Alabama Courthouse Installs Videophones

An in-depth article posted on August 4, 2009 at the Sound and Video Contractor magazine website titled: Installation Spotlight: Limestone County courthouse, Alabama highlights the process and benefits that the court has experience from installation of videophones for initial appearance hearings.  The article states:

"Limestone purchased six 7985G videophones—one for each judge, one for the jail, and one for an on-call Dell E6500 laptop system."

Some Cool New Tech - Late Summer Edition

This summer has seen some interesting tech hardware introductions.  The first is a new touch/pen enabled e-Ink Reader Touch Edition from Sony for $299. A nice review of the system was posted on ZDNet Between the Lines column.

The second interesting new techno-toy is a new Asus Eee PC T91 Netbook that combines small size, light weight and the flexibility of a Tablet PC.  The CNet Reviews website has an article and video on this new offering.

CTC-2009 Website Sessions - Do you have the nerve?

CTC-2009 session panelists NCSC Web Content Editor/Manager, Pam Burton is asking for volunteers for a review of your courts website.  They write:

Two sessions at the 2009 Court Technology Conference in September feature Web-savvy panelists who want to look at YOUR site and share some insights. Really!

And it costs you nothing, beyond the courage to be analyzed before an audience of your peers.

Have a look at the sessions below and submit your site by Friday, Sept. 4, if you would like to be considered for review. Both sessions are designed with theory and best practices up front -- how the sites we review are getting it right and/or how they could improve.

If you wish to read more and respond to Pam please go to THIS LINK.  A short six-question survey form is available there if you want to volunteer.

Justice Served Releases 2009 Top 10 Website Awards

The Court Technology Bulletin received a press release from Justice Served announcing the 2009 winners of their Top 10 Court Website Awards.  To see the awards with links to the winners websites go to: http://justiceserved.com/top10sites.cfm

US Federal Courts on Internet Materials in Opinions

An article in the July, 2009 edition of the US Federal Court newsletter, The Third Branch, titled: Internet Material in Opinions: Citations and Hyperlinking notes recent work by The Judical Conference.  The article states:

"The Judicial Conference has issued a series of suggested practices to assist courts in the use of Internet materials in opinions."

One example of the guidelines is:

"If a webpage is cited, chambers staff preserve the citation by downloading a copy of the site&39;s page and filing it as an attachment to the judicial opinion in the Judiciary&39;s Case Management/Electronic Case Files System."

Graphical Visualization Tools

There has been some very interesting work posted recently at Wolfram Research on graphical presentation of complex relationships.  Everyday courts are faced with complex relationships such as those between family members as well as legal precident and cases.  The Wolfram demonstrations show how these kinds of relationships might be displayed graphically to show both the whole and details of the issue.  But it is difficult to explain how this works without seeing the demonstrations.  The first demonstration, Geneology Graphs from XML allows for several different views of the descendants of first US President, George Washington.  The demonstration can be found at: http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/GenealogyGraphsFromXML/

A second demonstration, shows graphically how common law legal cases cite one another can be viewed at:

http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/SyntheticLegalPrecedentStructuresLevyFlight/

This exciting and interesting work deserves attention from the court community.

In order to interact with the demonstrations you will need to download and install the free Wolfram Mathematica Player 7.  You may have to ask your system manager to allow you to do this if your PC is locked.

NIEM 2.1

The July 2009 edition of the NIEM Newsletter contains an important article regarding the next release of the National Information Exchange Model NIEM designated as version 2.1.  The article states that the "release candidate is expected to be released for public review and comment late this summer" with the final production release slated for debut in late September at the National NIEM Training Event.  The Training Event is scheduled for Baltimore, Maryland from September 30 to October 2, 2009. The article also notes that this version includes an improvement on the structure for an offense in the Justice domain" as well as harmonization that has reduced many overlapping or duplicate data elements between domains and complete element definitions.

Paper Has A Fingerprint

Earlier this year the Princeton University Center for Information Technology Policy published a paper titled - Fingerprinting Blank Paper Using Commodity Scanners.  In other words, paper has a unique fingerprint that can be used to validate vital records such as birth and death certificates.  This technology potentially provides another opportunity to reduce identity crimes due to counterfeit paper documents.

The abstract of the paper states:

This paper presents a novel technique for authenticating physical documents based on random, naturally occurring imperfections in paper texture. We introduce a new method for measuring the three-dimensional surface of a page using only a commodity scanner and without modifying the document in any way. From this physical feature, we generate a concise fingerprint that uniquely identifies the document. Our technique is secure against counterfeiting and robust to harsh handling; it can be used even before any content is printed on a page. It has a wide range of applications, including detecting forged currency and tickets, authenticating passports, and halting counterfeit goods. Document identification could also be applied maliciously to de-anonymize printed surveys and to compromise the secrecy of paper ballots.

E-Ink Devices Growing Larger

Court technologists are watching with interest the introduction of the larger format Kindle DX device from Amazon.com for $489.  The new larger screen DX model sports a 2.5 larger display than the original Kindle models.  In addition, the new system has improved PDF document support.  A couple of interesting reviews were posted on the Wired.com and Engaget with video websites.

Pinellas County Florida releases RFP

Pinellas County, Florida  has released Request for Proposal RFP 089-0408-PJL for the purchase of a Consolidated Justice Case Management System.  A copy of this RFP can be obtained by visiting the Pinellas County Government website http://www.pinellascounty.org/purchase.  On the left side of the page, please click on Current Bids, and then scroll until you find the Consolidated Justice Case Management System RFP.  Questions pertaining to this RFP can be submitted via email to: jlauro@pinellascounty.org.