Transcript Web20LegalResearch

Web 2.0 Tools For Legal
Researchers
Amy Wright & Jill Fukunaga,
Spring 2008
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What Is Web 2.0?

A perceived second generation of webbased communities . . . such as
social-networking sites, wikis, and
blogs, . . . which aim to facilitate
creativity, collaboration, and sharing
between users.
– Wikipedia entry, “Web 2.0”
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It’s All About Sharing!
Photo by ryancr, “Sharing,” accessed on Flickr on 2/11/08.
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Web 2.0 Sites Are….

Collaborative: users can contribute
content – not a “read-only,” passive
format.

Interactive: users can view each
others’ contributions & communicate
about content.

Oddly named!
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Quiz

Which one of the following is not
an actual Web 2.0 application?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Twitter
Wiggle
Scribd
Magnolia
Digg
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Answer

“Wiggle” is the imposter!
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Twitter

http://twitter.com/

Free “micro-blogging” service that
allows users to send short updates
about their daily activities via IM to a
profile page.
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Scribd

http://www.scribd.com/

“YouTube for Documents”

Free service that allows you to upload
documents in different formats – like
Word, Excel, PDF, PowerPoint.

Unlimited storage & searchable.
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Magnolia

http://ma.gnolia.com/

Social bookmarking service that allows
you to collect and categorize your
favorite websites on your own web
page.
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Digg

http://digg.com/

News stories and websites posted by
users, then voted on by other users.

Most popular stories are promoted to
the front page of the site.
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Social Bookmarking &
Research

Why use social bookmarking?

Access the sites that you use frequently
anytime, anywhere. Not tied to particular
PC like “Bookmarks” on Firefox or
“Favorites” on Internet Explorer.

Share your collections of websites easily
with other researchers and students.
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Social Bookmarking

Discover sites used by other researchers
working in your field.

Organize the sites that you use for
research by project name, topic,
jurisdiction, etc.
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Recommended Site: del.icio.us

Pronounced “Delicious”

Most reliable & popular social
bookmarking site.

Free: no limit on number of accounts;
no size limits.
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Easy Access: Anywhere, Anytime

To Sign Up: http://del.icio.us

All of my favorite web page addresses
are saved on one web page:

http://del.icio.us/amyjwright
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Separate Web Pages That You
Visit by Project
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Organize With Tags

Add unlimited number of descriptive
categories, called “tags,” to the web pages
that you want to save.
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Tag Names Are Clickable
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Permanent, Stable URLs

Each cluster of web pages with the
same “tag” will have its own separate
URL.

I can send the link
http://del.icio.us/amyjwright/richardleo
to Professor Leo to share the web
pages that I’ve saved for him.
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Add Extensive Notes!
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Browse Lists Created by Others
Click Here
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Subscribe to Pages or Tags

Use RSS Feeds to subscribe to others’
delicious pages or to particular tags:
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Privacy

Possible to mark bookmarks as private
so they aren’t shared with the rest of
the world.
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Other Social Bookmarking Sites
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CiteULike: http://www.citeulike.org/
Add scholarly paper & book citations to your
own web page.

Users have access to their own full-text, but
other users who click on a cite in someone
else’s list don’t have full-text access unless
they subscribe to the database.
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CiteULike Disadvantages

Buggy (error messages 2 out of 5
posting attempts) and not very
intuitive.

Not used heavily by legal scholars.
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CiteULike
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RSS Feeds
Image credit: Taken by mosilager, “RSS Feed icon,” on Flickr, accessed 2/11/08.
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RSS Feeds

Feeds allow you to have web content from
multiple sites delivered to you on one web
page.

Don’t have to visit multiple web pages to get
most current changes to content.

Easy to see which blogs or pages have
updated content and which don’t.
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RSS Feeds

Not just for blog content! Lots of law
review, news sources, and government
websites now have RSS feeds, so
easy to stay on top of what’s getting
published.

SSRN author pages have RSS feeds.
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Subscribing to a Feed
1.
Sign up for a free aggregator service.

Zief Librarians’ Favorites:

Bloglines: http://www.bloglines.com/sub

Google Reader:
http://www.google.com/reader
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Subscribing to a Feed
2.
Look for these symbols on any web
page – click on them to add the page
to your feed:
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Google Reader
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Google Reader
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Bloglines
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What Are Wikis?

Shorter form of “wiki wiki”: in Hawaiian
it means “quick.”

Collaborative website that can be
edited by anybody who is granted
editing access to it.
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Wiki Privacy

Can be password-protected and
private.

Can be open to the whole world, like
Wikipedia.
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The Most Famous Wiki
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Legal Wikis: Cornell’s Wex
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Legal Aid Wikis
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Why Use a Wiki?

Blogs are great for disseminating info
or opinion from one individual or a
group of individuals to a wider
audience.

Wikis are a better choice when many
individuals need to collaborate on a
project.
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Wikis Are Great For…

Class projects: Ask students to
create their own pages on class wiki.

Clinic Projects: Post drafts, manuals,
assignments, sample documents,
templates, research links online.
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Our Class Wiki
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Popular & Easy Wiki Software

PBWiki: http://pbwiki.com/education.wiki

Don’t need to know HTML to create or edit on
PBWiki.
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Previous versions of pages are saved. Can
revert back to previous versions if necessary.
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What’s Coming in the Future

USF IT Committee evaluating webbased wiki options for entire campus.

Purchase will allow faculty & staff to
create unlimited number of wikis with
enhanced storage space.
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Social Networking

Social Networking for Everyone:



LinkedIn
Facebook
Social Networking for Scholars:


bepress SelectedWorks
USF Pilot Project: Personos
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LinkedIn
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Facebook for Individuals
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Facebook for Law Schools
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Even Law Libraries!
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bepress SelectedWorks

Hybrid social networking site: mix between faculty
publication pages and Facebook/LinkedIn.

SelectedWorks sites are aggregated with all
bepress content.

Can match the look and feel of your university
website.

Very easy editing and updates, but not cheap!

http://works.bepress.com/amyjwright/
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SelectedWorks Editing
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Integration With bepress
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USF Pilot: Personos
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Thanks!
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