Articles
A wake-up call to lawyers
Professor Richard Susskind is, as I write, no doubt completing the final draft of his forthcoming treatise, The End of Lawyers? to be published in June by Oxford University Press. More than 12 years ago he wrote its predecessor, The Future of Law. Then only a few of us had awoken to the internet; only […]
What makes a good blawg?
First published in Legal Executive Journal, April 2008 Law blogs (aka “blawgs”) are still unfamiliar territory for many lawyers. Though not a new phenomenon, blogging itself and even reading blogs is definitely not yet normal for lawyers. Space does not permit coverage of basics such as what a blog is and the mechanics of blogging; […]
The law wiki dream (2)
First published September 2007 in the Legal Web e-book on Legal Information and Web 2.0. Most of us know of wikis primarily through the granddaddy of all wikis, Wikipedia, which provides an immense, user-generated encyclopedia of articles on every conceivable topic. Could we achieve something similar – more limited in scope, but more in-depth and […]
Web 2.0 for lawyers
A much-extended version of this article was published September 2007 in the Legal Web CPD course on Legal Information and Web 2.0. This version was published November 2007 in the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. What is Web 2.0? The phrase “Web 2.0” was coined by Tim O’Reilly in 2003 and refers to the way software […]
Effective blogging (for lawyers)
Adapted from an earlier article and published September 2007 in the Axxia Newsletter. In the last issue we looked at reasons why lawyers should blog. Here we consider the “how to” of effective blogging. Blogging services provide the forms and templates that enable you to publish a blog site with little or no expertise: you […]
Joining the conversation
First Published July 2007 in the Axxia Newsletter. Few readers can be oblivious to the buzz surrounding “social media” (aka Web 2.0) that has grown in recent years. The term encompasses an increasing range of services that enable people to share, contribute and collaborate on the web, transforming it from a publishing platform and glorified […]
Does IT matter?
First published May 2007 in the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. “Does IT Matter?” is the title of a controversial 2003 article in the Harvard Business Review by technology writer Nicholas Carr and also of his follow-up book in 2004 which expands on the theme. The nub of his argument is that IT has become a […]
The Statute Law Database – an update
First published May 2007 in the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. It is now 4 months since the Statute Law Database was released to the public. In the first couple of weeks following the launch there was a flurry of comment and criticism; but since then, near silence. Is everyone ecstatically happy with it, reserving their […]
The law wiki dream
First published March 2007 in the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. Solicitor Steve Butler, who produces the UKLawyers legal newswire, has changed his former opinion that a grand centralised law wiki could be an enormously valuable resource. Having previously been impressed by Richard Susskind’s comments in this vein, Steve now believes that unpaid volunteers cannot be […]
Developments in legal information
First published January 2007 in the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. Here are some of the key developments in the field of (free) legal information provision in 2006 and some predictions for 2007. The Statute Law Database After a 10-year wait, the Statute Law Database was finally released to the public just in time for Christmas. […]
Community, democracy and the future of law publishing
First published November 2006 in the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. The rise of social software A phenomenon of the last two years has been the meteoric rise of services built on “social software” – services that enable people to rendezvous, connect or collaborate through computer-mediated communication and to form online communities (popularly referred to using […]
The Statute Law Database – finally a reality
The Statute Law Database is a project of the Statutory Publications Office (SPO), an office within the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA). It has a long and chequered history, reaching back to 1991 when the initial project was started. Until recently little information was released about the project, though regular assurances were given as to […]
RSS: How to pull the news that matters
First published May 2004 in the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. If you use the web seriously to keep up to date on a particular topic, you probably visit the news pages of dozens of sites and subscribe to a number of email newsletters – and you never have the time to review all of them […]
Syndication, syndication, syndication
First published July 2006 in the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers The most helpful expansion of the RSS acronym (there are several) is Remote Site Syndication. In this context, syndication refers to making data feeds available from a website in order to provide others with an updated set of content from it (for example latest news). […]
Servicing the corporate client
First published September 2005 in Whither the Legal Web?. This abridged version published January 2006 in the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. For the largest law firms the provision of online legal services is an imperative but few, if any, of these services are sold to clients directly off the page. The focus is rather on […]
