Welcome to the Open Law Project. If you would like to find out about the project you can visit the About page Project:About. In a nutshell, this project is aimed at creating a free legal reference work of South African law (for the time being - if enough people want to open it up, this project could be expanded to include other countries) for the benefit of the South African public.
This project is an initiative of The African Commons Project. You can also visit the Open Law Project node on iCommons.org.
One of the hallmarks of President Barack Obama's administration is transparency and in the short span of a week we have seen him introduce a range of measures designed to introduce a far greater degree of transparency into the US government. Transparency is vital if citizens are to participate meaningfully in government and a society bound by the rule of law. CNN has a report on Obama's clever use of the Web to promote this ideal:
The new White House website is already a powerful tool for transparency. Visitors to the website can view the much publicised executive orders Obama has already issued, including the "Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel". The Bush administration was characterised, in part, by its secrecy and suspicion of the media. Obama's administration has already indicated that it stands at the other extreme.
The ANC government is hardly the epitome of transparency but South African citizens are also the beneficiaries of a relatively open approach to government content. Visitors to the Government Information portal can access a range of documents (including legislation), speeches and information about our leaders.
This is a welcome beginning but there is still a considerable about of information about and detailing the law that effectively remains under wraps and largely in the hands of private, commercial publishers. Hopefully Obama's example will gain traction here in South Africa as we approach the next general election and with what we hope is a new era of greater transparency, we may even begin to see private claimed legal materials open up more and more.
Joi Ito, Creative Commons' CEO, pointed to a post on the Creative Commons blog which, in turn, referred to the copyright policy which has been published on the new White House website. The new site went live shortly after Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States.
As you may of heard, the new Whitehouse.gov launched today at 12:01pm during Barack Obama’s inauguration. What you might not have noticed is that the copyright policy of the site stipulates that all 3rd party content is licensed under our most permissive Attribution license ...
COPYRIGHT NOTICE Pursuant to federal law, government-produced materials appearing on this site are not copyright protected. The United States Government may receive and hold copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise.
Except where otherwise noted, third-party content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Visitors to this website agree to grant a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license to the rest of the world for their submissions to Whitehouse.gov under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
(emphasis added)
Materials produced by the US government are in the public domain and are, accordingly, not protected by copyright. This license is intended to apply to content contributed by non-governmental sources and published on the White House website. This isn't the first time Obama and his staff selected a Creative Commons license. The Change.gov website, set up to provide a channel during the transition to power, also contains a Creative Commons license which doesn't just apply to content published by the Obama-Biden Transition project:
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Content includes all materials posted by the Obama-Biden Transition project. Visitors to this website agree to grant a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license to the rest of the world for their submissions to Change.gov under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Using open licenses and requiring contributors to these sites to license their content under such a liberal license is a remarkably progressive move and in keeping with a new ethos of transparency and accessibility in the Obama administration.
If you can type and have some knowledge about new media, then you can contribute. Writing for a wiki is a simple process. Here are three basic tips to get you started. Below are two links with comprehensive information on contributing and searching wikis for information.
If you want to practice is a "safe zone" visit the Sandbox, a page designed to get new wiki users comfortable writing and formatting in wiki language.
Wiki 101
Searching
1. Use this search box on the left to look for a term, person or work you want information on. (If the wiki does not have the item you're looking for, the results screen will provide a chance to create it.)
2. Less is sometimes more. If you're looking for an especially long title, or the name of a person or concept you're not exactly sure of, try searching for one key word (instead of the whole name or phrase). The results returned will show all entries with that word.
3. It's a good habit to use Captial letters for all words other than conjunctions or prepositions.
Contributing
1. As a young wiki, there is plenty of missing information. If you search for something that does not yet exist, please take the time to begin that entry. Even a one sentence contribution is helpful. In time, a wiki grows through contributions to become a useful and extensive resource. If you wish to edit an existing page, click the edit tab at the top of the page or any edit link that may be listed above each category of an entry.
2. It is good practice, as mentioned above, to create entries using capital letters on all words (other than conjunctions or prepositions) in the title. It is also good practice to include each entry into a category. If an appropriate category does not yet exist, users can create one.
3. Wiki entries typically contain links to other, related entries within the same wiki and often links to external websites. To link to another wiki entry place two "[" symbols in front of the first word of the entry and two "]" symbols after the last. If this entry does not yet exist, it is still a good idea to link it, if that entry would be a valuable addition to the wiki. If another user builds adds that entry at a later time, the link will become active automatically. To link to an external website add a "[" symbol just before the web address (include the http://). The add one space and write the text you will use to describe the link. Place a "]" symbol at the end to make the link functional. (Practice this in the Sandbox)
Help from Wikia and Wikipedia
Wikia's Help Page for getting started, contributing, editing, formatting and linking.
