - K

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Kate and I published a primer on social networking for poverty law advocates and organizations in the July-August 2009 issue of Clearinghouse Review Journal of Poverty Law and Policy. Here’s the abstract:

The emergence of social network websites as some of the most highly visited on the Internet presents an opportunity for poverty law advocates to leverage these networks to maximize the impact of advocacy work. To accomplish this, advocates must first understand what these networks are (including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn), how they function, and what they offer to support communication and collaboration around advocacy. Guidance and concrete examples of how individuals and organizations can most productively engage with social networks assist advocates in making the most of these tools.

Our thanks to Jason Vail, Ilze Hirsh, and Michelle Nicolet at the Shriver Center as well as Liz Keith and Pam Weisz at Pro Bono Net for their suggestions and support. We’re also working on putting together a webinar on social networking with the Shriver Center in October. More details on that to come. In the meantime, please share your thoughts about the article in the comments. We’d love to hear your feedback. –M&K

 

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Taxgirl AKA Kelly Phillips Erb is seeking guest bloggers for the taxgirl blog. The week of August 30, she'll feature posts from readers talking about what they would like to see changed with respect to taxes. Every post that follows the rules will get posted. And she hints that some high profile politicians may be watching to see what her readers think.

Wouldn't it be great to have some posts about the Earned Income Tax Credit, Low-Income Taxpayer Clinics, Innocent Spouse Relief, or other tax issues that affect legal aid client communities? Posts must be submitted by August 26. - K

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TechCrunch compared sixteen file sharing applications that are "Free, Fast, and Useful . . ." The best part of the article is a chart that outlines what each service offers, including how much you can store. Thanks to Dan Romero, a programmer at Pro Bono Net, for pointing this out. - K

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I've come across several interesting stories about innovative uses for technology recently, and instead of letting the links gather dust, waiting for me to write a post about each of them, I'm collecting them here in one post and getting the ideas out to you.

• Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe released a Start-Up Tool Kit, which includes a Term Sheet Creator to help draft start-up and venture financing documents. Fans of the National Document Assembly Project (NPADO) will recognize that they've used LexisNexis' HotDocs Server to run the site. The ABA Journal covered this release: Orrick’s Free Term Sheet Generator and Forms Library Aimed at Entrepreneurs.

• Avvo, a site where the public can rate lawyers, has a forum where people can ask lawyers for legal advice and answers. While not new, it is new to me, and it's the first time that I've seen a site advertise that they are offering advice and not legal information, and actually give advice. KGO-TV San Francisco has a brief story on the Avvo site: Web site offers free legal advice.

• The Huffington Post profiled Holla Back DC in When Hollered At, HollaBack! Victims of street harassment (cat calls, groping, indecent exposure, and so on) can document incidents that range from inappropriate and sexist to terrifying. The site tracks and maps the location of the reported incidents, identifying where dangerous areas might be. Holla Back sites also exist for several other locations.

• In Minnesota, Day One Services is using software to track where open domestic violence shelter beds are. In one call, a victim can find an open bed and arrange transportation, if necessary. Day One hopes to take the program national, according to Software connects domestic violence victims with open shelter beds, an article in the Minnesota Post.

I can't be the only one finding these interesting stories. Any great stories about using technology that you've found lately? Go ahead and share them in the comments. - K

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The Office 2007 file format looks like an XML file but acts like a ZIP file. According to Microsoft:

The Office Open XML Formats are based on XML and ZIP archive technologies. The new file format in Microsoft Office Word 2007 divides the file into document parts, each of which defines a part of the overall contents of the file. You can easily create, change, add, or delete data in a Word 2007 file programmatically or manually.

Nifty, huh? You can create and edit a Word 2007 document without opening Word. If you don't want to create a document from scratch but do want to see what's inside, take an existing Word 2007 file with a .DOCX extension and change the extension to .ZIP.

The July 2009 issue of LJN's Legal Tech Newsletter points out that this both good and bad for law firm IT departments. The Office Open XML Formats let other non-Microsoft data be stored in the file. However, this increases the chance that metadata and other information will inappropriately be shared with others. To find out how to protect yourself, see how to remove hidden data and personal information from Office documents.

And if you haven't heard of metadata before or are looking for more information about legal and ethical issues, check out The Posse List's E-discovery: Metadata grows in legal significance. - K

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With thousands of law blogs, trying to find and read the best of the best posts on a regular basis can be daunting. But every week, the hosts of the Blawg Review, a blog carnival, do just that. They read, examine, and extract the week's best and then put them together in one post, usually with a theme. For example, this week Scott Greenfield of Simple Justice hosted the Blawg Review: #223 - Sphincter Rules. (Due to unusual circumstances, he wasn't exactly prepared or happy about being volunteered.)

To follow the Blawg Review, you can subscribe with a news reader, follow blawgreview on Twitter, sign up to have it e-mailed to you, or check back at Blawg Review each Monday. You can also help the hosts out and submit a post that you'd like to see included in the Blawg Review.

Not interested in law, but want to know where to find blog carnivals on other topics? Check out Blog Carnival, where you'll find carnivals that cover everything from taxes to math teachers to cats. - K

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Legal Services of Northern California announced today that the approved final evaluation report for The Findability Project is now available. (More information about The Findability Project is available from Technola at LSNC Launches "Findability Project" and LSNTAP Roundtable on Findability and the Google Search Paradigm.) - K

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My second session, Your Blog Is Great, Get People to Know About It, covered enough information to fill an entire track. Since I can't explain the topic well in a short post, I've found good articles that cover the two main points: search engine optimization and social media and network sites.

Search Engine Optimization

• Search Engine Optimization 101 from MarketLeap. A series of articles about the core concepts around search engine optimization (SEO). (Courtesy of the Pro Bono Net SWEB Support site, which has a great section on Search Engines and marketing, but you have to be a member to access it.)
• 5 Quick Steps to Better SEO and 5 More Quick Steps to Better SEO. Two blog posts from Allyson Kapin and Jarrod Seltzer on care2's frogloop blog.

Social Media and Network Sites

• Using Online Social Networks to Build Buzz, Community & Support for Your Cause. Slides from a presentation by Jonathan Colman, Scott Goodstein, and Heather Holdridge.
• How to Show Your Soul and Engage Users on Twitter from TwiTip.

A few resources to try to cover the large amounts of content covered in the this session. Definitely topics that need more attention in the future. - K

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My first BlogHer breakout session, Owning Your Expertise, was an interactive session that fell a little short because of the large number of people that attended. However, I did take away a few key bits.

• Women write only 10 to 20 percent of newspaper opinion pieces, but they are prolific bloggers. The Op-Ed Project works with women, nonprofits, corporations, universities, and others to teach women to submit more op-eds.
• To get attention from media and other influencers, you need to figure out what you are an expert in and let them know.
• Use the sentence "I am an expert in [specific subject] because [reasons] to craft a good statement of why these influencers should listen to you.
• Don't feel like you are bragging. Sharing knowledge is good.

So what does this mean for legal aid/pro bono blogs? Public interest lawyers are smart, well-spoken people. You are experts in many diverse legal issues: divorces, parenting plans, debt collection, public benefits, health care, and so on. The media covers these topics daily. Why shouldn't they be using public interest advocates as their experts? The media gets good information, and your organization gets some publicity and attracts new donors, volunteers, and clients. - K

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Sitting in a hotel ballroom with 1,400 people, most of them amazing women who either blog or want to blog? Attending a conference with sponsors who have brought awesome swag and cater to attendees because they make household financial decisions? Yes, well, welcome to BlogHer 2009. Find me and introduce yourself!

If not, well, I expect to be posting updates on Technola and on Twitter through the day and part of tomorrow. You can also follow the gigantic stream of tweets from the conference by searching Twitter. - K

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LSNTAP's Executive Roundtable in June focused on developing social networking policies. Featuring Stephanie Kimbro, owner of Kimbro Legal Services, a North Carolina virtual law office, and recent recipient of the ABA James I. Keane Memorial Award for her excellence in delivering legal services online, and Will Hornsby, staff counsel at the American Bar Association, this session was a good introduction to developing policies and provided an excellent starting point for programs thinking about social networking policies.

Since that session, I've found several additional policy resources:

• American Red Cross Social Media Strategy Handbook and American Red Cross Personal Communications Guidelines. Wendy Harman, American Red Cross Social Media Manager, shared her draft handbook with the public. These guides are based on the work of several large organizations, such as Microsoft, IBM, and Sun. (Beth Kanter talks about Wendy's materials here.)
• Social Media Policies and Procedures (Part 1). Daniel Hoang's post discusses policies briefly and then provides a sample policy and extensive list of resources.
• Enterprise: List of 40 Social Media Staff Guidelines and Social Media Policy Examples. Two long lists of social media policies. The Enterprise list also has some nice commentary on what to look at when examining policies. [Thanks to Kevin O'Keefe for pointing these pages out.]

So, does your organization have a policy in place? If so, please share. I know that LSNTAP is looking for more examples. And if your organization is working to put a policy in place, I'd love to hear what you want, or don't want, to see in that policy. - K

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The Pro Bono Partnership of Atlanta, a nonprofit that connects transactional lawyers with nonprofit organizations in need of pro bono legal services, is hosting a webinar on "Legal Issues of Social Networking" on July 15 at 10 am Eastern. This session will cover the legal risks associated with social networking and look at how organizations can draft and enforce policies that help to minimize these risks.

You can register for this session by July 10, 2009 or tune in to the live webcast at GeorgiaAdvocates.org. - K

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On Thursday, July 2nd at 11 am PT / 2 pm ET LSNTAP will host a Roundtable with Brian Lawlor, Regional Counsel for Legal Services of Northern California, who will discuss "Findability and the Google Search Paradigm: Integrating Search as a Organizational Solution." This discussion is based on LSNC’s Findability Project, an effort to integrate (and document) enterprise search in a large nonprofit legal services organization. Registration details are availble here and Brian's presentation is available here. -M

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Did you know that when you search the Web with Google, you are searching only about 0.2 percent of the Web. The remainder, more than 66,800 terabytes, is part of the Deep Web, or the part of the Web that search engines haven't indexed. (For reference, 1 terabyte is 50,000 trees made into paper and printed.)

