To read my RSS feeds I use a dedicated newsreader application, as opposed to a browser-based reader such as that in Firefox, or a reader offered up as a web application. I guess it's the old-fashioned part of me that likes to have a program under my control for each of my purposes. But one clear downside to this preference is that when I'm not at my computer I can't read my feeds.

A colleague on a private email discussion group I am involved with made reference to an interesting article in the International Herald Tribune from October 8, 2005, by Joost Smiers and Marieke van Schijndel called “Imagine a World Without Copyright” which posits, in part, that a world without copyright law would free up the public domain and prevent cultural monopolies. . . . [more]

Palm, Inc. and Research in Motion, Inc (RIM) announced today they will be working together to bring Blackberry technology to Palm Treo smartphones. As the software applications gradually converge, the companies will therefore be competing primarily on hardware.

See the press release “Palm and Research In Motion Bring BlackBerry Connect to the Treo 650 Smartphone”:

Through RIM’s BlackBerry Connect licensing program, Palm will enable its Treo 650 and future Palm OS® based Treo smartphones with secure, push-based wireless email via BlackBerry Enterprise Server™. The solution will enable the following:

• push-based email using BlackBerry Connect with Palm’s VersaMail® email client;

. . . [more]

1. Harriet Miers’s collected writings
2. Harriet Miers’s Blog
3. NY Sun: Dangers of Blogging
4. List of titles under subject heading: law [zip file]
5. Law Library Microform Consortium
6. Out of the Jungle: Crosby: print vs. electronic

. . . [more]

How are you going to get the message out that you want the job. Well if Dick Posner, can, why not

Check out

http://harrietmiers.blogspot.com/

Some classic lines . . . [more]

Excellent piece in the New York Sun on the dangers of blogging, if you’re seeking tenure.
http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=21296 . . . [more]

In a comment to a posting over at Out of the Jungle, I made this bold assertion about Canadian legal textbooks:

I fear the textbook’s life in Canada may be coming to its end. The publishers, notably West’s sister company Thomson Carswell, have now started publishing new editions of our prime authority texts in loose leaf format. My feeling is this dilutes the authority of the publication since we can no longer fix in place a specific text; it is difficult to quote to something if it is in constant flux. As well, fewer and fewer new key texts

. . . [more]

1. “Don’t Laugh at Dutch Lawyers” from Times Literary Supplement
2. In the Public Interest: The Future of Canadian Copyright Law
3. Lessig Blog
4. Canada’s First Library Robot Serves Phase One of Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at UBC
5. Wikipedia entry for BMG Canada Inc. v. John Doe
6. Vancouver Law Librarian Blog
7. Legal KM Economics & Realization Rates (Some Questions…)
8. Excited Utterances
9. David Maister
10. David Maister Speaks and I’m Listening!
11. Baker & McKenzie, Australia
12. Bruce MacEwan
13. Gerry Riskin
14. Kay, MacEwan & Riskin on KM ROI
15. Announcing “Kay, MacEwan . . . [more]

A provocative piece today on lawyers and blogging in the NYT.

It’s at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/07/technology/07blawg.html which may require a subscription.

But it talks about lawyers and words and the authority of words, and that we are over-represented in the blogosphere.

Happy Columbus Day / Canadian Thanksgiving . . . [more]

Today I participated in TALL‘s annual visit to the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto to talk with students about membership in the Association (and in CALL while we were at it), a potential career in law librarianship, and how to get their foot in the door for first jobs.

After the session, one of the students asked a couple of us how we keep up to date with legal research; what tools we use for current awareness. I had to laugh, since this has changed dramatically for me. I used to read every advertisement and . . . [more]

I’m having a difficult time keeping up with the House of Commons and the Senate. Are they sitting or not? Last I heard, the House of Commons is again sitting, but the Senate isn’t because there are no Bills for them to deal with just yet from the House.

In my quest to determine the state of things, I had a look at the updated Parliamentary webpages. If you haven’t seen them since the Spring, I encourage you to have a look. A lot is going on there, and I like what I see:

• They have pulled some of

. . . [more]

I’ve been having some fun recently over at the VLLB.

Last Monday I posted ‘Legal KM Economics & Realization Rates (Some Questions…)‘. Joy London of Excited Utterances was nice enough to pick it up and re-publish my post. Then the responses started coming in, and boy did they come in!

First up, David Maister was kind enough to send me a nice written response, which you can read here. For those not familiar with David, he’s one of the most respected professional service consultants around. If it had stopped there, I would have been pretty happy. . . . [more]