The Canadian organizers of One Web Day have announced that OneWebDay is September 22 every year, starting in 2006.

So what’s with OneWebDay?
The idea is that the Web is worth celebrating.
OneWebDay will be one day a year when we all – everyone around the physical globe – can celebrate the Web and what it means to us as individuals, organizations, and communities.
As with Earth Day – an inspiration and model for OneWebDay – it’s up to the celebrants to decide how to celebrate. They encourage all celebrations! Collaboration, connection, creativity, freedom.
By the end of the day, . . . [more]

I have a question for Slaw…

I need to alert certain people when certain publications arrive, encourage them to read them, and then collect them when the readers have finished with them.

I also want to collect their thoughts on the contents of these publications, so how about a tool that notifies people about new items and lets them have fun adding comments. I thought BB, but I’m hoping to find something more graphical… any suggestions, thoughts? . . . [more]

J’en suis désolé, mais ceci n’est pas vraiment un sujet d’été. Ce mois-ci seulement, j’ai eu à traiter 2 cas de plagiat. Si j’ajoute la récente lecture du papier de R. F. Boisvert et M. J. Irwin “Plagiarism on the Rise” dans la revue Communications of the ACM de juin 2006, page 23, je crois savoir que ce phénomène n’est pas isolé.

En fait, c’est assez simple, j’ai généralement un ou plusieurs cas de plagiat à chaque session. Pire en 2002, avant que je fasse mon laïus de 20 minutes lors de chaque première séance de cours, j’ai même . . . [more]

I’m very pleased to be able to announce that John Gregory has joined Slaw as an occasional contributor. John is General Counsel at the Policy Division of the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General. He also runs an email list on electronic commerce and is an all-round expert on the intersection of law and technology. We’re honoured that he’s joined us. . . . [more]

I was quite amazed when I equipped my daughter with an IBM notebook before she went to Dal only to find that none of the students at Dal actually took notes electronically in class. These were in humanities and international studies classes, yet even in her Kings Journalism classes, the students took notes just as traditionally as they ever did.

Now one of those yes-you-did, no-we-didn’t stories out of the Harvard Law School where a group of law professors got close to saying that notebook computers weren’t welcome in their classrooms and the students had better stock up on yellow . . . [more]

I’m putting this here for Steven Bilodeau, Crown Prosecutor (Technology & Internet Crimes Coordinator), Alberta Justice – Special Prosecutions Branch:

The government of Botswana has put out a tender for an e-government portal. One of the requirements is for a “Legal Advisor” to advise on legal issues relating to e-government projects and must be a graduate in law with experience handing such projects.

Do any of you know someone who would fit this description? The person putting the tender together wants to approach qualified candidates.

Please reply directly to Stven, at Steven.Bilodeau (at) gov.ab.ca

[cross-posted on Information Management Now] . . . [more]

The National Film Board of Canada has put upwards of 50 short animations on its Focus on Animation / Objectif Animation site for your enjoyment. The Big Snit, The Cat Came Back, Two Sisters… These are marvels of the art and free to watch. So pass up the latest DVD this weekend and huddle around the monitor for some Canadian cartoon delight.

Le Merle par Norman McLaren 4 min, 39 sec . . . [more]

Picture this: you go online to see if a specific domain name is available; you use what is supposed to be a reputable site on the web; when you come back later someone has grabbed the domain name you were searching for (by the way it was shown as available when you searched); and, is holding it for re-sale.

Seems far fetched? Well eWeek has a story on their site this week:

Opinion: Whois Hijacking My Domain Research?

Leave it to the domain-squatting industry to come up with a way
to jump claims.

Slide Show: Hijack: Who’s Advertising on

Before I left for vacation it was my intention to draw on something from vacation to post to Slaw. It took a bit longer than anticipated (let’s just say that I had an unanticipated view of the Toronto skyline whilst on vacation and leave it at that) but I was able to find something in my travels that was a Slaw-ish topic.

This is more in the form of question and I hope some Slaw-ers out there can cast some light on the topic of RTOR- Right Turn on Red. (Some of you may have already figured out that . . . [more]

Is there anyone out there who ISN’T frustrated with Canada Law Book’s O’Brien’s Online?

After fielding yet another call from a lawyer who can’t get it to work and after having yet more problems with it myself and having learned, through a call to tech support, that the online “help” isn’t exactly correct, I requested a training session. Well, that was a laugh a minute in the way that if you didn’t laugh, you’d cry! The poor trainer. Almost every possible snafu that can possibly happen with O’Brien’s happened within the first 10 minutes of our training session after . . . [more]

Michel-Adrien points out the Civil justice system reform underway in Ontario, and reading it I realize I’ve been a bit remiss in not reporting earlier on the success of the Into the Future Conference, organized by my workplace, the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice in partnership with the Canadian Bar Association, the Association of Canadian Court Administrators, and the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice.

The Conference is proceeding in two parts. The first part was in Montreal in May, and was attended by 285 participants including judges, lawyers, court administrators, policy makers, mediators, academics . . . [more]

The Pew Internet & American Life Project survey released yesterday tracks the blogging phenomenon.

Key findings

Blogging is bringing new voices to the online world.

Contrary to the impression created by the press attention on political blogging, just 11% of bloggers say they focus mainly on government or politics.

The blogging population is young, evenly split between women and men, and racially diverse.

Relatively small groups of bloggers view blogging as a public endeavor.

The main reasons for keeping a blog are creative expression and sharing personal experiences.

Only one-third of bloggers see blogging as a form of journalism. Yet