So what does the Deep Web contain? According to Wikipedia,

• Dynamic content: pages that are created on the fly.
• Unlinked content: pages that aren't linked to and don't link to any other content.
• Private Web: password-protected pages.
• Contextual Web: pages that display different content depending on who or what you are.
• Limited access content: pages protected by CAPTCHAs or other technical methods.
• Scripted pages: pages that are accessible only through links produced by JavaScript.
• Non-HTML/text content: content in file formats not handled by search engines.

A lot of researchers are examining how to access this invisible content. Last week, one potential contender in the race to expose the Deep Web launched, DeepDyve. This search engine is using techniques used in the field of genomics, an approach that differs significantly from Google's approach. The company behind the search engine is marketing it as a research engine. So while it works for searches that bring up movie times, hockey game scores, and so on, DeepDyve aims to help researchers do better research.

Unfortunately, I don't do a lot of scholarly research, so I turned to the first academic that I thought of--my Dad--and found that he is cited in Wikipedia. But that doesn't really tell me whether DeepDyve is better at research than Google. So I'd love to hear from some of you who do more research than I do. What do you think of DeepDyve? - K

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Today (June 24) the Hawaii Access to Justice Commission held their 2009 Access to Justice Conference (PDF). Chief Justice John T. Broderick of the New Hampshire Supreme Court was the keynote speaker. Because of David Raatz, an attorney in attendance, you can see the highlights without the trip to Hawaii.

A few highlights:

• Courts aren't meeting their obligations because of failure to use tech & make other changes - NH Chief Justice Broderick #AccesstoJustice
• It's not people's fault that they can't afford atty. Judges/attys need to speak about problem - NH Chief Justice Broderick #AccesstoJustice
• Widening justice gap won't close on its own. Everyone from White House on down should help. - NH Chief Justice Broderick #AccesstoJustice

To see the rest, search Twitter for #AccesstoJustice. - K

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I’ve recently started using Format Factory to convert video, audio and images and have been really impressed with the results. It supports conversions to (and from) all popular formats, including:

• Video: MP4/3GP/MPG/AVI/WMV/FLV/SWF
• Audio: MP3/WMA/AMR/OGG/AAC/WAV
• Image: JPG/BMP/PNG/TIF/ICO/GIF/TGA

While the user interface isn’t perfect, it’s fairly intuitive and has worked flawlessly for me so far (which is more than I can say for any other converter that I have used). Format Factory is available free for download here. -M

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Recognizing that nonprofits have integrated teleconferences, videoconferences, and webinars into their daily routine,  The Goodman Center, which helps nonprofit organizations improve their communications with funders, stakeholders, and the public, surveyed the community to find out the good, the bad, and the ugly about these events. The result: Dialing In, Logging On, Nodding Off: The True Costs of Teleconferences, Videoconferences and Webinars, a report that suggests the nonprofit community has a lot of not-so-good meetings, trainings, and conferences.

The Goodman Center is sponsoring a webinar on July 17, 2009 to review the results of their report. Registration information is available on The Goodman Center's website. - K

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In April, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati sent the legal community into a tizzy when they launched a tool that lets the public generate contract term sheets. But today, the New York State Unified Court System and Legal Assistance of Western New York (LawNY) topped WSGR's term sheet generator.

Justice Fern A. Fisher, Director of the New York State Courts Access to Justice Program and C. Kenneth Perri, Executive Director of Legal Assistance of Western New York announced the release of three new computer programs that will help New Yorkers navigate the legal system. These DIY (Do It Yourself) programs ask straight-forward questions to help users prepare individualized court forms and instructions. (Read the full press release.)

Now self-represented litigants can get help filling out a Support Modification Petition for Family Court, the Small Estates Affidavit for Surrogate's Court, and the Adult Name Change Petition for Supreme Court online.

As a warning, I am a bit biased. I've been working with the New York Courts on this project for almost three years as part of my day job at Pro Bono Net. So I'm particularly excited to see it launch! - K

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Interested in learning more about social network sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn? Then sign up for one or more of these free sessions about social networking and social media.

• On June 10, 2009 at 2:00 pm Eastern, Care2 is hosting "Share the Story: High Impact Ways to Integrate Social Media into Your Advocacy and Fundraising Campaigns." This session will demonstrate at how nonprofit programs can integrate social media into their campaigns by examining the lessons learned by World Society for the Protection of Animals- Canada. Register for Care2's session here.
• On June 11, 2009 at 2:00 pm Eastern, LSNTAP is hosting an Executive Roundtable on social networking policies. This session is aimed at Executive Directors and Administrators. Find out how to participate on the LSNTAP site.
• On June 17, 2009 at 2:00 pm Eastern, NTEN is hosting "You're All a-Twitter," a free webinar about Twitter that will walk through the basics of what it is and how to use it. Register on the NTEN site. - K

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Want to help the Online Document Assembly Project win $5,000 cash and $25,000 worth of donated software in Microsoft's and TechSoup's Show Your Impact contest? Yes? Great!

It's easy. You just need to vote for the "Increasing Access to Justice" entry in Microsoft's and TechSoup's Show Your Impact contest by June 10, 2009. Here's how:

1. Go to Microsoft Impact Story Contest.
2. Register or log in.
3. Vote for "Increasing Access to Justice" in the Transformations to Maximize Impact category.
4. Vote for at least 2 other programs. (Preferably, your two other choices are in other categories.)
5. Cast your ballot.
6. Tell your friends to vote.

The first round of judging is by the public, or more specifically any individual from a Microsoft donation recipient organization, TechSoup or Microsoft, and any of those individuals' friends, family or contacts. (If you are reading this post, you qualify.) To move on to the second round, the "Increasing Access to Justice" entry needs to be one of the top nine voted-for entries in the Transformations to Maximize Impact category. So please vote!

Need to know more about Online Document Assembly, the project that consumes my days, before you vote? Check out the profile that The Chronicle of Philanthropy published in February.  -K

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While researching and writing an article on social network sites and social networking, I was reintroduced to the research of danah m boyd, a Researcher at Microsoft Research New England and a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. danah has spent a lot of time investigating the intersection of technology and society, teen use of social network sites, and social media. I highly recommend reading the article that she wrote with Nicole Ellison, "Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship," which is an interesting introduction to social network sites. Almost immediately after reading that article, I added her blog, apophenia, to my reader. (And for those of you who think that I've forgotten to capitalize her name, I haven't.)

Her latest post, is Facebook for old people?, reflects on teens and their choice of social network sites. danah has some great observations, but what struck me was her thoughts about socioeconomic background and preferred site. Simply put, danah suggests that youth from lower- and higher-income communities choose different social network sites to use.

So what does this mean for organizations that work with low-income families? Obviously, it gives us some direction about where we need to be doing outreach. But is there more than that? Does this raise other issues that we need to think about when incorporating these sites into our work? - K

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This week LSNTAP announced that they will be hosting a GIS Mapping webinar series starting in June 2009. For more information, check out the LSNTAP website. - K

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Common Knowledge, one of the organizations behind the recently released Nonprofit Social Network Survey Report, is hosting a series of free webinars on social networking.

• May 15, 2009: Top Five Secrets for Fundraising on Social Networks
• May 20, 2009: Build a Big Brand Online Using Social Networks: Marketing & Communications Strategies
• May 27, 2009: Social Networks for Health Nonprofits
• June 3, 2009: Twitter for Nonprofits

All webinars will be held at 2:30 PM EST/11:30 AM PST. - K

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For those of you who won't be attending the Equal Justice Conference next week, there are several ways to follow the conference on Twitter. The first is to follow 2009 EJC (@09EJC), a Twitter profile created just for the conference. You can also follow the hashtag #09EJC, which participants will be adding to their Twitter posts from the conference (here's an RSS feed for the search, which you can drop directly into your RSS reader). Finally, Technola will be covering technology related sessions on its Twitter feed (@technola). -M

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The annual ABA/NLADA Equal Justice Conference will take place next week (May 14-16) in Orlando, FL, and as always there will be lots of innovative technology sessions to choose from. Below are a few sessions that I'll be a panelist on:

Making Recovery From Disasters Easier Through Technology
(Thursday, May 14th 9:45am-11:15am) Presenters: Matthew Burnett, Mike Monahan, Eve Ricaurte and Juliet Choi

The Future Is Here Now: What Emerging Technologies Can Do For Your Mission
(Friday, May 15th 8:45am-10:15am) Presenters: Shirley Williams, Joyce Raby, Matthew Burnett and Liz Keith

50 New Tech Tips To Survive Hard Economic Times
(Friday, May 15th 10:30am-Noon) Presenters: Rachel Medina, David Bonebrake, Glenn Rawdon and Matthew Burnett

Other technology sessions that you should consider attending include:

Not Just A Pretty Interface: A2j Author® Is Changing How We Achieve Justice Through Technology
(Thursday, May 14th 1:30 - 3:30 pm) Presenters: John Mayer, Rachel R. Medina, Eve Ricaurte, Ronald W. Staudt

Creative Uses of Technology in Addressing the Foreclosure Crisis
(Friday, May 15th 2 pm-3:30 pm) Presenters: David Bonebrake, Jason Vail and Liz Keith

Statewide Websites: A Showcase Of Outstanding Client, Pro Bono And Advocate Features
(Friday, May 15th 2 pm-3:30 pm) Lisa Colpoys, Michael Genz, Vince Morris, Ken Perri, Glenn Rawdon

Technology-Enabled Self Help Centers
(Friday, May 15th 3:45pm-5:15pm) Presenters: Carol Austin, Michelle Hopkins, Claudia Johnson and Liz Keith

For the full agenda, visit the EJC website. If you plan to attend, be sure to join us for a session or stop by the Pro Bono Net booth in the exhibitor area and say hi! -M

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Do you want to blog but don’t know if you are able to make the time commitment? Or do you want to attract more readers to your new blog? Maybe you should try guest blogging.

Guest blogging is a common practice in the blogosphere. When guest blogging, you post an article on someone else’s blog or someone else posts an article on yours. Either way, the idea is to expose readers to new ideas and gain a few more readers for your blog.

Before you offer to guest blog on someone’s site or ask someone to guest blog on yours, read the other person’s blog. Start out by writing thoughtful comments on his or her blog. This should make the blogger notice you. After all, it’s Foley’s First Rule of Building a Relationship with a Blogger:

(If commenting doesn’t work, use Foley’s Second and Third Rules, too.)

