I’m going to make an assumption here and assume that almost all of the readers of 3 Geeks and a Law Blog are members of a Professional Association. Whether it is a library association, a bar association, a marketing association, a technology association, or something else, we tend to want to be associated with our peers and have a common platform to share ideas, listen to the thoughts of others, or at a minimum, realize that others share in the problems you face everyday. This week we asked why you really belong to a Professional Association.

Thanks to all of the contributors. As with all Elephant Post contributors, you are now automatically members in the Association of Elephant Post Contributors (AEPC). Congratulations on being part of such an elite community of big thinkers willing to share their perspectives with others on a common topic.

If you have never contributed to an Elephant Post, we’re hoping that you’ll want to join AEPC and after reading this week’s post will scroll down and add your own thoughts to next week’s post, where we ask what “other job” at your workplace would you like to have.

Karen
Librarian
ALA

Benefits are mostly tenure related. I must be a member because it’s the accepted major professional org in the organization I work for. I have to do committee work, I have to do presentations and publications.   Realistically, my expectations of ALA are low. That’s unfortunate but true.

Jessica King
Librarian
AALL and SLA

I became a member of SLA as a graduate student and the reason was simple, to see where the jobs are. I think that when you are young in the career (which I still consider myself to be) you have to tap into any resource you can to see what jobs are open and to see where they are and what kinds of jobs are out there. I joined AALL when I got my most recent position as a solo law firm librarian because I wanted to be able to meet and stay in touch with as many info pros as possible. That’s really important as a solo, when it is so easy to feel alone in the professional sense.
I found that by attending conferences like AALL and SLA I’ve become more aware of the job market and have received guidance and inspiration in regards to what kind of work I’d like to do in the future. Everything these two associations provide (networking opportunities, webinars, reference materials online, directories, salary surveys, etc.) help me stay in tune to what is going on in the profession and where it is going. Sure there are things both can improve upon but I feel like SLA and AALL have been great potential and are essential to what I do as a librarian.

Denise Rabogliatti
BI Analyst
SLA, AALL

Networking. Both organizations attract individuals who work in areas relevant to my job. By talking to individuals from these groups, I’ve found new ideas, learned new skills and gained friends.

Tracy Z. Maleeff
Librarian
Special Libraries Association

I had two major expectations when I joined the Special Libraries Association – to be provided a forum for networking and to have access to professional development opportunities.  Man, did I hit the mother lode with SLA!  I wouldn’t have the job that I have now, a job that I love with a firm that I love, if it weren’t for the vast, friendly networking opportunities available through SLA.  I feel that I am a more informed and confident information professional by being actively involved in my professional organization.  I have made professional contacts and friends that, together, make for a village type of environment in which we all help each other to succeed.  I treasure the SLA community.  Membership in SLA has exceeded my expectations and I believe the benefit is an integral part of who I am, both as a person and as an information professional.  Some critics may scoff and say that I drank the proverbial Kool-Aid.  You know what?  Pour me another, and make it a double.

Megan Wiseman
Librarian
LLAW

I joined professional organizations for the networking …and stayed for the information and camaraderie.  Yes, it simply makes sense that the more localized an org is, the more you will likely get out of it/get involved.  No big surprise there.  But, great programming that I can get to without boarding a plane aside, I value having accessible colleagues.  I’m a relatively young librarian and am flying solo in my firm.  Sometimes it gets a little lonely… sometimes I have questions that nobody but a wiser, more experienced librarian can answer… sometimes I hear a joke that only a librarian would find funny and need someone with which to share it.  The value I get from my professional org membership is direct and measurable – I am a better librarian for it.

Constance Ard
Information Professional
AIIP, SLA

I am an active volunteer in two global professional organizations: AIIP and SLA.  I have been a member of SLA since I first started working as a professional law librarian in 1996.  SLA remains a major component of my continuing education.  In addition, as I developed relationships within SLA and now with AIIP, I am benefiting from those relationships.   I have been able to demonstrate my knowledge to individuals within the organizations.  That in turn gives me the confidence to ask for introductions to individuals within my contact’s own organization.  I have used these introductions  to grow my business and complete projects.  The value I receive from these connections and the education that I  receive continue to develop my professional expertise.

