Some of the most interesting people I know are not lawyers!

This is the premise underlying this, my first, “get to know” post. My intent is to introduce this wonderful community of legal thinkers to wonderful thinkers with something to contribute from other communities. I’d encourage other Slaw contributors to do the same. This is valid online social networking isn’t it? And is building links beyond our immediate social network not a path to greater creativity and knowledge for all?

My first subject is James Chisholm, business simulation designer and principal of ExperiencePoint. We became friends back in b-school in . . . [more]

Although the Canadian government has already taken initiatives to develop social networking tools, they may be getting help soon from Google.

The official Google Public Sector blog has plenty of resources for government technology directors, including the recently concluded Gov 2.0 summit in D.C. last week, chaired by web guru Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media, Inc., the guy who coined “Web 2.0.” Videos of most of the presentations are available online.

Last night Google announced the launch of Google for the Public Sector, offering a number of tools that largely already existed, such as website . . . [more]

The web has certainly transformed the travel industry, and given travellers access to all sorts of amazing info about flight options, hotels and everything else business or vacation travellers would ever want to know. My friends and fellow PMAs (practice management advisors) Jim Calloway from the Oklahoma Bar Association and Courtney Kennaday at the South Carolina Bar Association wrote “Sites For Sore Eyes – The Travel Site Less Visited” which was published this month in the ABA General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Division eTechnology Newsletter. They mention several sites I regularly use, and a few I don’t, but clearly . . . [more]

Recently, I attended a session that brought together Legal Aid officials and representatives of legal clinics, among others, to discuss how to improve access to clinic services by members of racialized communities. I want to mention only one point that a participant raised at the meeting and that is the use of technology to provide information to people using the legal system (or wanting access to the legal system), ostensibly to increase their capacity for “self-help”. . . . [more]

In case you haven’t kept up to date with the Canadian Copyright Consultations, a grace period has been added to the period for comment, extending it to midnight tonight. Michael Geist has additional details on his blog. . . . [more]

In an earlier posting on Slaw, Norwich Order Applied to Gmail Account, Omar Ha-Redeye discussed the facts, findings and implications of the recent decision in York University v. Bell Canada Enterprises, 2009 CanLII 46447 (ON S.C.). To that excellent posting, I offer some additional observations.

Threshold

First, York University v. Bell Canada Enterprises is of interest in respect of its finding regarding the first element of the test for a Norwich order. Prior to York University v. Bell Canada Enterprises, it was arguably well-established that the first element in the test for Norwich order is that the . . . [more]

New UK Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw is expected to announce later this week a three-month consultation process over lifting the ban on product placement in television programming in the UK. The move responds to plunging advertising revenues in the broadcast sector, and is a reversal of position from that of the previous Culture Secretary, Andy Burnham. Expect debate over the need to find alternative revenue sources for programming, and the erosion of programming quality, creative independence, and the public’s trust due to the blurring of advertising messaging and content.

Under current rules, programmes can show products used as props, but . . . [more]

Creative Commons published a study on September 14, 2009, Defining “Noncommercial”: A Study of How the Online Population Understands “Noncomemrcial Use”.

This Study was commissioned by Creative Commons in 2008-2009 from a professional market research firm to delve into the meaning of “commercial” and “noncommercial” use in relation to online content.

One quote from the Executive Summary:

Perceptions of the many use cases studied suggest that with the exception of uses that earn users money or involve advertising – at least until specific case scenarios are presented that disrupt those generalized views of commerciality – there is more uncertainty

Having taken Labour Day off, I present a double edition of biotech highlights:

Double Money:

• Genome BC and Genome Canada put $3.4 million into a grape and wine genomics project that will try to bring molecular techniques to bear on winemaking. And…
• The Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) is providing $50 million to BDC for direct investments in “early-stage firms in Southern Ontario” and for investments in VC funds “focused on Ontario-based opportunities.”

Double Caution:

• An article in the New York Times called direct-to-consumer genetic testing “fraught with potential dangers.” And…
• The FDA revised

I got done for speeding a while back and went to trial (a year later) to plead guilty to a reduced speed, so to speak. The brush with the (quasi)criminal system — my first since being put in the slammer for parking tickets way back when I was a callow scofflaw — was interesting, if only because there was a steady parade of semi-sheepish drivers from all walks of life passing through the same system on that day.

The speeding law is one of the most frequent points of contact between the public and “the law,” I’d say. Which makes . . . [more]

Members of the Slaw community might remember an article I wrote some weeks ago entitled Twittercles in which I marvelled at the impact Twitter had on our student recruitment this year.

As a follow-up, I invite you to read a wonderful piece authored by the student Twitter helped us to discover, Joel Welch. As a former RCMP officer turned defence lawyer, Joel has a fascinating perspective on both sides of the criminal law fence and I think you may be interested in hearing his musings.

Arrested Development. . . . [more]

We have been the object of a number of phony comments that passed the reCaptcha test and the Akismet comment spam filter. Although we delete these annoyances as soon as we can, they go out on the comment RSS feed before we can stop them, unfortunately.

To prevent this we are now forcing some comments into moderation. The arrangement is that if you have ever had an approved comment on Slaw, your future comments will not be moderated. (We reserve the right to delete them, even so, if they offend our comment policy, set out in the next paragraph.) We . . . [more]