I'm an antitrust law geek

I have been appointed as the ABA Law Student Division Liaison to the Section of Antitrust Law for 2005-06. I have another blog to report on those activities with other Antitrust Law geeks across the country.

Antitrust law and competition policy has been an interest of mine for several years (thanks to MSFT and, more recently, INTC), so it is not a new area for techlawgeekin'.

Unfortunately, my current obligations limit how much I can opine in this forum, but I hope to be able to continue adding more "information only" posts with interesting tidbits in the future.

I'm not that kind of Turbo Geek (am I?)

I've been neglecting this blog recently, but the Chronicle of Higher Education had an interesting article from a member of a faculty search committee (probably not for a law school from the sound of it). In any case, it was a humorous reminder of the critical question blawggers should ask themselves before posting, Why?

As I've mentioned before, blogs are a great way to communicate, but blawggers shouldn't forget that anyone can see those posts, unless you've somehow restricted access (which still doesn't stop people from forwarding posts on to others).

It's great if you've figured out the mechanics of posting to your blog - and I can't imagine Blogger making it any easier to start for FREE. But, as this chronicle piece elaborates, you never know who may run across your old posts. Before you publish, make sure it's something you're prepared to stand by for a long, long time.

But then this might also be an indication of the generation gap between the hiring decision-makers and their candidates. If most students are blogging their lives online these days, when they're hiring managers down the road, they might likely be more forgiving of the transgressions mentioned in this article. Until that happens, though, be prepared to do much explaining for the folks that don't yet get it. I still haven't figured out whether I "get" the publicly accessible diary idea, actually. Has the line between public and private lives been blurred so much that the next generation just throws it all out there in the interests of full disclosure?

Maybe.

EU Parliament Rejects SW Patents

USA Today reports on the European Parliament vote today to reject the "software patent directive" 648 to 14.

Better no directive than a bad directive

-- Tony Robinson, spokesman for the Socialists

Read the full story here