Sunday, August 28, 2011

Version 4.0: Powered by Cornell LII

Jureeka version 4.0 represents a significant milestone: Jureeka is now powered by Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute (LII).

The LII is a not-for-profit organization that believes everyone should be able to read and understand the laws that govern them, without cost. It publishes law online, for free; creates materials that help people understand law; and explores new technologies that make it easier for people to find the law.

These objectives mesh perfectly with Jureeka's, which is to help web users locate free legal source materials by citation with as little effort as possible.

The LII now hosts Jureeka's legal citation redirection service and has assumed primary responsibility for the development and maintenance of the Firefox add-on. This allows Jureeka to reach a wider audience, to have long-term institutional support, and to integrate tightly with the LII's existing web services.

For the time being, I'll remain the primary developer of the Google Chrome version (which will essentially parallel the Firefox version), and I'll assist the LII with future development and testing.

In terms of visible, functional changes to version 4, Jureeka now redirects to specific subsections of the U.S. Code and to specific sections of the Code of Federal Regulations, which is quite helpful. Version 4 also includes an improved toolbar, a number of minor bug fixes, improved citation recognition, and fewer "false positive" linkifications.

Note: Version 4 for Chrome will be released the first week in September (after my move to Cambridge, MA is complete).