http://debatewise.org

“Debatewise was created for people who like making informed decisions. If this is you, you probably wont trust one source of information and will try to get a rounded view – which these days often means going to forums and blogs. The problem is, making sense of different opinions is time-consuming and imprecise.

What’s needed is a place where the best possible arguments for one side are listed next to the best possible arguments against. These arguments aren’t created by one person, but by like-minded individuals collaborating to form the strongest case. This allows people both to easily compare . . . [more]

The US Impact Public Library Study is a research project examining the impact of free access to computers and the Internet in public libraries. “Opportunity for All: How the American Public Benefits from Internet Access at US Libraries” is the first research report of the project. It discusses the characteristics of the people who use computers and the Internet in libraries, the types of use they engage in, and the impact that their use has on their own lives, that of their families and friends, and their communities. The key findings of this first report include:

• Internet access is now

A new site launched quietly a couple of days ago: Openparliament.ca is a great place to find out what’s going on in that house of mirrors on the hill. A voluntary effort by Michael Mulley, it offers you:

• Hansard, but formatted (finally!) in a way that is sensible, daily topic by daily topic, or, of course, by date
• a place to use your postal code to discover what your MP has been up to, including any Twitter posts, mentions in the press, and speeches in the House
• a list of all MPs, linked to their recent speeches in

Marilyn Johnson is a fan of libraries. And librarians. She came to this appreciation while researching The Dead Beat (a book about obituary writers). To her, it seemed that librarians had the most interesting obituaries! So when the time came for a second book, librarians seemed a natural focus. The result is This Book is Overdue : How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us.

“I wrote the book originally to teach myself how to get more technologically savvy, and I wrote it for my parents, who I know felt like the computer age had zoomed of and left them in . . . [more]

It’s easy to forget that the first and often the last interaction most of us have each day with our legal technology involves logging into – or out of – our trusty desktop machine. And that makes a lot of sense, because it’s typically the nexus of practically all that we do each day, from e-mail to web research to practice management and beyond. And yet the legal technology press is abuzz about how to ‘get into the cloud’ or ‘the perils of entering the cloud’ or the latest SaaS application that enables practice management for the price of a . . . [more]

Victory is in the air this week in biotech. Not all news was good — early stage venture capital and U.S. biotech company Tengion have had better weeks — but mostly… victory.

The Gairdner Awards announced its 51st set of winners, highlighting the usual range of amazing advances in molecular biology and honouring local biotech maven Dr. Cal Stiller for “outstanding leadership in medicine and medical science.”

BIOTECanada also announced awards. for companies went to OncoGenex , iCo Therapeutics and CO2 Solution. The presentation will be at the BIO conference in May.

Many companies were victorious in the marketplace . . . [more]

The full 111 page decision of Judge Oscar Magi of the Milan Ordinary Tribunal imposing liability on Google was released today and is available here.

Slaw readers may recall that on February 24 Judge Magi imposed six-month sentences (suspended) on three Google executives for allowing the posting on Google Video of a mobile-phone video showing a handicapped youth being harassed by his Turin classmates in September 2006. The company took two months to remove the video, which was posted in Google Italia’s “Most Fun Videos” section and received 5,500 hits before being removed.

“La Rete non è una prateria . . . [more]

I didn’t realize that on January 27th the Government of Canada had ordered a review under the Investment Canada Act to determine if the investment by Amazon.com in a fulfillment centre for Amazon.ca would be of benefit to Canada. Today the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages announced this has been approved, based on the following commitments made by Amazon:

• new jobs for Canadians and improved service for Canadian consumers;
• increased visibility for Canadian books on the Amazon.ca Web page;
• an investment of over $20 million, including $1.5 million in cultural events and awards in Canada and the promotion

A recent judgment of the England and Wales High Court, Kaschke v Gray & Anor [2010] EWHC 690 (QB), dealt with a potential libel that occurred in a post on a blog, Labourhome.org, that opens its facilities to “Labour grassroots” to “discuss the issues important to them.” As OutLaw.com, which has the story, says

Hilton claimed in his defence against the libel charge that, though he ran the site, he did not edit or vet the articles and should qualify for the same safe harbour that was granted to search engines or ISPs.

That safe harbour is granted under . . . [more]

Every year at this time librarians from across North America (and the odd one from other parts of the world) gather together in Crystal City, Arlington, VA for the Computers in Libraries conference. This year almost 1,500 delegates are attending. All aspects of technology in libraries is covered, from the computers that make the catalogue and library records hum all the way to the social media presence of libraries. Focus tends to be on service, so there is a great human element in the discussion, not just bits and bytes.

It is one of my favourite conferences, where I truly . . . [more]

In this talk from O’Reilly Media’s Where 2.0 2010 conference, Walter Scott of DigitalGlobe discusses imagery techniques available today using images from satellites and airplanes. He discusses accuracy and the related manipulation of data sets. Data and imagery previously only available to governments is now becoming more widely available. Now depth maps of the ocean can also be made. Graphic processing units from the gaming industry can be leveraged to provide advanced geospatial-type imagery. Before and after images can now also be more effectively used to accurately track changes in what is happening on the ground. Data available from DigitalGlobal’s . . . [more]

About 600 legal aid certificates are typically given out a year for civil cases in Ontario, a practice that appears to have ended.

The Toronto Star reports that starting April 1 coverage was eliminated for a number of claims including, “lawsuits seeking damages for abuse, claims for reinstatement of disability insurance, malicious prosecution, assault or wrongful detention, mortgage actions and personal injury claims…”

Kristian Justesen, a spokesperson for Legal Aid Ontario, has indicated that contingency fee arrangements in the province allow lawyers to take on these cases as an alternative to legal aid, and that funding was often . . . [more]