Vancouver Law Librarian Blog: November 2005

BlawgWorld 2006

Just a quick note about TechnoLawyer's new eBook - BlawgWorld 2006: Capital of Big Ideas. Having spent the past few months bantering with 51 different law bloggers, this 106 page eBook is now ready. You can get a free copy via the link above.

Along with these two posts by yours truly, I'm joined by fellow Canadian law blogger David Canton, law librarian Bonnie Shucha, and a host of others!

There's lots of great content in this publication, and it could serve as a nice introduction to blogging, if the concept is still foreign to others in your firm.

My First Blogiversary

It's hard to believe that a year can pass so quickly, or that my intended 'experiment' could turn out to be such a success!

To be honest, the original intent of the VLLB was little more than to provide a 'digital voice' for regional law library, KM & technology initiatives (regional being Canadian...). I clearly didn't understand the true power of having that digital voice, or how international blog connectivity could be.

Over the past year, many people have asked me how productive blogging is, or how much of a "time waster" it is. Well, I am here to say that a couple of posts a week (and a hard maximum of 15 minutes a day!) can change your professional life. As a testament to the state of things, in just one year of existence, my blog is directly responsible for:

a large support network of law firm librarians & KM practitioners from around the world;
interviews with local & national publications;
my being part of the originating Slaw group (no blog, likely no Slaw!);
fantastic exchanges with serious legal industry heavyweights!;
more fantastic exchanges with fellow librarian bloggers;
learning about the next generation of Canadian lawyers;
presentation opportunities both in the past and in the future;
forcing me to write on a regular basis;
pay attention to my own current awareness;
increasing my personal desire to find innovative solutions.

How cool is that?

Davenport & Prusak are Blogging!

I feel just silly. Two authors I read regularly, Tom Davenport & Larry Prusak, joined the blogosphere and I didn't catch on for almost 2 months!

Along with Don Cohen, they are publishing a collaborative blog titled The Babson Knowledge Blog. The blog is also connected to the Babson College's Working Knowledge Research Center, or WKRC.

From the inaugural post, Davenport discusses the blog's goals:

"First, it’s a nice way to talk informally about knowledge and learning topics—there is a lot that doesn’t fit into a research paper format. Secondly, we hope that a variety of people who are connected to the WKRC will get involved—researchers, sponsors, and assorted friends. We definitely don’t want this to be “The Tom and Larry (Prusak) Show.” Third, it’s a vehicle for getting some of our ideas into the world at large, without being subject to the tyranny of Harvard Business Review or Sloan Management Review editors."

Tom, Larry & Don - a belated welcome! Let the practical & informal discussions begin. :-)

The RSS feed for the Babson Knowledge Blog is available here. (subscribed!)

Related Update: Connie Crosby has a great set of notes from Tom Davenport's keynote at KM World and Intranets 2005.

Another one ... more notes on that keynote from Bill Ives.

MacLean's Magazine Buys Canadian Privacy Commissioner's Cellphone Records

David Fraser, writer of The Canadian Privacy Law Blog, has been watching with keen interest as Macleans Magazine is set to publish how national correspondent Jonathon Gatehouse bought the phone records of Canada's privacy commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart.

David has now posted a follow-up (yesterday), noting how Bell Canada is in damage control mode over the story. (Also worth a mention, gotta love the vintage Canadian sarcasm in this quote: "Perhaps they can complain to the Privacy Commissioner?") ... :-)

A nice bit of blogging, but more so, it's important to acknowledge David's work over the past (almost) two years. The realm of Canadian law blogs has huge potential with committed bloggers like David Fraser. Keep it up!

Update 11/16/05: The article is now up (hat tip to Michael Geist).

Peter Drucker (1909 - 2005)

Just a quick note to mark the passing of Peter Drucker (Nov. 19, 1909 - Nov. 11, 2005).

Certainly one of the most prominent figures in early KM academia, Peter Drucker’s 1988 publication The Coming of the New Organization, where he first coins the term ‘knowledge worker’, will always be a point of origin for the KM thought process. Peter's influence will not be forgotten.

Introducing Wex!

The Legal Information Institute at the Cornell Law School are announcing Wex, "a collaboratively built, freely available legal dictionary and encyclopedia".

Here's a snippet from the FAQ:

What is Wex?
WEX is a collaboratively-edited legal dictionary and encyclopedia. It is intended for a broad audience of people we refer to as "law novices" -- which at one time or another describes practically everyone, even law students and lawyers entering new areas of law. No doubt purists will be quick to point out the differences between a dictionary and an encyclopedia. We deliberately blur the distinction, as we are interested in providing objective, useful material in a range of formats.

Who can contribute?

Potentially, anyone qualified to do so. We limit access to the Wex authoring apparatus as a way of ensuring that the quality of material here remains high, and free of vandalism of various kinds. If you're interested in becoming an author or editor, or if you want to know more about our selection criteria, take a look at the article on editorial contributions.

Why not just contribute law material to Wikipedia?

Excellent question. In time, we may offer our material to Wikipedia, or otherwise merge our efforts with theirs. In the short term, we (the LII) want to retain more control over what appears here. Once we have a better idea of what stresses and strains are involved in running such a system, we may consider moving.

Built on the MediaWiki platform, it's nice to see organizations like LII & Cornell embrace the technology and throw their weight behind this type of project. Wex looks very promising. Congratulations to all those involved in the project!

Stephen Abram's 32 Tips

In case you haven't been following along in SLA's information outlook or on Stephen's Lighthouse, Stephen Abram has been posting his 32 Tips to Inspire Innovation for You and Your Library (a 3 part series).

I've really been enjoying these, and I'd call the man an inspiration, but I think he's got that tattooed on his forehead from his many admirers around the blogoshpere. :-) Oh well, one more won't hurt - he's an inspiration, and I wish there were more Librarians like him.

And, I really like those 3 magic questions in part 2:

What keeps you awake at night?
If you could solve only one problem at work, what would it be?
If you could change one thing and one thing only, what would it be?

And, and, and... I like that the first words from Stephen's M&S Award profile are "Canadian-born"! A little north of the border pride never hurts.

New 2005 Salary Surveys

I've updated my list of Law Library Salary Surveys to include recent additions by AALL (members only) and SLA (free). The SLA survey includes a nice breakdown of 267 Canadian respondents.