Law Firms and Technological Innovation

A panel discussion at AALL’s Annual Meeting and conference is the subject of a Dean Sonderegger’s Jul 30, 2019 article in ‘Above the Law’. The panellists agreed that selling the importance of technology investment to decision-makers in law firms was paramount. Innovative technology will ensure knowledge centre staff can efficiently and cost-effectively:

• share information.
• provide personalised spaces for legal staff and clients.
• collate competitive intelligence and research data.

Reduced staffing levels and decreasing budgets negatively impact the speed and quality of service delivery without investment in technology that will more than meet any ROI requirements!

Heard About the DoNotPay App?

The DoNotPay app may be of interest to those of us who spend time investigating what new technologies may have value for our libraries. In many instances we sign up for free trials and before we know it the free trial end date has passed. It’s only when we get billed that we realise the free trial period has ended! It is annoying when you have to pay, even a small amount for a product that would not achieve what you thought it might. 

Artificial Intelligence to Revolutionize Art Discovery

Artificial Intelligence is everywhere and its advantages are amazing. Take, for instance, a new interface called ArtPI. An API, driven by AI, it “detects features and patterns using overarching visual style characteristics based on art theory and history”. It looks to be “the Shazam for Art” for museums and art galleries.

A Data Scientist Who is Skeptical About Data

Professor of Data Science at NYU, Andrea Jones-Rees discusses data. We are in an era of massive data and demands that we use the data to prove just about everything. But, we forget data is human made and subject to bias, error and opinion, and increasingly humans are conflating it with truth. Jones-Rees points out that data is human made and subject to biases and error. It is necessary to discovery but skilled analysis data is the key. Without that, data is less likely to have context and real value.

The Mobile Museum of Vintage Technology’s Newest Member

Clearly finding a brand new Amiga 1000, still in its original box caused great excitement for the museum. Built in 1985 as a serious gaming machine it was apparently so amazing “it evolved into a full computer.” Where did those 34 years go?