Runtime Donates To NYLS

New York, NY 8 May 2008—Runtime Revolution has recently donated to New York Law School a school-wide license of Revolution Studio, a software tool that allows novices to develop software applications without special training or prior programming knowledge. This is the first time Runtime Revolution has donated its software to an entire institution; the estimated value of the donation is $532,000.

“On behalf of the entire New York Law School community, I’d like to thank Runtime Revolution for their generous gift,” Dean and President Richard A. Matasar said. “It will be of great benefit to all students, including those who plan to work in intellectual property, patent law, and information technology. In addition to our innovative and interactive teaching methods, our students also have the latest technology tools to aid them in their legal studies.”

For the past four years, the Institute for Information Law & Policy (IILP) at New York Law School has been using Runtime Revolution software to create interactive learning tools, such as legal card games; to build innovative applications, including software that aids in creating solutions to multi-party, multi-issue disputes and policy debates; and to teach students how interactive systems work and what software engineers do. Students have used Runtime’s software to create legal expert systems, argument diagrams, and “clickable statutes” to explain complex legal rules via interactive diagrams.

“Runtime Revolution instantly provides the capability for students to learn, analyze, and demonstrate their understanding of the law through a slick, intuitive interface,” recent New York Law School graduate Nick Nicolakis said. “One of the most important benefits of this wonderful tool is its ease of use. Without any training, our research team was able to use Runtime Revolution to quickly develop working prototypes of interactive analytical flowcharts, statutory compliance tools, and collaborative project management utilities for distributed environments.”

One of the goals of the IILP is to teach students how to harness the tools of information and communications to achieve social justice with the philosophy that both software code and legal code shape human relations. The donation of Revolution Studio will help further the Institute’s mission by making it easier for students to learn the logic and behavior of interactive software systems.

Some of the established programs of the IILP that will benefit from the Revolution Studio software include:

The Certificate of Mastery in Law Practice Technology, which helps students learn about the impact of technology on law practice and legal institutions.

The Do Tank and the Democracy Design Workshop, which strive to strengthen the ability of groups to solve problems, make decisions, resolve conflict, and govern themselves by designing software and legal code to promote collaboration. Two examples of projects of the Do Tank are:
- Peer-to-Patent, a social software system that allows for collaborative patent examination to a system that is currently closed to collaboration. The program is in the pilot stage with the United States Trademark and Patent Office.
- Virtual Company, a project to build online tools to help groups create and implement governance rules necessary for successful collaboration.

Visual Persuasion, a class that teaches students about the increasing importance of using images to communicate messages. Students create a visual display for use as demonstrative evidence as trial.

Runtime Revolution, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, is the leading cross-platform development environment for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

About New York Law School

Founded in 1891, New York Law School is an independent law school located in lower Manhattan near the city’s centers of law, government, and finance. New York Law School’s renowned faculty of prolific scholars has built the School’s strength in such areas as constitutional law, civil and human rights, labor and employment law, media and information law, urban legal studies, international and comparative law, and a number of interdisciplinary fields. The School is noted for its seven academic centers: Center for International Law, Center for New York City Law, Center for Professional Values and Practice, Center for Real Estate Studies, Center on Business Law and Policy, Institute for Information Law and Policy, and Justice Action Center. New York Law School has more than 13,000 graduates and enrolls some 1,500 students in its full- and part-time J.D. program and its Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Taxation program. www.nyls.edu

More information about Revolution and NYLS can be found here.