March 2008

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They’re working for us (dot org)

26 March 2008 in Democracy, Public Sector Information, Society

The folks at mySociety are really moving on Society 2.0. mySociety is a charity which builds natty Web 2.0 sites that give people simple, tangible benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives. It also aims to teach the public and voluntary sectors, through demonstration, how to most efficiently use the internet to improve lives.

The most mature project to date is TheyWorkforYou which makes sense of Hansard and enables you to keep tabs on what your MP is saying and doing in your name. To further this cause they have now launched a Free our Bills campaign – a “Nice Polite Campaign to Gently Encourage Parliament to Publish Bills in a 21st Century Way, Please. Now.”

Bills are, like, so much more important than what MPs spend on furniture.

The problem is that the way in which Bills are put out is completely incompatible with the Internet era, so nobody out there ever knows what the heck people are actually voting for or against. We need to free our Bills in order for most people to be able to understand what matters about them.

Head on over and support the campaign.

Another mySociety project still very much in its infancy is the FoI request helper site WhatDoTheyKnow – lifting the lid on the UK public sector.

Far from the arcane world of Parliamentary bills and PSI is the mySociety project concerning your blocked mains, fly tipping, dangerous pavement slabs and all those other things that are wrong with your street. Got a problem with yours? Nip over to FixMyStreet and report it; in my experience you’ll get a reply from your council pronto. And of course you can take a peek at the problems your neighbours have reported and comment on them and even set up a feed to alert you to local problems. Why on earth would you do this? Well, it’s a lot more efficient in resolving your own problems than wading through your council’s website red tape; it’s informative about what’s happening in your community and it’s fun!

Who’s driving Gov 2.0?

14 March 2008 in Government

We’re fortunate to have a new encumbent as Minister for Transformational Government at the Cabinet Office who really gets it – Westminster über-blogger, Tom Watson. His vision is encapsulated in his recent speech at the Transformational Government Event.

And his plans for the immediate future are ambitious:

I see my job as helping you to accelerate the pace of change. Over the next few months, we will be:

  • pushing through the closure of our hundreds of unnecessary websites
  • improving our online content, including minimum standards for the content of remaining websites
  • ensuring that all content held on government web sites is fully accessible to the major search engines
  • embedding data mash-up into thinking across all of government not just the early adopters within departments
  • driving through the cultural change in all our communications that sees the internet, mobile and other new media as the norm
  • ensuring better innovation and much faster implementation. Build stuff small, test it out then iterate, iterate, iterate
  • capturing the skills, talent and energy we need for change – from within the public service and from outside …
  • using new media to engage more directly and more effectively with individuals and communities.

What is Enterprise 2.0?

14 March 2008 in Enterprise 2.0

Fred Cavazza has an extremely informative primer for those interested in applying Web 2.0 within their organisation.

Our data should be free

14 March 2008 in Public Sector Information

A long-awaited private study by Cambridge University into the pricing of public sector information (PSI) by trading funds (Ordnance Survey, Met Office, Companies House, Land Registry et al) was published on the side with the 2008 Budget Report.

The study was commissioned by BERR following the OFT’s market study into the commercial use of PSI which found that the full benefits of public sector information were not being realised.

Entitled Models of Public Sector Information Provision via Trading Funds, the Cambridge study (154-page PDF) examines the cost and benefits for society, and the effects on government revenue, of different charging policies for PSI.

It’s worth first mentioning the standard economic argument set out in Appendix A.1 which rather dismisses the need for the study!

if the private sector is competitive and undistorted, then the public sector should sell any goods and services that it produces at the efficient price [which] is the marginal cost [and in the case of digital data, the marginal cost is near zero]. … If this argument is accepted then the case for selling PSI at marginal cost [ie near zero] is direct, and it is hardly necessary to estimate the extra social value that would be generated by moving from average to marginal cost pricing.

The paper is naturally filled with impressive arguments, charts and equations, but to sum up, it finds that:

socially optimal policy would involve leaving the charging regime for many [primarily "refined"] products unchanged, moving to marginal (zero) cost charging for ["unrefined" data]. [The trading funds] would now be in commercial competition with other suppliers as such suppliers would now have access to unrefined data at marginal cost [which] would immediately address the competition concerns raised by the OFT as, a fortiori, outside organizations would now have access to “unrefined” (“upstream”) data on the same terms as the trading fund itself.

So, in short, Government should Free Our (unrefined) Data so that we can all (business and community) get on with creating really useful applications, mixing and mashing it to our hearts content. Arguments are now likely to centre on what is and is not “refined” (or “value added”) data.

Whither the law library?

