Israeli entrepreneur Shai Reshef has launched the University of the People. Under the auspices of the U.N.’s Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technology and Development (GAID), the University of the People offers tuition-free education to anyone able to connect via the internet in two programs, Business Administration and Computer Science. At the moment the institution does not grant degrees, although it is seeking accreditation.

The somewhat tenuous connection to law — and thus to Slaw — lies in the fact that a number of the University’s advisors are lawyers: Jack M. Balkin is Knight Professor of Constitutional Law . . . [more]

At the LCO Symposium last Wednesday, a number of law reform related topics were discussed, but one that applies to law reform commissions and other institutions, as well, related to evaluation. The LCO has a particular interest in this because we’ll soon be evaluated on our performance so far. And of course, there hasn’t been much time to have developed a track record!

The concern expressed won’t surprise anyone: how can you get away from bean counting in evaluating organizations that engage in activities that just aren’t susceptible to measurement by numbers. For the LCO, traditional evaluation would focus on . . . [more]

Me, I always wanted to be the bass player. Not the bouncy Macca sort, mind you, but the guy who slouches around at the back of the band almost too cool to breathe. But lots of other folks would have preferred to be the drummer: even further back, maybe, but… well, louder. And having a whole lot more gear. So this fillip is for them. It’s about drumming and the beat.

Go to Audio Playground’s Virtual Drum Machines‘ site. You’ll find an incredible cornucopia of drum machines from the past all lovingly recreated by Joseph Rivers thanks to the . . . [more]

That was the title of a presentation I attended this morning at the London TechAlliance breakfast club series.

David Ciccarelli of Voices.com was the presenter. He is well qualified to present, as he has built his business using these methods. Voices.com is interesting in itself. It is essentially a job mart for voice actors that puts together voice actors with those needing their services. As you will see from their web site, they have an impressive client list. . . . [more]

This post from the Fifth Column details a mix-up with the re-tweeting of a comment on the Tamil protests in Toronto. I remember seeing this Tweet myself, and being somewhat surprised that an experienced politician would offer such a strong opinion. Seems now that he didn’t.

Points out yet again the need to be a skeptical cautious consumer of information, whatever its form. . . . [more]

Last week LAWPRO e-blasted 20,000 Ontario lawyers in private practice with a warning about a bad cheque fraud scam targeting lawyer trust accounts.

That e-mail blast prompted several Ontario lawyers to call us and we have gathered further information about these frauds. It now seems clear to us that there is an organized scheme underway to defraud Ontario lawyers in and around the Greater Toronto Area using matters involving small business equipment loans. These matters all share the same basic timeline and circumstances, and in some cases, the same purported individuals or entities (a lender from Halifax or Montreal). These . . . [more]

I like repetition. I enjoy multiples of things that are pretty much the same. Give me clusters of like objects.

See?

Now if you take similar things in very great numbers and play with them, you can produce some pretty, well, pretty effects. Which is what this fillip will offer. I have two illustrations to show you. The first is an office trick that you should, perhaps, not try at the office, and it uses that most humble of office supplies, the sticky note. EepyBird (whoever/whatever that is) has massed masses of sticky notes and set them to falling in . . . [more]

Well, if relying on commercial publishers to uphold scholarly standards was ever among your naivetes, consider yourself disillusioned. Starting three weeks ago in The Australian, and this week twice in The Scientist (free registration required), it has been uncovered that Elsevier produced a number of publications that had the look and feel of peer-reviewed publications, but were in fact marketing tools:

Elsevier is conducting an “internal review” of its publishing practices after allegations came to light that the company produced a pharmaceutical company-funded publication in the early 2000s without disclosing that the “journal” was corporate sponsored.

The allegations involve

I would really love to have a Kindle. really. And this story from the Silicon Alley Insider isn’t making things any better. See Dan Frommer’s live note that “Kindle sales are now 35% of book sales when Kindle editions are available.”

You would think this kind of statement would jump start some action! For publishers, for consumers, and especially for Amazon to expand their offering… to say… north of the border? I’m also not fussy about the screen size. I’d take a hand-me-down for that matter.

What I am losing my patience with, is waiting years . . . [more]

♫ Be not selfish in your doings:
Pass it on. (Pass it on, children)
Help your brothers (help them) in their needs:
Pass it on…♫

Lyrics and Music by Bunny Livingston (aka Bunny Wailer), recorded by The Wailers.

As a lawyer, I enjoy the study of law. As we all know, laws come in many forms. When studying laws, we are accustomed to dealing with a set of formal laws – being those duly considered and passed by a parliament, legislature, congress or other legislative body. In addition to these formal laws and associated regulations, at least in . . . [more]

I thought Slaw readers might like to see my spin on the privacy issues that arise from continuous view street level cameras. See my Free Press article entitled Privacy issues not always practical.

It can be found on my blog, on the Canoe tech page, or on the Free Press site. . . . [more]

I haven’t seen any videos in the conventional legal press in Canada. So congratulations to Law Times for letting us see some of the highlights of last week’s Borovoy roast. Alan Borovoy is a legend in Canadian public advocacy. You can read about his life in a Toronto Star profile, here and here.

Forty years is an incredible contribution. Forty-one actually.

. . . [more]