Once you’ve started to build rapport with a blogger, reach out and see if the blogger is interested. You want to have a few topics to suggest that are appealing and relevant. For example, you wouldn’t offer to blog about Michigan’s new technology project on the TRLA Press Center. However, you might approach Taxgirl or another tax law blogger about contributing posts on low-income tax issues or tax resources for the public. (But this might even be off-base for some tax law blogs. That’s why you need to do your research first.)

For more information about guest blogging, read “How to be a Good Guest Blogger” and ProBlogger’s other articles about guest blogging, which describe what you’ll be expected to do.

Are you ready to try guest blogging now? Two law blogs recently announced that they are looking for guest bloggers: Legal Blog Watch and Law Librarian Blog. - K

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This video, which features a client of Montana Legal Services Association telling the story of how a MLSA attorney, Amy Hall, helped keep her and her children safe from abuse is a great example of the effective use of video by a legal services organization. It's simple, straightforward and powerful.  To learn more about how your organization can use video to support your work, see Sharing Your Story Social Media Style, part of the We Are Media Project by the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN). -M

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Equal Justice Works, an organization mobilizing the next generation of public interest lawyers, just launched a YouTube Channel. This channel features several videos, including short spots where Equal Justice Works Fellows describe their projects. Take a few minutes to watch. The variety of programs and areas that they represent is amazing. - K

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The Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN), Common Knowledge, and ThePort Network, Inc. have just released the Nonprofit Social Network Survey Report, which is based on a survey of 929 nonprofits conducted in March 2009.  Highlights include:

• 74.1% of respondents have a presence on Facebook, the most popular social network among nonprofits;
• 31% of nonprofits have one or more social networking communities on their own web site;
• 80% of respondents said that they commit at least one-quarter of a staff position to social networking; and
• For the most part, social networks have not proven to be effective at fundraising (see the recent Washington Post article on this topic).

The full report can be downloaded here. [Note that downloading the report requires you provide your name, organization and email address.] -M
 

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Today ABA Site-tation reported that the popular wiki solution, PBwiki (now PBworks), has launched a Legal Edition. Specific features for the legal profession include the ability to organize legal research, manage cases, and set up client extranets, deal rooms, and law firm intranets. -M

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Eric Schultheis, Staff Attorney at the Race Equity Project of Legal Services of Northern California, just posted this excellent presentation on using maps and GIS in public interest advocacy. - M

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The Chicago Lawyer recently published a nice article on the work of Professor Ron Staudt, director of Chicago-Kent’s Center for Access to Justice & Technology. Among its other projects, the Center for Access to Justice and Technology is behind A2J Author, which allows advocates to easily build guided online interviews for pro-se users to generate court forms or find answers to their legal problems. -M

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TechSoup is offering a free free webinar, "Basics for Beginners: Getting Started with Social Media Tools," on Wednesday, April 15th at 9 AM PST.  The presenters are John Haydon, social media coach for nonprofits, and blogger and internet marketing consultant, Chris Garrett. To learn more about this session (and register), visit http://www.techsoup.org/go/web2basics

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Internet for Everyone has just released a new report, Wired Less: Disconnected in Urban America, which uses multimedia and storytelling to highlight the urban digital divide. -M

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YouTube now lets nonprofit organizations that are part of its Nonprofit Program include a call-to-action on their videos, like the one seen in the image from the charity: water video below. (Full video available on YouTube.)

Example of YouTube Call To Action

This tool lets nonprofits ask people to act on what they are seeing, such as asking them to make a donation. Both idealist.org's post "YouTube's New 'Call to Action'" and Frogloop's post "YouTube Adds Call To Action Tool For Nonprofit Videos" discuss using this tool for fundraising.

However, this tool may have other interesting applications for legal aid and pro bono programs. For instance, in the video "Filing a Pro Se Answer to a Lawsuit," Arkansas Legal Services Partnership could point people to additional legal information, send them to an online application for legal aid, or direct them to online automated documents that help them fill out the answer. Alternatively, a pro bono program might use the tool to recruit new volunteer attorneys. For example, videos, like this video from Weil Gotshal Pro Bono Program, could include a link to the National Pro Bono Opportunities Guide.

Is your program one of the many legal aid programs on YouTube? Are you using a call to action yet? If so, how are you using it and what do you think of it so far?  - K

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Think Facebook and Twitter are just for people who have a lot of extra time? Perhaps Online Social Networks: Making Your Connections Work for You will change your mind. This article from the Immigration Advocates Network March 2009 Newsletter outlines existing opportunities for members to network with others interested in immigration issues; however, it is also a great introduction to how social networks can be used to increase communication and collaboration. - K

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Just a quick post to point out that Common Craft has posted another technology-related video. This time they cover Computer Software in Plain English. More information about Common Craft is available in these previous posts: What's Under the Hood? and Technology, Plain English, and Whiteboards. - K

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For those of you who have checked the About page, it should be no surprise that for the last week or so, I've been watching the flooding in North Dakota closely. Fortunately, my family and friends are safe and relatively warm and dry; however, with the Red River of the North headed towards a crest of 43 feet (by-passing the record crest of the 1897 flood) and with residents' too recent memories of the 1997 flood and Grand Forks' destruction, they are understandably anxious and worried.

From a distance of over 1500 miles, I've been incredibly impressed with the area's ability to get information out and recruit volunteers. Like most places, North Dakota currently has a group of people who have thoroughly integrated technology into their lives, a group that hasn't, and a group that is somewhere in between, so the effort to get information out has been a combination of traditional and new media efforts. In addition to round-the-clock news coverage from the Fargo Forum, KFGO, and KVLY TV, technology played a key role. A few of the tools that are being used and that might interest Technola readers:

• Twitter: People are reporting the current flood stage and other current news. (Search hashtags: #flood09, #fargoflood, #redriver, #NDfloods.)
• A Facebook group is a place to connect with others and gather information.
• Mapping is being used to create a mashup of flood announcements, display areas being evacuated, and identify areas in danger at different flood stages.
• Automatic telephone notifications are being used to round up volunteers and notify people who need to evacuate.
  
• YouTube videos are being used to instruct people on how to build a sandbag dike and show what sandbagging is like.

People unfamiliar with the North Dakota landscape may enjoy this great series of photos from USGS pointed out on Twitter by Steve Drees. They document the rise of the river in Grand Forks, North Dakota, which is about 100 miles north of Fargo. You can also check out the Fargo SkyCam to see the level of the Red River to see the current level there.

Although I feel like we have to mention it too often, free legal resources exist for people recovering from disasters at National Disaster Legal Aid site. In addition, ABA LTRC posted a round up of disaster resources yesterday. - K

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M & R Strategic Services published a case study of Oxfam International's end-of-the-year online fundraising campaign: Weak Economy, Strong Campaign. While Oxfam's resources, even in lean years, are more than the typical legal aid organization, this case study outlines some best practices that organizations of any size can use in their fundraising campaigns.

• Focus on one major problem to let people know why they need to give to your organization now. This is different than reminding the community that your organization is a worthy cause. Your potential donors need to know why to support your organization instead of the many other worthy organizations that are also asking for money.
• Let people know what will happen if they don't give. Oxfam included language in their appeal that said, "If we don’t hit our goal, programs may be scaled back." Legal aid organizations are already scaling back. When you ask people for money, tell them that if they don't give, more programs may be scaled back, and how many more low-income individuals may not have access to lawyers.
• Test various messages to see which works best. Instead of just guessing what language will convince people to donate, test it and see what language actually works. (This is often called "split testing" or "A/B testing." ) You may be surprised.
• Start planning your campaign now. Don't wait until just before it needs to be implemented.
• Use a short video to appeal to emotion. According to M & R, "Make me laugh, make me cry, or go home."

For me, the most important point that this case study makes is "ask." Your donors are out there. You need to remind them why your organization is important and then ask for their help. - K

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TechSoup is hosting a free webinar on Thursday March 26^th at 9:00 a.m. (Pacific) on “Mobile Technology for Advocacy and Activism.” This session will explore how to use mobile technology, including voice, SMS, applications, and the mobile web, for activism and engagement. You can register online here. -M

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My very first post to Technola was about drop.io, a free online collaboration and file sharing tool that I used to host files that were too large to email. Since that time, drop.io has introduced so many new features and become so central to my productivity that it warrants another post. Here it is.

At its most basic, drop.io allows you to post files online in a password protected space with different levels of permissions. For example, I might create a drop for a project working group so that I can share monthly call notes and project status reports, password protect this “drop,” and allow members of the group to download, add, or delete content from the drop. But that’s just the beginning. Each drop also comes with a conference call number, which I could use to host my monthly calls, and a unique email address, fax number and voicemail number, which members can use to forward relevant emails, leave a voicemail or send fax transmissions to the drop. Additionally, each drop now comes with built-in chat, and can be integrated with Firefox, Facebook and Twitter. You can easily archive a drop in a zip file and syndicate your content using RSS, email alerts and SMS. A paywall can also be setup if you want to charge for content in your drop.

Whether you’re interested in a simple online file sharing tool or a more complex collaborative workspace, drop.io is a fantastic solution. Each free drop is limited to 100 MB, but you can upgrade for $10 a GB per year. Drops can also be customized using templates that they provide or custom colors and you can even upload your logo. To learn more about drop.io, I would encourage you to watch their "how to" video and check out these sample uses. They also provide a list of features here, and a blog (which, along with the rest of their site, uses drop.io) here. -M
 

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I’ve long been a fan of Alltop, the self-described “online magazine rack of popular topics,” so I was thrilled that Technola was recently added to the law category (scroll down … down … a little further … further … there). Not only does this mean that we can display a clever Alltop badge (left) on our site, it also means that we can put Technola front and center in our custom Alltop aggregator, which includes many of the nonprofit, law and technology blogs that we love. As with most things we do, it’s a work in progress, but hopefully it will inspire you to build your own. If you do, be sure to share it with us; we’d love to see what you’re reading. -M

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Nicholas Gaffney provides a slew of free web tools in his Marketing the Law Firm Newsletter article, "Free Web Tools for the Way You Work." While many of the apps on this list will be familiar to you, Gaffney offers some excellent suggestions on PR and collaboration tools as well as advice on how lawyers and law firms can use these tools effectively. -M

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If you were to ask me about Montana's environmental disasters, the first place that I'd likely tell you about is Berkley Pit, a gigantic hole created by the Anaconda Company's open-pit mining of copper. It's the natural story to tell. In fact, it's become a tourist attraction - even The Daily Show has visited.

