Legal Research

How do Wikis and Blogs fit together?

Posted on November 05, 2008
I'm often asked by people when they should use a Wiki and when they should use a Blog. So when I saw this post from the Library Clips Blog I thought great, now I can just forward this explanation which I think provides a good summary, from the blog post:"...

It's a funny old world...

Posted on November 03, 2008
...would be a great title for a blog post and would tie in nicely with the title of this article (It's a web 2.0 world) from the Journal of the Law Society of Scotland so I'll think I run with it..geddit? Run with it...Running Librarian...Anyway this is a useful if slightly basic, at least initially, look at how pervasive Web 2...

CILIP Graduate Open Day - Part 2

Posted on October 31, 2008
Following on from my previous post, I've decided to write a more detailed post about the CILIP Graduate Open day I presented at earlier this month.Mostly because I promised CILIP I would, but also because after my second session on "Getting published" I thought it would be useful if I shared with everyone my top tips for "Getting published"...

Lawtel and RSS

Posted on October 31, 2008
If you haven't seen already Lawtel are rolling out RSS Feeds for all the content on their platform. The feeds are due for release in November.

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Wilmington 10k 2008

Posted on October 30, 2008
Last Sunday I ran the Wilmington 10k, this was the second time I had run this race so I was hoping for a better, but surprise surprise the weather was awful. It is October I suppose but even so horizontal rain does impede running somewhat, at least that is my excuse for a poor time!Anyway after 46 and something minutes I discovered that they had slightly changed the course and included a soul destroying, leg sapping 400 metres slog around a school playing field, so cruel...

Petts Wood 10k 2008

Posted on October 12, 2008
Another Sunday another race, this time the Petts Wood 10k and for once the weather was kind (in other words I wasn't drenched after 1/2 a mile) in fact the weather was unseasonably warm for the time of year, which caused some problems!I didn't run this race last year after picking up a slight injury in my previous race so I was determined to set a decent time, unfortunately I was going to be disappointed...

How Information "overloaded" are you?

Posted on October 10, 2008
Following my previous post on Information Overload I've just seen this quiz you can take, which asks "How Information Overloaded are you?"I scored a 5 out of 20, which I think is pretty good!

Sittingbourne 10 2008

Posted on October 07, 2008
Its October its wet and windy so what better way to spend a Sunday morning then running through the delightful Kent countryside, to be precise the villages in and around Sittingbourne in the Sittingbourne 10, that's 10 miles not 10k or 10 metres unfortunately...

Information Overload...pah

Posted on October 06, 2008
A lot has been written recently about Information Overload...see this post on the Above and Beyond KM Blog and this one on the iLibrarian BlogMuch of the talk has come about because of this presentation by Clay Shirky entitled "It's not information Overload it's filter failure" in his presentation Clay suggests that Information Overload is an ancient problem going back to the age of the printing press...

CILIP Graduate Open Day 2008

Posted on October 03, 2008
Later today I'm going to be talking at the CILIP Graduate Open Day I'm feeling slightly nervous about speaking at this event, not because there are 90+ people attending but because I'm going to be talking about Social Networking and "Getting Published"Although I've talked about Web 2...

Social tools and the current awareness process

Posted on October 02, 2008
Last week Headshift organised a breakfast seminar at their offices which looked at the role Social tools like RSS and Wikis can have in a "current awareness" service.By current awarness they refer to the collection and dissemination of external and internal information within a Law Firm...

The Web 2.0 olympics

Posted on October 01, 2008
I don't usually compare Web 2.0 to sports...but then I'm sort of borrowing this comparison from Mary Abraham over at Above and Beyond KM who has written an post about overcoming the hurdles of Web 2.0In it she mentions a recent article* by Ruth Ward of Allen & Overy (leaders in terms of Web 2...

Time & Reasons v Emerging Technologies

Posted on September 30, 2008
Kathryn Greenhill of the Librarians Matter Blog has put together a very interesting presentation called "...but I don't have time and THEY don't get it": Finding time and reasons for emerging technologies As Kathryn says in her blog post, the presentation address two key concerns Information Professionals have (1) The time to research all the cool stuff that is happening (2) If they do is anybody actually going to be interested...

Social Software...the basics

Posted on September 29, 2008
This is definitely my kind of post, short, simple but very effective! In it the author asks three questions, which all lead to the same answer - Why wouldn't you want to use Social Software.[Hat Tip - Elusa The Knowledge Management Blog]

Portal to Progress

Posted on September 26, 2008
An interesting article here in the latest issue of Legal Week which discusses whether Law Firms are missing out on Business growth because of a "reluctance" to use Web 2.0/Social Media technologies" on the whole this is a very positive article which demonstrates (with practical examples) how Social Media can be used by a Law Firm for both business growth and as a means to encourage collaboration amongst fee-earners...

