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

For a few years now I’ve argued that the ABA Journal Blawg 100 should include a public interest law category. My slacktivist campaign has included annual tweets expressing my disappointment when the results are published and even an email sometime back to the ABA Journal. This year I intend go the extra mile! Rather than complaining about it after the fact, I want to encourage folks to proactively nominate some of the great blogs covering public interest legal issues for the Blawg 100 Amici (the Blawg 100’s online nomination process). Here are some examples of hard-hitting, informative, and prolific public interest blawgs that I plan to nominate this year:

ACLU Blog of Rights
American Constitution Society Blog
Brennan Center for Justice Blog
The Shriver Brief
Wired’s Threat Level

Of course, these are just a few of the many great legal aid and public interest law blogs out there, many of which can be found on our Blogroll. Hopefully this year a flood of submissions will prompt the ABA Journal’s editors to consider including a category that recognizes the important contributions that legal aid and public interest advocates and organizations make to the legal blawgosphere. -M

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Today Technola is participating for the second year in Blog Action Day, an annual event founded in 2007 that encourages bloggers to post about the same issue on the same day, thereby triggering a global discussion on an important topic.  Last year’s theme was poverty, an issue very close to our hearts, which we wrote about here (be sure to check out the comments). This year’s theme is climate change.

There are, of course, many different angles in which to explore the issue of climate change. Our choice, which we hope you’ll join us in reflecting upon, is the impact that climate change has on low-income individuals and communities. To spur your reflection, here are a few resources:

• Designing Climate-Change Legislation That Shields Low-Income Households from Increased Poverty and Hardship, The Effects of Climate-Change Policies on the Federal Budget and the Budgets of Low-Income Households, and How Low-Income Consumers Fare in the House Climate Bill, all reports by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities;
• Climate Change's Unique Impact on Low-Income Communities, a blog post by Dan Lesser on the Shriver Center’s blog, The Shriver Brief;
• Green Housing and Climate Change, by Enterprise Community Partners; and
• Climate Change and America’s Poor, by Living on Earth, a weekly environmental news and information program distributed by Public Radio International.

Although Technola doesn’t typically delve into knotty policy issues (hey, we’re geeks, not wonks!), we hope that you’ll join us and thousands of bloggers throughout the world today for a robust discussion on climate change. See you in the comments section!   -M&K

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