But unfortunately, as horrible as Berkley Pit is, it isn't the worst environmental disaster that has happened in Montana. That honor belongs to the area surrounding Libby, Montana, where W.R. Grace and Company mined vermiculite laced with asbestos until 1990. In this area, around 1,200 people have developed asbestos-related illnesses, and since 2000, the EPA has spent $120 million to try to clean it up. W. R. Grace and Company allegedly knew that asbestos was being released since 1956, and in 2005 the US Department of Justice began criminal proceedings against the company. Finally, just last month, the criminal trial began.

While this case is incredibly interesting for many reasons, coverage of the trial is especially noteworthy. In a joint project between the Schools of Law and Journalism, students from the University of Montana are following the trial and publishing their notes and analysis on a blog as well as live-tweeting the trial on Twitter. Their coverage provides amazing access to the courtroom. They are telling the story in a professional, yet engaging, way and in my opinion, it is much more fascinating than any episode of Law & Order.

For more background information about Libby and its vermiculite mine, read the Wikipedia articles on Libby, Montana and W.R. Grace and Company, and watch the documentary Libby, Montana. All of these sources cover the issues much better than I can in this blog post. And check out the U of Montana's coverage of the trial. It's a nice example of how new media platforms can open courtroom doors and educate the public about the justice system. - K

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Mike Monahan, Director of Pro Bono at the Georgia State Bar,  pointed out this map of unemployment rates from the New York Times. A great example of mapping, the images tell a terrifying story, especially when you look at the one year change in unemployment in rural areas and manufacturing centers. - K

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You can now find photos from the LSC TIG Conference on the LSC TIG Conference Facebook page, which is available to everyone whether or not you are a Facebook member. Conference attendees can relive all of the great memories, but more importantly, those of you who couldn't attend have a chance to put faces together with the voices and names that you've heard over and over again. A few people that readers of Technola might want to check out: AJ Tavares, the techie behind I-CAN! E-File; Ed Marks, who understands how tech and mission should fit together; Glenn Rawdon, beloved technology grant funder; and, of course, my former and current deputy directors, the Al(l)isons. - K

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The Legal Aid Group on LinkedIn is growing by leaps and bounds and discussions on a wide range of topics are beginning to take off. To participate in this group, you must first join LinkedIn. Once you're a member, visit the Legal Aid Group page to register (or go straight there if you're already a LinkedIn member). Also, be sure to join Kate and me while you're there!  -M

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The Center for Housing Policy, KnowledgePlex, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation and the Urban Institute have just launched tools that allow users to create customized maps on Foreclosure-Response.org, a new website that we highlighted a few weeks back. Powered by DataPlace, these tools allow users to identify areas in which to target foreclosure resources and efforts. -M

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As several of our recent posts suggest, Twitter is gaining popularity among legal aid and public interest advocates and organizations. For those who haven't yet experimented with Twitter, or are just getting started, here's a short introduction that provides some background, tools and resources for using Twitter effectively.

Getting Started

To get started using Twitter, go to the Twitter sign-up page and create an account. Even if you're not planning to use Twitter right away, it's a good idea to reserve a user name for your organization. (For example, twitter.com/legalaid has already been taken by a website (legalaid.com) that trades on our community's good name to generate affiliate revenue by sending visitors to commercial websites.) Your user name (or what goes after the twitter.com/ and becomes your profile's landing page) is limited to 15 characters, but should ideally be much shorter than that.

After you have registered, you'll need to make a decision about who to follow. A good starting point is to follow folks already using Twitter in our community, as they are likely to have followers who are interested in what you have to say. It's also worth noting that nothing that you do with your Twitter account is really permanent. You can un-follow as easily as you can follow, and delete any messages that you post (although users that follow you may see them before you can delete them). While the other users that you follow will display on your profile, their messages (or "tweets") will only appear to you. As for your own messages, they must be 140 characters or less.

You can also choose whether you want your account to be public or private. If it's public, anyone can see what you post and you're more likely to attract followers. If it's private, only folks that you approve will be able to see your messages. (For example, @technola and @accesstojustice are public because we want anyone who is interested to be able to follow us, but my own personal profile @mjburnett is private because I want to have control over who sees my messages.)  In either case, the messages that you post will be "delivered" to all of your followers as soon as you post them. Indeed, this is what makes Twitter so powerful: it provides real-time content syndication to a group of people that are interested in what you have to say or what your organization is up to. To follow someone,  go to their profile and click "follow." Or, if their profile is private, click "send request" and wait for them to approve you.

Tools

Before going too much further, you should download one of three popular applications to help manage your Twitter account(s). If you are looking for a light, easy to use application I would suggest Twirl. If you need to manage multiple Twitter accounts, or like the idea of integrating things with Firefox, try Twitterfox (this is what I use most of the time). Finally, if you aspire to be a Twitter power user, download TweetDeck (this is what Kate uses most of the time). If you want to tweet from your iPhone, I like the free version of Twitterrific (for BlackBerry there is TwitterBerry). You can also post and receive tweets via SMS on your cell phone.

Another set of twitter tools relate to posting automatically from a RSS feed, scheduling posts, and Twitter analytics. There are several good tools that do one or two of these things, and a great tool for doing all of them called HootSuite (formally Brightkit). If you have a RSS feed for your website or blog, Twitter is a fast and easy way to start driving qualified traffic to existing content. HootSuite allows you to easily syndicate your RSS feed content to one or more Twitter accounts (you can also use the popular Twitterfeed for this), as well as to control how often items are posted and to append text (i.e. "News:") to your post. It also tracks how many people click on your links and shortens your URLs so that they take up less characters.

If you're not ready for HootSuite or a similar application, you may want to consider the browser toolbar add-on for TinyURL, which will allow you to easily create short links to save precious characters (140 characters is less than you might think). Note also that some applications will automatically shorten long links.

Resources

There are a lot of good resources on Twitter out there, including Twitter's FAQ. Here are a few to get you started:

General:
Newbie's guide to Twitter (CNET)
Birds of a Feather Twitter Together (Wall Street Journal)
Beginner's Quick Start Guide and Tutorial to Using Twitter (zappos.com)
Twitter Etiquette (Twitter Fan Wiki)

Legal:
Tools and Tactics to Tweet Well on Twitter (LTN)
Legal News Feeds on Twitter (JDScoop)
145 Lawyers (and Legal Professionals) to Follow on Twitter (JDScoop)
Twitter Posts on Real Lawyers Have Blogs (Kevin O'Keefe)
The Pros & Cons of Twitter (Lawyer2Lawyer Podcast)
Tweet Sixteen: 16 Ways Lawyers Can Use Twitter (Robert Ambrogi)
Attorneys Flocking to Twitter for Marketing (Lawyers USA) -M

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Today the Pew Internet & American Life Project released a report on "Twitter and status updating." Below are a few highlights:

• As of December 2008, 11% of online American adults said they used a status updating service like Twitter;


• 19% of online adults ages 18 and 24, and 20% of online adults 25 to 34,  have used services like Twitter (use drops steadily after age 35);


• Twitter use is highly intertwined with the use of other social media and wireless technologies, although users consume news and own technology at the same rates as other internet users.

The full report is available here. -M

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I can't believe that I didn't realize this earlier! Or maybe I did and just forgot. NTEN and TechSoup Global are sponsoring a series of free social media trainings. Several already happened and were recorded and made available online, but the remaining two webinars happen this Wednesday and next Wednesday. - K

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Webcasts from the 2009 LSC Technology Initiative Grants (TIG) Program Conference are now available on IllinoisLegalAdvocate.org. -M

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Foreclosure-Response.org, a joint project of the Center for Housing Policy, KnowledgePlex, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and the Urban Institute, is scheduled to launch on February 18, 2008. The website, which is currently available, includes general information, a policy guide, a discussion forum, and maps/data on foreclosure and foreclosure prevention. Additionally, an online session entitled "Foreclosure-Response.org: A New Tool to Help Communities Prevent Foreclosures and Stabilize Neighborhoods" is scheduled for Wednesday, February 18 at 1:30 p.m. EST. -M

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ABA Site-tation, a blog that covers technology issues facing the legal community, recently re-launched at a new address and with an updated look. Check out the the great information it offers on security, online tools, and mobile computing. - K

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On my way to work yesterday I was listening to a fan reading of essays from Cory Doctrow's Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright and the Future of the Future, and was reminded of his great essay, "Metacrap: Putting the torch to seven straw-men of the meta-utopia." I was also reminded of the good work that our community does on standards, and that there are some great projects and resources that you may not be aware of. (Confession: At one time I coordinated the Legal Services XML Group with folks from LSNTAP, LSC, and ILAO and really enjoyed thinking about this stuff.)

• What is XML and Why Does it Matter? - This is a good introduction to XML for the poverty law community. A nice technical supplement to this is the Wikipedia entry on XML.


• The Power of XML for Poverty Law - Examples of technology projects in the poverty law community that have used LSXML standards to share information between systems (i.e. case management, statewide websites, and intake).


• National Subject Matter Index (NSMI) - The NSMI is a taxonomy of poverty law topics used to standardized the indexing of data. It is now updated using the National Subject Matter Index Tool.


• The XML Primer for Techies - A resource on the more technical aspects of XML, DTDs, and XSL.

