Shilling for my friend's company: sign up, you f**ks Forum

[rinkrat19]

I've been using LearnLeo since first semester of 1L and it's SUPER FUCKING helpful. It's an easy way to make fake-case briefs by just highlighting and typing notes and then copy-pasting the notes onto a word doc or onenote. It's also really nice to be able to access readings even if I forgot my book at home or don't want to bring it to class that day.

Plus, being able to ctrl-f in a reading? Awwww yea.

I didn't use it as extensively as Crumps did but I agree with her review. It's pretty handy and is well-designed.

[laxbrah420]

I've been using LearnLeo since first semester of 1L and it's SUPER FUCKING helpful. It's an easy way to make fake-case briefs by just highlighting and typing notes and then copy-pasting the notes onto a word doc or onenote. It's also really nice to be able to access readings even if I forgot my book at home or don't want to bring it to class that day.

Plus, being able to ctrl-f in a reading? Awwww yea.

They put up entire casebook readings? Like, matching the edits of the cases? Is that legit under some awesome interpretation of fair-use?

The case opinions themselves are public domain. The only copyrighted things in a casebook are the notes and questions, as well as the exact abridgements of the cases. But, if you've ever looked at the same case across multiple case books (and I've done this a lot lately) you'll see that the abridgements are really, really similar. Our site works on the same principle. Our case abridgements are very similar to a given book for a given class, but not identical. We tend to be over-inclusive - where a casebook cuts sentences in the middle of paragraphs, we include them. Or we include paragraphs here or there.

The point is to match the online version closely to the version available in the casebook for your course, without running into copyright problems. We also try to make sure that all of our abridgements emphasize the same points that casebooks do - which is what the case is being taught for. We do allow users to view the completely unabridged version of a case, should they choose.

That's truly awesome --sounds like a great resource.
Presumably there's overlaps in many of the books such that students not at the schools this is tailored to could still immediately find the site useful. (i.e. I'm guessing you have the Dukemenier property book available?) What's the justification for the decision to restrict the site the way you do?

If that's not totally clear, the Quimbee model is just to brief the most popular casebooks. If your casebook is there, you're good. If not, you're not. It seems like that would work at your site too --and specifically ensuring that you've included every book at certain schools is a great bonus feature. I'm just curious why you've rejected that model?

[hmlee]

I've been using LearnLeo since first semester of 1L and it's SUPER FUCKING helpful. It's an easy way to make fake-case briefs by just highlighting and typing notes and then copy-pasting the notes onto a word doc or onenote. It's also really nice to be able to access readings even if I forgot my book at home or don't want to bring it to class that day.

Plus, being able to ctrl-f in a reading? Awwww yea.

They put up entire casebook readings? Like, matching the edits of the cases? Is that legit under some awesome interpretation of fair-use?

The case opinions themselves are public domain. The only copyrighted things in a casebook are the notes and questions, as well as the exact abridgements of the cases. But, if you've ever looked at the same case across multiple case books (and I've done this a lot lately) you'll see that the abridgements are really, really similar. Our site works on the same principle. Our case abridgements are very similar to a given book for a given class, but not identical. We tend to be over-inclusive - where a casebook cuts sentences in the middle of paragraphs, we include them. Or we include paragraphs here or there.

The point is to match the online version closely to the version available in the casebook for your course, without running into copyright problems. We also try to make sure that all of our abridgements emphasize the same points that casebooks do - which is what the case is being taught for. We do allow users to view the completely unabridged version of a case, should they choose.

That's truly awesome --sounds like a great resource.
Presumably there's overlaps in many of the books such that students not at the schools this is tailored to could still immediately find the site useful. (i.e. I'm guessing you have the Dukemenier property book available?) What's the justification for the decision to restrict the site the way you do?

If that's not totally clear, the Quimbee model is just to brief the most popular casebooks. If your casebook is there, you're good. If not, you're not. It seems like that would work at your site too --and specifically ensuring that you've included every book at certain schools is a great bonus feature. I'm just curious why you've rejected that model?

