CALIOPOLIS

The title of this post is taken from Jeff Jarvis’ post on Buzzmachine. It’s a great article and I wanted to do my characteristic read in relation to legal education. Let’s start with a clip…

“…The problems with books are many: They are frozen in time without the means of being updated and corrected. They have no link to related knowledge, debates, and sources. They create, at best, a one-way relationship with a reader. They try to teach readers but don’t teach authors. They tend to be too damned long because they have to be long enough to be books. As David Weinberger taught me, they limit how knowledge can be found because they have to sit on a shelf under one address; there’s only way way to get to it. They are expensive to produce. They depend on scarce shelf space. They depend on blockbuster economics. They can’t afford to serve the real mass of niches. They are subject to gatekeepers’ whims. They aren’t searchable. They aren’t linkable. They have no metadata. They carry no conversation. They are thrown out when there’s no space for them anymore…”

Let’s unpack this one item at a time with an eye towards legal education, casebooks and electronic casebooks.

“…They are frozen in time without the means of being updated and corrected. …“

This is certainly true of casebooks. They are updated every 3 to 6 years and in between are supplemented manually by conscientious instructors who obtain and photocopy additional readings. Electronic casebooks could be updated immediately and downloaded quickly. Editions would be more gradual and granular as new cases are added and commentary is updated. A change log could be maintained and instructors could subscribe to the casebook like you can subscribe to a Wikipedia page to watch if it changes.

“…They have no link to related knowledge, debates, and sources. … …They aren’t linkable. …“

Casebooks use parts of cases and with universal access for law students to Lexis or Westlaw, it is relatively simple to find the full case online. The casebook is at the center of the course, but it is an island that is linked only manually to the online discussion (if there is one) and to other supplemental materials that could assist the student in their learning (like CALI lessons, law review articles, blog posts, etc.). An electronic casebook could link to all sorts of things including the course website, podcasts and even a directory of all course websites for all of the courses using the same book. Dialogue and study groups formation could occur between students at different schools studying from the same material.

“…They create, at best, a one-way relationship with a reader. They try to teach readers but don’t teach authors. … …They carry no conversation…." “

The relationship of importance regarding casebooks is between the student and the instructor. The author is an an invited, but silent guest in the classroom and would probably have a lot more to say if given the opportunity. Each casebook could have its own blog with comments or questions posted by anyone and filtered by the author much like an open source software project where the lead developer decides what gets into the shipping version including reasons why or why not a particular change is accepted.

“…They tend to be too damned long because they have to be long enough to be books. …“

Most casebooks have more material than is necessary for an entire course. This is to allow them to be used in a broad range of courses depending on the instructor’s desires or time constraints. Still, the students carry around the whole thing. Electronic casebooks need only be as long as the instructor wants with no additional material (or additional material linked via the web). Curriculum reform that causes changes in the teaching material need not force the instructor to jettison the entire book. Different length and interdisciplinary courses could be assembled from several books digitally if the materials were available in a recombinant format.

“…they limit how knowledge can be found because they have to sit on a shelf under one address; there’s only way way to get to it. …“

A lost casebook is lost. Buy another. A lost electronic casebook is never lost, get another copy from the web. Access it from any internet browser and make backup copies. Keep a copy forever on into practice. Build a library of casesbooks, cases and notes.

“…They are expensive to produce. ..“.

These are guesses. 20% goes to the bookstore. 50% pays for the paper, binding and amortizing the printing press. 20% is the publisher’s profit and the remaining 10% finds it way to the author. Electronic casebooks that are downloaded eliminates the first 70% mentions and cuts out one middleman. A collaborative open content casebook publishing enterprise cuts out the other middleman (the publisher). That leaves a lot of room for the author and also leaves room for more authors to participate.

“…They depend on scarce shelf space. They depend on blockbuster economics. …“

This is more relevant to mass-market books, but shelf space is a problem in law school libraries.

“…They can’t afford to serve the real mass of niches. …“

As mentioned before, new courses that cover multiple disciplines could have their own electronic casebook – assembled from parts and multiple authors and sources. Each course taught is its own niche with the course materials coming to represent a form of instructor-assembled vanity press from parts. It takes a village to each some courses.

“…They are subject to gatekeepers’ whims. …“

Casebooks go out of print all the time. Authors retire, die or quit updating. Publishers crunch the numbers and drop the non-sellers. Electronic casebooks would never go out of print and could be supported by the fan base. Three instructors at three different law schools could share the load of updating their niche of niche of a niche course materials.

“…They aren’t searchable. …“

Casebooks have TOCs and indices, but, well. Not only are electronic casebooks searchable – ALL electronic casebooks are searchable. Students could have access to a smorgasbord of learning opportunities. If the instructor assigned material is confusing or ill-constructed, other alternatives are a click away and searchable and findable.

“…They have no metadata ….“

Authors of casebooks often write teacher’s manuals for instructors. These are often as long and dense as the casebook itself and being physical books themselves suffer from all of the above maladies of books. This meta-data is not actually about the book, but about teaching and so in aggregate could be the basis for what is traditionally called a knowledge management system of best practices – but that’s waaaay too formal. At best, it’s an ongoing conversation between and among colleagues who teach the same subject and seek the best path for their students. Faculty do not share their best teaching practices in very many places (nor are they particularly encouraged to). The sharing of this knowledge should be a natural and light-weight bonus of an electronic casebook assembly and publishing system.

It’s time for electronic casebooks. Plain and simple.