There’s been a lot of chatter this afternoon on Twitter about Nick Holmes Free Legal Web project. Today he posted his manifesto (not as scarily Soviet-era as it sounds) that outlines the (rather ambitious, I can’t help but think) goals and dreams of the project. Nick’s ‘plausible promise’ is that he will:

spearhead the development of the Free Legal web — a service that joins up the law and legal commentary and analysis on the web and delivers a useful service to both lawyers and the community at large. I need a commitment from a handful of others with complementary skills and expertise to kick-start the project. All suggestions are welcome and necessary to drive this forward.

The goal is to create a ‘joined-up’ free legal web, in some way making accessible all the officially provided free information (opsi, hansard, etc) as well as blogs, legal wikis, and other free available, but ‘unofficial’ sources of legal information. All in all a very laudable goal, I must say.

This is in line with the goals of the Power of Information Task Force,who are working to public sector information more accessible to the people. (There’s even a £20k prize if you think of something they really like!)

I think that at it’s core this is a really good idea – I’m all for making information more accessible, and taking some of the control away from the legal publishers, who currently hold the legal sector to ransom for their ‘official’ information sources. As Nick says in his manifesto, legal blogs and wikis are producing some fantastic commentary and discussion on legal issues, and are far more timely and accessible than journal articles and books. And it would be great to have a central location for accessing, searching and disseminating information from both the ‘official’ and ‘non official’ freely available legal sources.

The big question that hangs over the project though, is how is it going to be done? Will it simply be a portal site (though this ground is already covered very competently by Nick’s excellent Infolaw.)? A federated search engine? A mashup of rss feeds that you can set-up according to your own interests?

I think this is a fantastic opportunity to make use of semantic web style metadata. I don’t really know enough about the semantic web to start having an intelligent discussion about how it would actually work in practice but a semantic metadata powered search engine/giant mash up might be an idea? A quick web search reveals a number of discussions already in place regarding the construction of legal ontologies for semantic web markup.

A cohesive effort to get people using a shared ontology and semantic markup for the pages would be a great step forward, and would hopefully start paving the way for future (free) uses of legal information on the web.

Lots of concerns spring to mind too though, not the least some very disgruntled legal publishers. The sheer volume of (presumably) volunteer effort will make it a slow going process. Getting the combined online legal community on board might also be a challenge. And getting everyone to come to a decision? Fraught, but not necessarily impossible.

This is a very off-the-cuff response to what is a very ambitious and multi-faceted plan. I’m sure given more thought I’ll be able to think of many more things to say about it. I do, however, think it’s a great and very laudable idea, and am looking forward to seeing how the project progresses!

I’ve finally gotten around to watching a video that I’ve had saved in my google reader for weeks – We Think.  (Found via Web 2.0 (Video/Powerpoint))

It’s an animation that accompanies a book that was published in the UK recently, also titled We Think. It’s about the web and creativity and sharing and where that will take us. Whilst not directly on Web 2.0 it is about the concepts and technologies behind it, and is about the direction that the web is heading.

The first three chapters of the book are available online here.  Go, read.  I know I will be.

Back in October, I wrote about the closing keynote at the Web Directions South conference given by Mark Pesce.

I’ve just found out that the videos, mp3 and transcript are now available from the conference site. I’ve not yet gone and had a listen myself, but if you’re in any way interested in technology and where it’s taking us you should go read it.

Also, Will Richardson of Weblogg-ed posted a couple of days ago about it and has some interesting points also. He writes from an educator’s perspective, but what he says can be transferred into the generic library arena.

I’ve finally gotten hold of a copy of Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger courtesy of MPOW. I’ve just sat down to read it, and I can tell this is going to be a book where I’m constantly getting up to note down an interesting quote. I can also tell that it’s going to be hard to put down – I may have to put the novel I’m currently reading aside until it’s done!

My favourite so far? The solution to the overabundance of information is more information (p13). How very true!

However, I’ve also got a small nitpick. There’s been a couple of cultural references so far that I’ve not gotten (The Odd Couple/Oscar Madison), though I’m not sure if that’s down to my age, or an American focus. Still, not too much of a nitpick, and things like that I can easily google.

And even though I’ve only just started this book, I’m already on the lookout for others to get for MPOW. I’ve been coveting a number of books myself (These two specifically come to mind immediately) but working as I do in the legal sector, I worry that they wouldn’t have much applicability to our environment, and I don’t want to spend our book budget on irrelevant books. So, does anyone have any recommendations for web 2.0/library 2.0 books that would have some relevance to the legal library?

