Year: 2015
We need to stop talking about AI
In a controversial 2003 article in the Harvard Business Review and a follow-up book with the same title, technology writer Nicholas Carr asked “Does IT Matter?” IT had become a commodity input; it had lost its mystique; it had become normal. Time was when the wheel was technology. But as the wheel was refined and […]
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Delia’s legal web picks December 2015
The following items have been selected from Delia Venables’ “New” page. This article first appeared in Legal Web Watch December 2015. Legal Web Watch is a free monthly email service which complements the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. To receive Legal Web Watch regularly sign up here. A key source of legal developments each day The […]
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Getting ahead in the cloud
How cloud-hosted software solutions can help small law firms Cloud-based software and storage are enabling businesses large and small to access client records, analytical tools, legal records, documents, online research and other critical information easily and from anywhere. Cloud-based solutions can do so without cumbersome log-ins or costly investments in on-site software, hardware or the […]
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Open access explained
Open access (OA), in its simplest form, means unrestricted online access to research outputs. These outputs cover all forms of research including journal articles, conference papers, book chapters, monographs and more. In its wider sense any kind of digital content can be open access, from texts and data to software, audio, video and multi-media. But what do […]
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Life after Safe Harbor – an action plan
On 6 October 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) declared the EU–US Safe Harbor framework invalid as a mechanism to legitimise transfers of personal data from the EU to the US. This decision effectively leaves any organisation that relied on Safe Harbor exposed to claims that such data transfers are unlawful […]
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Commenting on social media: reputational risks
The use of social media in a workplace setting has gained increasing prominence alongside the rise of the internet-enabled office. Social media pervades the working day, and, whilst a number of employers have sought to limit its use during working hours, its mobile nature, accessible via smartphone or tablet, means that seeking to do so […]
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Do you need SEO or digital marketing?
One of the most difficult aspects of my job is helping people outside of the digital marketing industry understand the way search has changed over time and convincing them that when they come to us asking for “SEO”, now what they really need is digital marketing. It’s not that people do not understand, at a […]
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Taking Direct Access barristers online
Earlier this year, the Bar Council gave its backing to a new website which had been set up by two barristers with the very simple aim of providing an online directory of Direct Access barristers to the public – the Direct Access Portal (DAP). We joined forces with barristers Pru Beever and Mike Whyatt of […]
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Using LinkedIn to recruit staff
The historic recruitment model to recruit staff has been either to appoint recruitment agents to find suitable staff or to advertise for staff in trade publications. Recruitment firms generally provide a pro-active service and act as an intermediary between the employer and candidate. In good times the recruitment firm can expect to receive commission in […]
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The ad blocking debate
Much of the free content we enjoy on the web is supported by the advertising publishers sell on those pages. Until recently we have readily accepted this bargain. However, as advertising methods have become ever more distracting and intrusive, users have in increasing numbers taken to installing ad blockers to mitigate the effects: they facilitate […]
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Typography for Lawyers
Typography for Lawyers by Matthew Butterick is now in its second edition. With this book the author – a typographer turned lawyer – has performed a service for lawyers that no-one else has done for other professions. Go on, Google “typography for” and see what you come up with. You have to be a lawyer […]
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The Future of the Professions
Twenty years after publication of The Future of Law, Richard Susskind has returned, with his son Daniel this time, to consider The Future of the Professions (OUP). The Susskinds claim: “We are facing greater disruption and transformation in the next two decades than we have had in the past century”; and “We find it hard […]
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