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

[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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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, 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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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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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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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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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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The Brennan Center for Justice Legal Services E-Lert, one of my favorite e-newsletters, brought to my attention a great example of a legal aid blog: Foreclosure Buzz. Robert Doggett, a Texas RioGrande Legal Aid attorney, writes about foreclosure news and attempts to dispel common myths about what you should do if you are facing a foreclosure. Robert, great job! Keep it up! - K

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The Celtics win and the fans riot. Sad, but unfortunately it gets worse. Footage of fans happily destroying the windows of Greater Boston Legal Services has been posted on YouTube. Cops are scouring this and other videos to identify suspects. More information is available in the ABA Journal, and a great response video has been posted on YouTube. - K

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Looking for a way to add current legal news to your website? The ABA Journal, winner of this year's 2008 Webby Awards People's Voice Winner, has a new widget available that lets you add their headlines to your site or blog.

And if that doesn't give you enough legal news, you can also check out their Twitter feed and get updates pushed your way all day long. - K

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We're pleased to announce that you can now follow technola on Twitter. Our "tweets" will include blog posts, comments, follow-up on past posts and quick quips and tips that don't warrant a full blog post. To learn more about Twitter, check out Twitter in Plain English. -M

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Do you have a legal blog? Thinking of creating a blog? LexBlog is holding a free webinar on Thursday, May 29, 2008 about blogging for the legal community: Introduction Professional Law Blogs: What Works and What Doesn't. If you are already blogging and want to connect with other legal bloggers, use LinkedIn, a social networking site for professionals. A Legal Bloggers group has been created. You can join here. - K

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The last article I expected to find when I opened the latest issue of the NDSU Magazine was one on social media. You see, as much as I know that Fargo, North Dakota is developing into a midwest technology hub, I forget that it isn't the small, sleepy city that I remember. I know. You've seen the movie, and that makes this hard to believe. For proof, see Microsoft, NDSU Research and Technology Park, and Great Plains Technology Conference.

But there was Dr. Andrew Mara, an English professor who teaches about corporate and organizational use of new media, to remind me. His essay got me with its tagline - "Even the alphabet was a threat at first." From there he goes on to talk about how Web site visitors expect interaction. They don't want brochure-ware. This constant interaction can be scary and perceived to be dangerous by some, but Dr. Mara reminds us that this fear isn't new. Some people don't like change. "Even the jukebox was thought a tool to break up the family by chaining men to their barstools."

While the idea of new media being a long-term communications change was interesting, the second part of the essay was what really invigorated me. He talks about his students, digital natives who use the Internet to improve their education through collaboration and connection. These methods have caused Dr. Mara to change how he teaches. For him, it means more interaction. He now encourages students to use the Internet productively during class - doing research and reporting on it. And if there is an error on Wikipedia, he expects them to contribute and correct those errors. This, to me, is an incredible way of using technology to improve quality.

So what does this article mean for the legal aid community? Where are we fearful and preventing changes that could improve client services? Should we be encouraging more backchannel conversations during staff meetings and conference presentations? Should we be conversing with pro bono attorneys, staff, and low-income communities more through blogs? What do you think? Let us know in the comments. - K

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Montana Legal Services Association was highlighted in a recent Idealware article. Written by Michelle Murain (who you can follow on Twitter) and Laura Quinn, the article discusses three project management software packages (Basecamp, Central Desktop, and Trac) and how they have been implemented by three different non-profits. The article is a quick read that gives concrete ideas for how to use the software as well as what the organizations have found to be useful and not so useful. - K

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MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn make building an online community seem easy. But those of us who have had to moderate an online e-mail list know differently. Getting people to subscribe and contribute takes a lot of effort until you've got enough interested and invested people to keep the conversation going.

For those of you who are building an online community with an e-mail list, you might be interested in the resources highlighted during a recent discussion on the NTEN Discussion e-mail list.

• Tips for Facilitating an Environmental Email List (ONE/Northwest)
• Publishing Your Own eNewsletter Or Running Your Own eNetwork (Kabissa)
• Building Electronic Communities and Network (Information Management Resource Kit) - K

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• An article by Larry Bodine for Law Technology News, "Is the Party Over for Social Networking?", which reports that according to an ongoing ABA Young Lawyer survey, "only 8 percent [of survey participants] said it was "very important" to network with legal colleagues via online social networking."


• A recent post on Care2's frogloop blog, "51% of Donors 'Not At All Interested' in Social Networks," which lit up the Progressive Exchange listserv today, reports that "a majority of donors, 51%, were "not at all interested" in following organizations that they care about through blogs, social networks, and RSS." -M

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Clay Shirky discusses his new book, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. The big bullet point: group action just got easier. Here is the link to the video. -M

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I picked up an old Newsweek and flipped through it in a waiting room recently. Much of the news was old and pretty uninteresting, but I did find one article worth reading - Friends Under the Microscope. It introduced me to Spokeo, which helps you find and track all of your friends and their social networking content from one Web site. With your permission, Spokeo goes through your e-mail address books and finds public content belonging to all of your friends from sites like MySpace, Friendster, Pandora, and Amazon. I was terrified but intrigued. What did I have out there? What did my family and friends, who are fairly conservative when it comes to social networking, have out there?

When I got home, I checked it out, and Spokeo did not disappoint. It found information about people that I didn't know existed and, in some situations, would be better off not knowing. However, I do know exactly what to get several of my co-workers for Christmas gifts next year. Someone is really going to enjoy that skydiver action figure.

Using Spokeo made me feel a little like I was spying on people, so I didn't keep my account. But this is an important Web site that the legal aid and pro bono community needs to know about. It has the potential to both positively and negatively affect clients.

First of all, domestic violence advocates need to know that tracking information about a person across many different Web sites has become much easier. Domestic violence survivors need to be aware that, if their abusers know their e-mail address, the abusers can quickly and easily track MySpace posts, Amazon wish lists, and so on. Survivors and their children who post information on these sites could unknowingly give away information that may identify their location.

Secondly, legal aid advocates need to know that this tool could play an important role in their cases. They may want to use Spokeo to find evidence about what the other side is up to on and offline. When dealing with child custody case, wouldn't it be interesting to know that the other side is posting comments promoting casual drug use or pictures doing a keg stand? Could that change the outcome of the case? And those same legal aid advocates need to remember that the other side might be doing the same type of investigation. For more information about the impact that the Internet and social networking can have on your client's case, check out Judy Wilson's session from the Legal Services Corporation Technology Initiative Grant Conference.

To me, Spokeo is just another reminder that the Internet may make me feel anonymous, but I'm not. - K

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First Monday, the wonderful "peer-reviewed journal on the internet," just released its March issue, Critical Perspectives on Web 2.0. An article entitled "Online Social Networking as Participatory Surveillance" by Anders Albrechtslund is particularly interesting. You can register to be notified when new issues of First Monday are made available here. -M

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