Blogging and Law, a conference by eLawyer.com.my : A Report

 

Above, are pictures of the two presenters at the inaugural Blogging and Law conference which was spearheaded by eLawyer which is a specialised website for lawyers and anything to do with law in Malaysia. This is not a posting on what I learned on that day. I will be reporting on that in another post. This is about on the event itself and my thought on how it can be more beneficial to bloggers. I would also welcome suggestions and comments especially from those who went there or any general suggestion or comment on this type of event.

One of the owner of the website, Mr. Eddie Law, is a friend and he was hoping to see a huge turnout like don't-have-a-seat type of conference where the bloggers will fill up the hall up to the brim. That was not the case. You can consider the event to be well attended but it was not as what Eddie thought it would be. He was hoping for the attendance to be like a rock concert or at least like the events where people had to stand looking for seats. I reminded him that it was a first event where the issue at hand is law and there was not a popular blogger as the event anchor.

The speakers are well known within their own circle like most blogger are. It must be pointed out that bloggers group are sometimes formed through mutual forums and advertising site which provide avenue for them to then meet. Foong Cheng Leong has a blog www.xes.cx  (that is really his blog name) and Nizam Bashir has a blog Poetic Justice. Both are practising lawyers who blog and have been invited to a few other blogging and law event. Visit their site to see what their thoughts on the event itself.

As for me the half-day event was good as a starting point and I now know what is on bloggers mind with the questions that they asked. With regard to trademark and intellectual property, Foong who spoke about it, cover the issue on how one can credit the photograph that they took from the net without being sued. As for Nizam, the issue which is mostly on most of the bloggers mind are how one can protect themselves from being sued or even prosecuted if the say they alleged bad or harmful things. In Malaysia, bloggers have been prosecuted for sedition (to incite hatred against monarch or government) and sued for posting about bad review of something they bought and used. For Foong and Nizam, the conclusion is to remember that the internet is a very powerful tool to reach a wide audience but whatever applies in real life still applies in cyberspace.

After the conference, I mingled with other bloggers whom I got to know through Bloggers United such as Diese, Suresh, Curryegg and flyguy. I also met kuE and Julian Hopkins. Except for Julian, all the others introduced themselves to me. Sorry guys, that was my first meeting of other bloggers ever, other than Fahri and Lee Shih, who were the judges for a blogging contest eLawyer did, whom I met way before I start blogging. Some like curreyegg has posted their own take on the conference and you can read  it here. I am endorsing her more than anybody else as she seems to think I looked smart that day. As for Julian, I was the one who introduced myself to him as he is doing his PhD on blogging which astound me to no end. Take a survey at his site to help him on his research.

It was a great event and I hope eLawyer will do more of such event....