Toby Brown
AFA
ILTA

I’m a bit of a ringer on this topic as I used to run numerous departments for an association. To bring value to members I focused on:  – High-value content – both in programs and publications – Networking Opportunities – to find jobs and get business referrals – Profession Building – to raise awareness about the value of the group to outside interests – Other Value-adds – use the power of ‘the many’ to get better pricing on industry tools and services.  ILTA does a great job on most of these fronts. The Annual Conference is perhaps the best I have ever attended (or produced).

Monica
Director of Training
ALA, ILTA sponsor

I wasn’t going to participate because I am now a sponsor instead of a member. I feel so strongly I gave in to temptation. The benefits of “belonging” are the tremendous wealth of shared knowledge colleagues share, valid reports from those who have already tested products I <you> may be about to test and honest information among peers. I have also made some fabulous friends within these groups that now last longer than the membership did!

Next Elephant Post

If You Could Switch Jobs at Your Workplace, Which One Would You Take? Why?

If you are like me, you absolutely love your job and would never think about taking another one. (Note: My boss reads my blog.) However… let’s just say, for argument sake, that you could take another position at your place of work (or someone else’s position at some other place of work.) What job would it be? Would you want to be the Managing Partner? Law School Dean? Alternative Fee Guy/Gal? CMO? CIO? Maybe the guy that runs documents around the corner to the courthouse appeals to you?

What would you take? Why does it look good to you?

Is it just me or is Google really killing it?

They launch Google+ and they stepped up their game in every single tool, including … Blogger?!

Well, it seriously needed it.

The new interface is optional–yes, if you want to keep using that old, clunky, uncooperative Blogger go right ahead–but the new interface works like it should.

No more annoying extra breaks, a new undo button and the ability to underline and strike through, are just a few of the added features.

And I don’t know how else to say this, but it just FEELS better. Is that even possible for a GUI to feel better? But it does.

The only flaw I saw was that I couldn’t make my text wrap around my posted image. But that is a minor  tweak, which I am sure will be fixed.

And one missing element is the ability to insert a table. Which I REALLY wish they would add.

But over-all, Google, I must say that your timing is flawless. What’s up for the next Google fix? The Buzz??

Image [cc] digmia

I actually wanted to name this post “Things You Shouldn’t Post On Professional Listservs,” but, when I started asking my fellow Geeks/Bradys for suggestions, some of them responded with “there are still listservs out there??” So, I changed “Listservs” to “Online Communities” and therefore expanded it to all the new forms of communication platforms that are out there, ranging from old-fashioned listservs, to Twitter, to Facebook, to Google+ and even some of those specialized professional communities that Associations create for their members.

I’ve watched over the years as smart people do dumb things in their online communities. Sometimes those things are complete accidents, but sometimes they are just laps in judgment that make for embarrassing situations. I thought I’d name a few of them here… I’m sure this is only scratching the surface of online community faux pas… so, feel free to chime in with any additional things that you shouldn’t post in your online communities.

