Home » Posts tagged 'social media' (Page 2)
Tag Archives: social media
@legalaware's experience of the #twegals #legaltweetup 2011 organised by @azrights
Important retraction: In the article below, Legal Bizzle should like to point out that the height stated is incorrect. It is – in fact – 6’7″. I deeply apologise for any offence caused therein.
TwegalsTweetUp may become a regular event for lawyers both in London and elsewhere. Anyone interested in law who tweets was welcome. The invite stated that, “if you are a Twegal, a Tweagle or haven’t got round to tweeting yet but would like to, you should join the conversation please come along.”
I must say that I had a really wonderful time.
It was a really nice group of people – that’s why I have tweeted this morning:
Sorry not to have seen @LegalBizzle there. Tbe place was awash with rumours about the Bizzle including how Bizzle was in fact ‘massive’ at 6′ 5”. It is in a fact thought that Bizzle’s boiler has only just been fixed and that Bizzle has had a heavy time in the law of commercial contracts.
Also, @CharonQC whose reputation in the world of legal Twitter is, quite rightly, enormous, couldn’t make it. However, I had a very encouraging conversation with those in the know about how Charonqc has contributed a great deal to legal education. On that note, I’d strongly recommend a follow to @colmmu (Jon Harman) a specialist in education at the College of Law. http://twitter.com/#!/colmmu
I should like to add that I had memorable, fascinating conversations with the College of Law media contingent and Netlaw media about the role of the media in education; very inspiring, innovative approaches.
The College of Law and Netlaw websites are linked to within this sentence. Much of the work of NetLaw media will help graduates including those of BPP in law. Their website provides that,
“Netlaw Media specialises in producing highly informative law related programs specifically tailored to deliver cutting edge presentations by renowned UK, European and Internationally acclaimed speakers and industry professionals. Our events integrate a formulated blend of strategies, case studies and interactive discussions and workshops to enable legal professionals to gain a leading edge in a constantly evolving and demanding marketplace.“
The event had some really high quality people there. Emily Goodhand is clearly very passionate about the law generally, but fielded apparently some interesting inquiries about the principles of copyright during the course of the evening. Ajeet Minhas was really buzzing about his business activities, and clearly has the energy of a young entrepreneur. Brian Inkster (and his legal practice) intrigues me because Brian has moved from being a faithful junior to setting up his own very successful professional legal services firm in Scotland. He has an interest especially in how specialist law firms are using Twitter (and the social media) to their business advantage. I further enjoyed talking with Emily aka @lawbore who was nothing like a bore, but very easy and helpful to talk with. Emily has created a very successful blog for law students, and one which I have referred to in fact in the course of my legal studies at a different law school (BPP Law School); it’s always interesting for me to appreciate what I get about the act of going to a legal library such as our one in Waterloo at BPP which is superb, additional to surfing the internet for contemporaneous legal services. The bottom line is, in fact, you can’t do everything online, and, at the very least, what legal research you decide to do online has to be effective!
Paul Gilbert, aka the @LBCWiseCounsel, was extremely easy to talk with, and a perfect communicator as his name might suggest! Daniel Hoadley, a law reporter for the Weekly Law Reports, Times Law Reports and Road Traffic Reports amongst others, caught my attention as someone clearly very sharp, but very modest; not much surprise he is a Barrister by training. I took it easy on the comfy sofa watching people have a good time – consequently, there were a few people I didn’t meet like @cyberpixie, but whose ‘reports’ were very positive. It was a thrill for me to meet in person David Allen Green, whose thoughtful contributions on Twitter I have been watching for a long time. David is a genuinely interesting person, who tires endlessly to further general legal awareness. I know many law students at undergraduate level, who learn from his informative, educational and entertaining blog, Jack of Kent. As it happens, I reckon I share David’s political ideology which is not so clear-cut, but the tagline of his blog as being ‘liberal and critical’ is possibly fair. People who know me on Twitter will know roughly where my interests lie, and it’s thus no accident I enjoy David’s writings in the New Statesman, whether writing on the practicality of enforcement of superinjunctions in the social media or the commodification of higher education.
The evening was organised by Shireen Smith, of Azrights http://www.ip-brands.com. Recently, Shireen produced a very thought provoking article on etiquette on Twitter, which needless to say some senior tweeters agreed with, but others didn’t. It’s a wonderful article though, whether you agree with it or not, and I recommend it. If you don’t happen to agree with it, it’s obviously interesting to have good reasons why, and some people have well-reasoned ideas. And, last but not leaat, Gavin Ward with whom I had developed my thoughts during my LLM research thesis on cloud computing, was a sheer joy to meet in person. Gavin and I share much common ground in terms of law interests in technology, and it is for this reason I would like to publish with him my research findings on the legal advice given to SME directors, from a sample I surveyed who are like me Associates of the Institute of Directors, and the precise rationale for this in national and international law. His blog has developed, rightly, with time much interest internationally; whilst it has exploded because of the launch of the iCloud, until relatively recently it had been a niche field which people were aware of but hadn’t quite grasped. His first rate blog is here.
