Author: Nick Holmes
exCiting Times
I’ve mentioned Feedity before – a natty feed generator which will scrape a web page and deliver a feed based on the linked list(s) it finds there. It usually returns some unwanted links too, but you can then tweek the feed to deliver just the main items. Since last I wrote, Feedity has moved to […]
Are you being served?
I’ve been asked – and I ask you as I have some difficulty with the question: What are law firms’ needs when it comes to legal publishing? And to what extent are those needs being met by the legal publishing companies? My difficulties with the question are twofold. Firstly, who and what are “legal publishing […]
Bilge pump
I’m not going to take the linkbait laid by Paul Boutin in Wired Magazine telling us to quit blogging because the blogosphere has been “flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge” and that time is “better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter”. This has got a lot of coverage … because it’s bilge. […]
Not a plug for Lexis Web
Tried out the (US) Lexis Web beta search engine yet? It indexes “important, legal-oriented Web content selected and validated by the LexisNexis editorial staff”, including Governmental agency information (federal, state, local) Informal commentary on legal issues (e.g., blogs specifically for lawyers and legal professionals) General Web information about legal topics At first it seems quite […]
Free Legal Web Barcamp
The Free Legal Web Barcamp is taking place on Saturday 18 October at the RSA in London. We already have a good number of people participating, but more is better. If you’d like to have your say as to how the Free Legal Web might be developed, please do sign up. If you’re not able […]
Will lawyers always be tech laggards?
Simon Fodden on Slaw writes that the 2008 ABA Legal Technology Survey reports that most attorneys stay current via websites and email newsletters; only a small minority reads blogs, and blogging is seen as geeky; RSS feeds are not used by most, social networks are only just now catching on and podcasts and online videos […]
Catching up
Been away on protracted hols. Quite possible to have kept posting of course, but did not have the inclination. Had I done so, here’s a few things I might have posted about: Martindale-Hubbell Connected In July Robert Ambroggi took an exclusive first look. It’s now out in public beta. Will this fly or crash? The […]
Two new ebooks with CPD
A belated plug for the two new Legal Web ebooks edited and published jointly by me and Delia Venables. The 2008/2009 ebooks are: Topics of Modern Legal Practice Software as a Service for legal applications New and developing legal resources on the web Alternative legal services – how will legal services be delivered in future? […]
The Law publishers and Web 2.0
(with James Mullan) First published August 2008 in the Legal Web ebook Law 2.0 in Progress Web 2.0 has revolutionised publishing. Technologies like blogs, wikis and RSS have made the publishing process so easy that countless millions are now publishers and yet more millions are contributors. And no longer is publishing simply about broadcasting a […]
Behind the times
Alex Wade in Times Online looks at blawging: “only a handful of legal practitioners maintain blogs”. No way! Sure only a handful of law firms maintain firm-branded blogs, but as we on Binary Law all know, maybe half the hundreds of UK blawgs out there are by practitioners; and let’s not forget to mention the […]
Don’t don the black cap
A recent post on LexBlog highlights the importance of knowing what you’re doing or what others are doing for you when you seek to boost your Google juice by purchasing links or engaging in “excessive” link exchanges. In his post FindLaw gaming Google? Kevin O’Keefe reviews what FindLaw are doing for lawyer customers for $1,000 […]
The Free Legal Web
The Free Legal Web is an initiative designed to deliver a web service that joins up UK law and legal commentary and analysis on the web and provides a useful service to both lawyers and the community at large. Read the Manifesto.
Hello Canada!
I’ve recommended the Canadian-based co-operative blog Slaw before as one of the best blawgs around. Pop it in your reader now. There’s been a recent decision to expand its coverage beyond the original “legal research” – we’ll have to see how that pans out – and to expand its membership. I’m chuffed to have been […]
Blogs as a publishing platform
Dave Winer, pioneer of blogging, RSS and other publishing standards, recently posted about the importance of blogs as a publishing platform: Publishing keeps getting cheaper. That’s been the constant push, the practical application of Moore’s Law in my neck of the woods. I’ve always been a publishing guy, and that’s always been how I viewed […]
Towards Gov 2.0
Democracy – as Abraham Lincoln famously defined it – is the government of the people, by the people and for the people. Hitherto, we’ve been able to exercise our democratic rights only at the ballot box, by lobbying our MP and perhaps in public demonstrations. Can Gov 2.0 – the application of Web 2.0 to […]