  1. Tell everyone that you were just “unfairly fired” from your job and why your former boss is an idiot.
    I think we’ve all seen this one. These comments are usually sent out in the heat of the moment, and tend to give way too much information about themselves and their now former employer. The end result is that the sender of the message usually looks petty, and everyone that reads the message tends to understand why this person was fired. The good result of this kind of message is that at least everyone else knows that if they receive a resume from this person, it can immediately go in the trash.
  2. Accidentally reply to the entire list with a snarky remarks meant for a friend.
    For those of us that have an ability to fire off “zingers” about others, this is one of those that is a constant danger. Usually, the zinger is designed to go to the sender of the message (in most cases a friend that you can make fun of), but the darn community list is set up so that “Reply” is actually a reply to the entire community, not just the original sender. Hopefully, you are really good friends with this person, and they are easy to forgive you for being who you are. Remember, always (I mean ALWAYS) look at the address of the message to see if the recipient is the person, or the entire community!
  3. Ask to borrow something that you know is either copyrighted, or restricted by user license (but your firm is too cheap to buy.)
    This one happens a lot in the “library world” and it is one that falls under the category, “you know better, but you do it anyway.” Every time I see a message asking someone to send them a copy of an article out of a publication like LAW360, or some other copyrighted (and strictly monitored) resource, I tend to watch for the vendor to send out a message to the whole community reminding them that they cannot PDF a copy of an article to people outside their organization. If you absolutely need the article, contact the vendor and ask if you can purchase a one-off copy… email a close friend to see if they can descretely send you a copy… or pick up the phone and call them (thus leaving no e-discovery trail to come back to bite you later.) Note: the last two are still violations of your user agreement… but, we know that people do this anyway.
  4. Publicly thanking someone for loaning you something that is copyrighted or restricted by user license.
    See above, and just add in the embarrassment of the person that just broke their license agreement to do the requester a favor, and was thanked publicly for that violation.At best, you can file this under “no good deed goes unpunished.”
  5. Forward an internal memo because the “auto-fill” option chose the listserv instead of the individual you meant to email.
    This happens more than we would probably like to admit. For example, because my last name starts with “La”, the same two letters that say “law-lib” start with, it could end up that messages meant for me could be autofilled with the address to an entire listserv/online community. The rule here is that the more confidential and important the message is… the more likely it will fall under this faux pas.
  6. Share vendor negotiations outcomes.
    “Yea!! We just cut our _____ contract down to $____ a month!!” Everyone on the list wants to thank you for doing this, but the vendor you just exposed is probably not going to be happy with you, and may point to that “confidentiality” clause in the ____ contract you just signed for $_____ a month!
  7. Share new product information that you received under a Non-Disclosure Agreement
    Speaking of confidentiality… if you ever want to be placed in total darkness about new products coming to the market, just go ahead and comment about them in your online community while you are still under a NDA. Not only will that particular company ban you from any future product development trials, every other company in your industry will find out you are a blabbermouth and will blacklist you from their trials as well. Of course, for bloggers like myself, we always love it when others expose secrets, so that we can post it on our blogs and speculate on what is about to come to market!!
  8. Brag about a potential job you might get… bonus points if you mention negative things about the interview.
    “Whoo Hoo!! Looks like I’m going to get that big job at ____ & _____!! Although, I’m not sure I really want to work with _____, he’s kind of a jerk!”
    Yeah… now you don’t have to worry about working with _______.
  9. Invite a geographically diverse group to a local event.
    “Happy Hour at Moe’s in Springfield!! Everyone’s welcome!!”
    While everyone appreciates your enthusiasm (and a few will send you links to the local AA chapter), try to keep these announcements on the local communities rather than those huge lists of 5,000. The other 4,995 people will just be upset that you’re partying without them
  10. Mention the name of a new lateral Partner before the move has been publicly announced.
    “Hey, anyone know what treatises that _______ had at ______ & _______? She’s starting here next week and I want to make sure we have everything lined up for her.”
    We all understand that you are wanting to make a smooth transition for the incoming partner from her old firm, but this sort of mistake will land you on an Above the Law post, and simultaneously land you on your butt outside the front doors of your firm (quickly followed by boxes filled with your office belongings.)
Oh, there is probably so much more in the way of online community faux pas, but I’ll stop here for now. Of course there are two “Golden Rules” around online community communications that you should always follow:
  1. Be Careful!
  2. Don’t Do Something Stupid!!
You’ll find that in life, as well as online, these two rules will usually keep you out of trouble.

The great people over at CALI (Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction), have partnered with the Legal Information Institute (LII) at Cornell Law School to bring free* .epub files of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure and Evidence. The downloads will currently work on iPads, iPhones, Nooks, and other devices that can read the .epub format (like Mobipocket if you’re on Windows).

Note: These are E-Book formats, so it won’t work in your PDF Reader.

This isn’t just a bare-bones version of the Rules, either. The ebooks have the following features built into this initial version (with promises of more to come):

  • The complete rules as of December 1, 2010.
  • All notes of the Advisory Committee immediately following each rule.
  • Internal links to rules referenced within the rules.
  • External links to the LII website’s version of the US Code.
For those of you that aren’t in Academia, you may not be as familiar with CALI and the great training programs they produce. There are a number of things they produce that aren’t just for law students. Law firms can access the lessons, innovations, and online materials for the embarrassing low price of $250 a year. Even for those law firms that are cheap, this is a bargain.
*Although you can download and use the Federal Rules ePubs for free, you can show your support for the hard work of the LII crew by donating an amount (go ahead and make it an even $20.00), and help support their work and encourage them to produce even more great content.

