By now everyone who uses Google Reader has seen the news – this tool has been given its crash papers. TechCrunch's headline Good Riddance, Google Reader broke my heart, and judging by the comments, the hearts of others as well. Perhaps I have a secret aversion to change – wait a minute, no, I definitely don't.

Like many others, I moved to Google Reader in 2009 when Newsgator decided to discontinue its online application. Since then, my library team and I have used Reader to select and aggregate information from feeds in a number of areas for our practice groups. . . . [more]

Last week a new applications for this year's award for members of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries was announced: the Janine Miller Fellowship established by CanLII to provide funding each year for one CALL/ACBD member to attend the Law Via the Internet conference. I think this is a fabulous opportunity for Canadian legal information professionals to get more involved in the free access to law movement.

From the announcement:

Janine Miller was an integral part in the vision and development of the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) and served as Project Manager from its inception and later as its

. . . [more]

I was doing some research into social media policy examples for a course, and came across Jaffe PR's Social Media Policy Template for Law Firms and Attorneys. It is available for use and adaptation by lawyers and firms. Last updated in November 2012, this template was first published in 2008 and has been updated a number of times over the years as social media has developed.

From the introduction:

At Jaffe PR, we have made our best effort to outline a comprehensive set of online policies and procedures for using social media effectively and responsibly. This is our fifth

. . . [more]

I receive between 100 and 1,000 business-related e-mails per day. Out of necessity, over the last few years I've developed a numbers of systems that help me manage my inbox effectively. This is the third in a series of posts describing the systems I utilize to stay on top of my inbox.

Most months I spend at least a few days the air, traveling from Vancouver to one of the many destinations Clio's business brings me. Surprisingly, I find the time on the plane to be some of my most productive, as I'm without the myriad distractions of the office . . . [more]

The 2013 Law Via the Internet conference will take place in late September 2013 on Jersey, one of the Channel Islands (I admit, I had to look it up on a map).

The conference brings together people from the Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) from different countries and continents that together form the Free Access to Law Movement.

The conference "tracks" will be:

• E-Learning: distance, blended, open, mobile, gaming, MOOCing and more?
• Online legal information – starting from scratch
• Legal knowledge in the age of the semantic web
• Communicating our work: journals, blogs and other ways of publishing about open access

. . . [more]

♫ I've looked at clouds from both sides now,
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall.
I really don't know clouds at all…♫

Lyrics, music and recorded by Joni Mitchell.

The Law Society of British Columbia has now released their Cloud Computing Checklist on the Practice Support and Resources section of their website. This checklist follows on the issuance of their Cloud Computing Report in 2012.

Cloud computing offers many benefits to lawyers including: accessing a vast array of new software services and applications, off-loading hardware and software maintenance and upkeep to others, . . . [more]

I receive between 100 and 1,000 business-related e-mails per day. Out of necessity, over the last few years I've developed a numbers of systems that help me manage my inbox effectively. This is the second in a series of posts describing the systems I utilize to stay on top of my inbox.

We've all done the favour of making an introduction over e-mail. What often follows is a string of e-mails that bear no relevance to the introducer:

Jim: Bob, please meet Alice. You should definitely get to know each other; please take it from here!
Bob: Alice, . . . [more]

When was the last time you tweaked or updated your LinkedIn profile? Unfortunately, “never” or “not recently” is the most probable answer for the majority of lawyers. In a day and age where almost every prospective or new client will check you out online, a solid LinkedIn profile is one of the key foundations to an online social brand. And if you are not otherwise active on the web or in social media, it is the one place you probably should be.
For those that would like to tweak their LinkedIn profile, a hat tip to Ernie Svenson for pointing . . . [more]

I receive between 100 and 1,000 business-related e-mails per day. Out of necessity, over the last few years I've developed a numbers of systems that help me manage my inbox effectively. This is the first in a series of posts describing the systems I utilize to stay on top of my inbox.

First up is creating a "Robots" folder. This is a nearly foolproof system for easily separating e-mails sent from real humans from machine-generated e-mails sent by automated systems (including newsletters, alerts from software systems, Twitter notifications, etc.)

To determine which e-mails should be sent to your "Robots" . . . [more]

There is a fantastic article in the Attorney at Work Blog by Daniel Gold today titled Save Random Sparks of Genius. Part of the article discusses the art of capture:

Finding a way to capture information anytime and anywhere—and then do something with that information—is critical to our success. It allows us to snare random sparks of genius like a hunter gets his prey.

Slaw has featured posts on capture using technology tools like Evernote, and Storify. There are low tech methods for remembering those fantastic ideas; I have a friend who swears by the notepad on the bedside . . . [more]

A US appeals court has reversed an order banning a convicted sex offender from having a Facebook account. Would such an order be made and upheld in Canada? What limits might be possible, and how would they be enforced? For that matter, how could the order itself be enforced? It’s not hard to get a FB account in another name, though it may be contrary to the terms of service to do so.

Could a no-contact order be made for FB use, e.g. not to friend or comment on any FB page relating to or about a designated person?

Meanwhile, . . . [more]

Last Wednesday, the UK Supreme Court split on the issue of whether legal advice privilege extended to legal advice provided by accountants. In other words, did the privilege attach because of the nature of the communication, rather than the status of the person communicating.

The Court split 5 to 2, holding that legal advice privilege remains the exclusive preserve of clients of the legal profession. It protects communications passing between a lawyer and his or her client, with the lawyer acting in a professional capacity in connection with the provision of legal advice.

The Prudential case involved the issue of . . . [more]