Friday, August 28, 2009

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.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

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

Friday, July 31, 2009

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."

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

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.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

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.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

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.

Monday, June 15, 2009

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.

Monday, June 8, 2009

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.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

King County Electronic Court Records System Video

A very nice video showing the King County Electronic Court Records system was posted in early 2009 by the Harvard University Ash Institute on YouTube.  Some great folks from their court including Barbara Miner and Roger Winters are interviewed along with many judges discussing the challenges and benefits of the system

US Federal Courts Look to the Future

The May, 2009 edition of the US Federal Courts The Third Branch newsletter contains an article titled: Looking for the Next Generation of the CM/ECF System.  The article begins:
Over the past decade the federal Judiciarys Case Management/Electronic Case Files CM/ECF system has dramatically streamlined and simplified federal court case filing, management, and access. Now, a group of federal judges and court staff is thinking about the future of that system and asking: If we could change CM/ECF in any way, what would we want the Next Generation system to look like?
As the most successful implementation of a combined court case and document management system in the country, courts everywhere will all be interested in their plans.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Technology Projects Gone Wrong

Technology projects face all manner of difficulties.  Recently, Baseline magazine published an excellent article on Projects Gone Wrong.  We in the courts can learn from these troubled and failed projects both in government and by the private sector.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Monday, May 18, 2009

New IJIS Blog

A good friend of the NCSC, Mr. Paul Wormeli who is the Executive Director of the IJIS Institute has started a new blog on innovative information technologies and how they apply to justice information sharing and related topics.  He states in his introductory e-mail that:
"We are engaged as a nation in such a radical transformation of the role of IT in government that we need a place to provoke discussion and dialog about how information technology can be used to create useful social outcomes, particularly as it applies to the fields of justice, public safety and homeland security. We also need to ponder how innovative new information technologies, particularly those that might be classed as disruptive, can be explained and presented to the stakeholders in government and industry and therefore applied to practical purpose."

Virginia Institutes Mandatory Videoconferencing

Last week during our visit to the courts in Campbell County, Virginia we learned that in the 2009 session the General Assembly of Virginia amended the law to mandate use of videoconferencing by the state's District Courts.  The bill, H-2108, signed on February 25, 2009 states:
"If two-way electronic video and audio communication is available for use by a district court for the conduct of a hearing to determine bail or to determine representation by counsel, the court shall use such communication in any such proceeding that would otherwise require the transportation of a person from outside the jurisdiction of the court in order to appear in person before the court."
The statute previously permitted documents to be sent electronically and signatures treated as original signatures.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

NIEM Tools

The April 2009 of the NIEM National Information Exchange Model Newsletter contains the article: NIEM Tools: An In-Depth Look by Marc Clifton.  In the article Mr. Clifton highlights the various software design tools that have been made available by the project. Tools discussed in the article are:

  •      Search and navigate NIEM part of the Subset Schema Generation Tool SSGT.
  •      Build Schema Subset using SSGT.
  •      Map Information Exchange.
  •      Work With Information Exchange Package Documents IEPDs.
  •      Generate Code List Schemas.
  •      Obtain Migration Assistance.

Israel CMS studied

We recently stumbled across an interesting article by Prof. Orna Rabinovich-Einy that was published in the Spring 2008 issue of the UCLA Journal of Law and Technology titled: Beyond Efficiency: The Transformation of Courts Through Technology PDF link. The paper notes that while technological advances have benefited the court system, procedural changes are also needed.  The paper also notes that the Israel system has a service where attorneys can sign up for a secure government/court supplied E-mail address for $30 for three years as a means to improve security and communications.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

CTC 2009 Blog

Highlights of the upcoming CTC 2009 conference that will be held in Denver, Colorado from September 22-24, 2009 are being written about in the conference blog. 