If that's not enough to keep you busy, I would also recommend reading Clay Shirky's Ontology is Overrated: Categories, Links and Tags, which considers some of the challenges of classification by categories and hierarchies. -M

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TechSoup's Kami Griffiths will interview Colin Carpenter and Lori Pottinger from International Rivers about their flash video, "We All Live Downstream", which was chosen as runner up in the Adobe-TechSoup 2008 Show Your Impact contest. Learn about the process  for developing a flash video and how to produce a similar video for your organization. Register online here. -M

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If you weren't able to attend the Legal Services Corporation Technology Initiative Grants (TIG) conference that's taking place through Friday in Austin, TX, you can watch sessions live online thanks to Illinois Legal Aid Online (see the full schedule below).  You can also follow the conference on Twitter here. -M

Wednesday, Jan. 21:

8:30 am-9:00 am: Opening Remarks

10:45 am-12:15 pm: Project Management for Legal Services

2:00 pm-3:30 pm: Network Securities and Computer Use Policies

3:45 pm-4:45 pm: Meeting the Technology Need

Thursday, Jan. 22:

9:00 am-10:30 am: 2009 Google Apps and Microsoft Office Live

10:45 am-12:15 pm: PowerPersuasion

2:30 pm-3:45 pm: You Never Get the Disaster You Want

4:00 pm-5:00 pm: Trying to Raise Money in this Economic Environment

Friday, Jan. 23:

9:00 am-10:00 am: Tools to Engage Court Leadership

10:15 am-11:00 am: NTAP'S Interactive Support Services

11:15 am-12:00 pm: The Essentials of TIG Project Evaluations and Reports

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On JDSupra's blog, JDScoop,  Adrian Lurssen profiles legal aid and non-profit legal organizations on Twitter in his latest effort to capture lawyers and legal professionals using Twitter. The post, inspired by today's New York Times article, Interest Rate Drop Has Dire Results for Legal Aid, also highlights nonprofit legal groups using JDSupra for online outreach, including Pro Bono Net and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.  -M

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Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project released a new report yesterday entitled "Adults and Social Network Websites," which explores how adults are using social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace.  Findings include:

• Adult internet users with a profile on a social network site have quadrupled in the last four years;


• Although the percentage of teens using social networks is higher, adults still make up the majority of social network users; and


• Younger adults are far more likely to use social networks than older adults.

The full report is available here. -M

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I wanted to highlight an excellent list of legal aid groups using social networking tools that Tom Winter of Community Legal Aid Services in Ohio posted to the comments for yesterday's post on new blogs and twitter profiles. It condenses a few blogs and twitter profiles that we have highlighted here in the past as well as a great list of legal aid groups on Facebook and MySpace. A hearty thanks to Tom for researching and collecting all of these in one place! -M

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I wanted to share a few recently launched legal aid blogs and Twitter profiles, which I hope represent a new trend in social media adoption for our community in 2009:

Blogs:

• Lawscape: One perspective on the legal landscape in rural America, by Mike Monahan
  


• Florida Civil Legal Update, by Jimmy Midyette

These blogs are authored by two remarkably similar folks, both experienced legal aid lawyers, technologists, and extraordinary Southern gentlemen.

Twitter Profiles:

• Illinois Legal Aid Online @ILAO (and a Facebook profile)


• Lone Star Legal Aid @LoneStarLegal

In addition to these examples, if your organization is considering launching a new blog see our list of legal aid blogs here. If you're considering Twitter, additional examples include @ImmAdvocates, @TRLA and @FarmwrkrJustice. -M

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An excellent overview of major e-discovery rulings in 2008 by Cecil Lynn III and Alexandra Hicks for Law Technology News. -M

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Earlier, I pointed out how to link to a specific page in a PDF document. Recently, Chris Brogan pointed out a similar trick for linking to a specific point in a YouTube video. You just add #t=xmys to the URL, where x is the minute and y is the second that you want to link to. For example, if you wanted to link directly to where Jennifer Baum, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society, is talking about her client's case in 2008 Legal Aid Clients, the URL would be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJbjG6wPmT8#t=3m9s. - K

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The topic of USB podcasting mics has recently come up on the LStech listserv and during a training that I did on podcasting with Liz Keith and David Bonebrake, so I wanted to share a few mics that Wired recently reviewed in its January 2009 issue:

• Alesis USB Mic Podcasting Kit (8 out of 10)
• Audio-Technica AT2020 USB (8 out of 10)
• Marshall Electronics MXL Studio 1 (7 out of 10)
• Blue Microphones Snowball (6 out of 10)

All of these except for the Blue Snowball are cardioid mics, so they record only what's in front of them. The Blue Snowball also has an omnidirectional polar pattern option, so you can record around the mic (if you are doing an interview with someone sitting across from you, for example).

Another mic that's not mentioned here is the Blue Snowflake, which is more compact and less expensive than the Snowball. In doing a little research for this post, I also noticed that Blue has a new portable iPod recording device called the Mikey, a USB converter and mic preamp that allows you to connect an XLR mic directly into your computer, and a nice video on getting started podcasting. -M

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In December 2008, Kate and I launched a Twitter profile to report news and information on access to justice issues in the United States and abroad. In less than a month, we've grown to almost 180 over 200 followers and have posted more than 200 updates. If you have a twitter account, you can follow @accesstojustice here. Alternately, you can subscribe to the RSS feed here. If you want to learn more about how attorneys and legal professionals are using twitter (and what they're saying), check out LexTweet, a great new service from Kevin O'Keefe (@kevinokeefe) and his crew over at LexBlog. -M

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For those of you who are catching up on your blog reading during the holiday lull, I've put together two lists of technola's top posts in order to make your job easier. The first list is simply the most popular posts based on the number of page views.

1. Podcasting 101
2. Free Friday: Web-Based Project Management
3. Free Friday: Census Data and LEP Seminar
4. Dangerous Websites
5. Free Friday: Mind/Concept Mapping Software
6. Firefox, Gimme My Memory Back!
7. Blog Action Day 2008: Share Your Thoughts
8. Online Tool to Help Simplify the Stimulus
9. Opportunities to Provide Legal Help to Veterans
10. Arkansas Does It Again

The second list is a bit more nuanced. After reading Beth Kanter's post, I used PostRank to measure how much readers engaged with each technola post (left comments, clicked on links, bookmarked post on del.icio.us, and so on). Then I identified the top posts.

1. BlogHer: Reflections on Live Blogging and Tweeting
2. Blog Action Day 2008: Share Your Thoughts on Poverty
3. Simplify Collaboration - Use a Wiki
4. NPR Launches New API
5. Technology, Plain English, and Whiteboards
6. Opportunities to Provide Legal Help to Veterans
7. Who is Hosting This?
8. 2008 EJC Materials Now Available Online
9. The Hippest Law Librarian on the Block
10. Commissioners Close Self-Help Center in San Antonio

Happy Reading! - K

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Yesterday, LifeHacker announced that Wikipedia launched its site for mobile devices. - K

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Continuing my report on the NLADA Annual Training Conference sessions . . .

Technology Planning 101 - Jim Dill, Kate Bladow, Glenn Rawdon, Kathleen Brockel
So yes, I was on this panel, but I didn't really talk that much. The summary of what I had to say? Don't leave your techies in a room by themselves to create your tech plan. Your plan needs to be based on your organization's strategic plan, and you need buy in from attorneys, paralegals, administrators, and so on. After I was through with that introduction, the good stuff started.

Jim Dill, the Director of Technology at the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network, talked about the statewide technology planning process in Pennsylvania. Less than a year old, his position was established to help the legal aid programs create and implement a statewide technology plan. Jim's initial goals have been to learn about the programs' existing infrastructures and needs and to help them to standardize platforms. After these initial steps, he hopes to help them to look at innovative initiatives that could be implemented on a statewide level. A few bits of wisdom that Jim provided the session attendees with:

• Check to see if your state government allows nonprofits to participate in their cooperative purchasing program. (Pennsylvania's program is called COSTARS.)
• Review your contracts with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) yearly. Programs may be able to save money by re-negotiating contracts.
• Don't sign a contract for T1 services for more than a year at a time. The price is likely to decrease, and you don't want to be stuck in contract if you could be paying less.
• Don't use consultants for strategic planning. Consultants are good for day-to-day tasks, but in most cases your mission is not their passion.

After some discussion and questions from the audience, Kathleen Brockel shared the results of the LSNTAP technology survey. A few points of interest:

• Programs spend the most on hardware and personnel. If the personnel line is low, it is usually made up by contracts for outside support.
• 99 to 100 percent of programs that responded have the security software necessary to protect their data, except in the case of instant messaging.
• Three-quarters of programs are using document assembly, and 46 percent of programs are using HotDocs.

If you want to check out more of the statistics, you can view Kathleen's slides on SlideShare.

Glenn was the closing act and discussed planning for document assembly projects. The summary--programs should be using document assembly. Get on the bandwagon. Unfortunately, I was watching for questions and confused looks and didn't take notes. I would recommend that you check out his slides, which are also on SlideShare. - K

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Yesterday, the Texas Supreme Court held a hearing on the state of legal services. In addition to a great opportunity to learn more about Texas' legal services community, this hearing was also an amazing example of how to include people who can't attend in person: Cynthia Martinez, the TRLA Communications Director, live-blogged the entire session, and the hearing was webcast live and recorded.  - K

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Yesterday, I mentioned that some clients have asked advocates to contact them by text message rather than by phone. Since not every advocate has a work cell and most advocates don't want to text clients from their personal number, I thought that I'd pass along an article from LifeHacker on how to send text messages with e-mail. And for those of you who need to brush up on common abbreviations so that you can decode the messages that your clients send back, check out this list. - K

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Law.com recently published an informative article on "How to Build a Better Law Blog," which includes a great list of tips for new law bloggers. -M

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Steven Nipper of the InventBlog is hosting a free webinar on online tool and trends on December 16 at noon Eastern. From the agenda, it looks like it will cover a variety of topics including social media, mobile technology, and what comes next. Justin Foster of Tricycle, Inc. will be the presenter. - K

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Just a heads up for those of you trying to develop media contacts. My Creative Team has developed a wiki of media outlets and journalists on Twitter, and another list is available from New Media Strategy. Check out the people who are local to your area. Chances are that if you follow them they'll follow you back because they are always looking for leads. And who knows? Maybe it will help you to get coverage of your next big project launch.  - K

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As you may have guessed, my Internet access was spotty at the NLADA Annual Conference. Neither the hotel nor NLADA provided Internet access in the conference rooms, and I didn't spend enough time awake in my hotel room to use the connection there. But I promise that I took lots of notes and will share them shortly. However, before I get to those posts, I wanted to mention the news that filled my feed reader while I was gone: legal aid is facing a funding crisis, and lots of people still need help. The topic wasn't a surprise--funding was a part of nearly every conversation and panel at the conference. What was a surprise was the number of articles. In addition to a national perspective from NPR's All Things Considered, there was coverage from eight states:

