So, yeah. I’m supposed to be in the air right now winging my way to Florida for a 9 day cruise. It’s fine, it’s fine. Me and mine are healthy, my job hasn’t (thus far) been lost due to covid-19, I am relatively very lucky. Still. I really like to travel and go on vacations and our cruise itinerary was SUPER BEACH intensive and I was looking forward to absolutly ROASTING myself into an unnatural shade. It’s not a cruise unless a total stranger comes up to you and says, “Listen, you should wear some sun screen or something or stay out of the sun for a few days.” Anyway, let’s get on it…

Stay Safe Online

The news, library and law worlds actually have a lot in common when it comes to their technology needs, especially when it comes to privacy. If you’re looking for information about what tool to use or a cost/benefit analysis of using one, it’s sometimes useful to check out other industry sources. For example, the Freedom of the Press Foundation has just released this great comparison of video conferencing tools.

Community.Lawyer Continues to Be Awesome

It turns out that Community.Lawyer (non-profit expert system/document automation tool built on Open Source Docassemble) has been working with the Judicial Council of California to build tools for Self Representd Litigants. They posted interview with the JCC’s digital guy. I would love to see more courts utilize these types of tools.

A2J Tech Fellows

One benefit to being home and not on vacation - sigh, I guess - is that I got to tune into the weekly Stanford Codex Call. One of the guests was Miguel Willis who started the A2J Tech Fellows program when he was a 2L. Completely blows my mind that he was able to do this. And also - not to take ANYTHING away from him - it makes me sort of mad that he had to do it? Like, law students have enough on their plates without having to create a NATIONWIDE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM that gives students skills that their law schools aren’t teaching them? Anyway, it appears they are still accepting applications for a few spots.

Speaking of Fellowships and Student Jobs…

Starting trouble on Twitter is not my thing anymore, BUT… if you are hiring a law student for a internship or summer job or project work, you better pay them. Unpaid interships are only available to people that can afford to go without a salary, which really skews your demographics.

A Country Boy Can Survive

I think it’s funny in the post-covid rush to get legal processes online, everyone is waving around AI and Zoom and Blockchain and what have you. Which, fine, great, whatever. Don’t get me wrong, I love technology, but let’s not forget that not everything has to have a tech solution.

Some Open Source Goodness

Also in the Stanford meeting yesterday were representatives from the Merlin Foundation. They brought up two tools that I wasn’t familiar with but thought I’d share:

• Mattermost, which is a FOSS slack alternative.

• FreeEED, a free e-discovery tool.

On the lighter side..