I’m in a post-election frame of mind and so naturally my thoughts turn (with anticipatory wistfulness, if there is such a thing) to socialism. This should not surprise anyone. I’ve lived most of my life in a university, after all, one of the few remaining communal enterprises not driven by profit, so I’m bound to suffer from professional deformation. Working with Slaw, too, has got me speculating on the business, so to speak, of sharing the wealth, which starts as information and knowledge in this context. All of which leads me to wonder how lawyers might improve the state of . . . [more]

There is an article in the Mercury News that predicts the top 10 technology trends in 2006

1. WiFi will spread rapidly and WiMax will emerge.

2. Cell phones do everything.

3. Internet phone calls zoom in popularity.

4. The office moves to the Web.

5. Stem-cell research advances.

6. Biotechs target flu vaccines.

7. Even small start-ups go global.

8. Video comes to the blog.

9. On-demand video everywhere.

10 Clean technologies.

The full article can be found at MercuryNews.com

At least this what Silicon Valley thinks of the top trends. I am particulary interested in topic #2. I . . . [more]

In what may be his last statement as Prime Minister, Paul Martin today sent out this message:

Statement by the Prime Minister Paul Martin

. . . [more]

For those who might not have seen it on the CALL email list, BIALL (British and Irish Association of Law Librarians) has a new Handbook of Legal Information Management, published by Ashgate and edited by Loyita Worley. This is the list of essays and their authors:

• Law libraries and their users, Jules Winterton;
• Sources of legal information and their organisation, Guy Holborn;
• Legal research techniques and tips, Peter Clinch;
• Library and information systems management, Mandy Webster;
• Financial management: planning and charging, Michael Maher;
• Managing legal information professionals, Jackie Berry;
• Copyright and data protection, Elaine Ansell;
• Knowledge management, Sue Doe

. . . [more]

Further to Patrick’s last post, the BarclayBlog (out of Syracuse Law School’s Law Library) has posted a link to a Law.com story entitled “Teaching Tech Skills to Lawyers” (January 20, 2006) by Steven C. Bennett, a story that also points out the need for lawyers to be more tech-savvy in response to meeting client needs and expectations. Bennett points out that law schools are often remiss in not teaching needed tech skills (I wonder which, if any, Canadian evidence classes discuss issues surrounding “electronic” evidence and how to gather it, etc.?). He identifies four goals for technology . . . [more]

As I read two recent posts on the subject topic, I realized how much of a universal challenge the relationship is - between lawyers and Information Technology (IT). Why is this relationship challenging?

It’s been a busy week here at Slaw central. We have another occasional contributor to welcome. Patrick Cormier is a legal officer (i.e. lawyer) in the Office of the Judge Advocate General in the Department of Defence and currently Project Director of the “Comprehensive Information Management Project” there. In case this isn’t enough, he’s a blogger as well at Information Management Now. . . . [more]

I was just notified this morning that OCLC has released a report called Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources (2005). The report summarizes findings of an international study on information-seeking habits and preferences in Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, the UK, and the U.S.

I haven’t had a chance to sit down and go through it in detail, but there looks to be some pretty good stuff in the report. According to the blurb on the webpage, the findings indicate:

that information consumers view libraries as places to borrow print books, but they are unaware of the rich electronic resources they . . . [more]

Researchers who are frustrated by the fact that search engine relevance rankings are so often skewed will benefit from a great piece in today’s Technology supplement of our local That is when we’re in Chennaipaper, the Hindu .
It summarizes quite accessibly an important piece on Web Spam Taxonomy by Zoltán Gyöngyi and Hector Garcia-Molina of Stanford University’s Computer Science Department.

As the journalist, D. Morali puts it this exhaustive research paper offers “the first comprehensive taxonomy of all important spamming techniques known to date.” Read up to get wiser.

He summarizes:
“Nothing in this paper is secret to the . . . [more]

The ‘mad’ pace of posting here at Slaw is fast making it a must read for legal research & technology professionals. But even as a contributor, I sometimes find it hard to keep up with all the content we’re producing.

I’m obviously subscribed to the new postings feed, but the real value to a collaborative blog like this is in the online discussion, and I recently found myself linking into each post so I wouldn’t miss out on the comments [The comments are the good stuff! :-)]. Well, I’ve made a few changes recently, and started to use the . . . [more]

Do any readers of the list know about current and future plans for further development of the DFAIT treaties web-site? Its been growing very slowly for some time now but still seems to be far short of the ideal goal of including the full text of all treaties, signatory details and supporting explanatory material. There is very little information at the site itself about any such plans. . . . [more]

Well now that the first election of 2006 is over, a few thoughts on how the Internet provided information to us.

I’ve been following British elections using the BBC and Guardian websites, which were elegant and efficient in how they delivered breaking information.
In Canada, with the last 2004 Election, I forewent my usual radio and Tv surfing for results since I discovered that between the Globe and Mail and the CBC, web-based results services gave me much faster and deeper results than the usual talking heads, with a ticker-tape banner of highlights.

Indeed the web seemed to be . . . [more]