• California (Beringer awards $25,000 to Legal Aid),
• Connecticut (Legal Assistance for the Poor Takes a Hit, Legal Aid Agency Reaches Our for Help, Legal Aid Faces Layoffs, Layoffs Loom at Legal Aid,  Layoffs and Legal Aid, Hard Times for Legal Aid Agencies, Recession Cutting Legal Aid Services for the Poor)
• Massachusetts (Free Legal Help for Low-Income Residents Drying Up, MLAC Reducing Grants to Massachusetts Legal Aid Programs by 40 Percent)
• Montana (Ensuring the Promise of our Constitution)
• New Hampshire (Legal Aid Suffers Layoffs)
• Tennessee (Tenn. Bar Say More Lawyers Needed to Give Free Services, Bar Group Seeks to Broaden Free Legal Help)
• Texas (Bank Partners Up with IOLTA: Program to Use Money for Grants to Legal Aid Service Providers, Residents at rundown complex seek shelter before holiday)
• Washington (Economic Woes Threaten Legal Aid Nationwide)

But in the midst of this bad news, I did find a bright story. On Twitter, I was able to follow the progress of UberChick, who was reaching out to legal aid for help. (Posts: 11/20(1), 11/20(2), 11/20(3), 11/21(1), 11/21(2), and 11/26.) Seems that she was able to find an attorney to help her. It reminded me of what it feels like to be searching for help while trying to keep your world from falling apart.  (And she's not the only potential legal aid client on Twitter. Search on "legal aid" to see who else is out there.) - K

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The American Bar Association Legal Technology Resource Center recently posted a comparison of three major blogging platforms. - K

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It's more than halfway through November, and I've neglected to point out a very important fact: it's NTEN Member Appreciation Month. Members have the chance to win prizes, get discounts on tech-related products, and attend free webinars. A few items that you might be interested in:

• Podcasting 4+1 Webinar (Session materials and recording are available.)
• Ask the Expert - Andrew Turner on GIS (Session materials and recording are available.)
• 10 Tactics for Growing Your Online Community (Live on 11/20/2008 at 2 pm Eastern.)

All of these materials are free for NTEN members. Isn't it great to be loved? - K

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Illinois Legal Aid Online has just launched a wonderful new online video called Doing Justice: Stories from the Front Line of Legal Aid, which features candid interviews with front line legal aid lawyers in Illinois. More background on the project is available here. -M

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The American Immigration Law Foundation's Immigration Policy Center (IPC) has just launched a new blog called Immigration Impact. According to the IPC, "Immigration Impact was developed to help reshape the immigration debate in a way that will bring us closer to comprehensive immigration reform. The blog will provide thoughtful and rapid-response commentaries and insights on the latest news and events so that you can be up-to-date with what's going on with the immigration debate." -M

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An interesting article in Law Technology News by Ronald J. Levine and Susan L. Swatski-Lebson, which discusses "a social networking site user's right to privacy, an adversary's right to obtain information from that site and the admissibility of the information." -M

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Just a heads up--O'Reilly Media is hosting a free Twitter for Business webinar today, Thursday, November 13, at 1 pm Eastern. - K

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Foster Pepper, a Pacific Northwest law firm that has a history of serving Native American and Alaskan people, recently launched their first blog, Native American Legal Update. - K

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Last week, it's likely that you overlooked two interesting conversations that happened on the Internet. They weren't publicized and they were pretty spontaneous, but both point to the potential value of blogging for our community.

• Ken Montenegro started a conversation about cloud computing and what software people use to keep their data accessible on his LSNTAP blog.
• Mike Monahan started an impromptu conversation about access to justice and pro bono in rural areas on Twitter. Both he and Liz Keith had some great insights.

The good news: because these conversations are online and asynchronous, you haven't missed them. You can still react and share your thoughts. - K

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In "Attorneys Flocking to Twitter for Marketing," Lawyers USA reports that lawyers are using Twitter to network with potential clients as well as to improve their service delivery.  This article includes some interesting thoughts from both Robert Ambrogi and my co-blogger, Matthew Burnett. - K

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"Last Call," an interesting new iPhone app developed by the folks at Avvo, helps you calculate your blood alcohol level (based on the number and type of drinks you've had) and find a lawyer in case you are pulled over for driving while intoxicated. You can read more about it here and download the free app here. -M

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comScore, Inc. recently released a report that for the first time shows the demographics of iPhone owners. It reveals that "while 43 percent of iPhone owners earn in excess of $100,000 annually, the strongest growth in users is coming from those earning less than the median household income." Specifically, the report indicates that "iPhone adoption since June 2008 rose 48 percent among those earning between $25,000 and $50,000 per year and by 46 percent among those earning between $25,000 and $75,000. These growth rates are three times that of those earning more than $100,000 per year." As we've suggested in the past, mobile technology has enormous potential for delivering legal information and advice to low and moderate-income individuals. -M

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I love my right to vote! If you haven't voted yet or aren't planning on voting, stop what you are doing, go, and make me happy. (Come on, so far I've used two exclamation points in this post. That should tell you how happy it would make me.)

If you paid attention to this year's campaigns, you saw the important role that technology played, but if not, pay attention today. Technology is being used in new and exciting ways to make certain that people get to vote and help them to document their voting stories. A few examples:

• TwitterVoteReport.com: This site tracks voting experiences, including wait times. And you can even report your own experience.
• Voter Interview: Jill Foster used Utterli to interview a first-time voter about his experience, and YouTube has set up a site where you can post a video of your voting experience. (Two sites to help you create this content: NetSquared, which tells you how to use Utterli, and a link from blogdiva, which has some great tips about guerilla broadcasting with your cell phone.)
• VoterStory.org: This group is collecting voter complaints. They've created a widget that you can put on your website to help readers submit their complaints.

And I am certain that there are plenty more. Keep your eyes and ears open today, and you'll hear about them. If you do, please take a minute to highlight them in the comments below. - K

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Unless you are one of the lucky few in the access-to-justice community with a real document management system, there's a chance that you are still forced to come up with your own file names and put those documents in folders, like me. This not an easy task. If you look in my folders, at the top level you'll currently find files named "Hello.doc," "projects.doc," and "states.xls"--not particularly noteworthy names. I pity the person who has to go through my files if I get hit by a bus.

For those of you who struggle to name files appropriately like I do, check out Get-It-Done Guy's podcast on file naming conventions. He provides some great, easy recommendations to improve how you name files. - K

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In a recent podcast, Lisa B. Marshall, the host of The Public Speaker: Quick and Dirty Tips For Improving Your Communication Skills, covered a topic that trips up most attorneys at some point in their career--communicating with people who have different expectations for how conversations and communications should proceed. - K

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The Center of Excellence in Advocacy at Stetson University College of Law has developed a free online advocacy resource center for nonprofit and government lawyers, which provides excellent online trainings (video and slides) on pretrial, trial and appellate advocacy, as well as guest lectures and materials from conferences on topics related to trial advocacy. -M [Thanks, Mike!]

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The National Center for State Courts just released its 20th Anniversary Edition of Future Trends in State Courts, which includes an article on online document assembly by Kate Bladow and Claudia Johnson, as well as an article by Richard Zorza on a judicial curriculum and leadership package developed by the Self Represented Litigation Network. Other topics in this edition that may be of interest include website disability access, language access, cultural competency and several articles on court technology. -M

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The last time that I wrote about Common Craft I suggested that they start creating materials on "evictions, name changes, and orders of protection." Perhaps they saw that post and took my advice, because their most recent video is about phishing, a topic that states are beginning to cover on their public legal information websites. For example, check out the LawHelp/NY site, which has an entire section on Internet Fraud and includes a feed from Internet Crime Complaint Center that lists the latest Internet scams. - K

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Many of the 51 million people who have a disability don't vote. In fact, only 21 percent do. Some don't vote because they are busy, they forget, or they think that it doesn't matter - reasons why anyone might not vote. But people with disabilities can also be deterred by the fact that many polling places are inaccessible. Advocacy organizations have stepped up to ensure that this population has the right to vote, both in theory and in practice. Check out voting resources available from the National Disability Rights Network, the United Cerebral Palsy's Don't Block My Vote campaign, and the Center for an Accessible Society. Also, the Minnesota Disability Law Center put together a great video that explains why it is especially important for people who have a disability to vote. If you or someone you know has a problem voting, you can contact Election Protection ... and you can even use Twitter to report your problem! - K

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On October 13, 2008, I attended BlogHer DC: The Reach Out Tour. During that day, I tried my hand at live blogging and live tweeting (i.e. blogging and tweeting while the event happens). It was an interesting experience, and to help those who are considering live blogging or tweeting other events, I thought that I would share a few thoughts.

Live Blogging
Beth Kanter wrote that "live blogging takes a certain chutzpah and fearlessness." She's right. When you are live blogging, you can't stop to be concerned about every detail of grammar and spelling. Your typing and thoughts won't be perfect, but you've just got to get over it. You can always go back and clean your post up after the session. And for me, it's much easier to clean up a rough post than write a post from scratch. When I wait, there's a good chance I'll never write up the post.

I was a little worried that live blogging would be a distraction or that I'd miss parts of the presentation; however, instead of being distracted, I had to pay attention, synthesize the information, and explain it immediately. I was forced to stay engaged, which I hope will mean that I remember the key points better. And if I don't, I have better than normal notes that I can review. (I really wish that I would have taken up live blogging during college! )

Live Tweeting
Live tweeting is much easier than live blogging. It's a lot like taking notes, except that you are sharing them with other people. People can respond and ask you questions, whether they are at the conference or not. For people who are at the conference, this can be an amazing tool. Panelists are able to gauge the audience's interest level as well as take questions, and audience members can have their own backchannel conversations about the topic. (Beth Kanter and Jeremiah Owyang both have posts on how a backchannel can change a session.) Live tweeting is also a great way to include people who aren't at the conference. They are able to eavesdrop on the session and get answers to their questions. Participation and ideas aren't just limited to the select people who were chosen or could afford to attend in person.

I had a good experience live blogging and tweeting at BlogHer. It made me really wish that the legal aid and pro bono communities would integrate these communication streams into their conferences. The first step? Make Internet access available in the conference rooms. - K

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On October 31, 2008 at 11 am Pacific/2pm Eastern, I'll be discussing how the Immigration Advocates Network is using online media and social networking tools to engage advocates and increase communication and coordination in the immigrants' rights sector for a LSNTAP training on Creative Uses of Technology in Poverty Law. Other topics for this session include:

• Linking case management systems to document generators
• Call centers to connect pro bono attorneys with clients
• Online advice and representation platforms
• Litigation document management software
• Sharing pleadings with pro bono attorneys

To register for this free webinar, click here. Hope to see you there! -M

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For those of you who are equipped with iPhones, iPod Touch, or Safari/Chrome browsers, The Law Pod provides a great set of web apps for lawyers, including the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, Federal Rules of Evidence and U.S. Constitution. -M

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On Tuesday, October 21, 2008, Grassroots.org is hosting a free webinar on the Grassroots.org Toolbox. This session will offer an introduction to the free tools and services offered by Grassroots.org to enhance your nonprofit's web presence. Learn more and register to attend this webinar here. -M

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I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who joined us (and thousands of others) in our day-long discussion of poverty for Blog Action Day, and to urge you to take a moment to meditate on some of the responses posted by stellar advocates in the legal aid community who have taken seriously the idea that technology has the power to transform the lives of our clients, whether by providing staff with the tools that they need to be effective advocates or developing and implementing innovative technology to increase access to justice.

