WEB 2.0 APPLICATIONS & LEGAL EDUCATION

Barbara Ginzburg & Jewel Makda

What exactly is Web 2.0 ? "Web 2.0" - born in 2004 at a brainstorming

conference session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International.

Web 2.0 is: The Web as a platform Web-based services emphasizing collaboration &

sharing (collective intelligence) Read/write service - anyone can publish & users

control content  Software that gets better the more people use it.  No download required by most, the Web is your

access.

Thinking about Web 2.0

Sensitive Data Housed Off Site

Who owns the data? Is there a guarantee your

data is safe?

Information LiteracyNow that more people are

publishing online, is information literacy

becoming an even more critical issue?

GapsWill Web 2.0 Apps cause a widening gap between Digital Immigrants and

Digital Natives?

Time Magazine’s

Dec 2006 Issue “Who is the Person of the Year? Yes, you. You control the Information Age. Welcome to your world."

“We the media – we decide what’s important”

AJAXWe’re not talking about the abrasive cleaning product.

Asynchronous JavaScript & XML. Many Web 2.o sites use

AJAX. A technique for creating interactive web applications. Uses XHTML and client-side scripting allowing a page to update asynchronously without requiring a page refresh. Increases interactivity, speed, and usability.

Categories of Web 2.0 Applications

Wikis

Blogs

Folksonomies

Social Networking Sites

Desktop-like applications

Virtual Worlds

Yes No

50%50%1. Yes2. No

Are you currently using Web 2.0 applications to create?

Do you use Web 2.0 as a consumer?

Yes No

50%50%1. Yes2. No

Which would you use?

17% 17% 17%17%17%17%

You are teaching an advanced legal research class online. You have assigned pairs of students to create annotated bibliographies. You have also asked them to keep a log of where they looked for materials and how they found the items.

1. Wiki2. Google Apps or

other Desktop application

3. Blog4. Virtual World5. Combination6. Other

Wiki: a website that lets visitors add, remove,

and edit content

Wikis in Law/Legal Education

Washburn Business Law Research course Civil Law Dictionary (Louisiana State University) Wex,  Cornell Legal Information Institute Wikilaw-Meta Proposed by WikiMedia law

students, law faculty and practicing attorneys create a page of legal documents, legal research, and explanations of basic legal concepts.

Jurispedia Encyclopædic project of academic initiative devoted to worldwide law, legal and political sciences.

Wikiocracy : What if everyone could write the laws?

Wikis

Benefits• Collaboration

regardless of location

• Edit from anywhere there is an Internet connection

• No expensive software

• Can be used publicly or privately

Concerns

• Tracking Edits• Some, like PB wiki, only give you control over edits at the paid level

• Security• Share with the world?• Passwords• Set up inside Intranet

• Confidentiality• Copyright

The Wiki vs. The BlogWIKIS BLOGS

Focus on “creation” Captures process of

writing Open to

collaboration Content changes not

by time but by way of development

Text: dynamic, revised

Focus typically on monologue with commentary

Personal & Opinionated

Archival repository Less collaborative Text: static Dominantly

chronological

Blogs & Blawgs

Kansas Defenders maintained by Washburn Law faculty member Randall Hodgkinson.

Law Prof Blogs Indexes a variety of blogs from law professors around the country. Includes discussions on family law, law and religion, and other topics

Law professor blogs

Blogs / Blawgs

Benefits

• Opportunity to express views and opinions

• Format of Post/Comment… Post/Comment

• Archive of content• Tagging of content• Feeds

Concerns

• User must be careful on what is published. Potential employers for example may not approve content

• Sometimes communication is only one way

Folksonomies

Object

ME

TAGS

Tageru

Social Networking sites

MySpace

Facebook

Friendster

Orkut (Google

)LinkedIn

Educational Use: Promote school activities

Post information and bulletins Market your school and recruit new students

Desktop Applications

Desktop-like Applications

Are students

using these

instead of Office or

WordPerfect?

Should IT staff

support these

applications?

Should the use of

these applicatio

ns be encourage

d?

Should a specific set of

applications be

endorsed? (Google Apps?

something else)

Desktop-like Applications

Benefits

• Collaboration regardless of location

• Easy to use and user friendly

• No expensive software• Not OS specific or

dependent

Concerns

• Privacy • (Data housed offsite)

• Limited features• No Internet = No

work• Dependent on site

availability 100%• Possible

discontinuance of service

Second Life: A 3-D virtual world entirely created by its residents

Educational Uses: Collaboration Distance Education Simulations Marketing & Recruiting Networking Delivering Content & Materials

Second Life: A 3-D virtual world entirely created by its residents

Second Life is being used as a new distance education tool for eLearning.

Second Life became available to the public in 2003. Since 2003, online classes and conferences have been held in SL.

Second Life Grows… Alliance Library System and OPAL - teaming

up to extend the programs currently offered online to librarians and library users in SL.

Librarians from all over the world are taking second lives and jobs in the SL.

Second Life Grows May 2006 – a 65,000-square-mile island was

donated and later became “InfoIsland” which is home to many libraries.

Many other islands exists. Cybrary City Islands are home to many public and academic RL libraries.

Second Life & Legal Education

Nova Southeastern Law Library on Cybrary City.

Seattle University School of Law taught a property law course. Students explored virtual property issues in SL as an avatar named Fizzy. Screen casts were produced on their findings. www.fizzysecondlife.blogspot.com/

Harvard School of Law – CyberOne & Evidence classes in SL.

NOVA SOUTHEASTERN LAW LIBRARY IN SECOND LIFE

Harvard Law’s CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public

Opinion Harvard Law School &

Harvard Extension School jointly offer a class in SL. (Fall 2006)

Charles Nessen and daughter Rebecca were the professors. Rebecca held office hours in SL. While Charles held them in RL.

The course used virtual world, blog, wiki, and podcasts.

Second Life: Democracy Island

New York Law School created a replica of the Supreme Court on Democracy Island. A picture representing each of the nine Supreme Court Justices links to their bio on Wikipedia.

Democracy Island was a capstone project.

SecondLife & Legal Professionals

JUDGE RICHARD POSNER ATTORNEY STEVAN LIEBERMAN

Posner had a Q&A session in SL and autographed virtual copies of his new book.

Has seven avatars and provides legal services in SL and earning real money.

“I’ve never met Judge Posner and in the real world don’t think I’d have a chance to meet him. But in SL I’m able to walk up, shake his hand and say hello.”

Our Second Life AvatarsJEWEL MAKDA IS:

AMANI INNISBARBARA GINZBURG IS:

NATASHA SELLERS

Do you feel Second Life can be used as a great tool for online

education?

Yes No

Not Sure

33% 33%33%1. Yes2. No3. Not Sure

Quick “Web 2.0, Trivia” PBWiki was born

when? Who owns

del.icio.us? Who owns Blogger? Estimated number

of residents in Second Life as of June 2007?

How many libraries and librarians are in Second Life?

June 2005 Yahoo acquired it in

2005 Google acquired it in

2003 Over 7 million Over 100 libraries &

over 400 librarians and library science students in the Second Life Librarians group.

Contact InformationOur Wiki with additional information:

http://caliweb20.pbwiki.com/

Contact Us @

jewel.brueggeman-makda@washburn.edu

barbara.ginzburg@washburn.edu

Washburn University School of Law Library

Are you blogging this?