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Daily Archives: January 7, 2020

Online Dispute Resolution

Brand, Ronald A., Online Dispute Resolution (December 18, 2019). A paper based on the author’s presentation at the Summer School in Transnational Commercial Law & Technology, Verona, Italy, May 30-June 1, 2019 – (scheduled for publication by the University of Verona School of Law, Marco Torsello, editor) ; U. of Pittsburgh Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2019-31. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3506094

“This chapter was prepared from a presentation given by the author at the 2019 Summer School in Transnational Commercial Law & Technology, jointly sponsored by the University of Verona School of Law and the Center for International Legal Education (CILE) of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. In the paper, I review online dispute resolution (ODR) by considering the following five questions, which I believe help to develop a better understanding of both the concept and the legal framework surrounding it: A. What is ODR?; B. Who does ODR?; C. What is the legal framework for ODR?; D. What are the developing legal issues regarding ODR?; E. What is the future of ODR? I give particular consideration to the negotiations that led to the 2017 UNCITRAL Technical Notes on Online Dispute Resolution,1 as well as recent developments across the globe. I also consider whether the development of ODR is likely to occur most usefully in the private sector, as compared to development through national or international legal process.”

The Case for an Institutionally Owned Knowledge Infrastructure

Inside Higher Education: The many bottlenecks that the commercial monopoly on research information has imposed are stimulating new strategies, write James W. Weis, Amy Brand and Joi Ito. “Science and technology are propelled forward by the sharing of knowledge. Yet despite their vital importance in today’s innovation-driven economy, our knowledge infrastructures have failed to scale… Continue Reading

Introducing the CC Search Browser Extension

Creative Commons: “Creative Commons (CC) is working towards providing easy access to CC-licensed and public domain works. One significant step towards achieving that goal was the release of CC Search in 2019. Through this search and indexing tool, we’re making a plethora of CC-licensed images accessible in one place. As CC Search expands to include… Continue Reading

Bots Are Destroying Political Discourse As We Know It

The Atlantic: “Text-generation software is already good enough to fool most people most of the time. It’s writing news stories, particularly in sports and finance. It’s talking with customers on merchant websites. It’s writing convincing op-eds on topics in the news (though there are limitations). And it’s being used to bulk up “pink-slime journalism”—websites meant… Continue Reading

ProPublica Database to Investigate Professors’ Conflicts of Interest

ProPublica: “When professors moonlight, the income may influence their research and policy views. Although most universities track this outside work, the records have rarely been accessible to the public, potentially obscuring conflicts of interests. That changed last month when ProPublica launched Dollars for Profs, an interactive database that, for the first time ever, allows you… Continue Reading

How to use your phone to spot fake images surrounding the U.S.-Iran conflict

Poynter: “Military conflicts — like the one that is sparking between the United States and Iran — are usually surrounded by false images and outdated videos that go viral on social media. It happened in Turkey the other day. To avoid that misinformation scenario, the International Fact-Checking Network developed a step-by-step guide to teach citizens… Continue Reading

Firefox 72 arrives with fingerprinting blocked by default Picture-in-Picture on macOS and Linux

VentureBeat: “Mozilla today launched Firefox 72 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Firefox 72 includes fingerprinting scripts blocked by default, fewer annoying notifications, and Picture-in-Picture video on macOS and Linux. There isn’t too much else here, as Mozilla has now transitioned Firefox releases to a four-week cadence (from six to eight weeks). You can download… Continue Reading