CALI to sponsor Social Media Best Practices Workshop

The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) is conducting a Social Media Best Practices Workshop at its 19th Annual Conference for Law School Computing on June 18, 2009 at the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder, Colorado.

Here are some additional details from Gene Koo, Social Media Best Practices Workshop at CALI Conference 2009, VVV:V, May 1, 2009:

[The] workshop [will] help law schools develop sensible guidelines for their students on the use of social media (e.g. MySpace and Facebook). A few examples of bad online behavior has made some schools understandably wary of technologies that might expose their students in an unflattering (and unemployable) light. Yet social media are growing in importance as networking tools that can connect lawyers with potential employers and clients in positive ways.

The Social Media Best Practices Workshop builds on the work of Laura Bergus (Iowa College of Law), who felt that her own school was accentuating the negative and ignoring the positive value of online social media. Ms. Bergus, a guest blogger on Social Media Law Student, began a campaign to reform her school’s policies and won the buy-in of her administration. This triggered the thought that other schools might also be seeking better policies and guidelines for their students.

Our goal for the Workshop is to generate best practice suggestions for law schools. We also hope to start a nationwide discussion among law schools on how to approach social media and its potential interaction with students’ current performance and future career prospects.