Another long day exploring court technology at CTC8 in Kansas City. I've now spoken twice about syndication and official court weblogs as a tool for improving public access. Also timely is a front-page article in the Court Technology Bulletin (no link yet) I authored entitled "Publishing an Official Court Weblog." The concept is new, and may be slow to take hold in the courts. However, I did learn yesterday that the Supreme Court of Utah will soon join West Virginia in providing access to its opinions via RSS. Hot topics include:

• Automated performance measurement
• Public access to court records -- developing policies and rules
• Business process enhancement during technology implementations
• Finding better ways to manage the IT budget

Federal Computer Week ran a story today about Chief Justice Toal's presentation, which is entitled "Courts must invest in IT, judge says". There's more to come tonight and tomorrow, and I'll be gathering more links as the conference moves forward for posting next week when I return to Charleston.

  4:41:46 PM      

The Judiciary.org has published a visual review of all 50 state judicial homepages. The following assessment criteria were applied:

1. Is the Home Page designed to make full use of the visitor's monitor, regardless of resolution settings?
2. If the Home Page does not make full use of monitor resolution, is content centered to enhance appearance and ease of viewing?
3. Does the Home Page tarnish the high professional and ethical standards associated with the judicial function by advertising or promoting private sector products and services?
4. Is the Home Page visually appealing?
5. Does the Home Page enhance a visitor's inclination to further explore the site?
6. Is the Home Page designed to be accessible and navigable by the vast majority of those who might use it?
7. Are color combinations used that allow the site to be accessible to those who suffer from varying degrees of color blindness?

  10:27:20 AM