Somewhat buried in all the news today of Liberal infighting, market meltdowns, and U.S. electioneering was a CRTC notice announcing the beginning of hearings on broadcasting and New Media. This hearing follows up on its earlier consultations this year setting the terms of reference for the hearings, and more generally on the CRTC’s New Media Project Initiative, begun in 2007.

No one, surely, could accuse the CRTC of acting precipitously on this issue: even with respect to yesterday’s announcement, a CRTC spokesman (quoted in today’s Globe and Mail) emphasized that the proceeding is about “understand[ing] the . . . [more]

Attorney Sergei Lemberg, the head of Lemberg & Associates, LLC and who specializes in “lemon law“, has a practical guest blog post over at the Virtual Law Practice blog worth reading. He talks about how he uses newer Web technologies to get work done, collaborate with clients, and advertise his practice.

Some highlights:

I have clients from all over the country and rarely see them in person. I use VOIP for my office phone system for onsite and off-site staff, which gives the impression of everyone being under the same roof. I also take advantage of the Web-based

The Library of Congress website THOMAS, which provides information about U.S. legislation, has established a system of persistent URLs for legislative documents. This means that hyperlinks using this format will always (i.e. for the foreseeable future) take a reader to the desired document, regardless of any server changes that might have occurred since the link was created.

The persistent link is created by following a syntax that assembles a document’s URI. (A “uniform resource identifier” is a unique string of characters that is used to identify a particular resource on the internet; a URL — “uniform resource . . . [more]

Today is Blog Action Day 2008, an international call to action for bloggers to raise awareness on issues of poverty:

“Poverty is not only a pressing issue, it is a complex one. It’s easy to think that there isn’t much an individual can do. Fortunately this isn’t the case at all. With activities ranging from advocacy and professional contribution to charity and financing, there is in fact many ways that we can act.”

The idea is that bloggers sign up to blog about poverty reduction today.

This year’s Blog Action Day has dozens of organizational sponsors and supporters, including . . . [more]

Over the years inside some organizations, libraries and IT departments have had difficulty working with one another. Episode 33 of the TechTherapy podcast from the Chronicle of Higher Education looks at the differences and similarities between Libraries and IT departments and, without pointing any finger of blame, discusses why this rift exists. The discussion focuses on academic departments, but a lot of this applies to other types of organizations. (Length of this episode is 13 min, 37 sec.)

Hosts Scott Carlson and Warren Arbogast come up with these differences: . . . [more]

Osgoode Hall Law School will officially announce today the launch of a new program in intellectual property law and technology, IP Osgoode, aimed at promoting interdisciplinary research and commentary in the field. The website features a student-run blog, IPilogue, and what will clearly be a growing body of resources for those interested in IP.

Professor Pina D’Agostino is the Director of the new program; she is joined by Osgoode Professors Carys Craig, Ikechi Mgbeoji, and IP Osgoode, Assistant Director, Rex Shoyama. An impressive Advisory Board has been assembled, which includes the Honourable Mr. Justice Marshall Rothstein, the Honourable . . . [more]

Litigation counsel and their clients have long been put on notice that electronically stored information may become the subject of requests for production. The scope of the duty to preserve, and the breadth of the type of electronically-stored information subject to the preservation obligation are not always readily apparent. In fact, when coupled with the reality that huge volumes of material maybe involved, e-discovery has the potential to increase litigation costs to staggering levels.

Electronically stored information has and will continue to change the way people do business and store business related information. For lawyers, it has changed how they . . . [more]

Lawyers often talk about how entrepreneurs should make their companies “investor ready”. This uses the term “investor” in the widest sense, meaning everything from a bank loan, to a VC investment, to the sale of the business to Google that allows the owner to retire early in luxury. By “ready” we mean being able to easily survive investor diligence without risk of losing the deal or diminishing the value – by having taken all the right steps and having the right documentation for such things as an up to date corporate minute book, trade-marks for brands, documenting IP ownership, proper . . . [more]

The Law Society of Upper Canada today announced [PDF] the formation of the Justitia Think Tank as part of its effort to “retain and advance women” in the legal profession. Forty Ontario law firms have agreed to participate for three years (2009-2011) and to:

• maintain statistical data on the gender of lawyers in the firm,
• “review their existing written policies on maternity, paternal and adoption leave and flexible work arrangements”,
• share information on networking and business development opportunities for women, and
• eventually (2011) “develop strategies to enhance women’s participation in the leadership of the firm.”

The think tank is an . . . [more]

…Not that there was a lot that could have been done to improve the already stellar blog by Jordan Furlong. Still, Law21 has a bright new look and a lot of improved functionality. Check out the nifty AJAXed menus in the sidebar — heck, take the whole thing for a test drive. You’ll see that Jordan’s moving his blog closer to functioning as a nexus for thought on innovation and change in the practice of law, which is no bad thing. Congratulations, Jordan, on this upgrade. . . . [more]

Today’s important for a couple of reasons. First, because it’s election day here in Canada. Second, because it’s the first global Open Access Day, a day to spread the word about the benefits of open access to online information and knowledge. Law is one of the areas where free and open access to data is of the highest importance to the health of a society, and fortunately for us here in Canada we have CanLII, which steadily improves in coverage and utility. Now we need law faculties to decide to make their scholarship freely available to all, in . . . [more]

One of the recent suggestions we received here at Slaw, was whether we could create separate RSS feeds for of each the individual authors?

Well, it sounded like a great suggestion… At least until Simon F. pointed out that it already exists! And very elegantly placed, I might add, on the Slaw Archives by Author page.

Am I highlighting the obvious? Probably. But if it was a feature you were clamouring for, or, if you can share a little chuckle at Steve’s lack of observation skills… either way, I’m there for you! :)

Happy thanksgiving! . . . [more]