HUMAN LAW MEDIATION

Blogging workshop on Wednesday 21st June

Further to the success of my last event on blogging, I am just informing you that Human Law is now offering the workshop called "Blogging for Beginners" on Wednesday 21st June.

The workshop will be at an introductory level and is tailored for lawyers, accountants and other professionals and will cover the following areas:

• What is blogging and why it can benefit you and your firm?
• How do you set up a weblog?
• What are the risks of blogging and how do you minimise them?
• Which blogging software should you use? 
• What is podcasting and how do you do it?
• A brief consideration of  video blogging 

By the end of the workshop, you will be able to weblog (guaranteed) and you will have full understanding of why this is such an important marketing tool within the 21st Century. Places are limited to 12 people.

The workshop is being held at the Lansdowne Club, Green Park, London, W1J 5JD.

The cost is £199 plus Vat with the event starting at 1 p.m and lasting until 5 p.m. If you are not satisfied with the event, you are entitled to a full refund. The event qualifies for the non- accredited element of the CPD requirement.

Testimonials of the last event include:

Rosalind English, Associate Tenant at One Crown Office Row said "A very interesting and lively conference, plenty of useful information and time saving tips borne of experience rather than theoretical research. Powerpoint material and provision of equipment and software for hands-on training particularly impressive. I felt that I had gone from 0 to 60 mph on the subject of blogging and podcasting within the space of three hours.” 

William Flack, Solicitor & Principal at Flack & Co  said "I found the “Bloggers for Beginners” to be an extremely useful course. It did not just provide me with an understanding of what blogging, and podcasting are but also provided hands on instructions with starting a blog and creating a podcast then and there. I now feel confident about using these important new technologies. I would recommend this course to anyone who is interested in doing so or just finding out what all the fuss is about."

To book a place, please e-mail me at [email protected] with your name, address and a contact telephone number. Alternatively, please fill in the form below:

Download booking_form.pdf

UK trade union show progressive commitment to tackling workplace bullying

You do not always the equate the words trade union with being progressive but a trade union who may be on these lines is the Association of Teachers & Lecturers. I have recently returned from delivering a lecture on workplace bullying to some of its members in Cumbria and I was stimulated by the level of debate we had.

A possible reason for the advances may be due to the influences of the ATL organiser, Duncan Woodhead. Duncan has a broad minded approach to work which may in part be due to the fact that he worked for 7 years in the United States prior to working for the ATL.   

Below I have provided the slides we used for the event. Workplace bullying remains an understated source of misery for many workers. The union deserves support in seeking to tackle it.  Please note that the slides do not provide legal advice and are subject to the standard disclaimer on this weblog.

Download workplace_bullying.ppt

London based executive job portal show commitment to blogging for business

One of the ways that technology is impacting the way we work is the way we look for a job and the fact we use the internet much more. An organisation which has an effective niche in this area is the London based,  GoldJobs who act as a senior executive advertising portal for jobs in excess of £100,000.

At my last blogging seminar, the Managing Director of GoldJobs, Richard Hinde-Smith was in attendance  and he showed real insight and strong probing of the material which I put forward. Following the event, Mr Hinde-Smith has started experimenting with a number of blogs including one entitled "Executive Appointments."

Online libel is an inadequate remedy for big corporations

Rupert White of Law Society Gazette has another significant piece which deals with blogging and online libel.

He expands on an issue dealt with in a  previous post of mine namely that Jupiter Research found that only 24% of web users contribute to blogs, websites or online forums unprompted but have a disproportionate influence over the opinions of consumers. Rupert managed to interview Julian Smith, an analyst at Jupiter Research.

What Rupert does mention (which I did not) regarding Jupiter's research is "...But perhaps worst of all is that, contrary to tradition where companies might be libelled by other firms or by media organs, now it is the little man who is capable of drastically affecting a brand...These people are generally not worth suing, Mr Smith said, so companies might be better advised to both reach out to the consumer community to directly address allegations it feels are unfounded, or work with the disgruntled  commentators to find an agreed solution." 

As I keep on emphasising, power is shifting to the individual due to the ease of publication from anyone. Why sue in the Courts when the remedy is not going to give satisfaction? This issue of blogging and online communities is going to get bigger.      

"Lawyers are the best owners"

The Law Society Gazette gives  some prominence to a report by Copenhagan Economics which was commissioned by the Danish Law Society saying that it is unlikely that non-lawyer owners can operate law firms any more efficiently than lawyers.

The report said that while law firms do have problems with management, modifying ownership requirements would not improve matters. The profession itself is adddressing the problem and can already bring in non-lawyer managers.

Readers of this blog may have an inkling where I stand on this.

In defence of big legal publishers

Solo is the quarterly magazine of the Solicitors Sole Practitioners Group. The magazine has recently acquired a new editor in Stephen Roberts and its current edition has a piece written by the lawyer Susan Singleton of Singletons entitled "Big legal publishers - Don't you just love them?" Ms Singleton took pen to paper having seen a previous edition where a writer criticised big legal publishers.

At page 7 of the latest edition, Ms Singleton provides a helpful list of ways to not only making money out of legal publishers but also keeping up to date with developments in your field. These include:

• Subscribe to nothing unless there is a major business case for it
• Write for as many publications as you can
• Join relevant legal committees for areas where you are involved
• Never buy any product which is free or available on the internet elsewhere 
• Do not assume that because another firm or many firms have a product that a sole practice "has to have it."

Understanding the impact of blogs, wikis and RSS

As part of the trend illustrating the movement of blogs to the corporate sector, there is going to be a conference called "Understanding the impact of blogs, wikis and RSS" which is to be held at the Hilton London Metropole on 17th May 2006.

As the Conference providers write "Effective communication is a challenge for everybody in today’s organisations and social media is all about communication.  Knowing what’s being said both inside and outside your organisation is critical and must be understood and controlled.  But what exactly is involved?"

The one day forum will combine expert insight from leading thinkers of social media technologies with real case studies.  To view more information about the event, please click here. 

The main significance of blogging is in its impact on institutions

This week's Economist has a survey conducted on new media which should be useful reading for blogger and would be bloggers.

To read the opening part of the survey, please click here.   

A key part of the survey appears here where it deals with the impact on institutions by having online conversations-  "The mainstream media, says David Weinberger, a blogger, author and fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Centre, “don't get how subversive it is to take institutions and turn them into conversations”. That is because institutions are closed, assume a hierarchy and have trouble admitting fallibility, he says, whereas conversations are open-ended, assume equality and eagerly concede fallibility."

Effectively we are now starting to live in an era where all institutions and people are accountable, and are far more vulnerable to online discussion. The way that you can "google" someone and find a great deal of information about them means that we are all accountable.

In my view this illustrates that power is shifting from the top to the individual.

Sale of MP3 players surge

I am grateful to this post by Audacious Commuications - Audacious are a UK based communications company who possess an impressive website.

They refer to the market research company Gfk who released actual sales data on the number of MP3 players sold in the UK in the run up to Christmas and throughout 2005.

The research indicates that Mp3 players are now the fastest growing electronic consumer goods of all time with 2.2 million sold in December 2005 alone. Total mp3 players sold in the UK during 2005 reached 6.3 million. In other words one in four UK households bought an MP3 player during the year.

New blogging seminar for 21st June

Many thanks to Edward Fennell of the Times who did an article about last week's blogging seminar in his "In the City" law column.

I am pleased to inform you that I will be doing another event on blogging which again will be held at the Lansdowne Club on 21st June. More details to appear later.