Author: Nick Holmes
Nick Holmes is Editor of this Newsletter. He is a publishing consultant specialising in the legal sector and is Managing Director of legal web services company infolaw Limited. Email nickholmes@infolaw.co.uk. Twitter @nickholmes.
The law publishers and Web 2.0
(with James Mullan) 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 message one to many; with the facility for users to respond and contribute, […]
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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 […]
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Quick and easy custom search with Google
Some 18 months ago Google launched its Custom Search service (still in beta) that enables you to create a custom search engine (CSE) focussing on anything up to 2,000 specified URLs. The rationale is that, despite its undoubtedly sophisticated algorithms, even with a carefully crafted search, Google will always return results near the top that […]
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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 […]
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Company Law Forum
Company Law Forum from LexisNexis is the first attempt at a substantial Web 2.0 site from a “mainstream” law publisher. It is intended to provide an environment for the legal and business community to share insights and discuss company law-related issues. It is free to access; registration entitles you to create a profile, publish opinions, […]
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The Network in 2008
In 2008 Facebook et al will continue to prosper, but there is room on the web for anyone with particular expertise and as to what Web 2.0 can do for lawyers, we should be looking elsewhere. In 2008 we’ll see the incumbent law publishers experimenting with Web 2.0, attempting to engage users on their own […]
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Introducing Law 2.0
The internet is changing from a one-to-many broadcasting medium to a many-to-many communications system. It is becoming a shared resource where anyone can put forward their ideas, amend or correct the ideas of others, talk to their friends, locate long lost friends or find new ones, create and load up pictures or video clips or […]
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What is Web 2.0?
The phrase “Web 2.0” was coined by Tim O’Reilly in 2003 and refers to the way software developers are now using the web as a platform for delivering applications to end users and the consequent transition of websites from isolated information silos to sources of content and functionality. It is often referred to as the […]
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What’s in it for lawyers?
(Continuing the article What is Web 2.0?) Inevitably, Web 2.0 has spawned numerous industry-specific buzzwords: “Gov 2.0” is Web 2.0 in the context of government, “Library 2.0” is Web 2.0 as it relates to librarianship, and of course “Law 2.0” is Web 2.0 for lawyers. What relevance does Web 2.0 have for lawyers and the […]
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Welcome to the new-style Newsletter
I am delighted to have been invited on board by Delia as joint editor and publisher of the Newsletter. Delia and I have collaborated for many years, since we both launched our websites in early 1995. Together we wrote and edited the book Researching the Legal Web (Butterworths 1997 and 2nd edn 1999) and in […]
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Does IT matter?
“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 commodity input and that for most companies there is little […]
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The Statute Law Database – an update
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 judgment or quietly cursing its shortcomings? I set out to […]
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