I’m wondering everyone’s opinion on this:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004344.php

I don’t get it. Google cache is an almost complete reproduction of a webpage, and goes way beyond legitimate copying in my mind. This decision seems to open the door for every scraping program on the web today. They add a couple highlighted terms, and that’s ‘transformative’? What’s next, ads next to the cached page?

And why is it incumbent on webmasters to add a ‘no-cache’ tag to their robots.txt file? It’s not like the old days where you submit your site to a search engine, Google now indexes without asking. Truth be . . . [more]

House of Butter is the original blawg publishing the scuttlebutt on law publishers from around the globe, most notably Butterworths (thus, presumably, the name…). This blog has been around what seems like forever. The site is hosted by PracticeSource.

That is about all I can tell you about it. Originally I thought it was written out of the U.K., but more recently I believe it to be from Australia. I have no idea who created it or who writes it. The editor recently identified himself as “Sean”. I’m not even sure how one goes about submitting comments, although there . . . [more]

I was getting caught up on some ‘offline’ reading; wading through a stack of magazines when I came across a cover story in Information Week (Jan 9, 2006). The headline reads:

EMBRACE YOUR INNER GEEK. With consumer tech driving innovation, staying gadget-savvy is a business imperative, not just a indulgence. (You can find the full text of this article here).

In this article, the authors make the observation (from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas) that the lines between consumer and business tech are vanishing. Think about how most people react when they see an IT manager sitting . . . [more]

Blog provider Blogger and its related blog host Blogspot have been experiencing severe server problems for at least a week (probably longer). They have tried taking the system down a few times for service but today it has been up and down frequently. Tonight it has given up the ghost.

So, if you are attempting to log onto blogs hosted by Blogger (mine, Steve Matthews’ and Patrick Cormier’s, to name just a few), you may need to check back later if you can’t get on.

I’m not even going to link to all those sites, ’cause you will just be . . . [more]

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]