Re: Yet another list statistics for debian-lex

[Andreas Tille <tillea@rki.de>]

[Elaine, I take the freedom and full quite your private mail to the
 Debian Lex list and hope you don't mind about this ignorance of the
 netiquette - but I see nothing private in your mail and to trigger
 *any* action we have to pronounce this open.  Nothing will happen
 if we agree to each other in privat idea that Debian Lex is a good
 idea in principle.]

On Wed, 4 Mar 2009, ter wrote:

> Hi Andreas,
>
> I just read your post at debian-lex and your paper. I think the "Pure
> Blends" idea is wonderful. I had minimally participated in debian-lex
> discussions about 5 years ago, when I began using Debian to support my
> husband's law practice. This latest visit to the debian-lex list tells
> me that the situation hasn't changed. I feel compelled to write you
> because in your paper about "Pure Blends", you repeatedly referred to
> lawyers as being an exemplar group of blend users. I agree strongly with
> you about the central ideas of "Pure Blends" and think the times are
> over-ripe for something like a "Pure Legal Blend".

Yep.  We just need somebody who is willing to do some work.  It is not
much for a start - and I'd volunteer to give some technical help to
support a kick start.  The first step is IMHO to find the packages inside
Debian which are useful for lawyers and put them in some categories.
As a beginning even a Wiki might serve as basic brain storming.

> I have been acting as a bridge between my husband, Steve, who is a
> "user", in your sense of the word, and Gnu/Linux, using Debian (I regard
> Ubuntu as an impure blend, and we have come to it only lately), for the
> last 5 years. Because Steve's law office runs exclusively on Debian, I
> have had to deal with the full range of problems that a small law office
> encounters in using Gnu/Linux. Here's his take on that experience:
> http://www.sarpllc.com/LinuxLawyer.tux.1.html , which was published in
> Linux Magazine last year.
>
> Between Steve and myself, we have a good grasp of what it would take to
> make Gnu/Linux work for legal practices. I am a programmer myself, and
> have looked into the problem of what it would take to enable in
> openoffice a special type of frames that is required for briefs in the
> US court system. The solution is not trivial, and requires digging below
> writing macros because more properties of the page/document are required
> than are exposed by the macro interface. That is just an example of the
> significant work that would be required to offer a viable alternative to
> lawyers. I know that similar work had to be done for what the lawyers
> are currently using, and it was sufficient to base a business on.

While you most probably need much better than me what has to be done
I'd suggest to start with those things that are just there and work on
some kind of todo list what has to be done.  If the project got some
structure and you were able to gather some supporters you can start
working down this list together.  This strategy has turned out to be
successful in the case of Debian Med.  You might perfectly assume that
the situation with Free medical Software is quite similar to those for
lawyers - it is just hard and the problem you will not find many Free
Software exerts who are able and willing to join your project.  But
you have to find and join them if your project should have any chance.
In Debian Med we had the nice benefit to have a solid column of micro
biological software which is stronger because of the development at
universities and research institutes.  In the first phase we ranked
around this solid column until other fields were starting to catch up.
I have no idea whether this is applicable for Debian Lex - perhaps
starting with some general office related stuff and adding the law
specific things might be a good idea.

> In the meantime, the economic environment in the US (and maybe world
> wide) is such that the legal practictioners would love to get out from
> under the per-seat upgrade/licensing regime they are trapped in. But
> trying to push the idea of Gnu/Linux onto their radar is no small task.

Yes - I know this.

> Steve is doing his part in just trying to get the lawyers and geeks
> together, so that they can discover each other
> http://nlgseattle.org/lawofcommons/index.html .

This is a good idea.  There are similar efforts in Medicine.  The
clue of the Debian Med project is turning the good ideas into hard
facts of ready to install software.  After now seven years of work
you have something you can click to install in Synaptic and after
it is finish you can do a lot of jobs in medicine with Free Software.
So turning ideas into ready to install code is the main idea you
always should keep in mind.

> I would love to see debian-lex revive. I myself am already
> over-commited, and cannot at this point take on any more projects.
> However, I would gladly support anyone who would take debian-lex into a
> "Pure Blend".

So just talk open about it.  I can not do it (for competence reasons
and time limitations because Debian Med and the general work on Blends
consumes all my time).  Just attract people to join the mailinglist
and try to split the workload over a team of people.  I'm willing to
provide any technical help with Blend issues.

> Sincerely,
> Elaine Tsiang

I'm very happy that you picked up this idea.  Kind regards

    Andreas.

--
http://fam-tille.de