Logging in this week to my so-called virtual life, one constant and growing buzz is over privacy in social media and targeted marketing. I had meant to blog about something else, but the noise is too just to loud. While the Canadian Privacy Commissioner’s findings on the CIPPIC Complaint against Facebook are by now old news, the afterburn continues. Polices and practices adapt, and at the end of the day consumers want what they want. Who’s pwning who? Today’s choice updates from the world o’ privacy:

1. Facebook Asks More Than 350 Million Users Around the World To Personalize Their . . . [more]

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has just released a report on Academic Law Library Statistics 2007-2008.

Among the highlights (all dollars are in US currency):

• Out of 113 ARL university libraries, 74 responded to this survey
• Law libraries reported median values of 345,935 volumes held and 8,033 gross volumes added. Also, these libraries employed the full-time equivalent of 2,129 staff members in the fiscal year 2007–2008
• Responding libraries reported total expenditures of $215,630,657 … materials expenditures made up the largest portion of the total, with 47% of aggregated expenses falling under a materials-related category
• Law libraries reported a

While we have been receiving great feedback on the various articles on social media in the latest issue of LawPRO Magazine, the surprise front-runner for most popular article in this issue has had over 300 downloads in the first four days – Yvonne Diedrick’s article on the Apology Act, 2009. Perhaps not a real surprise as many Ontario lawyers I have talked to are not familiar with this new legislation.

The Apology Act came into force in Ontario on April 23, 2009. It allows the communication of expressions of sorrow or regret without worrying that the comments can . . . [more]

Is law important?

Clearly the print media don’t think so. Look at the way in which they carve up our world — and you’ll look in vain for a category or a main topic-head, let alone a section, for law or for its fuzzy cousin, justice.

The home page menus for the big newspapers offer you a collection of stories on politics, the economy, sports, style, arts, science, cars, weather, and sometimes education and health. But never law. To look at how six highly respected English language newspapers (the Globe and Mail, the National Post, the New York Times, the . . . [more]

December 6 marked several unpleasant anniversaries; in this part of the country it was the 92nd anniversary of the Halifax Explosion. To mark the date the Dalhousie University Archives have mounted an interesting display containing the official report by Alexander MacMechan entitled the Halifax Disaster.

While the Halifax Explosion is well known what is not as well known is that every Christmas since 1971 Nova Scotia sends Boston a large Christmas tree, which is erected in the Boston Common, as a as symbol of gratitude for the assistance Boston provided Halifax in the aftermath of the explosion in 1917. . . . [more]

2010 will see some interesting and useful developments in the tablet / e-book reader space. The concept of a thin, light, portable device with a decent screen size (i.e. a letter sized piece of paper) and long battery life to read things on – such as newspapers, magazines, books, the web – is quite compelling.

There are a few products on the market already – such as the Kindle. In my view the tipping point to widespread adoption will be colour screens that can render glossy magazine resolution, the ability to get web content via wifi rather than just over . . . [more]

When I closed an old Google account over the weekend, it appears that I inadvertently deleted the Custom Google Search of Canadian law firms that I had created (and that I understand is used a fair bit by researchers).

I have created a new Custom Google Search of Canadian Law Firms, now at a new URL of:

http://www.tinyurl.com/canadianlawfirms

Click here to see a sample search result on the phrase “fiduciary duties.”

The new site is free of ads and has more Canadian law firms included (now there are 51 or the larger law firms from across the country). I also . . . [more]

If Tiger Woods isn’t yet inspired to write his own tune about celebrity and privacy, he may at least want to kick back to the blues standard Ain’t Nobody’s Business. Or if that’s not enough to give Tiger some comfort in these trying times, he could also put on some Michael Jackson or Pink Floyd.

This post is about music with a link to privacy. I’ve compiled a list of ten songs and albums that offer some comment on privacy – from the standard lament for loss of privacy by celebrity pop stars, to deeper comments on privacy in . . . [more]

THE WIPO STANDING COMMITTEE ON COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS

The nineteenth session will take place in Geneva from December 14 to 18, 2009. The Committee is currently discussing special provisions for education, libraries and persons with disabilities, as well as the protection of audiovisual performances and broadcasting organizations. Meeting documents are at: www.wipo.int. . . . [more]

You couldn’t buy this kind of advertisement — at least, I hope you couldn’t. Check out the pic on the front page of the newly revamped U.S. Open Government Initiative | The White House. Just in case they change it, and the earnest young man at the keyboard is no longer there when you go to look, I’ve put a screenshot below.

Apple is becoming so mainstream I may have to switch to Linux to keep my smug sense of computer specialness.

Oh, and while you’re on the White House site, look around. It’s a little different from what . . . [more]

I am currently taking a three day Advanced Civil Mediation course, taught by Gordon Sloan and hosted by CLEBC.

Reviewing the course materials led me to this wonderful online resource: Conflict Resolution in Peacebuilding: A Selected Bibliography, edited by Catherine Morris of Victoria, BC.

This searchable bibliography with more than thirty topic areas is intended as a starting place for research on conflict resolution or dispute processing. It is regularly updated and includes references to books, articles, definitions of alternative dispute resolution, links to support for trainers and links to other research resources including book reviews and annotations. . . . [more]

Today Google has released its real-time search function. It will index much of the internet’s real-time content — such as tweets on Twitter or postings on Facebook or entries on blogs that have pubsubhubbub enabled RSS — and offer up these results for searchers in a dynamic fashion. So, for example, a search for [copenhagen climate summit] yields at fourth position on my screen an item titled “latest results for copenhagen climate summit” that displays dynamically the very latest updates on that topic from Twitter et al. The image below will give you a better sense, perhaps; click on . . . [more]