We have heard a lot of talk over the last 18 months about the consumerization of the enterprise (see Ryan McClead’s posts on 3Geeks  End of Corp IT and CorpTechPocalypse).  This movement from enterprise solutions (solutions designed to be supported on a large scale) to consumer solutions (solutions designed to be supported on a small or individual scale) presents many challenges to the IT department.
Why consumerization now?  A little over ten years ago, a new breed of tech entrepreneur entered the scene.  These fresh thinkers didn’t carry the baggage that many of us have.  They grew up in a time when things simply worked.  They never had to figure out how to use a modem to connect to other computers.  They never had to use command line utilities to make something work.  

“This fresh perspective and natural adolescent tendencies allowed this new generation to question previous methodologies.” 

A shining example of this is Google, a tech giant unlike any others before it.  Google questioned every assumption placed before it and has proven that many assumptions do not stand up.  Google has questioned how software is valued, giving away most of their innovations to consumers. Google has questioned how large data centers are built and maintained. Google has questioned the value of computer hardware and  has built systems in entirely new ways.  Most software developers assume they can leverage an infrastructure built on robust and fault tolerant systems (the enterprise view).  Robust and fault tolerant are expensive to achieve and difficult to manage.   Google has built their entire business on the opposite approach, they assume that hardware will fail.  In fact, they build their own servers using components that are “sub-standard” for the industry.  Google is able to do this because, as a software engineering company, they know they can write code to accommodate such failures.  They realized that software IS the answer.  In order to massively scale, their software needed to be extremely fault tolerant. And when software is extremely fault tolerant, there is no need to purchase expensive equipment (this is just one example, there are many more from which we can all learn).  
Whether you believe in Google’s “do no evil” mantra or you believe they are acting in a destructive way, one thing is for sure, they have changed the computing paradigm. We have a new generation that has a fresh approach and does not accept the assumptions placed before them.  This helped to fuel the consumerization of the enterprise, but without a marketplace that is ready for change you would still not see this type of shift.   

“The biggest reason consumerization of the enterprise is happening now is because you asked for it.”

Let the pendulum swing – We have seen a move from Enterprise to Consumerization led by forward thinking companies like Google.  We are now starting to feel the impact of this movement.  IT organizations that have been pressured into adopting a consumerized approach are struggling with management and security challenges. As the enterprise becomes more consumer friendly, we are seeing an explosion in the amount of data being stored and shared and we are seeing a blending of personal and work personas.  This explosion, along with the further blurring of lines between your work and personal personas, is creating new challenges.  What is missing is an effective way to manage this new paradigm.  This new generation of entrepreneurs are keenly focused on products that are developed for consumers, but have little understanding of or exposure to the enterprise.  This creates an opportunity for a fresh approach to consumerization, because in my opinion the enterprise is where the real money is.  So, let’s start talking about the enterprization of consumerism.

