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L'AUTORITÀ GARANTE DELLA CONCORRENZA E DEL MERCATO NELLA SUA ADUNANZA del 26 agosto 2009 (...) DELIBERA a) l'avvio dell'istruttoria ai sensi dell'art. 14, della legge n. 287/90, nei confronti di Google Italy S.r.l., per accertare l'esistenza di violazioni dell'art. 82, del Trattato CE; b) la fissazione del termine di giorni trenta decorrenti dalla notificazione del presente provvedimento per l'esercizio da parte dei legali rappresentanti delle parti del diritto di essere sentiti, precisando che la richiesta di audizione dovrà pervenire alla Direzione Comunicazioni della Direzione Generale per la Concorrenza di questa Autorità almeno quindici giorni prima della scadenza del termine sopra indicato; c) che il responsabile del procedimento è il Dott. Antonio Buttà; d) che gli atti del procedimento possono essere presi in visione presso la Direzione Comunicazioni della Direzione Generale per la Concorrenza di questa Autorità dai rappresentanti legali delle parti, nonché da persona da essi delegata; e) che il procedimento deve concludersi entro il 15 ottobre 2010. Il presente provvedimento verrà notificato ai soggetti interessati e pubblicato nel Bollettino dell'Autorità garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato. IL SEGRETARIO GENERALE Luigi Fiorentino IL PRESIDENTE Antonio Catricalà

L'AUTORITÀ GARANTE DELLA CONCORRENZA E DEL MERCATO NELLA SUA ADUNANZA del 26 agosto 2009 (...) DELIBERA a) l'avvio dell'istruttoria ai sensi dell'art. 14, della legge n. 287/90, nei confronti di Google Italy S.r.l., per accertare l'esistenza di violazioni dell'art. 82, del Trattato CE; b) la fissazione del termine di giorni trenta decorrenti dalla notificazione del presente provvedimento per l'esercizio da parte dei legali rappresentanti delle parti del diritto di essere sentiti, precisando che la richiesta di audizione dovrà pervenire alla Direzione Comunicazioni della Direzione Generale per la Concorrenza di questa Autorità almeno quindici giorni prima della scadenza del termine sopra indicato; c) che il responsabile del procedimento è il Dott. Antonio Buttà; d) che gli atti del procedimento possono essere presi in visione presso la Direzione Comunicazioni della Direzione Generale per la Concorrenza di questa Autorità dai rappresentanti legali delle parti, nonché da persona da essi delegata; e) che il procedimento deve concludersi entro il 15 ottobre 2010. da http://www.agcm.it/agcm_ita/news/news.nsf/Link/D4BE9F12407A0D45C1257627003976C2?OpenDocument Il presente provvedimento verrà notificato ai soggetti interessati e pubblicato nel Bollettino dell'Autorità garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato. IL SEGRETARIO GENERALE Luigi Fiorentino IL PRESIDENTE Antonio Catricalà

"Ning announced repeatedly that it would delete free networks whose creators had not paid for one of its new pricing plans by midnight Aug. 20. On Aug. 21, however, Ning extended this deadline to August 30. Here's the announcement of this extension on its Help page: Deadline for Selecting a Ning Plan Extended to August 30, 2010 A number of Network Creators, particularly those based outside the United States, have requested more time to arrange for payment and make the right decision on a plan for their network. As a result, we have extended the deadline for selecting one of the three new plans (Ning Mini, Plus and Pro) to August 30, 2010. Beginning on this date, we will block access to any free Ning Network that isn't subscribed to one of the three plans. Please let us know if we can help, or if you have questions or comments. Thank you!"

"Your Last 3 Options If you chose a new Ning plan: We're thrilled you'll be sticking around! As you may have noticed, we're rapidly releasing new features, so stay tuned to Creators for what's coming next. If you aren't able to continue, we've put together this page to explain your three options. John McDonald VP, Advocacy"

"Created by Gerry Bayne (EDUCAUSE) on October 29, 2007 In this 40 minute podcast, we feature a speech from the EDUCAUSE 2007 Annual Conference entitled "Tomorrow's Students: Are We Ready for the New 21st-Century Learners?". The presentation is by Julie Evans, Chief Executive Office for Project Tomorrow - NetDay. Video and slides for this speech are also available here. Abstract: The national Speak Up initiative annually collects and reports on the authentic, unfiltered viewpoints of K-12 students, teachers, parents, and school leaders about education technology and 21st-century learning environments. Learn about the expectations of today's K-12 students (the higher ed students of tomorrow) for technology use and their new aspirations for learning as uncovered in the most recent survey data. "

The work of the past half year - also thanks to the open movie project "Big Buck Bunny" - has resulted in a greatly improved feature set, now released as Blender 2.46, the "Bunny release"! This version supports a new particle system with hair and fur combing tools, fast and optimal fur rendering, a mesh deformation system for advanced character rigging, cloth simulation, fast Ambient Occlusion, a new Image browser, and that's just the beginning. Check the extensive list of features in the log below... have fun!

"As presently drafted, the Proposed Settlement does not meet the legal standards this Court must apply," the DOJ said in a 32-page filing (click for PDF) with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. "This Court should reject the Proposed Settlement in its current form and encourage the parties to continue negotiations to modify it so as to comply with Rule 23 (a federal law governing class-action settlements) and the copyright and antitrust laws."