US Federal Courts Highlight Technology Efforts

The April, 2009 edition of the US Federal Courts Newsletter, The Third Branch, is chock full of technology related articles.  They are:
  • Court of Appeals Use E-Technology to Deliver Opinions
  • Innovative IT Programs Link Automation with Court Business Processes four innovative technology projects funded by the Edwin L. Nelson Local Initiatives Program for fiscal year 2009.
  • New Jersey E-Filing Forum Big Draw for Attorneys
  • Courts Sign Up to Offer Juror-Friendly Webpage
Congratulations to the US Federal Courts for extending and taking advantage of new technology opportunities.

Friday, April 10, 2009

An Interview with Federal Judge Rosemary M. Collyer

The March, 2009 edition of the US Federal Courts newsletter, The Third Branch, contains a very interesting interview with District Court Judge Rosemary M. Collyer who served as chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on Information Technology in 2008. 

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

E-Ink in the Courts

We have heard rumors here at NCSC headquarters in Williamsburg that there are judges who have started to use E-Ink technology based devices such as the Amazon Kindle to read and work with their electronic documents.  I remember reading about E-Ink technology in the early 1990’s during its initial development by Xerox PARC the Palo Alto Research Center lab.  E-Ink is a display screen technology that uses:
"millions of tiny microcapsules, about the diameter of a human hair. In one incarnation, each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a negative electric field is applied, the white particles move to the top of the microcapsule where they become visible to the user.  "
For a picture of what this looks like and the rest of this explanatory article, click here.

So what is so great about this technology?  The answer is… persistence.  Once the screen image is updated by the tiny computer inside the device, it holds the image.  In other words, the image is persistent and doesn’t change.  This also means that the reader device uses very little power since it is not continually renewing the display; and thus it can be used for literally days if not weeks before a battery charge is required.  Reports are that the devices are both very lightweight, under 1 pound, and are easier on the eyes to read.

Now judges just don’t read documents, they interact with them.  The Amazon Kindle 2 has a keyboard and a note taking and bookmark capability.  A competitor company, iRex Technologies offers a larger screen device, the Digital Reader 1000S that allows handwritten notes to be added to the documents.  In addition, the devices can be linked via WiFi and the Internet to electronic book and newspapers services to download the latest novel or edition.

For one user’s experience using the Kindle click here.

For a good matrix of the available E-Ink readers in the USA click here.

Finally, please let us know your experience with these E-Ink devices and we’ll pass them along on the CTB.  Happy E-Reading!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Online Lecture: The Business of Public Access to Court Records

Recently we found an online video lecture and slideshow from the Princeton University Center for Information Technology Policy presented by Stephen Schultze from Harvard’s Berkman Center and Shubham Mukherjee, a third year law student on the amount of money that the US Federal Courts PACER system generates along with accompanying issues and activities.  The website intro states:
"As government documents are increasingly digitized and put online, two orthogonal approaches to distributing these documents have developed. Under one approach, the documents are made easily and freely accessible. In others, the government retains or introduces barriers to access that are inspired by traditional physical access. When these barriers are fee-based, the government can inadvertently create downstream monopolies or architectures of control over public information."
To enjoy the lecture go to:

http://citp.princeton.edu/events/lectures/stephen-schultze-and-shubham-mukherjee/?/

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

NIEM National Training Event Deadline Approaching

An e-mail blast dated March 10, 2009 announced the deadline for submissions in response to the Call for Papers and Participation for the 2009 NIEM National Training Event to be held at the Hilton Baltimore in Baltimore, Maryland from September 30 to October 2, 2009 is fast approaching.  Click here to download the Call for Papers PDF document.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Tweeting the Courtroom

A March 6, 2009 Associated Press story titled Twitter boosts public access to federal courtrooms reports on the use by a reporter of the: microblogging service Twitter to provide constant updates from a racketeering gang trial.