The responses that we received were inspiring: Claudia Johnson reminds us that "[p]overty can happen to anyone for any reason, sometimes by willful or accidental random acts," and urges us to "find solutions that lift all of us based on love and wisdom" and "use every tool at our disposal to banish it."  Molly French shares her experience living for a week on a food stamp budget and wonders what it would be like if she had no one to fall back on during hard times to help her through. Tony White challenges us to keep things real and challenge ourselves on a daily basis, to think globally and act from our hearts. And Madhu Lakshmanan provides eloquent insight based on her experience growing up in poverty in India, and challenges us to "step out of that numerical aggregated cocoon and talk to real people and their problems." Finally, Liz Keith shares the story of the story of the Grameen Bank, a microcredit program that started in Bangladesh in 1970s, as an example of a simple, grass-roots innovation that overturned conventional wisdom.

A couple of other reflections on poverty from the perspective of legal aid and public interest advocates include an insightful post on the Shriver Center's Blog, Step Forward, by the Center's president, John Bouman. Another excellent post was written by Robin Wheeler on her SC Access to Justice Blog. I hope that, in addition to reading the responses on technola, you'll also take some time to read these contributions to the dialog. While poverty can't be eradicated in a day, the fact that so many took a few minutes to read, write and reflect on poverty is a real accomplishment, and yet another step towards understanding the dynamics of poverty and potential solutions to this complex challenge. -M

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Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Today is Blog Action Day, and technola is one of over 9,000 12,800 blogs taking part in a global conversation about poverty. We want to hear what folks in our community have to say! Share your ideas, reflections, stories and favorite quotes on poverty in the comments below to take part in this critical discussion. - M & K

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Charlene Prince Birkeland of Yahoo spoke during lunch at BlogHer. She mentioned some great tips for increasing your blog's traffic, which I've summarized here.

---

Your readers are going to find your blog in a lot of ways - search engines, social media, statistics reports, and so on. You need to actively make certain that readers are engaged, and not turned off, by your site. You can do this in several ways.

• Make your site usable. You'll be better off with a simple and clean design. Everything should be no more than one click away.
• Target the right audience with fresh and interesting content. Be genuine. They'll know if you are posting just to be posting. If you see a spike in visits, pull those readers in by posting lots of new content.
• Build community. You need to be a part of the conversation. Make connections and remember to comment on other people's blogs. And respond to the comments that are posted on yours.
• Use social media to distribute your content. But select the avenues that will really help you. This area can take up a lot of time.
• Embrace search engine optimization best practices. You'll want to use keywords in your title and text (within reason) and to tag your posts and photos. For keyword research, try WordTracker Keywords suggestion tool.

While each of these areas can take a lot of thought, planning, and time, you can make the process as simple as you want to or have time for.  And don't obsess. Search engine optimization isn't the end goal. It's just one way to make your goal happen. - K

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Today, I'm at the BlogHer DC conference. After a bit of technical trouble, I'm online and will be attempting some live blogging later this afternoon, but if you just want to keep an eye on the real-time highlights, keep an eye on me at Twitter. - K

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The Northwest Justice Project just announced new online interactive court forms for pro se users to file a divorce petition with no minor children of the marriage. Future forms available on WashingtonLawHelp.org will include interviews for finishing your divorce, a domestic violence protection order and a demand letter for return of a rental security deposit. This work is funded by a grant from the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) and the Washington Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC). They use A2J Author, developed by the Center for Access to Justice & Technology (CAJT) at Chicago-Kent College of Law and the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI), LexisNexis's HotDocs Professional, and the LSC-funded national document assembly server (NPADO), a project of Pro Bono Net. -M

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Thanks to Periscope Gadget, you can now integrate Basecamp with your iGoogle homepage. More background on their blog here and a few screencasts here. -M

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Breakthrough, a human rights organization based in New York and the folks behind ICED -- I Can End Deportation (which we featured here), recently launched Homeland Guantanamos, an online game that highlights the deplorable conditions that immigrants face in detention. Other project partners include CAIR Coalition, Stop Prisoners Rape, Immigration Equality, Families for Freedom, Rights Working Group, and the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. For more on Homeland Guantanamos, read the New York Times coverage here. For more on immigrant detention, be sure to check out Detention Watch Network, a coalition of advocates working to address the immigration detention crisis. - M

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FreeRice.com, a website that helps you to improve your vocabulary while you provide food for the hungry, has been around for almost a year now. Supported by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the United Nations World Food Program, FreeRice.com has raised over 44 billion grains of rice, which is enough to provide over 2 million days worth of food for hungry people. It's a great example of how one website can have a powerful impact.

When I visited the site recently, I noticed that they had added additional subjects: world capitals, chemical symbols, and non-English languages (Spanish, German, Italian, and French). I suspect that for most legal aid attorneys, chemical symbols aren't particularly useful, but if you are working on improving any second or third languages, this is a great way to build vocabulary and to do some good at the same time. - K

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I was just browsing an interesting new anthology, Rebooting America, which includes forty-four essays "brimming with the hopes of re-energizing, reorganizing, and reorienting our government for the Internet Age," and came across a name that should be familiar to some of you. Included in the volume is an essay by Gene Koo called "Creating Humane Codelaw," which pulls from his experience as a statewide website coordinator at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, where he "became aware of a computer system called Beacon used by the MA Department of Transitional Assistance (aka "welfare") to distribute various benefits such as food stamps to Massachusetts residents." Gene goes on to describe how "software that executes law ("codelaw") presents a number of challenges to a democracy," and provide some ideas about how to ensure that codelaw "remains accountable to the people." Also included in the anthology are essays by Yochai Benkler, Newt Gingrich, Craig Newmark, Howard Rheingold, Clay Shirky, and David Weinberger. -M

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An interesting AP article on the recent Pew Internet and the American Life Survey, "Teens, Video Games and Civics." The survey found that ninety-seven percent of young respondents play video games. That's 99 percent of boys and 94 percent of girls, with little difference in the percentages among various racial and ethnic groups and incomes." Will the Wii be the great equalizer? Only time will tell, but for now my wife and I still have to travel all the way to Baltimore to visit Kate and her husband for our marathon Rock Band sessions. -M

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For those of you on Twitter or who are considering joining Twitter, I've created a Legal Aid and Pro Bono Pack on TwitterPacks. TwitterPacks contains lists of who is talking about what on Twitter. I've added quite a few people to the list, but if your name isn't there and it should be, go ahead and add it. A couple of new additions to the legal aid and pro bono community that you might not be aware of  - the Shriver Center and Immigration Advocates Network. - K

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When looking at software, it's hard to tell the difference between what's good or bad on first glance, and unfortunately, bad software is a lot like a bad haircut--it takes a long time to fix what only took only minutes to wreck.

Enter the Social Source Commons, which serves as a platform for social activists and advocates to list the software that they use to get their jobs done. Need software to help with IM? Social Source Commons lists 33 tools and lets you see who had added each of those tools to their "toolbox." You can also search by person to see what a specific person uses. For example, Beth Kanter (Beth's Blog) or Holly Ross (NTEN).

Don't find what you were looking forward on Social Source Commons? You can also check out Ohloh, which lists open source software that people are using and contributing to; Free Software Directory, which is a project of the Free Software Foundation and United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization that lists free software that runs under free operating systems; and Go2Web20.net, which lists Web 2.0 applications and services. - K

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I've always been a big fan of librarians. When I was younger, they would let me wander aimlessly through the stacks at Mayville State University, and they never said a word when I checked out a huge pile of books at the end of the day. However, I never necessarily thought of them as hip. (Note: I blame this on general librarian stereotypes, and the fact that to children of a certain age, adults are never hip.)

Last week at the Court Solutions Conference, I met a librarian that you couldn't help but call hip. Laureen Adams, from the Dougherty County Law Library, has taken the time to podcast so that the public has access to understandable legal information. Given the fact that she is the only staff person and is responsible for everything from watering the plants to reshelving books to helping patrons, this shows how dedicated she is and that she's thinking about how to incorporate new methods for providing the public with library services. Go, Laureen! - K

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Today is the official launch of the Self-Represented Litigation Network Court Leadership Package, a set of tools that judges, court administrators, self-help facilitators, and others can use to educate their court and state about innovations in self-represented litigation. Topics that are covered include

• Court Self-Diagnosis and Strategies for Getting a Court Moving (Including Funding Issues)
• Establishing and Operating Self Help Centers
• Designing and Modifying Physical Space for Access
• Establishing Justice Corps and Volunteer Programs
• Training and Supporting Clerks for Access
• Developing and Deploying Forms and Instructions
• Deploying Automated Forms for Access
• Setting Up Case Management for the Self-Represented
• Working with Judicial Leadership
• Courtroom Staffing and Services for Access
• The Court Role in Establishing and Supporting Discrete Task Representation
• Supporting and Integrating Law Library Services
• Distance Service Technology
• The Limited English Proficiency Challenge
• Developing Systems to Facilitate and Ensure Compliance with Court Orders

These tools are being launched at the National Center for State Courts' Court Solutions Conference. People who are attending the Self-Represented Litigation Track will be trained to use these tools and have the opportunity to interact with experts and learn more about each of the areas.

