Singularity Law

What do law profs do in the summer when they are not teaching? Generally writing. This summer, in addition to a law review article, I am designing a legal wiki that will be devoted to the history of computer/IT law.

Many of the pioneers in the field have or are close to retiring. I am hoping to tap into their collective knowledge (as well as everyone else’s) to create a comprehensive history of the field from its earliest origins right up to today.

The history will be in the form of a moderated wiki. I will be inviting everyone who is or has been involved in the field to make contributions. The wiki will have a History section, which will be the launching point (sort of the “home page”). This section will provide a narrative chronology of the significant developments in the field from the early 1960s until today. The History section will be linked to thousands (hopefully) of specific, topical entries that will look at the people, cases, statutes and events that have shaped the field from its earliest days.

Over the last few months I have been working on the beginning of the History section. I thought I could “prime the pump” by giving my (admittedly biased) overview of the history of the field. This will be the barebones starting point for the wiki. But it is not MY view of the history of the field that is important. It is the collective view of everyone in the field that is what will make the wiki really useful.

While the brief history I have written is U.S.-centric, I do not intend the wiki to stay that way for long. I am hoping that contributors will add their own sections on the history of the field in their particular jurisdiction with appropriate links and cross-references between and among the various countries’ developments in the field.

We will also have history sections for specific topics of significant interest, such as copyright, software patents, information privacy, computer crime, etc. These too will be linked to the history of specific countries, as well as the other, myriad entries.

While the field of computer law is less than 50 years old (although some will argue it goes back even further than that), it is a rich and varied history. Fortunately, most of the people who helped to shape this field are still around, and I hope they will feel it worthwhile to participate.

This is definitely a non-commercial, non-profit endeavor. All contributions will be accepted under a modified Creative Commons license. If the wiki becomes popular enough, we may be able to attract some advertising to help defray the costs of maintaining the wiki, but that is about it. I plan to tap into law students interested in the field to help organize, cite check and generally help to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the materials published on the wiki.

In the next few postings here, I will be providing the current version of the general History section, organized by time period (epoch). As you will see, the current history section is fairly short. The intention is not to provide a comprehensive history at this time, but to provide a skeletal framework that will be fleshed out by others.

I hope to have the wiki launched by mid-September. In the meantime, if you have any materials that you have written (and own the copyright to) that you think would fit within the framework of the wiki model (see wikipedia for an example of the basic format we intend to use), you can email them to me now. Or you can wait until the wiki is up and running and submit them at that time.

I am looking forward to the challenge of making this work. I have a wonderful student assistant, Josh Kagan, who has been helping me over the last two years with this blog, my podcasts and working on updates to my book. He has (foolishly) agreed to help me launch the wiki. So I know the technical aspects are in good hands.