Bisphenol A or BPA is an organic compound that has quickly fallen out of favor and into the news headlines in the past few years. Used in making polycarbonate polymers and epoxy resins which are materials to make plastics, BPA emits hormone-like properties that are weak but detectable, leading to a public outcry of its use in items such as food storage, baby bottles, water bottles and plastic utensils. As with many substances, the United States and countries of the European Union remain divided in how they are handling BPA. Read further >

From 21st to 23rd March, the LOD2 consortium will hold its plenary meeting in Vienna, Austria. As with the previous plenaries, there will be an evening event with local governments and administrations around Open Government Data (OGD). One key aspect in this meeting will be the focus on what impact OGD has on business. I personally think quite a bit, especially for a legal publisher like Wolters Kluwer. Read further >

Compare the official electronic version of the Federal Register with an unofficial version called Federal Register 2.0. Which do you prefer? I prefer Federal Register 2.0 which is based in XML and a manifestation of the US government’s Open Government Initiative. This initiative aims to make government more transparent and collaborative as well as to enable citizens to more easily participate in government. One of the ways that the US government is fulfilling that goal is making Federal agencies’ work product more accessible through the use of XML. You can learn more about Federal Register 2.0 by watching one YouTube video from the US Government Printing Office and a second from the US National Archives. The video from the National Archives describes how the technique of open innovation was used to create Federal Register 2.0. Read further >

Wolters Kluwer issued its 2011 Full-Year Results today. On the occasion of the financial results announcement, we hosted a Media Roundtable on the Transformative Power of the Cloud. Read further >

Which kind of functionality and what level of performance can users expect from an ebook, a databank, or an app? This is not an easy question, since there is no industry standardization in place yet. In order to be able to read an ebook, users have to use a computer, an ebook-reader, or an iPad. Not every ebook is compatible with all pieces of reading hardware. Unlike printed books, some ebooks are technically protected against printing, copying, or sharing with a friend. Some ebooks can be copied at least a few times, others cannot be copied at all. Read further >

In thinking about the future direction of information products, I find it has become increasingly important to keep an eye on how kids are interacting with the web and their friends. Their evolving expectations around software, information sharing and network participation are shaping the way they will view current software solutions by the time they become young professionals hitting the workforce. I, for one, am constantly learning new things from my resident digital natives and their friends who continue to teach me about new ways to use the web and interact with their world on an almost daily basis. The winter school break last month gave me plenty of time to observe their new “workflows” and a short list of areas I will explore further. In the meantime though, there are two things I noticed around learning and sharing that have implications for those of us who design and develop software solutions. Read further >

The Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering have announced their second annual contest aimed at encouraging undergraduate and graduate students to create health-related mobile applications. Using social networking, mobile apps, and other new technologies, the power of health data can be unleashed to take on the nation’s pressing health issues, the IoM says. Read further >

Often it seems much of the terminology used to describe innovations or trends in legal publishing are referring to very similar concepts. I recently started thinking about this more after reading a blog post by Christine Kirchberger entitled Law as an App. The post addresses a discussion brewing among some legal informatics experts on the concept of “law as a service” and asserts that the concept is about focusing on how apps or other software might use legal information to directly warn users of potential legal issues before they arise and advise how to avoid them. Read further >

Blockbuster, a store featuring rental videos and DVD’s, once had over 4000 locations in the United States. They filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and were eventually sold to The Dish Network, which kept about 500 stores open. Competitors such as NetFlix, where a movie can be ordered through your television or downloaded to a computer, are the reason why consumers no longer want to wait in line at the store and worry about returning their rental. Read further >

Infobuttons are context-sensitive links from electronic health records (EHRs) to knowledge resources. I have described them in more detail in two previous posts, covering both a standard implementation and a web services implementation. In this post I would like to share with you some recent discussions around that topic. Read further >