For those of you who won't be in Baltimore at the conference, the materials will be posted on the SelfHelpSupport.org website in the next couple of months. If you will be at the conference, find me. I'll be there and helping out in a variety of roles. - K

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The authors of The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell, have recently launched a companion blog and wiki that are well worth checking out if you're interested in learning how to better utilize technology to support collaboration as a lawyer or legal advocate. I happen to own the book, but I would recommend that you check out the blog and the wiki before you run out and buy it, as many of the tools covered in the book are also featured there. -M

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I just saw that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is using Twitter to send out alerts about field office closings, including the New Orleans District Office, which was closed due to Hurricane Gustav. For more on interesting uses of Twitter and other social media around Gustav, see this post by Beth Kanter. You can also follow technola on Twitter here. -M

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An interesting article from the ABA Journal that discusses the results of the ABA's annual Legal Technology Survey Report. -M

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On Tuesday Mozilla released Ubiquity, an amazing command-based interface for navigating the Web and creating mashups. Check out the video below. -M

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

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Recently, the LSTech e-mail list participants were asked whether or not they had posted material on YouTube. Many had, and Eva was nice enough to document that conversation on her blog, so that you can quickly go look at the videos of those who responded.

For those of you who haven't posted material on YouTube but are thinking about it, I want to highlight a few resources from see3 communications, a group that works with nonprofits to "create compelling visual media and Internet marketing initiatives." A few articles for you to start with include:

• Join the Video Bandwagon
• The Age of YouTube: Using Online Video to Reach the Masses
• The Challenge of Viral Video
• 11 Tips for Using Online Video to Raise Money
• Good Contracts for Video

But what I've listed here is only the beginning of what you can find on see3 communications' blog. If you've got the time, I'd recommend paging through all of the posts that they've tagged with "video." (Thanks to Jon Stahl for pointing this group out.) - K

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I've just discovered Alefo, a fairly new (pre-beta) "startpage" solution that's similar in function to iGoogle and Netvibes, but allows you to essentially "cut and paste" portions of websites that you want to include on your startpage and updates the content dynamically. No more hunting down RSS feeds and widgets (although you can add those too) or browsing multiple sites for content each day. With Alefo, you can just "drag and drop" your way to a truly custom start page, complete with tabs for different topics. -M

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An interesting article by Julie Kay in The National Law Journal on how social networking sites, personal blogs and even letters to the editor have impacted the jury selection process. -M

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The Legal Services Corporation and LexisNexis have announced the launch of the HotDocs® software donation program:

The new donation program will strengthen the important national online document assembly project that LexisNexis, LSC and the State Justice Institute have nurtured to provide access to justice for low-income Americans. LSC initiated that program, known as National Public Automated Documents Online (NPADO), in 2001 with a grant to the Ohio State Legal Services Association that developed a system in which legal aid programs use HotDocs® Professional Edition to create easy-to-use guided document assembly interviews from existing forms. Interviews are then uploaded to a national server, allowing users to assemble professional-looking legal documents.

Any LSC or state IOLTA funded legal services organization can request a donation using the program's website. -M

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While Law Professor Blogs professes to be "a network of web logs ("blogs") designed from the ground-up to assist law professors in their scholarship and teaching," I've found them to be a great source of legal information for advocates of all stripes. Here are a few blogs in the network that may be of interest to legal aid and public interest advocates:

• Administrative Law Prof Blog
• BankruptcyProf Blog
• CrimProf Blog
• Family Law Prof Blog
• First Amendment Law Prof Blog
• Health Law Prof Blog
• ImmigrationProf Blog
• Law Librarian Blog
• Legal Writing Prof Blog
• Nonprofit Law Prof Blog
• Poverty Law Prof Blog
• Reproductive Rights Prof Blog
• Sentencing Law & Policy Blog
• Sexual Orientation and the Law
• Workplace Prof Blog

For the full list, visit lawprofessorblogs.com. -M

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Thanks Bill Jones at the ABA, all of the session materials available for 2008 Equal Justice Conference are now online. Materials from the last five years are archived here. Many of the technology related session materials for the 2008 Conference are also available on LSNTAP. Next year's conference is scheduled for May 14-16, 2009, in Orlando, Florida. -M

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One of the cooler new apps available for the iPhone is a free 2D Barcode reader by 2D Sense (download here). By taking a picture of a two dimensional barcode with a mobile device equipped with a camera and 2D Code reader, you can access the information contained in the code. As an example, I've generate a QR Code (left) that contains a bookmark for technola. You can generate your own QR code here, or by using this Firefox add-on.

While 2D Barcodes are not yet widely used in the U.S., like text messaging they have the potential to provide targeted legal information and referrals to clients with mobile devices wherever the code is made available. For a good example of how 2D Barcodes can be used to connect the virtual and physical world, check out Semapedia. If you don't have an iPhone, see whether your phone is supported by BeeTagg, which reads Datamatrix, QR Code and their proprietary BeeTaggs. -M

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Creating a quality website with little or no knowledge of HTML or other programming languages is no longer the challenge that it once was. With the evolution of blogging platforms, wikis and other web-based content management systems, you can now build a web presence for your organization or projects with little more than some extra time on your hands. Here are a few free hosted solutions that will put you on your way to a website without having to write a lick of code:

• Blogs: In addition to the popular weblog platforms such as Wordpress and Blogger, check out the tumblelog offerings, which land somewhere between weblogs and micro-blogging sites like Twitter. My current favorite is tumblr, which is extremely easy to use, allows you to post from your mobile device, offers a really nifty Firefox plug-in, and (with a little bit of effort or a free theme) is fully customizable.

• Wikis: Most hosted wikis don't make for particularly good general purpose websites, but wetpaint is an exception. Wetpaint's innovative social publishing platform allows you to effortlessly post and edit text and multimedia content in a wiki-like environment, as well as to easily customize the overall look and feel. If you're looking to build a website to support an online community, and can put up with a few Google ads, wetpaint is a good option.

• Other options: If the blog or wiki platforms above aren't the right fit for your project, consider Google Sites and Roxer. Google Sites, which we've showcased before in a Free Friday post on project management solutions, is somewhat of a hybrid. It supports collaboration (like a wiki) and fairly robust permissioning, but has a more traditional website feel. Roxer, while not big on collaboration, is one of the most innovative hosted website solutions that I've seen. As its website claims, "now anyone can create beautiful websites online in just minutes." It truly takes WYSIWYG to an entirely new level.

Also be sure to check out the recent webinar by LSNTAP and Pro Bono Net on building program websites. In addition to great suggestions on finding the right platform and host, it provides helpful tips and resources on layout, design and incorporating multimedia. Also, for those states using the LawHelp template, ask your Circuit Rider about program sites, which are free to legal aid and public interest organizations. -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 Brian Lawlor, Regional Counsel at LSNC:

Legal Services of Northern California has launched the Findability Project, a TIG-funded initiative to demonstrate how a Google Search Appliance, integrated with a SharePoint Server, can be used as a core technology for implementing enterprise-level search, and as the basic building block of an organization-wide knowledge-content system.

To keep up-to-date with the project be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed here. For more background, go here. We'll be following this project closely, and look forward to hearing from others who are implementing internal knowledge management and content sharing platforms at their organizations. (For example, using a wiki to share documents with a funder prior to a site visit.) -M

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My friend, John, pointed out this interesting image of how a wiki can simplify collaboration. It really hit home for me. Perhaps it can help you in your battle to get your colleagues to start using wikis. - K

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On Tuesday NPR announced the launch of their new API, which allows users to easily generate custom API calls using an innovative query generator. The API can also return results in RSS, MediaRSS, JSON, Atom and through HTML and JavaScript widgets. For more background visit the Inside NPR.org blog or (for a more critical perspective) check out the related articles on TechCrunch and Mashable.com.

And for those unfamiliar with APIs, here's a nice overview. Examples? Pro Bono Net uses an API to share organizational data from the National Pro Bono Opportunities Guide with the ABA Second Season of Service's Volunteer Opportunity Search Engine, which also includes volunteer opportunities from the ABA National Directory of Law-Related Programs and Idealist.org. This same technology is being piloted to share resources between statewide advocates sites that are built on different templates and into case management systems so that advocates have ready access to resources that are automatically filtered based on a client's legal problem. -M

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Technology has a lot in common with law. Both are complex fields that use a lot of jargon. Fortunately, CommonCraft, a husband and wife business in Seattle, is working to make technology more accessible to the masses. They create Paperworks videos -- think whiteboard crossed with paper dolls -- to explain current popular technologies in plain English. Their videos cover a range of topics, including social media, podcasting, blogs, wikis, zombies, and RSS. Now if we could just get them to start creating segments on evictions, name changes, and orders of protection. - K

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High on my list of helpful software to have on hand is a screencasting program, which allows me to easily capture or record anything that's happening on my computer and save it or send it to others. Screencasting is particularly useful for creating trainings, ad hoc tutorials and how-tos, but it's also great for reporting bugs and capturing usability issues if you work on development projects. Here are a few free screencasting software options to consider:

• Jing Project: Jing allows you to capture images or record video of your screen and then upload it (for free) and share it with others online. It's a project of TechSmith, makers of Camtasia Studio and SnagIt, and the folks behind screencast.com. I use all of these products and am a big fan of TechSmith's clean, user-friendly approach to software design. (Windows, Mac)
• Wink: Wink is another great free (but not open source) screencasting program. While it doesn't include free online storage or sharing functionality, Wink is more full-featured than Jing and supports exports to PDF, HTML, and SWF (Flash) formats. (Windows, Linux)
• CamStudio: A final contender in the free and open source category is CamStudio, which outputs AVI files and allows you to convert them to SWFs. The only limitation to CamStudio is that the current version doesn't play well with Firefox when you try to view the converted SWF files. (Windows only) -M

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On Tuesday Google launched Lively, a free virtual world that can be embedded in websites and integrated into social networking sites like Facebook. Here's the announcement on Google's blog. For more on the intersection of virtual worlds and the law, check out these pasts posts. -M

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If you want to keep up with the top legal blogs but can't imagine ever having the time to sift through everything out there, you should check out LexMonitor. This site is attempting to aggregate all of the law-related blogs and currently lists nearly 2,000 sources. You can look at the front page to check out the hot topics or do a search for a specific topic. A couple of other neat things about LexMonitor:

• You can have an RSS feed from a search. I have my feed reader check to see what pro bono and legal aid content has been posted.
• You can have your blog listed on LexMonitor if it isn't already. - K

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Today, through Texas RioGrande Legal Aid's tweets, I learned that Georgetown Law's Equal Justice Foundation has a blog that collects stories from interns in the field. The Equal Justice Foundation, which provides scholarships for law students to intern at public interest organization during the summer, is using this blog to raise awareness of the program and to connect with current and potential donors. This is a great example of how to broaden your online presence and engage the public. - K

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