This week saw the second Mesh conference–billed as “Canada’s web conference”–come to fruition. The two days were jam-packed full of fantastic speakers, but the real highlight was the conversations taking place between attendees in the hallways. Fortunately lots of time was given between each session to give people space for people to connect, share and–yes–mesh.

Mesh was envisioned by five prominent guys involved in various aspects of the Canadian new media industry just over a year ago, and the first one took place last May. Congratulations to lawyer Rob Hyndman, who will ever more be known as “one . . . [more]

A recent piece in Discover Magazine sets out to weigh the Internet.

How heavy is information? Most of us know that computers represent all types of information–e-mails, documents, video clips, Web pages, everything–as streams of binary digits, 1s and 0s. These digits are mathematical entities, but they are also tangible ones: They are embodied and manipulated as voltages in electronic circuits. Therefore, every bit of data must have some mass, albeit minuscule. This prompted DISCOVER to ask the question: How much would all the data sent through the Internet on an average day weigh?

Okay Slaw readers. Write down now . . . [more]

Appointment of Chief Justice of Ontario announced
1 June 2007
CALGARY

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced the appointment of The Honourable Mr. Justice Warren K. Winkler, Regional Senior Judge of the Superior Court of Justice in and for the Province of Ontario for the Toronto Region, is appointed Chief Justice of Ontario. He replaces the Honourable Chief Justice R. McMurtry who retired May 31, 2007. . . . [more]

Coming to you today from lovely downtown Halifax… Which means I’m too distracted by the local charms to get into an extended fillip today, which might be a blessing for some, I guess. At any rate, I’ll simply point you to Google Street View, a new feature imposed on Google Maps (hat tip to beSpacific) where you’ll find a video featuring a Google engineer dressed up in a body suit and required to act out a hokey tutorial. Only available in the few spots in the U.S. where you see the camera icon on the accompanying graphic, Street . . . [more]

Apple has announced that the iTunes Digital Rights Management (DRM) software attached to downloaded songs will now be removed. I am unclear whether this is the existing service “new and improved”, or if this is set up as a new, separate service since it is being branded as “ . . . [more]

When that spare moment arrives in which you’re ready to come to grips with the next TLA (three letter abbreviation), it may be RIA you want to grasp. RIA stands for Rich Internet Application, and the real buzz is about RIA frameworks. Adobe brought out Apollo; Microsoft produced Silverlight; Google has Gears; and Mozilla is going to do something similar in the next version of Firefox. All of these are ways of trying to bridge the gap between what you can do online and offline, some being more ambitious than others. Partly it’s about being able to . . . [more]

A new book on unconferences is being written collaboratively with the use of a wiki. Tentative table of contents:

• Chapter #1 : What in the name of god is an un-conference
• Chapter #2 : Un-conference – The drama without a stage
• Chapter #3 : 10 easy steps to organizing an un-conference
• Chapter #4 : Un-conferences – the various avatars ( Barcamps, Blogcamps, etc)
• Chapter #5 : Open Space Un-Conferences
• Chapter #6 : Un-conferences that really kicked ass
• Chapter #7 : Profiles of prolific un-conferencers
• Chapter #8 : Un-conferences: how they could all go completely wrong ( Humor – where

Following their interesting decision of last year, to forgo the use of wireless technology at Lakehead University, citing the precautionary principle (para 2). Lakehead has recently made another curious decision to outsource the provision of email services at the university to Google. Lakehead cites several advantages over their previous in-house system including server capacity, more reliable delivery, response time and storage capacity. Google itself trumpets the Lakehead partnership as a success story. However, there are critics of the deal who cite the little bugaboo of the U.S. Patriot Act and the possible application of the act in this . . . [more]

Among the lovely big fat books you’ve put aside for your summer reading — on the beach, at the lake, or just in the garden hammock — you might make space for a tome by Bill Moggridge, Designing Interactions. It’s a collection of interviews of a wide group of people who know all there is to know about how we interact with computers and how that interaction is increasingly the target of industrial designers. Moggridge developed the first laptop computer; and in the book he talks to something like 40 people who are involved one way or another with . . . [more]

In “Keeping Current Can Be Hard to Do for Law Librarians” (May 30, 2007), Tricia Kasting discusses her efforts to keep current with new developments impacting her work, particularly the uses and impacts of various social software tools in her organization and the new features of subscription databases.

Is there anyone that can’t relate to this? . . . [more]

In his first annual report, the new federal Information Commissioner Robert Marleau concludes that a great many Canadian government agencies show a serious lack of transparency when it comes to access to government documents under the Access to Information Act.

“Despite much progress since 1983, there remain impediments to the full realization of Parliament’s intent as expressed in the Act. Too often, responses to access requests are late, incomplete, or overly-censored. Too often, access is denied to hide wrongdoing, or to protect officials or governments from embarrassment, rather than to serve a legitimate confidentiality requirement. Year after year,

I hope our Connie Crosby doesn’t mind me promoting her new article on this month’s LLRX.com (dated May 29, 2007): Discovering the Latest in Web 2.0 Developments is a wonderful presentation in .pdf which outlines the history of the term and concept, functionality, tips for implementation and, of course, the applications: blogs, RSS, wikis, pod/videocasts, screencasts (I liked that one, Connie), social networking, Second Life… I found the links and references particularly useful and interesting: the “REALLY New Stuff” on p. 31, and various references and web site links on pp. 38-41. Well done again, Connie! . . . [more]