Or, how I learned to stop worrying and embrace the fact that I’m an info-floozy

Fiona Bradley posting at Libraries Interact has a good post about cutting down on information overload, which brought in mind to me the draft post I’ve had sitting on my desktop for, oh, the last few months.

See, I have a problem with information overload. A real bad, no good, terrible problem. Now, I’ll happily be the first one to admit it. I love information – thrive off it – and the wonderful glut of information available in these heady days of web 2.0 is a godsend to me. I’ll happily lap up all of that wonderful zeitgeist coming at me through the interwebs at the moment. But I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t taking it’s toll. And I know that it’s taking it’s toll on a lot of you too.

But what to do about it?

Google Reader tells me that, as of this moment, I’m subscribed to 540 blogs. Now, I know what you’re thinking (I can hear the horrified gasps from here). And it is, I know. I struggle with trying to keep up with them, and manage somewhere between not too badly, and appallingly, depending on how much time I have on my hands. Now, I don’t read all of them everyday (I couldn’t possibly), and a lot of them update irregularly, or are dead (it’s such a hassle weeding out things like that, and I really can’t be bothered – it’s not a problem having them there if they don’t update and don’t get in my way). And I do read in a lot of different subject areas – my main folders cover libraries (2 folders of those), cooking (more than I care to mention), comics, web stuff, geekery, tech, law, KM, productivity, career stuff, music, shopping, people, job hunting, and a temp folder for things that I think I want to delete, but haven’t quite summoned up the courage to actually delete yet. And I know this is too much. Everyday I look at it and pale at the sight of so many unread items. It’s a daunting prospect.

But then again, so is the idea of deleting them. As I said, I’m a sucker for information, and this is feeding my habit. I know I don’t really need to know all of these things, but oh! they’re so good to know! I get to read about beautiful new things, exciting new projects, risque politics, shiny new games, and lots of yummy things to make, lots of music to listen to, and… I don’t want to be without them. I love being on the crest of the wave. I love knowing what will be coming out soon, what the new trends are, what the new tools and startups are. And I love hearing what people are saying about them – what everyone of the individual people in my reading list is saying.

And yet, I do need to cut back. And I have.

There are a lot of ways to cope with information overload like this – Fiona points out a few goods tips in her post, mostly relying on the idea of cutting shamelessly and ruthlessly and not stopping until you have the number of feeds you’re subscribed to down to a manageable number. Which is all well and good, and definitely a good start, but I have a few points to add:

• Think about how you read your blogs – I don’t mind being subbed into a large number of cooking blogs and webcomics, cause essentially they’re just a greatbig scroll of pretty pictures. These blogs bring me joy and give me a way of relaxing. Reading blogs doesn’t just have to be about work and information – it can be about getting small bits of happy sent straight to your feedreader
• Think about when you read – using the same example, as much as I love my sprawling mass of pretty pictures, it’s not mission critical if I don’t read them, or ifI only look at them a few times a week. And as long as you don’t feel compelled to read things that you don’t have time to read, then it’s not really a problem
• Think about what you’d lose if you unsubscribe – This is a bit of a two-edged sword – think about what you’ll be losing both in the good and bad context. One good post a month probably isn’t worth ten bad ones, but at the same time, if someone is only posting once a month, but it’s an amazing post, it’s probably a keeper
• Don’t think you have to unsubscribe to get it under control. If nothing else, I use my reader as an ersatz bookmarking service (as much as I love del.icio.us, things get lost there and are never seen again). Rather than unsubscribing straight away, I move subscriptions to my interim folder, and graze through it every now and then, to see what’s in there. I wouldn’t have subscribed to them in the first place if they weren’t interesting enough to keep an eye on, but you don’t have to be looking at them every day.
• And, as a last ditch, but awfully effective method, just stop reading. Just don’t do it. Don’t open your reader. When you do, don’t be afraid to mark whole folders’as read’ before you even take a peek. Have a folder for the most vitally important, must read, top ten or twenty feeds in your list, and only look at those. (This is my strategy at the moment – I just don’t have the time to be reading as much as I used to, and as such, I only read a tiny percentage of what I’m subbed to)

It’s very easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of information available and think that you can’t escape from the mire of interesting and terribly important things that need reading. It is possible to get it under control though. Does anyone else have any tried and tested methods for keeping their subscriptions under control?