COSCA/NACM Joint Technology Committee Solicits Review

On March 9, 2009 the Joint Technology Committee JTC of the Conference of State Court Administrators COSCA and the National Association for Court Management NACM are soliciting review of, and comments on the following standards:

• LegalXML Electronic Court Filing 3.1 ECF 3.1 – This version is conformant with the GJXDM
• LegalXML Electronic Court Filing 4.0 ECF 4.0 – This version is conformant with the NIEM

And additional standards relating to Information Sharing for:

• Drug Court Test Request GJXDM
• Drug Court Test Results GJXDM
• Drug Court Case Folder NIEM
• Drug Court Test Request and Results NIEM
• Child Support Request for Remedy GJXDM
• Child Support Court Order GJXDM
• Child Welfare Dependency Petition NIEM
• Child Welfare Adjudication Order NIEM
• NCSC State Court Statistical Guide Submissions NIEM

For more information please download the Request for Comment and Review document PDF.  Comments are due on or before May 15, 2009.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Nevada Supreme Court Expands E-filing

A press release issued on February 19, 2009 announced that the Nevada Supreme Court would begin accepting electronic filing of documents for criminal cases effective on February 23rd.   The press release stated:
The new process is expected to save time and money for the Supreme Court, as well as for attorneys and their clients. No longer will attorneys with criminal appeal cases have to ship or deliver supporting documents to the Supreme Court.
In preparation for the move to e-filing, Supreme Court staff conducted training sessions this year and late last year for a total of nearly 200 attorneys and support staff at both ends of the state. Training was conducted for three days in Las Vegas, two days in Reno, and one day in Carson City. Training will also be offered at the Family Law Conference in Ely in March and a training DVD that includes information from the earlier presentations is in development.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

10 Cents a Gigabyte

Another landmark day in computer technology occurred recently.  I received an ad selling a 1 terabyte disk drive for $89.99 or 10 cents per gigabyte.  Now for comparison what does this mean?  A survey of the Arizona courts found that the paper files both current and past in more than 170 courts could fit on less than 3 terabytes or $270 less tax and shipping worth of drives.  Of course in a real server situation we would want to do a RAID, etc. But the achievement is significant nonetheless.  Other numbers listed in the ad show that the drive would hold:
  • 424 two-hour DVD-quality movies or-
  • 1500 hours of VHS-quality video or
  • 880 days of around-the-clock MP3 audio or
  • 373,000 vivid digital photos or
  • 2132 action-packed games!

Friday, January 23, 2009

Mississippi State Courts Developing E-Filing

The Mississippi State Court system have been working toward a comprehensive case management and electronic filing system since 2004. In 2007 they reached an agreement with the US Federal Courts to gain access to their CM/ECF technology to adapt to the state courts.
Recently, a January 15, 2009 article Judicial System to Launch E-filing in The Mississippi Press states that:
"The project would allow judges and attorneys to file court documents electronically through the Mississippi Electronic Court system. Litigants also would be able to view documents online and the state would control public accessibility to chancery, circuit or county court documents.
Participation by trial courts will be voluntary and a Madison County pilot program will be launched early this year."

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

NIEM Case Study - NYC Health and Human Services

The January, 2009 edition of the NIEM Newsletter contains a NIEM Case Study from the New York City Health and Human Services-CONNECT project. The project demonstrates the flexibility of the NIEM standard in that they have used it to create a system for an online School Meal application. The article describes the system:
"The parents submit household and income information through the Curam-based application, which is then stored in a relational database. A nightly batch job extracts the data from the database and creates a separate eXtensible Markup Language XML document, using the NIEM-compliant exchange schema, for each submitted application. The XML documents are encrypted and securely transmitted to the DOE Department of Education for processing."

New Tech - iPaper

While reading some financial reports this past weekend on the Internet, the author stumbled across the iPaper technology from Scribd in San Francisco.

