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Daily Archives: August 15, 2021

Visualisation of law and legal Process: An opportunity missed

McLachlan S, Webley LC. Visualisation of law and legal Process: An opportunity missed. Information Visualization. 2021;20(2-3):192-204. doi:10.1177/14738716211012608
“Visual representation of the law and legal process can aid in recall and discussion of complicated legal concepts, yet is a skill rarely taught in law schools. This work investigates the use of flowcharts and similar process-oriented diagrams in contemporary legal literature through a literature review and concept-based content analysis. Information visualisations (infovis) identified in the literature are classified into 11 described archetypal diagram types, and the results describe their usage quantitatively by type, year, publication venue and legal domain. We found that the use of infovis in legal literature is extremely rare, identifying not more than 10 articles in each calendar year. We also identified that the concept flow diagram is most commonly used, and that Unified Modelling Language (UML) is the most frequently applied representational approach. This work posits a number of serious questions for legal educators and practicing lawyers regarding how infovis in legal education and practice may improve access to justice, legal education and lay comprehension of complex legal frameworks and processes. It concludes by asking how we can expect communities to understand and adhere to laws that have become so complex and verbose as to be incomprehensible even to many of those who are learned in the law?…”

How the Pandemic Now Ends

The Atlantic – Cases of COVID-19 are rising fast. Vaccine uptake has plateaued. The pandemic will be over one day—but the way there is different now. “This new surge brings a jarring sense of déjà vu. America has fallen prey to many of the same self-destructive but alluring instincts that I identified last year. It… Continue Reading

FTC disputes Facebook reasoning for shutting down NYU disinformation project

ZDNet – “The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has criticized Facebook for claiming that a consent decree handed down by the organization was the reason they had to shut down New York University’s Ad Observatory. Facebook has faced significant backlash this week after they closed the researchers’ accounts working for the Ad Observatory project, which let Facebook… Continue Reading

Truth or Fiction

“TruthOrFiction.com is a non-partisan website where Internet users can quickly and easily get information about eRumors, fake news, disinformation, warnings, offers, requests for help, myths, hoaxes, virus warnings, and humorous or inspirational stories that are circulated by email. TruthOrFiction.com is designed to be of value to the ordinary user of the Internet who wants to… Continue Reading

LGBTQIA+ Studies: A Resource Guide

Library of Congress Research Guide – “The collections of the Library of Congress tell the rich and diverse story of LGBTQ+ life in America and around the world. This research guide serves as an introduction into the excellent collection of LGBTQ+ resources available at the Library of Congress Welcome to the LGBTQ+ Studies Resource Guide.… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 15, 2021

Via LLRX – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish… Continue Reading

Can technology help authors write a book?

BBC – “Every year around the world a whopping 2.2 million books are published, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), which monitors the number. The figure includes both fiction and non-fiction titles. For most of these authors the writing process is relatively unchanged since Twain’s heyday in the late 19th… Continue Reading