Wex, a project of Cornell's Legal Information Institute, aims to do for law what Wikipedia does for knowledge generally. It is a collaboratively-created site that acts as a kind of legal encyclopedia for novices. On the assumption that useful information should come from people who have some expertise, one needs to be certified as an expert in order to contribute to Wex. As a consequence, it is pretty incomplete. For example, type "state action" into the search engine and you get nothing. Type "Joseph Story" and you get nothing on Story and one article on the Commerce Clause, which includes a link to an external site with an excerpt of Story's Commentaries on the Constitution.
The basic problem with Wex, it might appear, is not enough contributors. Or maybe not. A Wex competitor, Wikilaw, permits anyone to create and edit. It also produces nothing relevant for either "state action" or "Joseph Story." That's not surprising. Someone who's writing for a general audience would be much more likely to contribute to Wikipedia than to a specialized wiki. Thus, while there's no "state action" entry on Wikipedia, there is a "state actor" entry which captures the concept, if briefly, and a short but basically accurate entry for Joseph Story.
Neither Wex nor Wikilaw has been in existence long enough to declare either a failure, but their experience thus far suggests that publishers of legal treatises and the like have little to fear from competition from wiki's. Wikipedia itself may eventually pose threat, but not yet. The real competition may one day end up being between Wikipedia and the web itself, as searched via Google or its competitors. Wikipedia provides the advantages of a single consensus entry but also the risk of bad information crowding out good, at least on controversial topics. The web offers the advantage of potential expertise --- you can end up at a site with real depth --- but the corresponding disadvantage of choice among sources. For example, searching "state action" turns up much irrelevant material along with some relevant sites. Searching for Joseph Story turns up a great many sites, including some that have a clear ideological slant, but at the top of the list is the Wikipedia entry. None of this bears precisely on what authorities lawyers or scholars should be able to cite, but insofar as future lawyers and scholars will grow up using these and other web-based research tools, developments like the failure of Wex and Wikilaw (if they do indeed fail) will be worth watching.
It's interesting. For all the justified concern about wikipedia entries finding their way into formal legal opinions, I find it a very useful tool for refreshers on Supreme Court cases (I know that's only part of the "law", of course).
ReplyDeleteI am NOT a law student or grad, but when I look to wikipedia, the summaries seem to jive well with what I've read about various cases.
Have any of you ever found gaping errors in SCOTUS Wikipedia entries?
I have seen over-simplifications and omissions but I haven't run across gross errors. To be sure, I don't use Wikipedia for S Ct issues much.
ReplyDeleteFor my sins, I direct the Legal Information Institute at Cornell, where WEX is housed.
ReplyDeleteYou're quite right that Wex is suffering from a lack of contributors. There are two reasons for that. The first is that the LII, which maintains a million-page web site with a staff of five, lacks the resources either to do aggressive volunteer recruiting, or to do the work of creating all the entries ourselves. So far as that goes, we've been lax in supervising the volunteers that we do have. The second reason is simply that the legal professoriate -- and other qualified individuals, such as practitioners and law librarians -- have not volunteered. The level of altruism is remarkably low.
You would label that a failure -- and we would too, if our aim had really been to create an authoritative book of all legal knowledge in a relatively short time. Our internal view was and is that the wiki format leaves open the possibility of outside contribution -- which we certainly encourage -- while better housing and merging a number of resources that we were providing in other forms. I suppose these statements must seem a self-serving retreat. But the fact is that we were always rather cynical about the likelihood of altruism in the legal academy, and at the same time eager to attract what effort we could to help us.
Readers don't seem to feel as dispirited as you and I. The WEX overviews and definitions attract about 3 million page views per month. This is paltry compared with Wikipedia as a whole, I'm sure, but substantial nevertheless. WEX material is also frequently used by the press and other information brokers. So we are not unhappy with its impact, nor are our readers unhappy with what they find.
On larger issues, I would agree with anyone who says that neither WEX nor any other wikified encyclopedia will ever fully overwhelm more targeted compilations from authors with greater expertise. For us, at least, that isn't the point. We see an opportunity to increase the intellectual accessibility of law to a larger population -- many of whom, by the way, have needs for that information that are considerably more sophisticated than law people typically ascribe to the general public. Developing a resource that will do that in a focussed and tightly integrated way is turning out to be slower and more lonely work than we (or you) would like. I can't say I'm surprised by that.
And since we're not done yet, I'd invite you to submit a definition or two.