Well, as for fully opening at a ton of schools, we haven't done that partly because we upload actual syllabi for courses to the site, and don't yet have the manpower to do that for 50-100+ schools.

We have tossed around building a sort of limited version that doesn't have cases organizes by syllabus, but rather by book, and then let students from schools we aren't at sign up for that part. We have concerns about being able to handle the traffic coming from that, but it's still a possibility. A lot really will depend on how well the 0L portal this summer goes, and our expansion to schools in the fall. Our growth model is exponential. The better we do at the more schools, the more we can hire, the faster we can open at new schools...

[KD35]

And so there's no way for us to be able to use the tool unless our school is supported? Dang, well that sucks cuz this thing looks pretty awesome and helpful.

What's the estimated release date of the prelaw/0L thing?

[hmlee]

And so there's no way for us to be able to use the tool unless our school is supported? Dang, well that sucks cuz this thing looks pretty awesome and helpful.

What's the estimated release date of the prelaw/0L thing?

The last update I got from the devs earlier this week was within the next month if sign-up numbers weren't great, but within two weeks if they were.

The 0L site is available to all who sign up. But, yeah, for the full site, there isn't yet a way for students at schools we don't support to use it. That might change.

[hmlee]

I've been using LearnLeo since first semester of 1L and it's SUPER FUCKING helpful. It's an easy way to make fake-case briefs by just highlighting and typing notes and then copy-pasting the notes onto a word doc or onenote. It's also really nice to be able to access readings even if I forgot my book at home or don't want to bring it to class that day.

Plus, being able to ctrl-f in a reading? Awwww yea.

I'm happy that at at least someone picked up on the awesomeness of the ctrl-f feature. Seriously, when I was demoing the product last summer, I couldn't believe that nobody else was as excited about that as I was.

[buddyt]

I'm in, breh.

[KD35]

And so there's no way for us to be able to use the tool unless our school is supported? Dang, well that sucks cuz this thing looks pretty awesome and helpful.

What's the estimated release date of the prelaw/0L thing?

The last update I got from the devs earlier this week was within the next month if sign-up numbers weren't great, but within two weeks if they were.

The 0L site is available to all who sign up. But, yeah, for the full site, there isn't yet a way for students at schools we don't support to use it. That might change.

How many students(ish) would a school need to have in order for the devs to look into adding their school?

[justonemoregame]

I heard that if you put in the code "Georgetown," you get a complimentary iphone app. Word on the street.

[hmlee]

And so there's no way for us to be able to use the tool unless our school is supported? Dang, well that sucks cuz this thing looks pretty awesome and helpful.

What's the estimated release date of the prelaw/0L thing?

The last update I got from the devs earlier this week was within the next month if sign-up numbers weren't great, but within two weeks if they were.

The 0L site is available to all who sign up. But, yeah, for the full site, there isn't yet a way for students at schools we don't support to use it. That might change.

How many students(ish) would a school need to have in order for the devs to look into adding their school?

There's no set number. When we pick schools to expand to, we look at it as a two part question. First, "How easy will it be to gain new sign-ups from this school?" Things that go into that include demonstrated interest from the campus, our personal contacts on campus, and ease of getting the word out. The second question is, "If sign-ups are slow, is it worth it to be open here before somewhere else?" For the second question, factors include the size of the school (potential number of sign-ups), whether being open at that school adds recognition for our site, and whether firms are highly interested in the students at that school.

So, when we have no data about possible adoption by a student body, we have to lean on our contacts at a campus and the name recognition we get from opening there, since it's kind of a leap of faith. These factors are why Michigan and NYU were the two schools we opened at right after Northwestern, as opposed to some other schools.

On the other hand, if we know that a good number of students are likely to sign-up to use us and spread the word about us on their campus, it makes it a lot easier to justify opening there since we'll have to invest less resources in getting user sign-ups going after opening.

If you PM me your school name I might be able to give you more specific information.

[hmlee]

I heard that if you put in the code "Georgetown," you get a complimentary iphone app. Word on the street.

Clever.