Twittering with a difference

Posted on September 25, 2008
A few weeks ago someone told me about Yammer, this is a microblogging service, similar to Twitter but with a difference. This application is organised around a company so when you sign up with your email address only people at the same company who have the same type of email address can see what you are saying...

Information Technology (IT) for Information Professionals

Posted on September 25, 2008
Earlier this week I attended this course, which was organised by the Commercial Legal and Scientific Sub-Group of CILIP. The course is one of three being organised by CLSIG over the course of the next few months as part of their "Professional Development Club"The course was held at Macfarlanes, so I shouldn't have really been surprised when most of the attendees turned out to be from Law Firms...

Web 2.0 - Where are we going?

Posted on September 17, 2008
An interesting if at time somewhat abstract presentation here from Martin De Saulles of Brighton University. In it he discusses how the Information Profession is currently using Web 2.0 and where we might be heading. The full blog post is available on the Information Matters blog here...

Presentation tips and tricks

Posted on September 09, 2008
I'm preparing a couple of presentations at the moment and rather conveniently I was sent the details of a couple of useful looking guides, which I'm now sharing with you all!The first Everything You Need to Know About Presentations from Forrest Gump discusses how when thinking about putting together a presentation you shold be prepared to be a little bit different...

Links and connections...

Posted on September 09, 2008
...or how to make Web 2.0 work in a law firm environment is the title of a really interesting article in the latest edition of the Legal Technology Journal, not available online unfortunately. In it Damien Behan who is IT Director at Brodies discusses his experience of making Web 2...

Web 2.0: Hype or help?

Posted on September 08, 2008
This is the title of an article in the Autumn 2008 edition of the Public Library Journal in it the author looks at how Social Networking sites (Facebook, Myspace, Youtube) can promote Library Services to a wider audience. A really interesting article which is well worth reading.

Intranet evolution

Posted on September 05, 2008
I love the visual way Richard Dennison at the Inside Out Blog has shown how his Intranet has evolved, simple but very effective.

Are you wired or tired?

Posted on September 05, 2008
Information Overload is an age old problem, which occassionally people have another stab at addressing. The i-Librarian has very kindly highlighted an interesting article published in the latest edition of AriadneIn the article the author suggests ten techniques for managing "the overload"...

Are you multi-faceted?

Posted on September 04, 2008
I've just finished reading an interesting article in IWR Horizons (not available online unfortunately) written by Julia Hordle of Intelligent Resources. In it she describes the skills required by todays information professionals if they really want to make their way in our profession...

How to get to Intranet 2.0

Posted on August 22, 2008
The Thoughtfarmer blog (I love that name although it scares me slightly ) has an interesting post on how to 2.0 your Intranet. The post is essential 10 steps to Intranet 2.0, whch are...Blow up the old intranet (okay)Turn users into authors (basically give everyone editing rights)Expose the social content of all content (every piece of content should say who created it and where they work)Make things findable (obvious one this one, good intranets have great search engines)Send signals when content changes (installs RSS in other words)Provide scaffolding/a framework to support new content (This is all about structure and about providing something for people to work around rather then create something from scratch)Hold a barn raising to populate initial content (Essentially - get loads of people in a room and start migrating or creating content)Make them use it...

The worlds a virtual stage

Posted on August 19, 2008
Gary hayes of Personalize Media has created this 7-minute video which takes the viewer on a tour of over 40 social virtual worlds. Hayes is working on a commercial report exploring the creative, business, and educational potential of the metaverse and has some preliminary insights in his post here...

Web 2.0 Videos

Posted on August 07, 2008
Recently someone asked me whether I knew of any videos that "explained" Web 2.0 and I have to admit I drew a blank initially before I remembered the following which I thought would be useful to share:Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us Probably the most famous of all videos about Web 2...

Social Networking and Libraries

Posted on August 05, 2008
Because the blog was locked down for a few days I've been a bit slow to post about some of the really interesting posts I have seen recently. A couple that have caught my eye have been about Social Networking in Libraries.The first, "Managers pay attention: Why social networking and Web 2...

Officially...not Spam!

Posted on August 04, 2008
I'm pleased to be able to say Blogger has classified me as officially not being Spam. Good to know, I was worried there for a moment.I don't follow the Blogger Blog, but perhaps I should because they have two posts on the "issues" they encountered on Friday...

Do we need to work harder in a downturn?

Posted on July 24, 2008
This is the title of an interesting article on Fumsi (part of Freepint) which to anyone with any common sense the answer would be obvious - Yes must worker harder to show how valuable I am.But...it's not just about working harder, it's also about adding more value and making yourself more visible to those individuals (managers) who make decisions about funding and staffing...

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