Important Note for Technola RSS Subscribers – Please Read
On Thursday March 12th we’ll be launching Technola 2.0, a new and improved site with an entirely new look. Most of our RSS subscribers use our Feedburner RSS subscription service, but some have subscribed using our WordPress RSS feed, which will no longer update with new posts. If you are subscribed to Technola using http://feeds.feedburner.com/technola or if you are subscribed to our email updates, there is nothing that you need to do. However, if you are subscribed to http://techno.la/feed/rss/, you will need to change your feed over to http://feeds.feedburner.com/technola in order to keep receiving updates. We apologize for any inconvenience that this causes. If you have any questions, email us at technolablog@gmail.com. -M&K
Changes Are Afoot!
Over the next few days we’ll be busy making some exciting changes to Technola and won’t be able to add any new entries. In the meantime you can always check out these great blogs or catch up on any one of our 375 past posts. Just don’t forget to check back on Thursday (3/12) for Technola 2.0! -M&K
Free Friday: Stock Photos
Alyssa Gregory reviews 30 websites that provide free stock photography in her recent post on SitePoint, an online information provider for web developers and designers. -M [Thanks, Ken!]
Interfaith Worker Justice Launches Website on Workers’ Rights
Interfaith Worker Justice recently launched a new website, “Can My Boss Do That?”, which provides U.S. workers with information on issues like work rules, hiring and firing, work safety, pay, benefits, time off, and protecting your rights at work. -M
Free Web Tools for the Way You Work
Nicholas Gaffney provides a slew of free web tools in his Marketing the Law Firm Newsletter article, “Free Web Tools for the Way You Work.” While many of the apps on this list will be familiar to you, Gaffney offers some excellent suggestions on PR and collaboration tools as well as advice on how lawyers and law firms can use these tools effectively. -M
Libby, Montana and W. R. Grace and Company
If you were to ask me about Montana’s environmental disasters, the first place that I’d likely tell you about is Berkley Pit, a gigantic hole created by the Anaconda Company’s open-pit mining of copper. It’s the natural story to tell. In fact, it’s become a tourist attraction – even The Daily Show has visited.
But unfortunately, as horrible as Berkley Pit is, it isn’t the worst environmental disaster that has happened in Montana. That honor belongs to the area surrounding Libby, Montana, where W.R. Grace and Company mined vermiculite laced with asbestos until 1990. In this area, around 1,200 people have developed asbestos-related illnesses, and since 2000, the EPA has spent $120 million to try to clean it up. W. R. Grace and Company allegedly knew that asbestos was being released since 1956, and in 2005 the US Department of Justice began criminal proceedings against the company. Finally, just last month, the criminal trial began.
While this case is incredibly interesting for many reasons, coverage of the trial is especially noteworthy. In a joint project between the Schools of Law and Journalism, students from the University of Montana are following the trial and publishing their notes and analysis on a blog as well as live-tweeting the trial on Twitter. Their coverage provides amazing access to the courtroom. They are telling the story in a professional, yet engaging, way and in my opinion, it is much more fascinating than any episode of Law & Order.
For more background information about Libby and its vermiculite mine, read the Wikipedia articles on Libby, Montana and W.R. Grace and Company, and watch the documentary Libby, Montana. All of these sources cover the issues much better than I can in this blog post. And check out the U of Montana’s coverage of the trial. It’s a nice example of how new media platforms can open courtroom doors and educate the public about the justice system. – K
Mapping Unemployment
Mike Monahan, Director of Pro Bono at the Georgia State Bar, pointed out this map of unemployment rates from the New York Times. A great example of mapping, the images tell a terrifying story, especially when you look at the one year change in unemployment in rural areas and manufacturing centers. – K
New on Facebook: LSC TIG Conference Photos
You can now find photos from the LSC TIG Conference on the LSC TIG Conference Facebook page, which is available to everyone whether or not you are a Facebook member. Conference attendees can relive all of the great memories, but more importantly, those of you who couldn’t attend have a chance to put faces together with the voices and names that you’ve heard over and over again. A few people that readers of Technola might want to check out: AJ Tavares, the techie behind I-CAN! E-File; Ed Marks, who understands how tech and mission should fit together; Glenn Rawdon, beloved technology grant funder; and, of course, my former and current deputy directors, the Al(l)isons. – K
