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Defend yourself using blog networks

Friday, December 22, 2006

Emerging technologies such as nanotech is a two-bladed sword for venture capitalists. It is a raising trend as more and more products are sold on the market, it is strongly associated with modernism, it is very promising as it will shape the future world. These factors will trigger people to invest. The media and blogosphere contributed a lot to these developments. On the other hand, a single defective nano product can ruin the whole thing. The media and the blogosphere also plays a major stake here: what brings you up can always take you down.

Forbes had a good article which illustrate this case:
Then the bloggers attacked. A supposed crusading journalist launched an online campaign long on invective and wobbly on facts, posting articles on his Web log (blog) calling Halpern "deceitful,""unethical,""incredibly stupid" and "a pathological liar" who had misled investors. The author claimed to be Nick Tracy, a London writer who started his one-man "watchdog" Web site, our-street.com, to expose corporate fraud. He put out press releases saying he had filed complaints against Circle with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Yahoo and Google is responsible for this (un?)holy alliance. Not only Google has its adsense advertisement network that feeds bloggers with money, not only that it hosted blogs and provide blogsearch, it also include blogger comments in its finance site. The commentaries will affect people's decision to invest.

Those are the drawbacks the longtail gives to the economy. Are there any remedies to this? Well, Forbes recommends to start building a blog network.

 

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Online meetings can be more effective than face to face

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Supporter of virtual lawfirm concept might be interested knowing this:
Face-to-face meetings are expensive to schedule and run. They might involve travel costs or come at inconvenient times, when attendees are busy or tired. Time is wasted when people come late, talk about irrelevant topics, or leave early. Meetings are also subject to many types of biases. How loudly do people talk? How deep are their voices? What do the people look like? How is the furniture arranged? How are people dressed? What is each person’s body posture? Who has the power? How does the group leader guide the meeting? Does the group nurture dissent? Do people have preconceived positions on the topic at hand?
Sometimes communication is more to form rather than content. As a result, people tend to focus on how we say and deliver things and not what we said. With written language, things like these can be masked. See the report here.

 

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Let's propose for a dot nano (.nano) TLD

Monday, December 18, 2006

There are too many domain names that begins with the word "nano" already. nanoabc.com is for sale (2.000 euro) and nanodeals.com is also for sale for 9900 pounds. With the rising nano business and rising marketshare, there will be a huge demand for nano-related trademarks and for certain, the demand for domain name that contains the word nano will increase. I don't think that domain name creator engines would still be able to suggest alternatives for the word nano. Moreover, as has been explained in my previous post, within a decade, every materials might contain nanoparticle. So, everything will be nano.

The nano domain name is going to be more crowded within 5 years and that can make problem. A solution would be creating a dot nano (.nano) top level domain (TLD). ICANN/Internic/IANA really should start considering this.

(I know what you are going to do next, I can read your mind... :p )

 

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Nanotech will affect every regulations within five years.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

I mean what I say and I say what I mean.

Do you know why EPA bothers regulating a washing machine? It's because it contains tiny beene silver nanoparticles that can kill germs. Hell, it may even be the most primitive form of nanotech but look at its impact, they are declaring washing machine as pesticide!

Do you know that silver nanoparticles has been used in underwear, shirts, paint, deodorant, mineral supplement, toothpaste, liquid condom, refrigerator, vaccuum cleaner, ink, porcellain, make up, soap, rubber gloves, dental LED, dishwashing liquid, baby milk bottle, door handle, handy coating and air conditioner? Of course, not all of them will be categorized as pesticide!

Not only that we are only talking about a primitive use of nanotechnology, we also "only" talk about silver nanoparticles. There are still plenty other nanoparticle which its usage is still unknown. That's not all, this has not include "passive" nanostructures such as carbon nanotube, which will be used in transistors, computer hardware and medical appliances.

Nanotech market is going to be bullish in the next two years. Some even predicted that within a decade, people will no longer use the word "nanotechnology" because "Today's 'nano materials' are tomorrow's 'materials.'

The good news is (I mean, for lawyers) the regulation is still unclear and the risks associated with it is also unclear. This means not only more lawsuit but also more deals. So, let's catch up...

 

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The first virtual land case ever

Finally, real courts will have to deal with this question:
The attorney, Marc Bragg of West Chester, Pennsylvania, says game developer Linden Lab unilaterally shut down his Second Life account, cutting off his access to a substantial portfolio of real estate and currency in the virtual world. He's demanding $8,000 in restitution. Bragg claims Linden Lab froze his account after a land deal went bad. The attorney said he found a legitimate way to purchase land at prices far below market rates, using an online auction on the Second Life website. Bragg v. Linden Research, a civil complaint filed May 1 in West Chester's local district court, charges that Linden Lab "breached an auction contract by allowing the land to auction, accepting online payment, and then suspending plaintiff's account."
The case may be weak as Brag's argument is not strongly founded. However, as stated by freelance Journalist Tony Walsh, "he might be the first person in history to sue over a virtual land deal gone sour."

 

Your reading list

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Dear all,

This is your nanotechnology law related reading list. You can keep yourself updated by adding yourself to my del.icio network.

Have a nice weekend!


Nanotech NIOSH to Issue Guidance for Employers
"The presence of an occupational health surveillance program – represented at the minimum level as a needs assessment – indicates that workplaces have taken appropriate steps in evaluating and preventing potential occupational exposures," Trout said l

Nanotechnology Policy and Environmental Regulatory Issues

Reproductive Rights Blog: Liquid Condom Introduced in China
Chinese float liquid condom concept | The Register
The Volokh Conspiracy - Regulating Nanosilver:
EPA Region 5: Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act
Deciding the Future of Nanotechnologies: Legal Perspectives on ...
Legal Lookout: Nanotechnology : EPA Considers How to Proceed
EUROPA - Rapid - Press Releases
REACH is not enough, new labelling method might be required

Section Nanotechnology Project - Nanotechnology Law - ABA Section of
Environment, Energy, and Resources Law

 

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Original position and veil of ignorance in Secondlife

Friday, December 15, 2006

Posner had previously told that secondlife looks more like a benign authoritarianism in a way, due to linden's leadership. But if one carefullly examines the moves of liberation organisation such as SLLA (Secondlife's Liberation Army), one can see that there is a magna charta and bill of rights baragaining now in progress. So, that's a hope of future democracy. People even have started to draft a concept for a constitutional court in secondlife (Rube Goldberg's image):


Opinio Jurist made an intriguing post:
And if one wanted to leave Second Life and create a new utopian virtual world, it would be a great place to test John Rawls' idea of a social contract and the original position. Although no one has done it to my knowledge, during the establishment of a new Rawlsian virtual world, each individual could be in a veil of ignorance about their avatar. But what they do know is that they will not get to choose their avatar, because in the Rawlsian virtual world someone else would choose it for them. How should such a world be structured in light of that lack of choice?
But there could be a problem in drafting the basic constitutional text (apart from the terms of use) as Rawlsian veil of ignorance may not apply one hundred per cent. Wealth, race, citizenship and social status are already pre-determined. The basic idea of avatar is exactly in choosing what will we become in the new world, whereas, in real world people cannot choose to be born in certain family, race or nationality. However, there still some uncertainties in secondlife which can be used as Rawls' "veil of ignorance". Non programmers or lazy people could become a second class citizen, therefore, their rights needs to be maximized in accordance with the maximin rule.