Recently the Germans came out saying the Americans should align with them against the UK Legal Services Act (LSA) initiative. This caught my attention as I have been giving quite a bit of thought to the whole LSA issue based on a presentation I did at the ILTA conference. The presentation was actually not on the LSA, instead it was on out-sourcing and the emerging role of Legal Process Outsourcers (LPOs). One of my observations about LPOs is that I believe they are now in direct competition with law firms. In other words:
LPOs hire lawyers and sell services directly to clients.
It was my understanding that you needed to be a law firm in order to sell legal services directly to clients. So in preparing for my out-sourcing presentation I did some homework on the subject. A conversation with a Bar executive from a mandatory bar left me perplexed. The outcome of that conversation was shades of gray. With lawyers providing the services it is not the Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL). Online research turned up opinions from the ABA and several other bars on the subject. There is apparently no clear regulations barring companies from hiring lawyers and selling services, provided the client has licensed in-house counsel who “adequately supervises” the final work-product. So LPOs may be in the clear. As long as some lawyer is clearly the buck-stop player and the Bar knows whose bar license to go after, then things may be OK.
So I guess this means 3 Geeks can hire lawyers and start selling services to clients, provided the clients have their own lawyer(s) to supervise the work product. Stretching this idea only a bit further, if the client does not have a lawyer, we just need to make sure they hire one independent of us to serve as their contract in-house counsel for final review.
Even to me this sounds like quite a stretch, but help me out here. What is stopping 3 Geeks or anyone else from doing this? We would be functioning just like the current slate of LPOs.
One argument I received when I surfaced this idea over drinks at the ILTA conference was that the work LPO lawyers do could be done by paralegals or other non-lawyers, so it’s not crossing the practice of law line. Past conversations with Bar regulators suggest this argument will not stand. A legal judgment task performed by a paralegal (document drafting, document review, etc.) becomes the practice of law when performed by a lawyer.
And it’s not just LPOs: as far back as the 80s there were US-based legal research companies that employed lawyers providing “legal services” to law firms and clients.
So perhaps in the US instead of fighting for or against an LSA-type, deregulated landscape, we can just sit back and let non-law firms (I love typing that term by the way) raise capital, hire lawyers and provide legal services. Think of the competitive position such an entity could take in the market, driving down costs and increasing quality by using process and technology. Come to think of it, we may already be seeing just such companies emerge – ala Axiom and Clearspire.
Perhaps I should add IPO to my acronym mix.
To be clear, I am not saying LPOs are good or bad. I am merely raising the issue. In fact this may be an excellent catalyst to get law firms off of their collective rear-ends and actually engage.
Perhaps the reasonable market response from law firms will be to renounce their law firm status and become LPO-like entities.
Perhaps the legal industry in the US is already deregulated.
Ah – the future is interesting indeed.

Umm … anyone seen the cover of the ABA Journal??
A number of Bar’s advertising rules require that no actors or models should dramatize or simulate a portrayal of a lawyer.
Who IS this guy? He kinda looks like Charlie Sheen!?
One of my esteemed colleagues suggested that it may be a ticked-off paralegal, perhaps? 
Maybe he’s upset because, although he’s a rebel, all he can afford is a skateboard?
And why is he tie-ing one on? Because he realizes that the other ABA Legal Rebels didn’t have to fully bare their faces?

Then my last set of questions: can you, strictly speaking, be a legal rebel? Isn’t that an oxymoron? And by my challenging this whole matter, does it make me a de facto legal rebel? Or merely a de facto rebel? Or just an oxymoron?

An inquiring mind wants to know …

The following Friday afternoon rant represents a bit of a diversion from our regularly scheduled legal geekiness and focuses on more general geekiness. The opinions represented here are mine alone. If you agree, or disagree, I would love to hear why in the comments.
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It kills me that we’re seeing school arts funding decimated across the country. It’s time for businesses to step up and say, “No, this is important! We want our future employees to have this experience. If the schools won’t provide it, then we’ll open the corporate coffers and fund arts organizations on our own!” Don’t think they’ll do that? No, I don’t either, but I think they need to for one reason. Nearly everything that makes me a valuable employee I learned by participating in Music or Theater. I bet if you look around your organization you’ll see Band Geeks and Theater Nerds are in a lot of the key positions that keep your firm running. Why is that?
The corporate mythos is one of sports metaphors and team building exercises. I get it. I’m a sports fan. It’s macho and manly. Nothing forges bonds of brotherhood and builds character and leadership like team sports. You know what? Bulls***.
I played football for one year in High School. And yes, I was awful. I started the season as a third string guard and by the last game I was in the starting lineup because the two guys in front of me were injured. On the first play of that game, I jumped off sides and the coach put the first string guard back in to play with a broken arm. Thus ended my football career. In one season, I had learned to hate my teammates, because I was constantly fighting with them for playing time. I had learned to hate my coaches, because they were demeaning and abusive. And I learned to hate myself, because despite my hard work, I was never going to be a very good football player. So I turned back to my first love, music.
If you want people who know how to work well in teams, hire band geeks. Oh, we had our rivalries and we tussled for chair positions, but when it came down to it, the performance was what mattered. Everyone, from the most talented to the least was focused on the final outcome. And the more talented would often take time to work with the less and bring them along.
If you want creativity and resiliency, hire a theater nerd. No amount of brain bashing on the field of combat can compare with making an ass out of yourself flubbing Shakespeare in front of a thousand people, then going out and doing it again the next night, and the next. And after you’ve flubbed those lines, you have to improvise with your fellow actors to find your way back to the script, all the while unable to discuss your plan of action, instead conveying meaning through subtle eyebrow shifts and hidden hand gestures.
If you want dedication, look for an instrumentalist. There is nothing like spending hours in musical meditation trying to get that one passage to sound just a little bit more effortless.
If you want the greatest project manager of all time, find a mediocre stage manager. Rolling out the latest desktop software is nothing compared to pulling together all of the individual pieces of a one man show.
I am a huge science fan. I make a living in technology. I greatly appreciate engineering and math. But the STEM courses are not sufficient to facilitate human flourishing. It’s absolutely true that the arts are important because they add to the beauty of the world, and they give our lives deeper meaning, and all of that other touchy feely crap. But it’s also true that the arts have taught many generations of business people how to work together toward a common goal, and after they fail, how to get back to work and do it again, better this time. We can’t all be on the sports clubs. If we allow arts funding in schools to be cut across the board, then we are not only failing our kids, we are failing ourselves and our businesses. The future belongs to the creative collaborators, the resilient failures, and the dedicated innovators. Without the arts, the future will not belong to us.

