ORS, Mendeleev, Roget, Tufte, and You?

I blogged a little while ago about a new website for the Oregon Revised Statutes. In the old days (pre-Web old days) you needed serious money, organization, and infrastructure to set up a publishing business so even if you had a better mousetrap, or a statute compilation, you probably cooled your jets and went off to practice law instead of building your own database.

Welcome to the Zeros (i.e. 2000’s)! If you have an idea, you can run with it, or code with it (yes, “to code” is a verb), web it, blog it, or otherwise unleash your inner online publisher.

The ORS site mentioned above is courtesy of smart, creative, and public-service minded law students (universities and law school networks are behind many a nascent entrepreneurial enterprise).

Here is another one from lawyers: Naked Ownership: All Things Legal in Louisiana (and do read about how the site was named).

No one has yet topped Roget’s beautiful thesaurus (not to mention the Periodic Table), but many have tried (see, for example, Edward Tufte’s oeuvre) and we are better for it.