Kolowich, Steve “Law Reviews Create Web Magazine Offering Condensed Articles” The Wired Campus. April 22, 2009 http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3728/law-reviews-create-web-magazine-offering-condensed-articles
The new online magazine The Legal Workshop offers readers a condensed version of law reviews written by the author of the particular article but in plain English so an average person can take advantage of the information in the article. Typically articles in law reviews are very long reads and many do not have the time or the background knowledge to understand the language used to critique laws. The idea behind this project is to make law reviews more accessible to a wider audience than was possible before the existence of the online magazine The Legal Workshop. According to Michael Montano, the editor of Stanford Law Review, “we owe it to the public to produce work that is relevant to society as a whole.”
I have never read a law review but I imagine that it is no easy task but from reading this article and comments on it this is a good idea. I believe that the idea of offering summaries of law review that are more accessible to the general public is a good thing as long as nothing is taken away from the review. I believe that nothing will be taken away from the article as long as the author of the article writes the summary as well. So from the information given in the article I believe that this will turn out to be a very helpful resource. I bet that it will also be a good resource for lawyers who already know how to read law review as a time saver.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
American Libraries. 15 April 2009. http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2009/april2009/googlescanobjections.cfm?persistent=&expy_dt=
Consumer Watchdog, the consumer advocacy group has expressed concern to the Justice Department about the settlement of the lawsuit between Google and publishers. Under the October 2008 settlement, Google would be considered the “most favored nation” and guarantees Google the same terms from the proposed Book rights Registry that any future competitor might be offered. In eyes of some peoples this would prevent any competition due to Google’s dominance already in the industry. Although library advocacy groups are not against the digitization of groups they have expressed concerns about the settlement including equal “access to the Book Rights Registry, pricing privacy and intellectual freedom.” The groups argue that the privacy of the users of the digital books including data bases of what books have read, even the amount of time spent on each page. Another problem that was found that authors can opt out of having their books included in the registry this would make it possible for books to just disappear off the registry without warning. Google will allow users to access 20% of the text free of charge. The ALA, ARL, and ACRL are working on a position paper for libraries.
I believe that online books are a good thing and if Google provides the service with the best quality then Google should have the rights to do so. Google has been getting better since it started. I do not believe it is the government proper role to provide a crutch for new companies. As long as Google is not getting any additional help from the government I believe that it is not encouraging a monopoly.
Consumer Watchdog, the consumer advocacy group has expressed concern to the Justice Department about the settlement of the lawsuit between Google and publishers. Under the October 2008 settlement, Google would be considered the “most favored nation” and guarantees Google the same terms from the proposed Book rights Registry that any future competitor might be offered. In eyes of some peoples this would prevent any competition due to Google’s dominance already in the industry. Although library advocacy groups are not against the digitization of groups they have expressed concerns about the settlement including equal “access to the Book Rights Registry, pricing privacy and intellectual freedom.” The groups argue that the privacy of the users of the digital books including data bases of what books have read, even the amount of time spent on each page. Another problem that was found that authors can opt out of having their books included in the registry this would make it possible for books to just disappear off the registry without warning. Google will allow users to access 20% of the text free of charge. The ALA, ARL, and ACRL are working on a position paper for libraries.
I believe that online books are a good thing and if Google provides the service with the best quality then Google should have the rights to do so. Google has been getting better since it started. I do not believe it is the government proper role to provide a crutch for new companies. As long as Google is not getting any additional help from the government I believe that it is not encouraging a monopoly.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Duke, Alan. Colbert demands 'democracy in orbit' after winning poll. 31 March 2009. http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/31/colbert.nasa/index.html?eref=rss_tech
The comedian Steven Colbert, host of the Colbert show, recently demanded that he new wing of the international space station be name after himself or he would take control as “space's evil tyrant overlord.” NASA set up an election to determine the name of the new wing and Colbert received 230,539 of the more than 1.1 million votes cast, coming in at first place. The second runner up was Serenity. Serenity was the name of a spaceship in the television series "Firefly," which was started from a 2005 movie. NASA reserved the right to "ultimately select a name in accordance with the best interests of the agency. ... Such name may not necessarily be one which is on the list of voted-on candidate names." Colbert has received the support of at least one congressman. Colbert has had a history of getting his name out there, including a presidential election bid, a flavor of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream as well as a plane operated by Virgin America airlines.
If a government agency is going to have a vote for the name of something, it needs to follow thru. The situation could have been easily avoided by have selected group of possible name, and then allow the public to vote from the pool. I find it hard to believe that someone in the public relations department did not see something of this manner coming. If a government claims to be democratic and one of its agency attempts a ploy to get more people interested in the operations of the agency they should at least honor the election results. NASA could have just set up the illusion that people had say but they didn’t.
The comedian Steven Colbert, host of the Colbert show, recently demanded that he new wing of the international space station be name after himself or he would take control as “space's evil tyrant overlord.” NASA set up an election to determine the name of the new wing and Colbert received 230,539 of the more than 1.1 million votes cast, coming in at first place. The second runner up was Serenity. Serenity was the name of a spaceship in the television series "Firefly," which was started from a 2005 movie. NASA reserved the right to "ultimately select a name in accordance with the best interests of the agency. ... Such name may not necessarily be one which is on the list of voted-on candidate names." Colbert has received the support of at least one congressman. Colbert has had a history of getting his name out there, including a presidential election bid, a flavor of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream as well as a plane operated by Virgin America airlines.
If a government agency is going to have a vote for the name of something, it needs to follow thru. The situation could have been easily avoided by have selected group of possible name, and then allow the public to vote from the pool. I find it hard to believe that someone in the public relations department did not see something of this manner coming. If a government claims to be democratic and one of its agency attempts a ploy to get more people interested in the operations of the agency they should at least honor the election results. NASA could have just set up the illusion that people had say but they didn’t.
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