I’ve just had a fantastic article brought to my attention, courtesy of Ben at 200ok.  It was the closing keynote at the Web Directions South conference that was on in Sydney last week.

Mark Pesce gave a session titled Mob Rules (The Law of Fives).   It speaks of networks, and how the mob uses them, and how networks change because of the mob.  It speaks of change, the destruction of hierachies and the future of networks.

It’s written with a focus towards web developers, but there is so much that can be taken from it and applied to libraries. Especially when he speaks of the mob making things that they want happen.

Mark points out the five rules of the mob.  Rule two: The mob is faster, smarter and stronger than you are really stuck out to me.   He’s talking of web sites but swap web site for library, and see where it takes you.

You can’t push a mob any more than you can push a rope; you can pull them, lure them, and, if you’re very lucky, dazzle them for a moment or two, but then, inevitably, they’ll move along. That’s bad news for anyone building web sites. The world of mob rules isn’t about sites; it’s about services, things that the street uses and permutes indefinitely. The idea of web sites dates from a time before the network ate hierarchy; sites are places where you go and follow the rules laid down by some information architect. Well, there’s no way to enforce those rules. The first Google Maps mashup didn’t come from Google. Or the second. Or the third. Or the hundredth. Google resisted the mashup. Claimed mashups violated their terms of use. Mashups come from the mob, the street finding its own use for things. The mob pushed on through; Google bowed down and obeyed. The most powerful institution of the Internet era, pushed around like a child’s toy. Ponder that.

It’s definitely something to ponder.  Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 is a starting point. We’re starting to think in terms of services.  This is the next step forward – moving toward an attitude that is no longer focused on how we want users to use us, but focused on providing the services that the mob wants, how they want it.  Otherwise they’ll move on and find a way to get what they want without us.

I started using Google Reader recently, mostly to see what everyone was talking about, but also because Bloglines had started to become too annoying to use.  And I think I’m converted.  What I’m really loving is the Star feature as it means I don’t have to leave all the good posts marked as unread and I can see everything in the same place.

There’s been a lot of fantastic posts lately which are in my Starred items folder that I really want to share.

To start with is a post by Scott Vine over at Information Overlord that I think needs to be read by CEO’s and managing
partners everywhere.  It’s called Wasting Time - Facebook and other Fallacies.  Scott highlights some pretty relevant stuff about wasting time that all these so called ‘studies’ on Facebook seem to ignore.

Kathryn Greenhill at Librarians Matter wrote a good post on power in Library 2.0 called What’s new about Library 2.0? Shift in power.  She raises a good point about the 2.0 movement about the whole ’2.0 is about being user-centred’.  She then goes on to outline where she feels the power has shifted.

So, if being user centred is not new, and Library 2.0 isn’t only about new tools, what is new about it? Why should we lift our heads from the stuff we are already doing and take notice of it? To me, the new element that Library 2.0 brings to our libraries is a shift in power balance – between us, our users, suppliers, software vendors, non-users.

On the topic of 2.0, The Other Librarian wrote a fantastic post titled Under the Hood of Web 2.0 : the top ten programming concepts for librarians to understand. Definitely a useful post to read if you’re into the whole web 2.0 thing and want to know more about how it’s all actually working.

There’s been a lot of talk about the OEDB list of top 25 library bloggers. I definitely agree with the comments many made that their methodology needs a little bit of work. However, as a response, Meredith Farkas has started a survey – the Top Three Library-Related Blogs Survey. The survey is open until September 29 so head on over and fill out your three favourite library blogs.

Last week Fiona Bradley asked what I thought was a very pertinent question on Twitter – where are all the blogging UK librarians?

Since moving from Australia in 2006, I have seen the Australian library blogger population flourish, with many exciting bloggers and events. There has been the West Australia Lib 2.0 Unconference, Information Online 2007, and New Librarian 2006.

There is the upcoming State Library of Queensland Unconference, Australian Blogging Conference, Information Online 2009, VALA 2008 and IFLA 2010 has been announced for Brisbane (all of which I would love to be able to attend! why did I move to the UK again?)

There are wonderful blogs such as the aforementioned Blisspix, Kathryn Greenhill, Exploded Library and Connecting Librarian, amongst others.

