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

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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