The technical idea of the iPaper application is that it allows the normal document formats to be converted to Flash format and then embedded in a website.nbsp Since it uses Flash, the user avoids the need to download documents while maintaining all of the graphical presentation features.nbsp The obvious benefit is better control of documents that are posted on ones website. nbsp nbsp

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Texas Creates Child Support Case Management Standards

In 2008, the Texas Courts created a wealth of design documents and functional requirements for their Texas Data-Enabled Courts for Kids project. The project website notes that the purpose was to help ensure that foster childrens needs for safety, permanency and well-being are met in a timely and complete manner by data-enabling courts to ensure they have the information needed to make appropriate decisions. The full TexDeck project website can be found at: http://www.courts.state.tx.us/oca/texdeck/txdeck-home.asp

US Federal Courts Create eJuror System

The December, 2008 edition of the US Federal Courts, The Third Branch newsletter contained an article titled: On-Line eJuror Cuts Costs, Saves Time. The article begins - You can shop on the Web, pay bills on-line, even file income tax returns electronically. Why not submit your juror qualification questionnaire and summons information forms on-line?

Correspondingly, the E-Courts Conference 2009 contained a session by Travis County, Texas on their I-Jury system. You can download their presentation in PDF format here.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

E-Courts 2008 Presentations Available

Presentations from the E-Courts 2008 conference that was held in Las Vegas, Nevada from December 8-10, 2008 are now available online. Nearly 500 persons attended the conference that featured presentations from judges, court professionals, technologists, academics, and vendors. The conference website can be found at: http://www.e-courts.org

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

NIEM Traning Course Available Online

A December 12, 2008 e-mail announced that the National Information Exchange Model NIEM Practical Implementers Course is now available in an online, eLearning environment. This new format helps to address the growing demand for the course through innovative use of Web-based technology. The course provides a free, open-enrollment educational environment to support flexibility, course demand, and cost effectiveness to address the needs of the NIEM-user community.


NIEM and the NIEM educational programs are funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance BJA, the Department of Justice DOJ, the Department of Homeland Security DHS, and the Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment PM-ISE. The NIEM Practical Implementers eLearning Course was built with content from the successful traditional classroom version of the course by leveraging existing capabilities at the National Center for State Courts NCSC and with support from the IJIS Institute, SEARCH, and representatives from private industry.

The NIEM Practical Implementers eLearning Course instructs students on how to use NIEM by breaking it down into two distinct parts. The first part covers Extensible Markup Language XML concepts required to understand and work with NIEM. The second part addresses the higher-level implementation concepts and the steps necessary to build an information exchange using NIEM.

The online learning environment enables students to proceed at their own pace. Instructors will be available to answer any questions along the way, as well as to provide technical support in using the eLearning system.
The eLearning format includes the same case study materials and assignments featured in the traditional classroom version of the course, and instructors will accept and review the assignments to help students fully grasp the NIEM concepts taught during the course. Course topics are the same for both the traditional classroom and the eLearning course and include Anatomy of an XML Exchange, Basic XML and Advanced XML Schema for NIEM, Substitution Groups and Extension Schemas, IEPD Concepts and Exchange Content Modeling, Mapping and Subset Schema, and Packaging, Distribution, and Implementation.


To access and register for the NIEM Practical Implementers eLearning Course, visit http://www.niem.gov/elearning.php. Questions about the course can be directed to training@ijis.org.

IE Browser Security Vulnerability

There is important news that has recently surfaced regarding attacks on the Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser versions 5.01, 6, and 7. An article I received reports a huge increase in computer attacks exploiting this vulnerability. Unfortunately, there is not a corrective patch available yet from Microsoft. So you might consider using an alternative browser for general surfing for the near future and yes for you Mac folks you are safe. Please also make sure that your Windows Update either set for automatic update or enable the update notice. Generally at this time I would suggest only using IE for sites that have your full confidence such as your bank and well-known store websites. In other words, be careful out there.

Here is the link to the ComputerWorld magazine article: http://tinyurl.com/6nercd

Saturday, December 6, 2008

CTC 2009 Call for Ideas

The Court Technology Conference 2009 has posted the "Call for Ideas and Participation" document (PDF) for download.  The conference is looking for presentations in all manner of court related technology, policy, and management subject areas.  The CTC 2009 conference will be held in Denver, Colorado from September 22-24, 2009.

