March 4, 1997
To: CLS Associates
From: Nicholas Johnson
Re: Final Class Product
This is a heads up for those of you who have not been by the office this week. (There was no request/requirement that you come by.)
My idea of our final class product is firming up. (I've run it by those I happened to see. And I'd like to firm it up with a brief discussion in class Wednesday evening.)
The idea has been kicking around since the beginning of the seminar, but was dramatized for me with Lex Mundi's Hieros Gamos Web site with its 30,000 links to law on the Net.
The notion is that we would create a group work product and put it on a Web site, probably through Weeg.
Advantages to you: an additional item to include in your hard copy resume (or as a link in your online resume); an easily accessible writing sample to which you can refer potential employers; such recognition (for which read, potential employment, reputation, networking, rainmaking capacity) as a "global publication" can provide.
Possible objections, and responses:
1. Will this mean extra work? Not for you. You will do the same papers you are doing anyway. There will be for me: all the Web administrative and editorial work -- probably an unpaid summer assignment. I am willing to do that, but not if you all are somewhere between opposed and apathetic about it. So far, almost everyone I've talked to thinks it's a good idea.
2. What if you are ashamed of your work product and don't want your name associated with it? This seems to be the source of the most common reluctance. The answer? You will have the option to have your name removed from your work, and the class roster, and have it replaced with something like "Anonymous 1."
3. What about photos, bios, and other personal information? We have already established that this is your call. You can include a resume, or your class bio, if you wish. If you want me to take a digital picture of you and post it I am happy to do that. If I hear nothing from you the default is that nothing but your paper will be included.
My present idea is that we would have:
(a) the initial, opening Web page with a brief introduction and a table of contents, listing each of your papers, with hot links to them,
(b) a top page for each of you, with your own introduction and table of contents, and hot links from it to the sections of your paper, and
(c) an effort to use as many Web links in your endnotes as possible. These could be links to Web pages with information about your country, companies doing business in your country, or statutory, case and textual material which you are citing.
Obviously, these hot links would not be a replacement for all other endnotes. You would still have references to hard copy materials, and Lexis or Westlaw cites. But to the extent possible, you'd want to sprinkle your references with as many hot links as reasonably possible.
How do you indicate a link? With two citations. One is what you want the reader to see, a kind of normal footnote. The second is the "URL" address of the page you would like them to see, in order for them to see the text of what you are citing. (For example, the URL for our opening class page is: http://soli.inav.net/~njohnson/cls.html) When your paper is posted to the Web the first will appear as highlighted text. The second will not be seen by the reader; it is simply instructions to their computer on where it is to go if the reader clicks on the highlighted text. If you provide both, I can then create the HTML links for you. (Of course, if anyone would like to turn in a paper in HTML with the links already created I would not object! But that won't affect your grade.)
Formatting. If we are to do this, we will need some consistency in formatting. But this requirement should not require any additional work either.
(a) As you prepare modules for me, and ultimately the first final draft, present them both (1) in hard copy, the way you would like them to appear on the Web page (i.e., with italics, bold, larger fonts, etc.), and (2) on disk. The disk should contain the text saved in [a] whatever is your word processing software of choice, presumably what you used to print out the hard copy, [b] WordPerfect 5.2 (if your software enables you to do this), and [c] as an "ASCII," "DOS," or "TXT" file. (I may, in fact, end up having to use the TXT file, and then add back in the special features you'd like.) [d] For each of these, using "endnotes" rather than "footnotes" will simplify the process for you and for me. I will recycle your floppy disks back to you.
(b) Given Mac owners' braggadocio about their computers, I presume they are capable of giving me files that can be loaded on an IBM clone. If not, see me, and we'll see what we can do.
(c) We will probably want to maintain the maximum amount of consistency possible with regard to the modules within the papers. This makes it easier for readers. We may have some standard fonts and formatting, too. And I assume those modules will be: (1) description of country, (2) description of companies within the country, (3) the proposed billion-dollar-bonanza, (4) the range of legal issues that it might raise, (5) the legal issue selected, and (6) your discussion of that issue.
We will talk about all of this, and, as always, I'm open to your suggestions. But this will give you something to mull over before class regarding my present thinking.