From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 07/08):

Business & management:
• The Human Rights Commission has launched Getting a job, an A to Z of pre-employment guidelines, a guide to the rights and responsibilities of both job seekers and employers. The guide includes examples of questions that should not be asked at interviews, and some of the issues covered range from body piercings and credit checks, to sexual harassment and drug testing.
• The OECD has published a report on the future of the Internet economy, that provides policy directions and guidance in 20 areas

Education
• A new website called Success for boys was launched this week, to help schools meet the educational needs of boys. An ERO report was also released: Boys’ Education: Good Practice in Secondary Schools.

Environment & sustainability:
• NZ’s environmental labelling programme Environmental Choice has won international recognition as a world leader. A UK analysis of 207 worldwide standards for measuring environmental sustainability of products aimed to present the British Government with the world’s best practice organisations in this field, to aid government procurement policy.
• Home renovators should read a new guide jointly produced by the Department of Building and Housing and the Ministry for the Environment: “A beginner’s guide to resource and building consent processes”.
• The International Code Council aims to provide the highest quality codes, standards, products, and services for all concerned with the safety and performance of the built environment. It now has a section on its website dedicated to green building.
• The former CEO of Intel proposes an energy policy for the US that’s based on “sticky” energy with multiple sources and all vehicles ultimately running on electricity only.

Health & wellbeing:
• A new Code of Practice for Outdoor Pyrotechnic Displays has been released by the Environmental Risk Management Authority, which aims to improve operator and public safety at displays. The new code has been prompted by injuries to people attending public displays during Guy Fawkes last year.
• The report on child poverty “A Fair Go for all Children: actions to address child poverty in New Zealand” has just been released.

Law & Government:
• New Yorkers may soon be able to send photos or video from their cell phones directly to the police department’s computers.
• Cyber criminals have found another way to use social networking sites to steal and download data.
• A US commentator looks back on his predictions in 1981 and 1995 about crime in the future to see what he got right and wrong, and makes further predictions for cybercrime in 2025.

People, culture & diversity:
• Recommended.co.nz is a website that provides thinking and advice from experts and consumers in the form of moderated independent recommendations on things to do and where to go around New Zealand, movies, books and health.
• The number of women blogging on the Internet is growing (36 million women who read and write blogs), providing a huge influence on who buys what.
• Microsoft researchers looking into instant messaging have found that the six degrees theory may be almost right.
• The Futurist magazine publishes the Outlook report every year, containing the year’s most thought provoking ideas and forecasts.

Science, technology & transport:
• In the follow-up to a 6-week trial to scrap vehicles in Auckland & provide incentives to the owners to use public transport, almost half of those who responded said that they’d been encouraged to make more use of public transport as a result of the trial.
• The recent NZ Walking Conference has some of the papers presented available on the website in the “Latest updates” section.
• Walkscore is a US website that ranks neighbourhoods in American cities, by their walkability, ie by ranking addresses according to the location of nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc.
• A recent Transport for London report has shown that although the number of cars entering central London has fallen significantly since the charge was introduced, congestion levels inside the affected area have not changed.
• The internet industry is looking at ways to increase the amount of data that can be moved on the fibre optic cables that serve the network, in an attempt to cope with the doubling of internet traffic every year.
• Midori is the name of Microsoft’s future operating system post-Windows – the company’s researchers are looking at software that will cut the dependencies that tie Windows to a single PC
• Laptops have a built-in device to protect the hard drive from damage if they are dropped – scientists are now using it to give warning of earthquakes.