Now that Twitter is reliably producing a large volume of verbiage on just about all topics imaginable, the task becomes one of extracting the desired fish from the flood — just as it was, and still is, with the larger web itself. The find and filter tools for Twitter are still in the making, and I thought it might be interesting for our Twitter users to take a look at one unusual tool, Twitter Venn.

We all remember our teachers or profs introducing us to Venn diagrams, those intersecting circular universes — well, Twitter Venn takes two or three . . . [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]

One of the most disturbing news reports over the past week or so (and of course there are many contenders) is that of the Keswick school and York School Board’s response to the altercation between “the school bully” and the bully’s victim (not so much a victim) who struck back. After punishing the victim and letting the bully go free, the School Board has reversed its decision.

What were the principal of the school and the School Board thinking? We read constantly about the harm that bullies do in schools. And we shouldn’t forget that this bully punched or . . . [more]

Yesterday the judge in the Mayor Larry O’Brien trial, Associate Chief Justice Douglas Cunningham, ruled that reporters may report live from the courtroom via their electronic devices. This is, I believe, the first time that such live blogging has been permitted in a Canadian trial. The ruling was made on a motion by the Ottawa Citizen. It’s no surprise, therefore, that the same journal is live tweeting the procedings.

Glen McGregor, a reporter for the Citizen, is tweeting the trial at http://www.twitter.com/obrientrial and already has a number of tweets up from a brief first day. If you could use some . . . [more]

The NYT blog is reporting an odd intervention by the American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries and the Association of Research Libraries expressing concern about the long-term impact of the Google settlement on research libraries and asking United States District Court Judge Denny Chin to exercise “vigorous oversight” over a class action settlement between Google, authors and publishers.

The groups did not oppose the settlement, but asked for continuing oversight, to ensure that the prices Google charges for subscriptions to its digital library aren’t artificially high because of a lack of competition. . . . [more]

The Indian legal press was full of reports last week of the launch of M K Ghosh and Co’s Legal Research and Analytic Services which is bringing a sophisticated set of digital search expertise to finding Indian law. The Times of India’s description will sound familiar to many researchers outside India:

Companies, law firms, lawyers and individuals have to go through a large number of case laws and judicial decisions to identify or retrieve information necessary to support legal decision-making or finding something relevant to their case. Corporates and business houses are also required to know various changing provisions of

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]

I spent a good chunk of this past week at BioFinance in Toronto, where I spoke about public market strategies for cleantech and blogged about the keynote address by Scott Gottlieb, an ex-FDA official now at the American Enterprise Institute, who talked about follow-on biologics, comparative effectiveness, and the regulatory environment at the FDA.

In the real world, Swine Flu continued to spread but turned out not to be as virulent as we first thought, at least for now. We also learned that the party is over for medical imaging in the U.S. and for . . . [more]

Following the April 24th Federal Court of Canada decision, the Canadian Bar Association have again urged the Prime Minister to repatriate Omar Khadr. This time, they have addressed the plea to the U.S. President as well. From the CBA’s April 24th press release:

The CBA, which earlier this year called for Mr. Khadr’s repatriation following President Obama’s order to close Guantanamo Bay, is urging the two governments to immediately expedite the return of Mr. Khadr to face judicial process here.

From the CBA’s letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama (PDF):

We work to promote

The government of Alberta (Ministry of Culture and Community Spirit) proposes to amend that province’s Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act by requiring school boards to inform parents when the curriculum deals with religion, sexuality or sexual orientation. The provision in question reads as follows:

11.1(1) A board as defined in the School Act shall provide notice to a parent or guardian of a student where courses of study, educational programs or instructional materials, or instruction or exercises, prescribed under that Act include subject-matter that deals explicitly with religion, sexuality or sexual orientation.
Bill 44 [PDF]

Essentially, a parent may . . . [more]

Professor Larry Lessig’s recent book, Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, has been released under a Creative Commons license and is available as a free download from Bloomsbury Academic. You can, as well, purchase a hardback version and an e-book version.

The book is divided into the following chapters (a more detailed TOC is available on the book’s website):

Chapter 1: The Cultures of our Past
Chapter 2: Cultures of our Future
Chapter 3: RO [Read-only], Extended
Chapter 4: RW [Read/Write], Revived
Chapter 5: Cultures Compared
Chapter 6: Two Economies: Commercial and Sharing . . . [more]