Monday, December 1, 2008

NIEM News - November, 2008

The National Information Exchange Model(NIEM) project has posted the Production Release 2.0 document on their website.  In addition, the NIEM Naming and Design Rules (NDR) 1.3 document has been posted. The document is open for a 30-day public review period.

US Courts Celebrates 20 Years for PACER System

PACER Coming Into Its Own at 20, an article in the November, 2008 edition of The Third Branch newsletter, celebrates the pioneering electronic public access system. The article notes that PACER began life as a dial-up bulletin board system that later migrated to Internet technology. Uptake grew "from a dozen participating courts, PACER has grown to include all bankruptcy, district, and appellate courts. From 9,000 registered user accounts in 1994, PACER grew to 900,000 registered accounts by 2008. This fiscal year alone, PACER added 134,000 new users." It is a true success story.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

E-Discovery Casebook Published

On November 10, 2008, West announced the publication of "Electronic Discovery and Digital Evidence: Cases and Materials".  The book was co-authored by the Hon. Shira Scheindlin of the Southern District of New York, US Federal Court and Professor Dan Capra of Fordham University Law School.  The press release notes:

"This casebook is the first in its field on electronic discovery and digital evidence. Judge Scheindlin, the author of the landmark Zubulake opinions, is a leading author on electronic discovery issues in the federal judiciary. Professor Capra is the Reporter to the Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules, a co-author of a five-volume treatise on evidence, and the principal author of Rule 502. Members of The Sedona Conference® Working Group on Electronic Document Retention and Production, which published The Sedona Principles and is cited by courts and litigators on a daily basis, contributed commentary and practical guidance."

For information on ordering the book, go to:
http://www.westacademic.com/Professors/ProductDetails.aspx?productid=147221&tab=1

PC Magazine Solutions Articles

Since we share our subscription to PC Magazine here at the NCSC, I recently received an issue that contains the article "Eight Handy Tools in Excel You Probably Don't Know About".  Following that I looked at their Solutions website and found some additional excellent articles that are listed below:

Microsoft Outlook: 9 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do
Customizing Comments and Revisions Tracking in Microsoft Word
Troubleshooting Word Macros
Deal with the Outlook E-Mail Deluge in 4 Steps

And for you Mac users:
Office 2008 for the Mac: 8 Things You Didn't Know

Thursday, November 6, 2008

NCSC Partners with NIEM for Online Course

The November 3, 2008 edition of the NIEM Newsletter contains an article titled: E-Learning Update: NIEM Practical Implementer’s Course Being Rolled Out as Online Course by Eileen Rixmann, Training Manager, IJIS Institute. The article states:

"The NIEM Practical Implementer’s (PI) course is scheduled to be introduced in an online version later this year.  The National Center for State Courts (NCSC), the IJIS Institute, and SEARCH have been working for the past year to make this project a reality.  The NCSC has extensive experience in online training and currently offers an array of justice- and court-related classes and certification programs.  The IJIS Institute was instrumental in developing the NIEM classroom material." "The online version of the NIEM PI course is a self-paced course powered by WebCT, an online virtual learning environment.  Because it is not presented in real time, it allows the flexibility required by many developers, implementers, and business analysts."

 Contact training@ijis.org with any questions that you may have about the class.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Federal Courts Opens Decision Support System

The October 2008 edition of the US Federal Courts - The Third Branch - newsletter contains an article titled: DSS Opens Data Warehouse.  It notes that " the DSS project consolidates the information from the Probation/Pretrial Services Automated Case Tracking System (PACTS), used by all 94 districts, into the National PACTS Reporting Database." The article notes "Matt Rowland, who heads up DSS development at the AO. It was a challenge to consolidate and report that data in a way that was useful to decision makers. With DSS, we bring in every single record from PACTS. That means we have millions of additional data elements and with new reporting technologies, we can slice and dice the data very easily." Further the article states:  "(l)ogging into Version I of DSS, users can view dashboards on clinical services, post-conviction supervision, pre-sentence reports, pretrial services, and workload. Dashboard is a term used for the Web-based display of data. Like a cars dashboard, it shows how the machine is performing. For example, a probation officer may want to see the average Risk Prediction Index (RPI) score for offenders over a period of time, or the average cost of treatment per offender."