My twitter handle is @legalaware ; please follow me on Twitter!
Legal firms adapt to social media according to a US study
According to a study from the US, more law firms are using social media although tending to put it at the bottom of their list of priorities. A survey by the Law Firm Media Professionals association found 65% of law firms publishing at least one blog, up from 42% last year, and 87% have active LinkedIn accounts, up from 61 percent.
Although 85% of respondents said social media is important to their firm, they ranked social media training and development of content for social media at the bottom of activities they put the most effort into. Twitter is used by 69% of firms surveyed,now the second most valuable social media outlet for law firms behind LinkedIn.
Read more: Law firms adapt to social media | Washington Business Journal
Hugh's Fish Fight
HUGH’S EXPERIENCE
“For the past few months, I have been travelling around the UK meeting fishermen, marine conservationists, politicians, supermarkets bosses, and of course fish-eating members of the public,” says Hugh.“My experience, and how it has changed the way I think about fish are shown in Hugh’s Fish Fight (broadcast 11th, 12th, 13th January 2011) as part of Channel 4’s Big Fish Fight.
Watch all three programmes on 4oD.
“This season featuring programmes from fellow chefs Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal and Jamie Oliver, aims to champion sustainable seafood and celebrate lesser known delicacies of the deep.
“This website, fishfight.net is the campaign hub accompanying Hugh’s Fish Fight and will be continuing its work over the coming months. Here you can find out more about the issues raised in Hugh’s Fish Fight and lend your support to the campaign. You can also follow the progress of Hugh’s Fish Fight on Facebook and Twitter.
“Hugh’s Fish Fight is supported by a wide coalition of environmental Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and, we hope, by a growing number of fishermen and policy makers too. A vital part of the campaign, and the area where we are currently looking for public support, is the issue of discards at sea.”
DISCARDS AT SEA
Around half of the fish caught by fishermen in the North Sea are unnecessarily thrown back into the ocean dead.
The problem is that in a mixed fishery where many different fish live together, fishermen cannot control the species that they catch.
Fishing for one species often means catching another, and if people don’t want them or fishermen are not allowed to land them, the only option is to throw them overboard. The vast majority of these discarded fish will die.
Because discards are not monitored, it is difficult to know exactly how many fish are being thrown away. The EU estimates that in the North Sea, discards are between 40% and 60% of the total catch. Many of these fish are species that have fallen out of fashion: we can help to prevent their discard just by rediscovering our taste for them.
Others are prime cod, haddock, plaice and other popular food species that are “over-quota”. The quota system is intended to protect fish stocks by setting limits on how many fish of a certain species should be caught.
Fishermen are not allowed to land any over-quota fish; if they accidentally catch them – which they can’t help but do – there is no choice but to throw them overboard before they reach the docks.
THE SOLUTIONS
We need to diversify our fish eating habits, and we need to change policy so that it works for fish, fishermen and consumers.
The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), which is the political framework for the quota system, is currently being reformed for 2012. Scientists and environmental groups have suggested a number of ways that that the policy can work to protect fish stocks. Some details of these can be found on our solutions page.
Re-writing the Common Fisheries Policy is going to be an enormously complicated business, and unfortunately there is no one easy solution to ending discards. Many people agree that the answer will lie in a combination of different ideas and policies.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
• Sign up to the campaign on the sign up page. You will be writing directly to policy makers in Europe to let them know that the unnecessary and unethical discarding of perfectly good fish must stop. We can make a difference. If enough people sign up to the campaign, they have to listen to us. We aim to get 250,000 signatures by summer 2011.
• Write to your MP to ask them to support the Fish Fight Early Day Motion.
• Expand the selection of fish that you eat by trying some of the lesser-known species of local fish currently being discarded as trash. In the UK, cod, salmon and tuna account for more than 50% of the fish that we consume, and tasty, exciting and nutritious fish such as flounder, dab, coley and pouting are overlooked and thrown away.
• Spread the word, tell all of your friends and family about Hugh’s Fish Fight and get them to sign the campaign too.
Together we can stop this ridiculous carnage. Join Hugh’s Fish Fight now!
Thanks very much,
Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall
(C) Hugh’s Fish Fight 2011 http://www.fishfight.net/the-campaign/
Perhaps there should be a #NetRoots workshop on humility next time?
Netroots to me, held yesterday at the Congress Centre, Great Russell Street, was a fundamentally great idea.
