In a previous article, I discussed some issues with loose-leaf subscriptions and suggested that a number of them might well be replaced by eBooks. The term ‘eBook’ is used for electronic material produced in a wide range of formats. These formats include, but certainly are not limited to, HTML, PDF, AZW (Amazon’s proprietary format for the Kindle), EPUB (an open e-book format used by the iPad) and Mobipocket. Not all these formats are compatible with all devices. Wikipedia has an excellent list of the various formats, along with a table showing which format will work on what device. . . . [more]

It’s an issue that divides both generations and the tech-savvy from the not so tech-savvy… Gizmodo asks: Is it Ever OK to Leave Voicemail Anymore? Some of their acceptable uses included:

• When you want to stand out [against the noise of the email inbox]
• When dropping important news
• When you have many questions to ask
• or when you’re dealing with people who aren’t tech-savvy

For those under-30, voicemail usage is almost as loved as having to wear a watch — i.e. it’ doesn’t happen. And really, there’s must be a good percentage of older generations that feel the same way . . . [more]

Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin spoke last week at the University of Toronto’s Access to Civil Justice for Middle Income Canadians Colloquium about how ordinary people risk being priced out of the justice system. In her speech, she called on governments, academics, judges and lawyers to work to ensure better access to justice for all Canadians.

Her speech and the colloquium attracted some media attention:

• Access to justice becoming a privilege of the rich, judge warns (Globe and Mail, February 10, 2011)
• Legal system doesn’t work for ordinary people, top judge says (Vancouver Sun, February 14, 2011)

. . . [more]

Life lags a little behind CSI and the other forensic fantasies on the tube — but not so far behind as you might imagine. We’ve all heard about government-employed facial recognition software that, in theory, can pick a putative bad guy out of the madding crowd. Now that sort of knowing eye is headed everywhere, thanks to the race to employ face recognition capacity in mobile devices.

It’s all part of the current lust to know and be known — to “befriend,” “follow” and “share with” a wide range of people in (or near) one’s life. To see what will . . . [more]

The Quebec National Assembly announced during a sitting on February 15, 2011, a series of interim changes to the process for appointing Quebec judges.

[This is the fourth in a series of articles about the trends, theories, principles and realities that have influenced the redesign of the new library of Osgoode Hall Law School – part of the renovation and rebuilding of the School currently underway.]

A law library is different from other libraries not just in its collections, but in its function and especially in its role within its parent institution. In a law firm, the library and the librarians are an integral part of the firm’s practice. The librarians bill their time when working on client files. Increasingly, the library supports the . . . [more]

The things some lawyers get up to! Take Eben Moglen for instance. After working at IBM as a programmer, he attended Yale Law; then he clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall, after which went back to Yale to get a Ph.D. in history; then it was on to Columbia Law and a professorship there. Enough laurels there for him to rest comfortably for pretty much ever, you’d think. But no: harking back to his early days in computers, he started the Software Freedom Law Centre in 2005 and now he’s launched the FreedomBox Foundation — which is what I want to . . . [more]

Several of us here at Slaw comment from time to time on tablets, and the paperless office – but usually not together.

All Things Digital has a post entitled Use a Tablet, Save a Tree that talks about a Morgan Stanley prediction that the increasing demand for digital content will result in a 2% decline in printer supplies revenue in 2011. It suggests that this trend is one reason that Hewlett Packard is getting into the tablet market.

For the record, I’m impatiently waiting for the iPad2, then will take the tablet plunge. While one doesn’t need a tablet . . . [more]

I have updated the Law-Related Movies page on my Legal Research and Writing website by adding 16 titles for an overall new total of 114 law-related movies listed on my site.

In addition, where available, I have added a link to the Netflix listing for 21 of the 114 titles that are available on Netflix for ease of viewing for those readers with Netflix subscriptions (note: I have no connection to Netflix other than being a subscriber).

Although I was aware of all of but one of the newly added 16 movies (and have seen most of them), I am . . . [more]

The typical outsourcing involves the outsourcing of not only a business function, but also the technological infrastructure to support it. When preparing an outsourcing agreement, the hardware, software and systems of each party to the outsourcing need to be carefully considered and well understood. It should be part of the due diligence of embarking on the outsourcing process.

Most companies that are looking to outsource will already have in-house technical expertise. This in-house expertise should be relied upon to map out a company’s technical capabilities and limitations. This will set the stage for properly mapping the technical requirements for the . . . [more]

Zotero, that great note-taking research tool from the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, has just been released in a standalone version for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Until this point, Zotero had been a plugin for the Firefox browser. The standalone version has “connectors” available to link it to Chrome and Safari browsers (IE is coming); and plugins for MSWord and OpenOffice are bundled with it.

If you’ve been hesitating to try out Zotero because of the necessary linkage to Firefox, you should give it a whirl now. There’s an online Quick Start Guide to get . . . [more]

One of the skills that legal researchers and authors quickly have to master does not have anything to do with substantive law, but with how to refer to legal materials. This is true in many other areas of specialized knowledge, but citation standards in the legal realm seem to be particularly cluttered with minute details and exceptions, especially in Canada and the United States. Some of us eventually become quite skilled at knowing how to use square brackets, abbreviations and acronyms of legal authorities. The rest of us rely on proofreaders to make sure that every rule in the . . . [more]