The need for instant information is well illustrated by family and friends desperate to know the condition of their loved ones in Haiti. Anyone who works in libraries can share a story about someone whose need for information was vital. Often what is considered vital information is coloured by personal perspective. Yesterday, one perspective on what is considered vital information might have been Alberta’s cabinet shuffle.

If that was a vital piece of information, the information need would have been fulfilled.

First came elevator rumours about a cabinet shuffle. Then media reports of cabinet shuffle rumours. On the morning . . . [more]

So many of us are shocked and saddened by the devastation from the earthquake in Haiti. Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) advises against non-essential travel to Haiti, asking that only those with the skill sets needed go as they don’t have enough infrastructure in the country to support more people.

They advise the best way for Canadians to help is to donate money, not food or clothing. The Government of Canada today announced they would match giving of Canadians dollar-for-dollar up to $50 million in response to this tragedy. Because scam artists are already at work online . . . [more]

My earlier post looked at Lululemon Athletica’s tongue-in-cheek special edition clothing line, named the “Cool Sporting Event That Takes Place in British Columbia Between 2009 & 2011 Edition.” The launch of that campaign invited a scolding from the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) and tiptoed through the provisions of the Olympic and Paralympic Marks Act (OPMA).

Luluemon reportedly seeks to increase its brand exposure and will offer the gift of yoga to Vancouver – and all its visitors – during the Olympics. However, its joint press release with yoga-centre operator Yyoga does not mention the word OLYMPIC, or WINTER, or . . . [more]

This is a follow-up to the Dec. 16, 2009 post Facebook and the Bench.

Earlier this week in the Montreal Gazette, there was an article about whether Canadian judges should be on the popular social networking site Facebook:

“Amid escalating debate in the U.S. about judicial antics online, the Canadian Judicial Council has turned its attention to whether there should be some ground rules for judges who want to join Facebook and other social networking sites (…)”

“While there are no known cases of Canadian judges on Facebook, participation in the U.S. has reached a level that

Yesterday, I abandoned my office for several hours to attend “The First Annual World’s Fair Use Day” at the Newseum in Washington D.C. It was organized by the D.C.-based non-profit consumer advocacy group, Public Knowledge. There is lots of information and coverage on this event at http://worldsfairuseday.org/. I will limit my comments to some personal musings (in chronological order as the day unfolded.) . . . [more]

In response to my query in my earlier post on Fee Fie Foe Firm from a short while back in which I wondered how there could be 1,500 Canadian law firms targeted or searched by their custom search, I have had an update. Damien McRae, a knowledge consultant from Australia and founder of Fee Fie Foe Firm, has confirmed to me in an email that his site does in fact search/target 1500 selected Canadian law firms (as opposed to using some sort of automatic scraping of URLs).

Although I had meant to add some better refinements to my Custom . . . [more]

The blogosphere and twitterverse are buzzing today about the stand Google took yesterday in China. Google basically said it would no longer censor results for Chinese users as required by the Chinese government, and if the government didn’t like it, they would leave.

Seems that the last straw was a series of cyber attacks on Google and others trying to steal proprietary information, and trying to read the gmail accounts of human rights activists. Google claims the Chinese government is behind those attacks.

This is a bold move by Google. We often see how businesses, governments and courts struggle with . . . [more]

I thought I knew everything about legal research.

I don’t (although I suspect Simon, Simon and Angela do).

And to my surprise, it was Wikipedia that was my source for new information (in particular Wikipedia’s entry on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council).

We all know that civil appeals from the Supreme Court of Canada to the Judicial committee of the Privy Council were abolished in 1949.

In telling students this, I think I inevitably left the (mistaken) impression, by inference, that one did not need to worry about noting up Supreme Court of Canada cases after 1949 . . . [more]

Rule #408 Don’t lay claim to your personal coffee mug by mass e-mail.

Rule #78 It is impossible to send an e-mail longer than two paragraphs without a typo.

Rule #765 A managing partner should never walk the halls in stocking feet.

Rule #189 Docketing “twittering” to client development is sure to invite ridicule.

Rule #685 Don’t hang a picture of yourself wearing a bathing suit in your office.

Rule #441 If you’re under 50 and using a fountain pen you’re trying too hard.

Rule #210 Make funny faces and adoring comments when a new baby visits no matter what . . . [more]

A note that Stanford is hosting the first of Law.Gov’s workshops laying the groundwork for

a report documenting exactly what it would take to create a distributed registry and repository of all primary legal materials in the United States.

Here is the announcement, the home page, the live blog, and the mailing list, The Twittter hashtag is #law.gov.

Authenticity is a highlighted technical concern, which is good to see. I presented on this problem recently at the Grey Literature 11 conference in Washington DC. Here is the abstract. . . . [more]

From the Yale Law Library’s latest exhibition, wonderful images of Justice, as portrayed in a forthcoming book by Judith Resnik and Dennis Curtis, Representing Justice: From Renaisance Town Halls to 21st Century Democratic Courtrooms.

Here is a taste of images from “Praxis Rerum Civilium,” by Joost de Damhoudere, “De Jure Belli ac Pacis,” by Hugo Grotius, and “Dei Delitti e delle pene,” by Cesare Beccaria: . . . [more]

Canadian trade-mark applicants and their agents must continue to be mindful of a trend at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) to compress timelines for trade-mark prosecution and proceedings.

After months of consultation period, CIPO has released a new Practice Notice on January 11, 2010 on extensions of time in trade-mark examination. Effective March 11, 2010, the Trade-marks Office will generally grant an applicant one (1) extension of time of up to a maximum of six (6) months to file a response to an examiner’s report, if the request is justified. No requests for any further extensions of time will . . . [more]