Blawg Review # 130

Southern Hemisphere Edition

Welcome to Blawg Review #130 South - probably the very first edition of Blawg Review produced at opposite ends of the Earth, and definitely the first from Middle Earth.

Co authored by attorney mediators Diane Levin of Online Guide to Mediation in Boston and Geoff Sharp of mediator blah... blah... in New Zealand, Blawg Review #130 South is posted at 12.01am on Monday 15 October in New Zealand, the first place on the planet to see the new day.

Then in 17 hours time, and still at the same time of 12.01am on Monday 15 October, Blawg Review #130 North will be posted from Boston.

This edition picks up the best of this weeks posts in the Southern Hemisphere and Diane Levin's Boston edition will cover the Northern Hemisphere. Because 17 hours is an eon in the blogosphere, we expect to pick up late breaking blawg posts from anywhere in the Boston edition.

Blawg Review #130 has an ADR bias as we salute Conflict Resolution Day but it will also mark the best of the week's blawgs and Blog Action Day - all happening this week;

1. Mediation posts in recognition of Conflict Resolution Day

Conflict Resolution Day is an international celebration held annually on the third Thursday in October. Conflict Resolution Day 2007 is later this week on October 18.

You can go here for a list of events for Conflict Resolution Day 2007 in places like Canada, France, Portugal and USA.

>The World Directory of Alternative Dispute Resolution Blogs knows no geographical definitions and truly straddles the equator as the foremost global ADR site.

The ADR Directory's newest additions are posted here and include eMediacion by AcuerdoJusto®, a blog published by an international team of professionals based in Argentina, Spain, and Chile who share a common interest in the resolution of conflict.

>So that people know they are out there (but update rarely with posts of mainly local interest) I mention blogs by the Australian Dispute Resolution Association Blog and Australian Mediation Association.

Which provides me with an opportunity to urge more mediators from the lucky country to get blogging - so where the bloggy hell are you?

>But that's not the case in South America where, in addition to eMediacion by AcuerdoJusto® we have Resolución Electrónica de Disputas, a Spanish language blog published by Alberto Elisavetsky, an international authority on negotiation and online dispute resolution from Buenos Aires whose recent post is Firma De Convenio Marco Entre Nuestro Proyecto & La Universidad Tecnologica Nacional - Facultad Regional Buenos Aires!

Alberto also posts about the Cyberweek 2007 programs this week, including 40 Sites in 40 minutes, an online tour of the ADR web on Wednesday, October 17, 3 pm Eastern (19 GMT).

>And steamy Sri Lanka is close enough to the equator for me to claim ICT4Peace in this #130 south edition. Its post this week Blogs: Spittoons for the deranged or fostering constructive debate? looks at fellow Sri Lankan blogger Java Jones' post titled Some types are more fuckin’ than others? - an examination of the timbre of expression on blogs in Sri Lanka.

>And take a look at the 10 suggestions I have for lawyers heading into mediation - prompted by a call last week from a lawyer preparing for a high stakes mediation in November. Or perhaps Mediating the sub prime mortgage crisis is more your thing.

>Then sit back and view the latest video clips up at the Mediation vBlog Project

2. From the Southern Alps of NZ across the Tasman to the vast outback of Australia, then on to the open veldt of South Africa, the sun finally rises over the vast pampas lands of South America.... comes the best of this week's blawg posts from below the equator;

>Over at Life at Work New Zealand employment lawyer, Andrew Scott-Howman, takes a look at the case of a policeman who was sacked for administering a (legal) pornographic website in The porn-loving policeman: bringing the force into disrepute?. And while you are there take in Andrew's The plight of Mr and Mrs Average or The single worker: the law’s worst deal?

BTW, this is the same author who features on a short video clip a while back over at the Mediation vBlog Project, talking about what trial lawyers want from a mediator.

>Richard Best's InsideoutLegal Blog offers a grab bag of recent posts on social media and its relevance to the legal profession.

InsideoutLegal itself, the blog's web 2.0 driven father, is probably the most frequently updated openly accessible online legal resource in New Zealand.

Among its new items, take a look at Wigley & Co’s Capping Liability in an IT or Telco Agreement, Bell Gully's Progress by Partnership Makes Sense or Minter Ellison's presentation Restrictions on Guarantees and Indemnities by Crown Entities, just to name a few.

Primarily aimed at Australasian lawyers, InsideoutLegal carries content from across the websites of leading New Zealand and Australian firms and in many cases automatically posts new articles, videos etc appearing on these sites.

Grab a feed for this wonderful clearing house for outside-2-inside counsel.

>Laws 179: Elephants and the law by Dean Knight of the New Zealand Centre for Public Law at Wellington's Victoria University examines the elephantine concept of fairness in the law.

>Occasionally updated CyberLaw is a joint venture of InternetNZ and Victoria University and its latest post Update on WHOIS looks at the 60-person WHOIS Working Group empaneled by ICANN.

>And I'll mention Dan Hull's What About Clients?™ in this edition because it has been spotted many times south of the equator with its truly international outlook on legal life - exhibited in this week's contributions to the global debate over the billable hour and climate change.

It is clear from The Billable Hour: The Way of the Happy Rich Dinosaur that Dan's clients like hourly rates. So he likes them. The hour, those excruciating 10 by 6 minute units that have been the undoing of so many good lawyers, works as a model for him to deliver "high-end services for high-end clients in a 'muscle boutique' setting" - I love that elevator pitch!

> Across the Tasman, The Australian Professional Liability Blog posts on what the NSW Supreme Court says about solicitors being immune from suit for out of court omissions.

>Lightbulb, an IP blog, says Advertising is not the only game online and has some comment on the Future of Media conference in Sydney where shocked participants heard that 'only porn or financial data works on a user-paid basis'.

>Continuing our trek west we come to South Africa's The Adventure of Strategy examines what does it REALLY mean to be a law firm partner?

Recently being named as one of the best blogs for managing partners by morepartnerincome Rob Millard's posts are ones to watch.

>Biotechnology Law, a blog for the South African biotechnology industry, posts on IT meets Biotech in AIDS vaccine research.

And then just as the sun goes down in NZ, it's time to hit the fertile plains of South America.

>Peru's Practical Legal (here for a translated into English version) recently posts The University of the Pacific undertakes new Faculty of Right and How it affects the culture to us of the pesimism?

Hmmmm...something might be lost in translation there...try La Universidad del Pacífico emprende nueva Facultad de Derecho and Cómo nos afecta la cultura del pesimismo?

3. Blog Action Day

Fitting right in with our north/south theme, Collis Ta'eed, an Australian blogger from FreelanceSwitch, is a cofounder of Blog Action Day.

On October 15th his aim is to have bloggers around the web unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment.

Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. The aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future. At the time of writing there around 14,000 blogs participating reaching an audience of over 12 million.

To participate, a blog just needs to write about the issue of the environment on Oct. 15, 2007.


The Blawg Review blog has information about next week’s host, and instructions on how to get your blawg posts reviewed in upcoming issues.