(I focus on Australia, because obviously the US contingent has been kicking it hardcore for a very long while *g*)

But here in the UK, there is not so much…

There are the few of us legal library bloggers (all, you know, six or seven of us). And there’s Phil Bradley and Karen Blakeman. And quite a few universities and public libraries have institutional blogs. And whilst institutional blogs are both great and very important, they’re not quite the same as personal library blogs. They cover different issues and are not, generally, so much a place for discussion and community.

Where is the discussion, the barcamps, the unconferences, the passion? There’s Internet Librarian 2007, but quite frankly, the program is just not that exciting, dealing with a lot of issues that are a bit, well, 2005 (e-learning, portals and wikis at work, virtual libraries – these are not new and challenging concepts). I envy all of you Australian and US bloggers, with your exciting conferences to attend and projects to get involved in. It just doesn’t seem to have caught on here yet, and I’m not sure why. Are we too caught up in tradition and the old ways of doing things? Too resistant to change? Too scared to make a fuss or get into trouble for blogging our opinions? I’m not sure…

Or maybe I’m wrong, maybe there are lots of UK library blogs and events going on that I just can’t seem to find. Some secret underground community of subversive UK librarians, maybe? (and if there are, please let me know!)

The Telegraph has a service (is it new? I’m not sure. I haven’t noticed it before, and it still seems a little unfinished, so I’m thinking it can’t be that old), where you can subscribe to a limited selection of news articles. They have created a few broad categories (sport, news, opinion, business, and so on) and have selected a number of resources that you can feed into an RSS stream. And, somewhat shockingly, they aren’t just recommended Telegraph columns, but things from all over the internet, including columns from their competitors (they offer feeds from the Times and the Guardian).

Now it is very limited (you can’t add in any other feeds, but can only select from what they have made available). And it is a little clunky (it’s all ajax, which I don’t really like as a functional platform – it’s too prone to slowness). But I quite like it nonetheless.

It feels to me like the gateway drug of RSS – not quite as hardcore as setting yourself up with feeds and a feedreader, but you can have a small selection of things to read. It’s the sort of thing you might suggest to your not-terribly-net-savvy parents, or to someone with limited English. You would move on from there to a real RSS reader – probably GoogleReader, as the format is somewhat similar. It’s enough to get you hooked on the crack that is RSS, but not so daunting as having to go out and actually track feeds down yourself. And I really like the fact that they’re not limiting themselves to Telegraph resources, but are expanding their options to other sources. I think it’s worth checking out.

Fluther and wis.dm are two new startups that are attempting to tap into the collective wisdom of crowds, asking the user base of the site to answer questions posed to the group.

Fluther is quite cute (it’s squid themed – how can you not like it?) and nicely designed (though I would rather the ‘ask a question’ box wasn’t quite so prominent, as it means I can barely see the questions posed on the front page). The questions asked here seem mostly serious – the sort of things you would ask, as the website puts it, if you had ‘five Uncle Franks to answer your car questions, eight Aunt Marthas to ask about astronomy and six Grandma Gerties to advise you on your garden dilemmas’. I would argue that this shares a lot of the same mental space as MetaFilter – most of the questions are things that you would see posed there, which arguably begs the question of why you wouldn’t just post to metafilter, with a much larger userbase?

wis.dm (as seen at Here we are. What now?) is a slightly different take on a question and answer site, requiring that questions be phrased as yes/no in an attempt to generate discussion. I can see this one being a little more popular, though a lot less useful. It’s very compelling to click on the little ajax-y buttons to answer questions, but far too much effort to click through and actually comment on something. I do wish the ratio of responses was shown on the front page though – I want to be able to see how the votes are swinging at a glance without having to click through. The questions on here are mostly vapid (‘Are you sitting in a swivel chair now?’) and I admit that I don’t really see the point – I can’t help but think that it’s another site that’s attempting to be a social hub, when people are pretty much social-site-d out at the moment.

I do, however, think it’s interesting that there are so many places on the internet where people go to get their questions answered. It seems like the sort of service that public libraries would want to be providing – indeed I’m sure there are one’s around that do, I admit that my knowlege of the progressive services that public libraries offer is limited. I think it’d be great though – a site where library users can pose a question to the librarians and users of their local library and have it answered in this sort of way – combining the resources of the library with the wisdom of the crowd, and creating a community feeling at the same time. Does anything like that exist at the moment, or am I being a bit optimistic?