By Claude Almansi and Jan Schwartz October 3rd, 2011 "Scoop.it is a new application that is still in beta, although it's fairly easy to get an invite to join. Claude Almansi found the app, sent an email about it to a list serv, which prompted Jan Schwartz to join. We've only been at it for a month or so, but already both of us have found some good information that we otherwise would have missed, and we are helping to spread the good work about education technology and change. First, some information about Scoop.it that Claude dug up. The web service was conceived in France, launched in December 2010 and its web site is in English. It's a social site for sharing news events and articles via subscription. Even if you don't subscribe, Scoop.it can be used to look for information items selected by others on a given theme via its public search engine. You do need to subscribe if you want to create and curate your own topic on a given theme or subject. For example, Jan was particularly excited to find a blog written as a result of a live chat sponsored by the Chronicle of Higher Education, which talked about the topic of Cathy Davidson's recent book, Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work and Learn. There were four panelists and 1500 participants on the chat and one of them, David Palumbo-Liu, wrote a blog about his experience, which was very different than Jan's and so an interesting read for perspective. She would not have found that blog if not for Scoop.it. Claude curates a site for Multimedia Accessibility. Currently Jan is 'scooping' under the title Technology for Teaching and Learning . You can curate as many different topics as you like."

We are starting to see objections to the Google Book Search SettlementL2 this month in advance of the May 5th deadline set up by the court. The firstL3 comes from the consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog (foundL4 by way of the American Libraries news feed). They have submitted a letter to the U.S. Justice Department asking the antitrust division to delay the settlement until the "'most favored nation' clause favoring Google is removed and the deal's 'orphan works' provision is extended to cover all who might digitize books, not only Google." The letter in PDFL5 is available on the Consumer Watchdog website. The objections revolve around the provision that require the Books Rights Registry to give Google the same terms as anyone else who enters into agreements with the Registry (noting that more favorable terms might be required by a new party in order to compete with Google) as well as the fact that the copyright infringement protection for digitizing orphan works only extends to Google.

"Amazon has taken a step in the right direction by including text-to-speech technology for reading e-books aloud on its new Kindle 2," Dr. Maurer [President of the National Federation of the Blind] continued. "We note, however, that the device itself cannot be used independently by a blind reader because the controls to download a book and begin reading it aloud are visual and therefore inaccessible to the blind. We urge Amazon to rectify this situation as soon as possible in order to make the Kindle 2 a device that truly can be used both by blind and sighted readers. By doing so, Amazon will make it possible for blind people to purchase a new book and begin reading it immediately, just as sighted people do."

A piece of technology not much bigger than an adult's finger could help a new generation discover how to programme computers. Games developer David Braben and some colleagues came up with the Raspberry Pi - a whole computer on a tiny circuit board made with not much more than an ARM processor, a USB port, and an HDMI connection.

The proposed Google Book Search settlement creates the opportunity for unprecedented access by the public, scholars, libraries and others to a digital library containing millions of books assembled by major research libraries. But the settlement is controversial, in large part because this access is limited in major ways: instead of being truly open, this new digital library will be controlled by a single company, Google, and a newly created Book Rights Registry consisting of representatives of authors and publishers; it will include millions of so-called "orphan works" that cannot legally be included in any competing digitization and access effort, and it will be available to readers only in the United States. It need not have been this way.

The proposed Google Book Search settlement creates the opportunity for unprecedented access by the public, scholars, libraries and others to a digital library containing millions of books assembled by major research libraries. But the settlement is controversial, in large part because this access is limited in major ways: instead of being truly open, this new digital library will be controlled by a single company, Google, and a newly created Book Rights Registry consisting of representatives of authors and publishers; it will include millions of so-called "orphan works" that cannot legally be included in any competing digitization and access effort, and it will be available to readers only in the United States. It need not have been this way.

The blind and other readers have the right for books to be presented to us in the format that is most useful to us, and we are not violating copyright law as long as we use readers, either human or machine, for private rather than public listening. The key point is that reading aloud in private is the same whether done by a person or a machine, and reading aloud in private is never an infringement of copyright. Amazon has taken a step in the right direction by including text-to-speech technology for reading e-books aloud on its new Kindle 2". More details are available on the Forbes website.

Some publishers and agents expressed concern over a new, experimental feature that reads text aloud with a computer-generated voice. "They don't have the right to read a book out loud," said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild. "That's an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law."

The Learning Registry is a new approach to capturing, sharing, and analyzing learning resource data to broaden the usefulness of digital content to benefit educators and learners. Not a website or repository… not a search engine… and not a replacement for the excellent sources of online learning content that already exist…

Video from the Swiss TV news where the IFPI.ch spokesperson announces that they will ask ISP's to cut the connection of people using P2P for copyrighted works

Have you ever come across a web site that you could not access and wondered,"Am I the only one?" Herdict Web aggregates reports of inaccessible sites, allowing users to compare data to see if innacessibility is a shared problem. By crowdsourcing data from around the world, we can document accessibility for any web site, anywhere. This is our official blog, where we'll be updating regularly with the latest breaking news and research from our ongoing efforts.

An example search from a crowd sourcing service for web browsing provided by , a leading social news aggregator. i'd not come across this tool and the reslts "returned" seem to hit the button.

The Fellowship of the Free Software Foundation Europe is proud to announce its latest initiative: pdfreaders.org, a site providing information about PDF with links to Free Software PDF readers for all major operating systems.

CoSN.org site with news feeds and guest bloggers.