LESSONS FROM THE WEB

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The Creation of the E-Book on International Finance and Development: A Journey into Cyberspace

Enrique Carrasco, University of Iowa College of Law

Below is a brief account of my experience creating an interactive substantive resource on the Web. I hope my observations benefit JURIST readers who may be contemplating a similar venture.

The Global Educational Need

I write and teach in the areas of "law and development" and international finance. Much of my work explores a paradox called "growth with marginalization," a term I coined recently to capture globalization's tendency to simultaneously enrich and impoverish communities throughout the world. The paradox, like the process of globalization itself, is extremely complex. This makes the search for solutions a daunting task, especially given considerable disagreement among experts as to whether any particular paradox-breaking strategy will work.

Educators would hardly disagree, however, that informing people about the processes and consequences of globalization is a threshold requirement. If more people understand what "development" means, how law affects the development process, and how international finance and international financial institutions operate in the era of globalization, communities around the world will be in a better position to question, assess, and resist policies and decisions that might adversely affect them. Put another way, widespread and basic education regarding international finance and development can assist us in achieving what the United Nations has called an "enabling environment" for development.

When I initially considered how I could pursue this educational mission, I surveyed the traditional means: teaching as well as publishing in law reviews and writing books. These methods are useful, of course, and I continue to employ them. But they have their limits. Relatively few people read law review articles and academic books. And seminars run the risk of becoming dull exercises where students write papers knowing that their work product will never see the light of day.

The Handbook

For these reasons, I began to conceptualize a practical "handbook" for lay people that could be distributed widely to communities around the world. I thought about holding workshops or "teach-ins" in interested communities, using the handbook as a teaching tool. During the summer of 1997, as I thought about my 1997-98 seminar on the role of international financial institutions in the era of globalization, I considered the possibility of having students contribute substantively to such a handbook and join me, if possible, in the workshops.

I broached this idea in the fall when I initially met with my seven seminar students, Saladin Al-Jurf, Sandra Blanco, Ricardo Contreras, Eric Dorkin, Roman Terrill, Nicole Wendt, and James Woepking. They responded with cautious enthusiasm. All of them were very eager to learn and to write something other than the typical research paper. But some had little background in the seminar's subject matter and they all faced a mountain of challenging reading I had selected for the course. Moreover, none of us at that time knew exactly what the handbook would look like. The workshops seemed even more vague conceptually. The students were nonetheless intrigued with this unique opportunity. So, throughout the fall semester they read heavily and wrote "concept papers" indicating what they thought would be the best format and subject matter for the handbook.

Posting the Handbook in Cyberspace

In the meantime, I had been having numerous conversations about computer technology and the Web with Kristen Berg, a research assistant I hired in May 1997 who is quite knowledgeable about those matters. Our conversations led me to wonder whether we could post the handbook in cyberspace. My interest in doing so sharpened after I received an enthusiastic response to the posting of my Asian crisis course outline on my home page, which Kristen had so ably created for me.

I was nevertheless careful to temper my excitement with a good deal of caution. Although I use the Web to obtain information for my research and teaching, I am not a Web or computer expert. Kristen could fill that deficit, but I wasn't sure a full-time law student would have the time to assist me with the project. Even if we could post the handbook on the Web, I didn't want to slap together a set of superficial seminar papers and proclaim that we had created an integrated resource on international finance and development. When weighed against the advantages of a high tech approach to the handbook, these possible complications and pitfalls seemed to balance the scales evenly.

The students' concept papers helped tip the scales in favor of the Web. Their submissions were creative yet realistic in scope. They clearly wanted to try writing a handbook that could help others learn more about international finance and development. I took advantage of their enthusiasm and popped the question: Did they want to take the handbook one step further and post it on the Web by the end of the year--for all the world to see?

Having agreed to create the handbook, all of us at that point felt like first-time climbers of Mount Everest who would be satisfied reaching Camp I at 19,500 feet. Suggesting that we put the handbook in cyberspace was like asking the group whether they wanted to continue to the summit some 10,000 feet higher. After shivering a bit with a mixture of apprehension and exhilaration, we decided to go for the summit. Based on the concept papers, I assigned students to various topics with the understanding that we would create an integrated handbook devoted to law and development, international finance, globalization, and the operations of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The Work

We established several guiding principles for the writing phase of our project, which we decided would be completed by mid-April for a public workshop on April 17, 1998 at the University of Iowa College of Law. First, because we wanted to target lay readers, the handbook would be written in "plain English." I warned the group that this would not be easy given the technical language and legalese in most of the research material we had explored; they would essentially have to translate the jargon into easily accessible language. Second, even though we would write in simple and direct language, we could not approach substance simplistically, inaccurately, or superficially. Third, we happily agreed to banish law-review-type footnotes from the handbook. Instead, we would create links in the text allowing the reader to read in more depth about a particular matter by simply clicking on the highlighted passage.

While the students went to work writing their sections, Kristen tackled the many technical issues relating to the creation of the handbook. She established uniform word processing specifications that would enable her to convert the papers efficiently to HTML code. She then began to design and create a framework to provide a cohesive and easily navigable electronic environment for the handbook. Early in the spring semester, she posted a draft section of the handbook on a test site and impressively demonstrated its use in class to the students. This gave all of us a much needed boost in morale, which had started to sag as the authors worked under the strain of producing sections for what until then was a vague, disembodied cyberspace project.

Anxiety and Exhaustion

When I received the authors' drafts, I realized for the first time the true enormity of our project. We had agreed to write a book and place it on the Web over the course of a few months! Fortunately, our group had worked hard and the drafts were focused and useful. I returned them to the authors with many comments and suggestions, reminding them (and myself) that people around the world would read their pieces.

