Minnesota efforts to control college textbook costs

Jennea Ross’s December 28, 2008 report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune caught my eye:
Campuses across the state try new techniques and technology to fight soaring book prices.

One quote from the story follows:

Until this year, University of Minnesota students taking BioC-3021, a biochemistry class, paid $148 for a single, one-semester textbook.

Then professors got smart.

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Obama transition – Economics and Trade

Who is advising Obama during the transition? An army of well connected people. Here are the team leaders for economics and international trade. Many have past public service and current charity work. For those now working in the for-profit sector, we have emphasized only the business ties.

Economics and International Trade Team Leads

Corporate, Investment, Law Firm and Consultant

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Unbranding Medicines — Harvard workshop on generics

Today I am at Harvard, attending a workshop titled: Unbranding Medicines: the politics, promise, and challenge of generic drugs. This is put on by the Harvard Interfaculty Initiative on Medicines and Society. The program in general is quite impressive, particularly as regards to the depth of experience and knowledge about the generic drug industry, including its early origins.

I was asked to speak about the use of prizes. The slides from my presentation are here:

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DCOS Agreement on Procurement in Support of Interoperability and Open Standards emerges at 3rd IGF, Hyderabad

6 December 2008

At the close of the final day of the 3rd Internet Governance Forum in Hyderabad, India, the Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards (DCOS) released an agreement entitled the “Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards (DCOS) Agreement on Procurement in Support of Interoperability and Open Standards.”

Under the procurement agreement, governments, publicly funded and non-profit institutions agree to promote interoperability and accessibility through the use of open standards.

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Update on DCOS events at IGF, Hyderabad

The Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards (DCOS) convened two events during the first two days of the Internet Governance Forum in Hyderabad, India (3-6 Dec 2008).

Workshop 21 : “Knowledge as a Global Public Good: How Fair Use, Open Source and ICT Standards Can Expand Digital Inclusion”
4:30-6:00pm, December 3, Room 5

Moderator: Malini Aisola, Knowledge Ecology International
Speakers:

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HIF proposes $600 million annual budget to evaluate health impacts

One feature of the HIF that is raising eyebrows is their proposal to
spend $600 million *per year* on assessing health impacts. This is
apparently more than an order of magnitude greater than the entire
budget of NICE. The reference to the $600 million from the HIF book
follows:

Aidan Hollis and Thomas Pogge, The Health Impact Fund, Making New

Medicines Accessible for All, A Report of Incentives for Global Health,
2008

Page 30-32

THE COST OF HEALTH IMPACT ASSESSMENT

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