****End of rant.****

My grandmother always taught me that beauty is only skin deep. She’d always say, “pretty is as pretty does.”

Sadly, LinkedIn’s grandmother isn’t nearly as wise.

Although LinkedIn has substantially improved the looks of its iPhone app–the previous iteration was clunky and uncooperative–it is no easier to connect to new people.


One day, I hope to be able to sync my LinkedIn app with a new friend’s app so we don’t have to go through the ordeal of swapping business cards and then, at a later date, uploading them into a contact management system. Like Linked In.
Blackberry has this functionality with its BBM feature. You can scan a new friend by scanning a Blackberry generated PIN barcode. Voila! The friend is added to the BBM system.

I can foresee LI developing this kind of feature.

For right now, LI’s iphone app looks great–the updates, inbox, my profile, groups and more all load up well and are easy to use.

But with this one additional feature–which is, isn’t it, the whole point of LI?–the new LI app would be perfect.

As we heard at the ILTA 2011 conference, in order to deliver your goals effectively you must include most (if not all) of the support functions within the firm.  Now more than ever, integration between different administrative groups is essential for a firm to be agile, cost effective and client focused.  How do you achieve this?, You achieve this by understanding the stakes, gaining support of management and sharing the vision.  All of this falls under the heading of improved communication.  Without effective and constant communication within and between departments, skepticism and distrust become the enemy.  However, it also takes a shift in the mindset of all involved.  To really deliver on this, we need leaders, and not just leaders at the top.
Understanding the Stakes.  If you do not understand how your business works, you are not a leader.  Understanding how your business works includes not only how different practice areas function, but also how Library Services provides business intelligence or how Finance provides metrics on overhead allocations.  You need to understand what Professional Development and Recruiting are doing, why Human Resources is so afraid of social networking and how Marketing is working to improve your firm’s brand.  You need to understand why this is important and what happens (the stakes) if your firm doesn’t deliver.  In order to provide effective tools and changes, you need to understand the challenges each department faces.  As a leader, you need to be seen as an ombudsmen for those various functions.
Management Support.  I don’t care how effective each department is about communicating within and between departments, if your management doesn’t know about it, then for all intents and purposes it ain’t happening.  You must include firm management in your efforts.  This does not need to be a long process.  We all know that firm management has a full plate and we shouldn’t be adding to that workload, but constant and effective communication must be part of your village growth plan.
Sharing the Vision.  If you are not sharing your vision with your peers and coworkers, you are not leading.  It is healthy for an organization or department to have differing approaches, thoughts and opinions, but an effective organization must have their goals aligned.  Without this kind of alignment, much effort is spent keeping the train on the tracks.
In the end, everyone within the organization needs to act and think like a leader.  If you can achieve this, you will have employees who are engaged, excited, effective and on the constant look out for fresh opportunities to lead.
It takes a village to deliver, it takes a leader to make a difference.