1 / 25

September 27, 2013 Colin Lachance

Powered by free law – a.k.a. Can the CanLII API trigger a legal information revolution?. September 27, 2013 Colin Lachance. Probably not… …at least not yet. What is an API?. From wikitionary.com:

nitesh
Download Presentation

September 27, 2013 Colin Lachance

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Powered by free law – a.k.a. Can the CanLII API trigger a legal information revolution? September 27, 2013 Colin Lachance

  2. Probably not… …at least not yet

  3. What is an API? From wikitionary.com: Aparticular set of rules and specifications that software programs can follow to communicate with each other. From me explaining it to lawyers: The thing that allows one website to provide access to data about its content in a way that lets someone incorporate that content into apps, websites and services.

  4. Common examples Yellow API Yellow Pages business listings incorporated into third-party apps and websites Google maps API Location, directions, elevation, time zone, etc…data incorporated into just about everything

  5. The API is the process or tool, but the scope of information accessible is determined by the content owner

  6. Why an API for free law? What would it include?

  7. Offering an API is consistent with our mission, goals and priorities Mission: Free access to law Goals: Meet public interest in free and unrestricted access to legal information Satisfy legal community needs with a free, comprehensive and robust legal research service

  8. Strategic Priorities 2012 to 2014 • Secure permanent role as foremost source of free law in Canada • Continually enrich content to meet needs of public and professional users • Deliver easy to use professional grade tools and a compelling site experience • Continuously promote and defend free access to law

  9. “no sharing” model In traditional model, CanLII controls all aspects of user experience and the extent of innovation pursued

  10. API model Anyone (including CanLII) can build something new with the data

  11. Case, legislative and citation metadata Sample: case metadata Sample: citation metadata { "databaseId": "abwcac", "caseId": "2013canlii8673", "url": "http://canlii.ca/t/fw90n", "title": "Decision No: 2013-0155", "citation": "2013 CanLII 8673 (AB WCAC)", "language": "en", "docketNumber": "2013-0155; AC0695-12-53", "decisionDate": "2013-02-26" } {  "citedCases": [    {      "databaseId": "csc-scc",      "caseId": {        "en": "1974canlii12"      },      "title": "McLeod v. Egan",      "citation": "[1975] 1 SCR 517"    },    {      "databaseId": "csc-scc",      "caseId": {        "en": "1978canlii24"      },      "title": "Nicholson v. Haldimand-Norfolk Regional Police Commissioners",      "citation": "[1979] 1 SCR 311"    },     ]}

  12. CanLII’s organization and operational structure made this a job for many • CanLII • Lexum built and operates the CanLII website as well as the CanLII API “methods” • Mashery furnishes the API account management portal • OpenNorth developed the documentation on the portal • CanLII promotes and authorizes API use API users

  13. Partial Mashery customer list

  14. A glimpse at the CanLII developer portal developer.canlii.org

  15. What’s been done with the CanLII API?

  16. Web app visit at commoncases.ca

  17. A Chrome browser extension

  18. Visualizations – related cases

  19. Mash-ups with other data (citation analysis)

  20. Easily turn inspiration into action Step 1 - idea Step 2 – “borrow” idea August 13th August 19th Hi Justin, Per my voicemail to you earlier today. I’m interested in exploring opportunities to apply citeology to case law citation data available through our API http://developer.canlii.org/io-docs as part of our upcoming hackathon   I hope we can chat sometime. Cheers Colin

  21. Step 3 (September 5th -) Experiment

  22. Step 4 (September 12th) - release

  23. The revolution may not be imminent… …but a shared vision and supportive network is starting to take shape

  24. CanLII hackathon – building a community of innovators

More Related