12 March 2008 in Libraries | 4 comments

Law librarians were quick to comment when Carolyn Elefant on Legal Blog Watch posed the question Are Law Libraries Becoming Obsolete?

Steve Matthews was first up: “it does bug me that every other department in the law firm can evolve, but when Libraries do, they’re suddenly obsolete”; and the next: “this posting does take a very shallow view of what a ‘law library’ is”. Others in a similar vein made the case for librarianship in comments on the blog post and at law.librarians.

So I read the original source (always recommended!) which Carolyn referenced – Firms downsize their law libraries with proliferation of electronic research in the Birmingham [Alabama] Business Journal. Turns out it’s about the physical library space, not about the function libraries or librarians serve. Clearly if firms buy fewer and fewer print publications and jettison existing volumes in favour of digital equivalents, the need for shelf space will diminish, maybe in time to the point where they no longer need a physical library; the virtual library is not tied to bricks and mortar but exists in the clouds.

Michael Lines on Slaw, risks similar reactions when he asks What Happens When Your Library is Finally Empty?

… the internet’s reduction of publishing costs to effectively zero has critical implications for all the professions that are built upon the former reality of high publishing costs, librarianship and journalism among them. What will happen to libraries in the coming decades? Do libraries have staying power in the face of a total reversal of the economic reality they are predicated upon?

Again, the answer turns on what we mean by “library”. Many physical libraries may be emptying of print, but digital libraries abound and the virtual library that is the internet continues to grow exponentially.

The librarians commenting on the Legal Blog Watch post concur that librarianship is alive and well, but increasingly focused on supporting the use of online sources and tools. Connie Crosby:

Not all lawyers have time to keep up with the frequent changes to the online search tools, and many are relying increasingly on the library staff for their in-depth research. As well, library staff evaluate new online services, manage on-line licensing and subscriptions, provide search assistance, trouble-shooting problems with the online services. We provided classes on research skills development and support for new associates.

A legal profession on the brink

7 March 2008 in Legal practice

Time to mention Jordan Furlong’s Law21 blog – dispatches from a legal profession on the brink:

In the 21st century, the practice of law is shaking loose from its traditional moorings and heading out into uncharted territory. Opportunities abound, but so do pitfalls. Most of the old rules won’t apply anymore, while some will matter more than ever. Welcome to the new legal profession, powered by collaboration, innovation, and client service. This is your front-row seat.

A lawyer and journalist with more than ten years’ experience tracking trends and developments in the legal profession, Jordan Furlong is currently Editor-in-Chief of National magazine at the Canadian Bar Association.

Detailed thoughts on where legal practice is headed – all excellent, forward-thinking stuff.

Alternatives to email

4 March 2008 in Email

Further to my suggestions for keeping your inbox in check, Jordan Furlong has a few suggestions to add:

  • Clients. Set up an extranet for each client; add an RSS feed. If you need to ask your client a question, call her.
  • Colleagues (down the hall). Something wrong with your legs? / use the phone.
  • Cooperation. To set up meetings, use Google Calendar or the like; instead of round-tripping documents, use Google Docs or similar; or set up an office intranet for a given file or matter.

The death of the high street practice?

4 March 2008 in Future of law | 3 comments

John Bolch on Family Lore relates the sad tale of local (Kent) firms who are shedding staff by the dozen due to the property slump. And following their conveyancing business may well be their whole business. Anecdotal evidence is that HIPs are as much to blame as the sub-prime crisis.

Who agrees? Who disagrees? Who cares? We don’t know, as there are no active conveyancer blawgers. The only one I know of, Wearyconveyancer, is so weary that he can manage a post only every couple of months and so disillusioned that he is seeking to retire before the HIPs shit the fan.

In search of conveyancing blawgers I searched with Google blog search for conveyancing HIPs solicitors and was excited to find Digital Conveyancing Users Group by Brett Hayton, a property and conveyancing lawyer. Interesting, but unfortunately Australian, so not wholly in tune – if not upside-down.

Another prominent result was from News on the Block – latest news, opinion, comment and debate on flats, tenant legislation and landlord law from Nicolas Shulman. So, not on topic.

No conveyancer blawgers, but what was interesting was to find a few law firm news blogs ranking high in the search results:

Daltons Solicitors News Blog
Hart Reade Solicitors Latest News
Ranson Houghton News

Commendable if unexciting “blogs”, but going to show it’s worth blogging your news just for the Google juice.

Back to the question: Why no conveyancer blawgers? If you blog mainly or prominently on matters conveyancing, or have a view on the impact of the conveyancing slump on the profession, comment here or on John’s blog. We want to know.