Part A: Workspace Analysis

<aside> <img src="attachment:c4cc4222-4f9d-447e-aa85-7fdd0f8aa30d:ditto_gif.gif" alt="attachment:c4cc4222-4f9d-447e-aa85-7fdd0f8aa30d:ditto_gif.gif" width="40px" /> Ditto has morphed into a law student and needs to get organized! Ditto’s friend has generously offered a sample Notion workspace to show Ditto how a fellow student uses it as a personal information management system.

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Like the videos we watched in class, complex tools for thought are often best understood through the lens of workflows developed by power users. Law student Ben Kane runs much of his life through Notion, and shared with us a part of his workspace (thanks Ben!). You can check it out by clicking on this link:

A3 Workspace

https://endurable-diamond-2fc.notion.site/A3-Workspace-319ef3d12c958238b8cf81aa5ba14963

In this Notion workspace, you will see:

Task 1: Analysis (20 points)

To familiarize yourself with the workspace and Notion’s features, answer the following questions which require you to search for relevant information in the workspace:

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  1. What percentage of tasks are marked as “Done”?
  2. What is the one upcoming task?
  3. What are the three publication years with the most readings of any type in the database?
  4. What is the “Rightness Thesis” advanced in the article “Moral Worth and Moral Belief”? Hint: to see the notes on a reading, hover over the database entry and click “Open”. Or, try using the search by clicking “Search” in the top-left.
  5. What reading was associated with Week 8 of the Moral Epistemology class?
  6. In Legislation and Regulation, there is an idea that the intent of Congress provides key context for statutory interpretation. Which case provides context for this idea? How was this idea demonstrated in that case?

Task 2: Reflection (10 points)

Now that you’re familiarized with the workspace, let’s reflect on the structure of the workspace you just analyzed.

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  1. Draw a diagram that represents the hypertextual structure of the workspace. Some guidelines:
    1. Your diagram should capture hierarchy (what is contained in what, how are collapsible sections used) and cross-reference (what info is linked across the hierarchy).
    2. Your diagram should be abstract (showing the schematic structure of the workspace) rather than concrete (showing the actual links between specific pages, e.g., as in the Obsidian graph view).
  2. Imagine an alternative setup where each document is implemented using Google Docs / Microsoft Word, and each table is implemented using Google Sheets / Microsoft Excel. Based on your experience in Task 1, how is the process of information retrieval facilitated by Notion versus this counterfactual workspace? Explain in ≤2 paragraphs.

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Please submit answers to Task 1 and 2 in a single PDF.

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Part B: Workspace Augmentation

<aside> <img src="attachment:288004f9-41ed-4184-98fb-782d415c3e9c:ditto.png" alt="attachment:288004f9-41ed-4184-98fb-782d415c3e9c:ditto.png" width="40px" />

Ditto ended up using Obsidian for personal information management. Now, for a class, Ditto has been assigned a lot of court cases to read! Ditto now wants to extend Obsidian to be able to search and import court cases directly into Obsidian.

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A big challenge for modern hypertext systems is integrations: importing and structuring data pulled in from other systems. The vast majority of blocks types in Notion are integrations to systems like Slack, Jira, so on. In the legal world, one such data source is legal rulings, or the decisions + reasoning of a court after hearing a case. Organizations like CourtListener provide access to these rulings, which are distributed from the court as PDF, and then extracted into structured formats like HTML.