Monday, October 20, 2008

E-Courts Agenda Updated

The NCSC is pleased to announce new program sessions at the E-Courts 2008 conference.  The judge's session will share the experience, benefits, and barriers that have been faced by the Hon. Richard Nielsen, general jurisdiction Circuit Court Judge from Tampa, Florida and the Hon. Mark Singer, limited jurisdiction Court Court Judge from Bradenton, Florida.  The LegalXML Electronic Filing committee will be making a presentation on the new ECF 3.0 standard and how it will benefit the courts.  And two disguished architects, Mr. Larry Smith of Durrant Architects and Mr. Robert Boyle of Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects  will share their experience on the impact of technology in designing and renovating court facilities to take advantage of automation.  To view the new agenda as well as additional information about the conference go to: http://www.e-courts.org/

Thursday, October 2, 2008

South Dakota Courts Use Video Conferencing

The October 2, 2008 edition of the Sioux Falls South Dakota newspaper, The Argus Leader contains an interesting story titled "Video a key player in S.D. courtrooms" on the use of videoconferencing technology by the courts.  The story notes: " The technology is saving money and time and has helped some suspects bond out of jail faster. But some worry that turning defendants into faces on a TV screen is hurting the justice system."

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

NASCIO releases "Innovative Funding for State IT" publication

In a press release issued on September 17, 2008 NASCIO released it newest publication “Innovative Funding for State IT: Models, Trends & Perspectives.” A product of NASCIO's Innovative Funding for State IT Working Group, the report’s findings are based on a national survey of state CIOs that examines states' use of innovative or alternative funding models for information technology projects."

"Also intended to update NASCIO’s 2003 publication, “Innovative Funding for Innovative State IT: New Trends and Approaches for State IT Funding,” this report provides state CIOs with information and tools for the facilitation of innovative funding initiatives in their own states that enable delivery of savings, and improved IT services to citizens.

The report is available at www.nascio.org/publications".

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Draft NIEM Conformance Document Posted

In a press release issued on September 18, 2008, the US Department Justice states that the NIEM Conformance document has been posted to the NIEM web site on the "Downloads" page in the "Technical Documents" section. This document is open for a public review and comment period which ends October 15, 2008. All comments should be sent to the NISS Help Desk

The NIEM Conformance document "provides a normative definition for the meaning of NIEM conformance, what it applies to, and what it does not apply to. It also outlines the benefits of conformance, and suggests sources of information, tools, and help for learning about NIEM conformance and its application."

Friday, September 19, 2008

SubTech 2008 Conference Sessions Available Online

The SubTech 2008 Conference sessions are now available online. The conference was hosted by The Center for Legal and Court Technology and the William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia from July 24-26, 2008.

The SubTech conference series is dedicated to substantive applications of information technology in law, as they are used or studied in legal education.

The historical application categories covered in the conferences include:
  • Computer-aided instruction, broadly conceived
  • Artificial intelligence & knowledge management
  • Practice technologies like document automation
  • Legal research, databases

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

September 2008 NIEM Newsletter Released

The National Information Exchange Model program (NIEM) has released their September, 2008 newsletter.  Articles include:

Tech Focus: Representing Idiosyncratic Data for NIEM IEPDs
  • Statement for the  the Record of Charles E. Allen: Information Sharing at the Federal, State, and Local Levels, July 23, 2008
  • NIEM Case Study Ideas Needed!
  • NIEM Adoption and Use: New York State- Devleopment of NIEM 2.0 Conformant IEPD for the New York Intrastate Criminal History Report (Rap Sheet)
  • Featured FAQ: What are NIEM Universal and Common Core components?
  • NIEM Clearinghouse Update
  • Upcoming NIEM Trainings