Law, Technology and Civic Entrepreneurship

Abstract

My research centers on the interrelationship between law and technology, both how the law is applied to new technology and the impact that technology has on the law and its practice. During the past year, I published and/or presented on such diverse topics as the extent to which copyright, patent, and trademark law protects websites, apps and GUIs, legal and ethical issues related to social media, and legal considerations for 3D printing. Through my national professional organization, I have advocated for modernization of the U.S. Copyright Office and for an alternative dispute process for small copyright infringement claims. The emerging area of law known as electronic discovery (e-discovery) has been a particular focus of mine for the last decade. E-discovery deals with how to handle digital evidence in all formats before and throughout litigation and sits perfectly at the intersection of law, technology and data science. My recent activities have included efforts to develop a robust and full-featured predictive coding system that will streamline the e-discovery process so that it is less time-consuming and costly and reduces the potential for errors.

A passion of mine is microfinance/women’s empowerment, inspired by the work of Muhammad Yunus and my experiences teaching an entrepreneurship course here at SoIC every year since 2003. For six years, I was the leader of a successful microfinance/women’s empowerment project in Mexico and I am now completing a second year of being a project leader and “champion” for microfinance/women’s empowerment projects in Sierra Leone. As part of my efforts, I have been working with graduate students to redesign the website and social media/communications approach for the microfinance organization that oversees and administers these projects.