Friday, November 16, 2007 9:45 AM
Hat tip to Anupam Chander at Law School Innovation for pointing out that Law Professor Beth Simone Noveck penned an article for the Journal of Legal Education entitled Wikipedia and the Future of Legal Education.
I'd like to know more, but cannot find the article online anywhere. Professor Noveck writes at Cairns Blog, but I did not see the article there and it appears the Journal of Law Education is simply a print journal.
Which makes wonder aloud, at what point do print-only legal journals go the way of the dinosaur? I have no problem with print in itself, but by staying with a print-only model, it certainly limits the potential audience for the articles within a journal.
Especially for a timely topic like WIKIs, it seems a bit odd that a thoughtful article on the potential role of a community-driven online technology in legal education can only be consumed in print. And, if the purpose of such articles is to start a conversation and/or debate within the legal community, relying solely on print certainly makes this purpose much more difficult to achieve.
No doubt there is an economic reason behind maintaining legal journals in print. Funding to even print the journals likely is dependent on maintaining a significant print subscriber base. But, I also have to wonder how sustainable the old business models will be in future years. Perhaps big institutions can afford to keep getting print volumes en masse, but it appears the trend at law firms, corporate legal departments and even some legal libraries is downsizing physical volumes, not increasing or even maintaining the current level.
Just an observation from one guy who wishes he could simply Google the article, find it online, read it, and perhaps post a comment or two in response...sigh, maybe one day...