At that point we realized that a traditional seminar would have been far gentler on our nerves. Students could have made the strategic choice of investing the time and effort to write an "A" paper of publishable quality or do less and live with a lower grade. I would have been responsible for reading the final draft and grading the paper, but no more. Our Web project, however, eliminated those options. Each of us had to help produce a quality handbook that would reflect well on the authors and the College of Law. Grades had become meaningless.

Rumors began to circulate that we didn't have the stamina or the time to make it to Mount Everest's summit. I encouraged our group to stay focused, though. We had worked too hard to turn back. The summit was within our reach! Yet I realized that to make the summit on time, nothing could go wrong. None of us could get sick. The final drafts would have to be turned in on time and need relatively light editing. And Kristen would have to work out all of the technical aspects of the project without encountering major glitches.

Murphy's Law quickly dashed any hope that my ideal scenario would come to pass. Due to various complications, I spent weeks at my home computer editing sections of the handbook almost around the clock. Days and nights became indistinguishable as I worked through the authors' papers. Although their submissions were impressive considering the difficult material, I still had to iron out the typical substantive and stylistic wrinkles that an editor confronts in almost any project. I was so consumed with the substantive tasks of our project that Kristen offered to coordinate all of the administrative tasks--in addition to working out the technical aspects of the handbook! For all intents and purposes, Kristen became the Project Producer of the handbook, which we had dubbed the "E-Book on International Finance and Development."

Thanks to the authors' very hard work and Kristen's skills, determination, and stamina, the E-Book gradually began to take final form on the Web test site. Kristen's job was truly arduous during the two weeks prior to the E-Book's debut. After I finished the substantive edits of a paper, I turned it over to her to fix the inevitable bugs that appear when several people work on the same document. She then had to convert each paper into HTML code (we hired Tim Schemmel, a law student, to help her with this workload), create the links, double check for errors, and upload the documents. After Nancy Jones, the Director of the College of Law's Writing Center, proofed the posted sections, Kristen had to repost the final edits for Nancy's final review. She did all this while working with my other research assistants to set up the workshop.

The E-Book's Debut

On the 17th of April, we unveiled the E-Book. Using a live hook-up to the Internet, we projected the E-Book on a large screen in the law school's auditorium. During the three-hour workshop, each exhausted but proud participant in this project ably explained and demonstrated the features and substance of the electronic handbook to a mixed audience of students, faculty, and Iowa City residents. The local reaction was very positive. And soon thereafter people around the world began "hitting" the site--over sixty countries have been registered thus far-- offering their congratulations and making inquiries.

We had reached the summit after all--and on schedule!

The New Features

Over the past few months we've added features that complement the original E-Book we created last spring. In addition to e-mail and a bulletin board, E-Book readers can now access the E-Book Poll, E-Book Perspectives, E-Book News, E-Book Calendar, E-Book Chat Room, and E- Book Links. All of these features are intended to help the reader acquire and understand basic information regarding international finance and development. If lay persons have a question about the E-Book or need research assistance regarding a matter relating to the E-Book's themes, my students and I, who constitute the E-Book staff, might be able to help them via the E-Book Help. Desk.

The E-Book's Contribution to Global Education

Will the E-Book contribute effectively to the type of widespread education we need to create an enabling environment for development? It's hard to say. On the one hand, many of the people we really want to reach don't have computers and even if they do, their hardware may be too old to support efficient access to the E-Book and their electricity and telephone lines may not work reliably. Put another way, those who currently have reliable access to the E-Book are relatively privileged. Thus, we may unwittingly be helping widen the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots," thereby perpetuating the very thing we are trying to stop--growth with marginalization.

On the other hand, we are contributing to an enabling environment to the extent that the students involved in the project believe their learning regarding international finance and development, embodied in the E-Book, will enable others around the world to improve their understanding of the subject matter in question. Regarding the issue of access, we are willing to offer workshops in interested communities.

In fact, we recently demonstrated the E-Book at a conference of the Society of American Law Teachers in Los Angeles, California. We called the demonstration a "transnational teach-in" because via the E-Book Chat Room we simultaneously presented the E-Book in Los Angeles, Iowa City, Iowa, and Paris, France. In the near future, we hope to hold on-site workshops in China, Russia, and France.

We are also addressing the accessibility issue by raising funds to provide targeted communities with computers and computer support. And additional funding for translations of the E-Book will help us expand its reach.

In the meantime, I have new seminar students who are eager to study and expand the E- Book. There's lots of work ahead. Perhaps we're facing an infinite journey into cyberspace. Who knows? One thing is for sure, though. The members of the original group will always share a special bond, which was forged by a common purpose, mutual support, and a genuinely collaborative spirit.

Previous columns in this series:

• The Virtual Teacher
  Patrick Wiseman, Georgia State University College of Law
• Build It, and They Will Come: Using a Web Page as an Effective Extension of Your Classroom and Faculty Office
  Pedro Malavet, University of Florida School of Law
• The Rewards and Risks of Authoring a Web Site
  Barbara Glesner-Fines, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law
• Teaching With the Web
  Jerry Kang, UCLA School of Law
• Re-thinking Electronic Casebooks
  Gary Neustadter, Santa Clara University School of Law
• Planning a Law School Web Site
  Mark Gould, Faculty of Law, University of Bristol, UK
• Takeovers that Overtake the Traditional Classroom: Web-based Simulations as a Law School Learning Environment
  Robert Lawless, University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law
• Copyright, Academia and the New Scholarship
  Kim Dayton, University of Kansas School of Law
• The Four Corners of the Academic Website World
  William Slomanson, Thomas Jefferson School of Law