免費A片, ut聊天室, AV女優, 美女視訊, 免費成人影片, 成人論壇, 情色交友, 免費AV, 線上a片, 日本美女寫真集, 同志聊天室, 聊天室交友, 成人文章, 成人圖片區, 色情網站, 辣妹視訊, 美女交友, 微風成人區, 色美媚部落格, 色情影片, 成人影片, 成人網站, 免費A片, 上班族聊天室, A片,H漫, 18成人, a漫, av dvd, 一夜情聊天室, 微風成人, 成人圖片, 成人漫畫, 情色網, 日本A片, 免費A片下載, 性愛, 成人交友, 嘟嘟成人網, 嘟嘟成人網, 成人貼圖, 成人電影, 成人, 中部人聊天室, 080中部人聊天室, 成人貼圖, 成人小說, 成人文章, 成人圖片區, 免費成人影片, 成人遊戲, 微風成人, 愛情公寓, 成人電影, A片, 情色, 情色貼圖, 情色文學, 做愛, 成人遊戲, 成人影城, 色情聊天室, 色情小說, 一葉情貼圖片區, 情色小說, 色情, 寄情築園小遊戲, 色情遊戲, 成人網站, 麗的色遊戲, 色情網站, 成人論壇, 情色視訊, 情色電影, aio交友愛情館, 言情小說, 愛情小說, 色情A片, 情色論壇, 自拍, 癡漢, , 俱樂部, 豆豆聊天室, 聊天室, 色情影片, 視訊聊天室, 免費視訊聊天, 免費視訊, 視訊交友90739 情人視訊網影音視訊聊天室 免費視訊聊天室 視訊聊天 視訊交友 美女視訊 視訊美女 視訊 免費視訊 免費視訊聊天 視訊聊天室 辣妹視訊 一夜情 色情a片 aio交友愛情館 情色電影 情色視訊 色情遊戲 色情 情色小說 一葉情貼圖片區 色情小說 色情聊天室 情色交友 成人論壇 成人網站 色情網站 情色論壇 小高聊天室 女同志聊天室 6K聊天室 080苗栗人聊天室 080聊天室 聊天室尋夢園 UT男同志聊天室 男同志聊天室 尋夢園聊天室 UT聊天室 聊天室 豆豆聊天室 A片 成人電影 成人貼圖 嘟嘟成人網 美女交友 本土自拍 成人交友 成人影片http://ssff01.3b8mm.com/
ReplyDeleteI am so happy to get some hero gold and the hero online gold is given by my close friend who tells me that the hero online money is the basis to enter into the game. Therefore, I should buy hero gold with the spare money and I gain some hero money from other players.
ReplyDelete酒店喝酒,禮服店,酒店小姐,制服店,便服店,鋼琴酒吧,兼差,酒店兼差,酒店打工,伴唱小姐,暑假打工,酒店上班,日式酒店,ktv酒店,酒店,酒店公關,酒店小姐,酒店兼差,酒店上班,酒店打工,禮服酒店,禮服店,酒店小姐,酒店兼差,寒暑假打工,酒店小姐,台北酒店,禮服店 ,酒店小姐,酒店經紀,酒店兼差,寒暑假打工,酒店小姐,台北酒店,禮服店 ,酒店小姐,酒店經紀,酒店兼差,寒暑假打工,酒店小姐,台北酒店,禮服店 ,酒店小姐,酒店經紀,酒店兼差,寒暑假打工,台北酒店,禮服店 ,酒店小姐,酒店經紀,酒店兼差,寒暑假打工,酒店小姐,台北酒店,禮服店 ,酒店小姐,酒店兼差,寒暑假打工,酒店小姐,台北酒店,禮服店 ,酒店小姐,酒店經紀,酒店兼差,寒暑假打工,酒店小姐,台北酒店,禮服店 ,酒店小姐,酒店經紀,酒店兼差,寒暑假打工,酒店小姐,台北酒店,禮服店 ,酒店小姐,酒店經紀,酒店兼差,寒暑假打工,酒店小姐,台北酒店,禮服店 ,酒店小姐,酒店經紀,酒店兼差,寒暑假打工,酒店小姐,禮服店 ,酒店小姐,酒店經紀,酒店兼差,寒暑假打工,酒店小姐,禮服店 ,酒店小姐,酒店經紀,酒店兼差,寒暑假打工,酒店小姐,禮服店 ,酒店小姐,酒店經紀,酒店兼差,寒暑假打工,酒店小姐,禮服店 ,酒店小姐,酒店經紀,酒店兼差,寒暑假打工,酒店小姐,禮服店 ,酒店小姐,酒店經紀,酒店兼差,寒暑假打工,酒店小姐,經紀 彩色爆米花,經紀人 彩色爆米花,酒店傳播,酒店經紀 彩色爆米花,爆米花,童裝,童裝拍賣,童裝大盤,童裝寄賣,童裝批貨,酒店,酒店,童裝切貨,酒店,GAP童裝,酒店,酒店 ,禮服店 , 酒店小姐,酒店經紀,酒店兼差,寒暑假打工,招待所,酒店小姐,酒店兼差,寒暑假打工,酒店上班,暑假打工,酒店公關,酒店兼職,酒店經紀
ReplyDeletewww.eshooes.com .
ReplyDeletewww.pumafr.com.
www.myshoess.com.
www.eshooes.com .
www.pumafr.com.
www.myshoess.com.
[url=http://www.pumafr.com]puma shoes[/url]
[url=http://www.eshooes.com]chaussures puma[/url]
[url=http://www.myshoess.com]nike air max ltd[/url]
酒店經紀人, 菲梵酒店經紀, 酒店經紀, 禮服酒店上班, 酒店小姐兼職, 便服酒店經紀, 酒店打工經紀, 制服酒店工作, 專業酒店經紀, 合法酒店經紀, 酒店暑假打工, 酒店寒假打工, 酒店經紀人, 菲梵酒店經紀, 酒店經紀, 禮服酒店上班, 酒店經紀人, 菲梵酒店經紀, 酒店經紀, 禮服酒店上班, 酒店小姐兼職, 便服酒店工作, 酒店打工經紀, 制服酒店經紀, 專業酒店經紀, 合法酒店經紀, 酒店暑假打工, 酒店寒假打工, 酒店經紀人, 菲梵酒店經紀, 酒店經紀, 禮服酒店上班, 酒店小姐兼職, 便服酒店工作, 酒店打工經紀, 制服酒店經紀,菲梵,
ReplyDelete