Wikis
Blogs vs wikis
A chain of people in my orbit seem to agree that a simple test as to when to use a blog and when to use a wiki for collaboration is: one or two people providing content, use a blog; many people providing content, use a wiki (Mark Miller > Doug Cornelius > KnowledgeThoughts > James […]
The law wiki dream (2)
First published September 2007 in the Legal Web e-book on Legal Information and Web 2.0. Most of us know of wikis primarily through the granddaddy of all wikis, Wikipedia, which provides an immense, user-generated encyclopedia of articles on every conceivable topic. Could we achieve something similar – more limited in scope, but more in-depth and […]
Bobbies on the beta
I’ve suggested before that one day we might be able to roll our own government on wiki.gov.uk. The New Zealand Police are experimenting with just that concept with a Police Act Review Wiki. This joins other wikis launched to encourage New Zealanders to engage with public sector agencies. A good example is the Participation Wiki, […]
IP law wiki off the starting blocks
Jeremy Phillips has posted on the IPKat about the exciting proposed development of an IP Law Wiki which has already gained some traction with the proposal for funding a feasibility study already under way. Most interesting for me is the comment that: if – as seems likely – [the feasibility study is successful], it will […]
The law wiki dream
First published March 2007 in the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. Solicitor Steve Butler, who produces the UKLawyers legal newswire, has changed his former opinion that a grand centralised law wiki could be an enormously valuable resource. Having previously been impressed by Richard Susskind’s comments in this vein, Steve now believes that unpaid volunteers cannot be […]
The Legal Week community
Legal Week now has a trio of blogs with the addition of Legal Village. This is a collection of short articles by high-profile names. Active contributors thus far, with one post each, are: Bill Knight, Master of the City Solicitors’ Livery Company; Charles Martin, Head of Macfarlanes; Fiona Woolf, President of the Law Society of […]
The new internet
Web 2.0 is not a technology or even a group of technologies; rather it is a buzzword describing the companies and ideas behind the emergence of a “new” internet built on the participatation of users. “Technology,” a sage once observed, “is stuff that doesn’t work yet.” That sounds like a joke, and it is, but […]
Communicate, share, collaborate
We talk a lot about public blogs and wikis, so it’s good to get a report of the benefits and potential of their use internally within a large law firm. In the latest issue of Legal Technology Journal from Legalease (print on paper), Ruth Ward, head of knowledge sytems and development at Allen & Overy, […]
A wiki law trawl
Head on over to the Wikipedia and you’ll find that there is developing a very useful corpus of entries on UK law. The United Kingdom Law page indicates the scope of the contributions thus far, though you’ll find the structure predictably chaotic. However, there are some more structured starting points – list maniacs are at […]
Centralised or distributed (law) publishing?
Steve Butler at UKBlawgers argues for “a central source of legal information which is available to all at a very low price” and suggests a sort of grand law wiki as the solution. Now the wiki is certainly a neat collaborative publishing tool and has many advantages over more conventional publishing systems and many valid […]
Co-operation and community
Thanks to Robert Ambrogi for pointing me to two nascent, but nevertheless significant, new US sites: Wiki-Law‘s mission is “to create a free, complete, up-to-date, and reliable world-wide legal guide and resource”. Unlike most wikis I’ve seen, this is not an encyclopedia but a highly-structured resource, with page templates for entries on Blogs, Links, Dictionary […]
Mental health law wiki
Another law wiki has just been started by one Jonathan (who he?). Wiki Mental Health is an internet resource on mental health law in England & Wales, primarily for mental health practitioners, to which anyone can contribute. There are currently three embryonic sections: commentaries on cases, with links to the full text judgments on BAILII; […]
WikiCrimeLine
WikiCrimeLine is a new project, set up as part of the CrimeLine family of free updating materials. Publisher and WikiCrimeLine Administrator Andrew Keogh says: I wish to take CrimeLine one step further and gather up the extensive knowledge base that exists with our almost 8,000 members. This is your unique opportunity to share your knowledge […]
