CodeHS and Code is Law

Yesterday, we went to the second instalment of Code Is Law* which is sort of an informal crash course on programming for beginners put on by Pieter Gunst, one of the co-founders of LawGives and a Fellow at CodeX. The last time I coded anything that wasn't a website was probably a decade ago when we learned Visual Basic in high school. I'm fairly certain VB became obsolete around the same time we gave up floppy disks. This time around, I'm going to be learning Javascript with the help of CodeHS, a StartX company.

*Aptly named after Lawrence Lessig's dictum in his book Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace.

Jeremy does a pretty good job explaining how CodeHS works in the video above but the basic idea is that the website teaches programming with instructional videos followed by little exercises. CodeHS is great because not only does it teach you how to code, it teaches you how to think like a programmer (so you can pick up other languages), and how to code with style. I think if any professional ever looks at the backend of my websites, they'd be pretty horrified because my coding is all over the place so even if I forget all the javascript and just retain some good coding practices, I'll be very pleased.

Why is programming relevant to law students/lawyers?

1. Programming is about problem solving and using logic - two areas that all legal minds ought to be familiar with. Conditional if/else statements are essential both in law and in coding (and on the LSAT for those of us that still remember that small nightmare). Programming is good exercise for your brain.

2. As we move increasingly into a digital space, understanding the basics of software engineering is an asset in any field. People tend to think that law is an archaic discipline where men in suits sit behind large mahogany desks poring over stacks of documents. While the legal field hasn't been as technology-savvy as say, medicine, legal informatics is a rapidly growing area and chances are that lawyers can't avoid software engineers in the workplace for much longer. For more on this topic, see Richard Susskind's The End of Lawyers.

3. Software and information industries are rapidly expanding making intellectual property law the fastest growing area of legal specialization. I'm perhaps a little biased here but I think intellectual property and technology law is an exciting and flourishing field and this will continue to be true for a long time to come. Having a good grasp on the building blocks of technology i.e. code will thus no doubt be advantageous to a career in technology law.

My Picks from StartX Campus Demo Day September 2012

Demo Day is exactly what it sounds like - a bunch of startup companies give short presentations of their product/service in order to showcase their work to the media and to solicit users/investors/people to work for them. This particular demo day was for past and present StartX (and therefore Stanford) affiliates.

The event was very well-attended with over 1000 RSVPs and eventually a waitlist to get in. The room was full of curious students (with quite a few MBAs), fellow entrepreneurs, and interested spectators. The whole thing was livestreamed on the StartX website but unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a recorded version to show you now.

Both keynote speakers, John Lilly and Aaron Levie, were informative and very charismatic. Aaron Levie being 27 years old is simultaneously intimidating and inspiring.

Here's a photo of the room that John Lilly took on his smartphone, instagrammed, and then posted on his tumblr:

I can't remember how many startups presented - it must have been something like two dozen. They span across many different fields - social networking, fashion, travel, health, education, etc. As I was watching, I realized how difficult it is to start a successful company. Some ideas were great but something in the execution was off. Others were just too complicated or superfluous to really catch on with the general public without being mounted on a platform they already use. And then there were those that have already been done. 

Not that I'm an expert on tech innovation - I only jumped on the smartphone bandwagon two years ago and I still don't have a Pinterest. But sometimes, it's easier to evaluate the viability of an app or product from the layperson's point of view.

Without further ado, here are my favourite pitches of the day:

Watchup is an iPad app that generates a personalized video playlist from your favourite news channels. This is a great idea for those who like to catch up on current events over breakfast. This is one I would definitely use myself. It also reminds me of Zite, another app that I'm fond of.

Mindsumo is an experiential education platform that allows organizations to pose real world challenges to college students. Problems range from "Reduce traffic jams in US urban city centers" to "Reduce childhood obesity in your community". Winners are rewarded cash prizes, an invaluable experience, and networking opportunities. 

Pixelee is a tool that provides brand managers a way to collect user-generated photos, use them to promote their brand, and then analyze the photos to learn more about their customers. 

Appfluence created the Priority Matrix which is organizational software that manages your projects and responsibilities to let you know what to work on next. The Priority Matrix evaluates which tasks are most urgent and critical and creates a to-do list. I haven't tried this out yet but it looks promising.

Nutrivise is a nutrition app that creates tailored meal plans. Its best feature is probably the "NutriSCORE" which lists healthy meal options around you, right down to the ordering instructions. My only gripe is that considering how quickly restaurants pop up or go out of business and how often menus and/or ingredients are changed, I'm not sure this app will be able to stay up-to-date with its information. Ideally, I would like the NutriSCORE feature to be on an existing service I already use like Yelp or UrbanSpoon. Still a great idea nonetheless.

First week rundown

Our first week of the placement was a bit of a whirlwind to say the least. We flew in the day of a football game between Stanford and the University of Southern California which explained why almost every hotel in the university area had been booked a month in advance (we eventually settled in at the Stanford Guest House which is actually more like the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Guest House). Unfortunately* the game was just about over by the time we arrived at the stadium but we did get to watch a water polo game the next day.

*Or not. As someone who had an entire conversation with someone about the "Senators" thinking he meant the upper house of Parliament, I'm not sure I was entirely ready to experience the full force of American college sports fanaticism. 

Campus Tour

Sunlit and covered in palm trees, bicycles, and tourists, Stanford looks friendly and inviting. We took a walking tour of the 8,180 acre-campus and learned a little about the history of the university. Stanford's official name is Leland Stanford Junior University, after California senator Leland Stanford's son who passed away as a teen from typhoid fever. Stanford is also often called "the Farm" having been a stock farm before the school was built. 

Every other building had an interesting story (I won't recount them all here) that our tour guide patiently divulged. One of the campus landmarks is Hoover Tower, a library/archival collection founded by Stanford alumnus and later 31st president of the United States, Herbert Hoover. 

Hoover Tower

The view from Hoover Tower's observational platform. The building with the blue triangle is the J. Henry Meyer Memorial Library.