The description of Netroots is given on this web page: http://www.netrootsuk.org/about-netroots-uk/
Netroots UK will bring together hundreds of grassroots activists in central London for a day of workshops, discussions and networking activity.
Hear from innovative and effective campaigns in other fields.
Make useful contacts with key people and organisations.
Get practical training in digital techniques and technologies.
Take part in the debate on the future of UK activism.
The day will feature keynote speakers and discussions, as well as many workshops, aimed at all levels of activists. There will be plenty of opportunity for networking outside the organised sessions.
We’ll be helping make better links between campaigners from the worlds of politics, environment, development, civil liberties, unions, community groups and many more.
Labour would benefit from having a powerful social media strategy, comparable to that developed by @TimMontgomerie for the Conservatives. However, there were a barrage of tweets yesterday from supporters from Labour. One group tweeted sensibly from Oldham East and Saddleworth about their experiences in campaigning for the seat there on behalf of @Debbie_Abrahams. The other group flooded my Twitter timeline was a string of mostly nonsense tweets like, ‘can’t wait for the pub after curry tonight’. Whatever the solidarity that took place in Netroots, it unfortunately gave the impression of young well-off upper middle class people playing with their iPods and Blackberries, and raving about how wonderful, for example, Polly Toynbee is. In case it had escaped your attention, by the way, Polly Toynbee does not support Labour; her views are more in tune with the SDP. I do, of course, concede that my timeline was flooded also by negative comments about Netroots by people I wasn’t following – these tweets had been vigorously retweeted, several times. Anyway, in traditional Oxford PPE style, here is a definition of ‘humility’. Also in Oxbridge-style these days, this definition is from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humility).
Humility (adjectival form: humble) is the quality of being modest, reverential, even politely submissive, and never being arrogant, contemptuous, rude or even self-abasing. Humility, in various interpretations, is widely seen as a virtue in many religious and philosophical traditions, being connected with notions of transcendent unity with the universe or the divine, and of egolessness.
Twitter for me has become full of “RT @author1 author2 wrote a brilliant blog shortlink.org < thanks”, with the same political bloggers tweeting each other, regularly excluding other people with genuine sensible comments from their conversation. Such people look egotistical, and run the risk of genuinely alienating potential Labour supporters with their own brand of ‘being a clique’. For example, I really respect Sunder Kutwala from the Fabian Society, and so I was saddened to see the level of conversation reduced to this like some sort of exchange between Danni Minogue and Louis Walsh. The link is here.
Laurie Penny of the New Statesman – a talented writer, who has a rising profile as an emerging voice from a new generation of the radical and feminist left – rather misrepresented this point, whether accidentally or just to serve a polemical purpose, by mangling this comment on twitter into:
Sunder Katwala says it’s the shadow chancellor’s job to propose economic alternatives, not workers’. Pity Labour has no idea
I certainly don’t think about the shadow chancellor and “workers”. Indeed, I didn’t mention “workers” – except that I went on to to say that unions have a distinctive role too.
It is this aspect which actually concerns me the most about Twitter and the blogosphere. Certain individuals wishing to make a high impact in a feverish celebrity atmosphere; further to that, I am finding a lot of arrogant overtones in how people feel that they represent ‘the ordinary Labour voter’. It is this ‘born to rule’ which Labour accuses the Conservatives of which means that the whole thing for me smacks of hypocrisy. So – in summary – less tweeting and more reflection on humility wouldn’t go amiss for me. And yes – I am a Labour member too, I’m afraid. I feel we have an open goal at the moment, and we certainly haven’t learnt the lessons of Tony Blair, described by the man himself in ‘The journey’. We should be using the opportunity on really producing a radically innovative message, whilst we have the opportunity, and not concentrate on the packaging of the message much more. That’s why many – but not all – think New Labour was essentially an exercise in rebranding.
#3wordsconservativeshate
Some of these #3wordsconservativeshate contributions are just brilliant. You could write a short essay on why these #3wordsconservativeshate nominations have been contributed. I notice that, in the list, some were indeed contributed by prominent Conservative tweeters and bloggers, which shows what a superb sense of humour they have! They have, after all, probably thought about #3wordsconservativeshate but not voiced them publicly.
What is quite obvious though – again – is that the right don’t think much of these social media campaigns such as, indeed, #3wordsconservativeshate, and they’ve “never got their teeth into them” as such. You can see their point-of-view, but it’s an amusing list nonetheless!
Have a nice weekend.
Some recent #3wordsconservativeshate examples are:
- Education Maintenance Allowance.
- Another Labour landslide
- Paying Your Tax
- Ashcroft Is Skint
- The British Public
- Friends In Need
- Riots In London
- Equal Human Rights
- The Working Class
- North East England
- Universal Health Care
- Increased Public Spending
- Low Student Fees
Here are some contributions in real-time on Twitter.
Some
