Novalawcity

ProfHacker: Tips and Tutorials for Higher Ed

ProfHacker.com is a new online resource, edited by Jason B. Jones of Central Connecticut State University, and George H. Williams of the University of South Carolina Upstate. As their masthead explains, "Monday through Friday, ProfHacker delivers tips, tutorials, and commentary on pedagogy, productivity, and technology in higher education". The tutorials, called ProfHacker 101, offer introductions to online tools such as Google Docs and Bee Docs Timeline, as well as instructions to help you create a blog or a wiki. The site's RSS feed allows you to keep up with the latest posts. Thanks to Maura Smale of ACRLog for the heads-up!

Own Your Own Information

Everybody has a Facebook page these days.   Even the Law Library and Technology Center has a Facebook page.  Facebook claims more than 250 million "active users."  There are lots of networking benefits attached to a Facebook page, but there is a downside, too.  Do you really want your mother, or your future employer, to be able to see everything you and some of your more, shall we say, exuberant, friends get up to?  Michael Zimmer has an excellent post, How to Adjust Your Facebook Privacy Settings, that will help you regain control of your own personal information.   

Future Web 2.0: Google Wave

A wave will be a hybrid email, wiki, and IM all in one. The video and description of this latest Google effort is here.

LexTweet

Check out LexTweet , a Twitter feed which allows you to follow members of the legal community who use Twitter to discuss the law.  The Tweeters there post a variety of interesting links, whatever catches their interest in their legal field.   When I visited, one, from the ABA Journal, was about the median starting pay for law firm associates; another, from  Law.Com, was about the RIAA victory in the Tenenbaum copyright infringement trial.  There was also a link to a story in Equal Justice Works  about a University of Miami student who clerked at the HIV & AIDS Legal Services Alliance in Los Angeles, California over the summer.  The rising 2L was named a Summer Corps Standout award winner by Equal Justice Works.  And a link to TaxGirl's blog warned that the IRS is aggressively pursuing those (including a tax preparer in Florida who falsified a client's tax form) who fraudulently claim they are entitled to the first-time home buyer's tax credit.   

Following this Twitter stream, and contributing when they have something to add, seems like an excellent way for students to use the social networking tool to immerse themselves in the legal culture before they graduate - kind of like hanging out in a virtual law firm.  

Peek-a-Boo! Facebook, and 950,000 Others, See You

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, which has a strong mandate to protect the privacy of Canadian citizens under Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, has  determined that Facebook impermissibly discloses personal information to third-party developers of applications on Facebook.  You know what we're talking about - Birthday Alert, Scramble, Cities I've visited, Are YOU Interested? - to mention some of the more personal.  Users of these apps might be interested in knowing that there are in excess of 950,000 application developers operating in 180 countries worldwide.  

The Commissioner's determination was based on the finding that not only do application users implicitly consent to giving their own personal information to the app's developers when they add the app, but also make their "friends'" personal information available to those developers.  The only way that friends can opt out is by refusing all apps or blocking particular apps on an individual basis.  The Commissioner recommends that Facebook prohibit disclosure of the personal information of users who are not adding the app themselves, and that users of the apps be required to specifically opt in to disclosure. 

As the Commissioner's report succinctly states:  "Facebook has not agreed to the recommendations."  A question to ponder - How much personal privacy are you willing to give up in order to discover what kind of butterfly you are?

Hat tip to Info/Law.  

 

IORG - Beginning to Deal With Information Overload

Is information overload a part of your daily work and home life?  Then you'll be glad to know that someone's doing something about it!  Several someones, as a matter of fact, have banded together to form the Information Overload Research Group (IORG).  Check their latest blog post for a description of their mission and activities. 

USGovernment Channel on YouTube

Click refresh for a video on new media for the Federal Government.

Social Networking for Law Students

Want to know what it feels like to be a 3L, a tax lawyer or (shudder) a law professor?   Check out Top 100 Twitter Feeds for Law Students.  Somewhere in this disparate bunch, you're guaranteed to find a stimulating/informative twitterer whose posts will let you in on the secrets of their profession.  Hat tip to Bonnie Shucha, at WisBlawg.

FACEBOOK now boasts over 200 Million users

This astonishing news means another milestone in the Web 2.0 saga. TechCrunch has more.

Spokeo: search engine for social networks

Spokeo is a new tool for searching people and their activities within social networks, from Facebook to Twitter. Web 2.0 is not private.