American Bar Association
With 370,000 members and a $100 million annual budget, the American Bar
Association is a major player in the world of professional associations.
It is the national voice of U.S. attorneys, and its page reflects its mission
to offer scores of programs, forums, publications, and meetings relating
to legal education, public policy, and professional advocacy. The home page
offers links to member information, news, Lawlink (an excellent page of
federal, state, local, and Internet legal info), and various association
activities. For a law site, the amount of text doesn't overwhelm, and graphics
and links are serviceable.-KW
B+
BMI.com
If you're a songwriter by trade, you already know about BMI, a non-profit
organization representing more than 160,000 songwriters, composers, and
music publishers. BMI controls the rights to some 3 million titles, collects
royalties, and grants permission for use. If you're a music lover, the BMI
page is a terrific place to check on lyrics, composers, and song titles.
You can also get the latest on how to work with BMI for permission to license
its property. The What's New page provides new royalty agreements, announcements
about awards, and links to other professional music sites. Cool beans.
-KW
A
Industrial Designers' Society
of America: Chicago Chapter
Industrial designers are the folks who make everyday products more functional
and, often, more beautiful. The IDSA is the organization that fulfills some
of their professional needs. IDSA Chicago members are early out the gate
with their own Web page (there seems to be no national online resource),
but their site is content-light, offering nice clean lines, but not enough
news, listings, or cross references to make it very useful. A monthly print
newsletter would do a better job.-KW
C-
National Writers Union
A grassroots organization, NWU is open to those who have published, or are
attempting to publish, books, short stories, poems, plays, newsletters,
publicity material, and so on. The union is based in New York, and has chapters
around the country that develop policies about legal agreements and publishing
rights for writers. NWU has been early to study electronic and online publishing,
and here you'll find texts of two position papers on the subjects. But that's
about all that's here, save a membership form. NWU could be a very rich
resource for writers, with lots of research, policies and educational information.
Until that happy day, the NWU page is not useful or compelling.
-KW
D+
Seamless Website Law and
Legal Resources
The name says it all. Seamless is seamless, and a joy to navigate. This
site could easily become a significant online resource for legal issues.
It has an excellent organizational structure that's bound to grow. Main
areas include Chambers (announcements, new developments, updates); Commons
(a Webchat-based discussion area); Shingle (attorney and legal service advertising);
and Crossroads (pointers to other legal sites). Go here to make contacts,
post resumés, list job openings, and locate resources by subject
area (r.e., cyberspace, malpractice and consumer law). Worth a bookmark
for legal eagles.-KW
B+