A Guide to Legal Studies Technology
A Guide to Legal Studies Technology
If you are reading this you are probably on the World Wide Web for one of the first times. A few important things to remember are:
Do not feel stupid if you cannot find what you search for. The Web is an untamed wilderness or an unexplored quadrant of the galaxy, depending upon your preferred metaphor. There is no overall map, but many destinations.
Whether you are new to the Web or not, there are valuable and fun resources for you to explore. Be adventurous.
If you have a goal or destination in mind, plan your trip. Think about how you intend to find what you seek. Plan alternate routes.
Keep in mind that the Internet and the World Wide Web, which is a part of the Internet, is a developing resource used by a world community. Act accordingly. Be responsible, Be polite. Be helpful.
Browse the Department's Web site to gain confidence. Then blast off for other cyberspace locations.
Use the Legal Studies Web site to explore the Department's curricula, interact with faculty and students, become involved in Department activities.
For general information use the following links ( a link is a highlighted spot or graphic on which you can click to move to that location).
The Cultural and Commercial Revolution that is the Internet
The printing press was almost immediately used to create marketing flyers.
The telegraph, the telephone, the fax, and E-Mail altered commercial relations permanently.
The Internet will have the very same effect over time.
However, technological innovation in an individual firm must be comprehensive and integrated in the total practice.
A computer can be used as a super typewriter and only marginally increase efficiency and productivity.
Integration of technology in the flow of a firm's production requires an internal change in culture.
The Internet began as a defense initiative to "bomb proof" the nation's computer communications system from nuclear attack.
This initiative sought to eliminate the threat of destruction by electromagnetic pulse and physical destruction, essentially what U.S. military forces did in Iraq during the Gulf War to Iraq's command and control systems.
When the technology of the Arpanet, as it was called, became dated by military standards, the military developed Milnet and the Internet gradually migrated into civilian use by research institutions, educational institutions, and government organizations.
By its very design, the Internet eschewed centralized control. The watchword and intent of the Internet, as originally conceived, is redundancy reduncancy redundancy.
No one owns the Internet. No one controls the Internet. It is commonly owned, designed and policed by consensus.
What is the Internet? - The Internet is a communications system. It is composed of servers, routers, repeaters, and networks which supply information to Internet users.
Servers are computers which hold information and data and provide services. Every server on the Internet has an address called a URL. Servers have uniform addresses which usually appear as follows: CHSS.MONTCLAIR.EDU.
CHSS is the name of a computer. Montclair is the name of an institution. EDU signifies the nature of the site - in this case educational.
Many of you are aware of E-Mail addresses which take a similar form. My E-Mail address, for instance is leclair@saturn.montclair.edu. LeClair is my user name. @ tells the Internet that location is coming next. Saturn is the name of a computer at Montclair State University. Montclair is the institution and EDU is the type of site, in this case educational.
The World Wide Web is a protocol or a system of rules which is uniformly followed by users of the Internet who wish to transfer hypertext documents.
A hypertext document is minimally a page of information with links to other computer sites imbedded in it. HTTP://CHSS.MONTCLAIR.EDU is a World Wide Web site. If I create a link to another location, also called an anchor, if I click on that location, the site is contacted and information retrieved.
HTTP means Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. HTTP preceding an address informs the Internet hardware that the World Wide Web protocol is being used.
CHSS designates a location, in this case the College of Humanities and Social Science. MONTCLAIR is the institution and EDU is the type of site.
In addition to the World Wide Web, WWW, the Internet uses other protocols to standardize transfer of information across the Web.
Gopher, Archie, Veronica, FTP, and Gopher are some such standards. Each Standard requires utility programs running at both the server and the requesting site.
Gopher is merely a text version of the WWW which preceded it and was used widely by educational institutions. Although not pretty to look at, Gopher provides access to valuable legal information.
Veronica
Archie
FTP means File Transfer Protocol. It is a utility which standardizes the rules for moving files from one location to another.
If it's on the web these search engines will find it. Search engines are web sites that let you look for other sites.
A high speed modem (MODulator DEModulator) running, optimally at 28,800 BAUD (Bits per Second).
A fast computer - A Pentium processor running at least 75 mhz, with 8 megabytes of Random Access Memory (RAM), 350 megabytes of hard drive storage, a super video graphics adaptor (SVGA).
An access provider such as the Microsoft Network (MSN), America Online (AOL), Compuserve, or Prodigy or a service provider such as Concentric or IDT.
An access provider is a full service provider which gives users services such as newsreaders, access to almanacs and encyclopedias, and information services such as Dow Jones or the New York Times, and access to Chat rooms where users can meet electronically to exchange information in real-time.
The downside to access providers is that their service is often slow. File transfer can be tedious.
A service provider provides faster access without the frills and is excellent for the more experienced web user. Concentric and IDT give subscribers free copies of Web browsers such as Netscape, the premier browser.
Although Service Providers are excellent tools, the premier resource for attorneys is probably Lexis Counsel Connect, a full service service provider for attorneys.
Counsel Connect provides access to late breaking cases, statutes, discussion forums, brief databases,
Counsel Connect's LIBRARY is a source of wide ranging federal legal material. Supreme Court opinions and many circuit court opinions are available. Legal questions can be explored in the LIBRARY through searches of both case law and briefs and memoranda on file at Counsel Connect. Federal lawyers can find successful briefs which can be massaged to meet their needs in LIBRARY
Reliability of Substantive Materials Remains a Hazard Perhaps the greatest hazard in using the Web is reliability of material. Web searching for case law or statutes is not uniformly reliable.
Educational institutions, which currently account for a majority of the links to federal sites and provide case law, regulations, and statutes on their own do not guarantee that their materials are current or accurate.
Although problematic, if used as heuristic tools rather than substantive source materials, federal materials on the Web and through other utilities such as Gopher and Veronica, can mean the difference between spending $4.00 an on-line minute for services such as WESTLAW and LEXIS and spending $1.00 an hour on the Internet. Certainly, caution is warranted, but careful use of Web resources can be rewarding.
Eventually the Internet will be merged with internal infobases in law firms. Although not directly connected, Intranets are internal resources which law firms in the future will store their information in some form of hypertext documents which can be accessed both internally and externally, by permission, of course.
The Intranets will provide internal infobases for research, client file management, and litigation support.
Folio, a product of Reed Elsiveer and LEXIS, is a hypertext infobase manager which can seemlessly link proprietary databases such as LEXIS/NEXIS/MEDIS, legal applications such as Michie's CD ROM service, and legal applications programs such as Jurisoft FullAuthority which generates tables of authorities, CompaRITE, a document redline and comparision tool, and CiteRite, a cite checking program.
If you do not place a sign on the information superhighway, your competitors will. See Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease or
the Connell, Foley and Geiser site if you think this is an exaggeration.
