The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction
Audience: All
Technical Level: Low
The internet has the potential to make legal research materials available worldwide at minimal cost. So far, however, the materials most likely to wind up online are those originally created and published in digital form. In consequence, a rich universe of reference sources and primary source materials remain effectively offline, inaccessible without locating a paper copy or purchasing digital access through a proprietary supplier. The problem is not that these sources are irrelevant or unimportant; to the contrary, they include, for example, the great majority of the binding case and statutory law that has ever been produced by federal and state governments. The problem is simply that authorities created before the modern digital era exist today mostly in the form of paper records that must be converted to electronic form before they can be made freely accessible.
This talk investigates whether the "crowdsourcing" phenomenon, which has proven successful in creating a wide array of content online, can be harnessed to improve free access to legal source materials. Large-scale open access projects like the Wikipedia encyclopedia draw upon "the wisdom of crowds" to create and disseminate content. In much the same fashion, the resources of diverse actors in the sphere of legal education (including faculty, students, library staff, IT personnel, and even the general public) can be brought together to help improve online access to what were once paper-only records. A case study of one such ongoing project will be highlighted.
Timothy K. Armstrong
Assistant Professor of Law
University of Cincinnati College of Law
timothy dot armstrong at uc dot edu
Presentation Slides: Attach:CALI-2008-Armstrong.ppt
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