The Online Faculty Scholarship Workshop: A Social In-House Repository for Early (pre-SSRN) Drafts

There are limited in-person opportunities for law school faculty to workshop quarter- and half-baked ideas with colleagues. Sites like SSRN provide an electronic option to solicit feedback on drafts, but due to those sites' wide reach, many faculty only post substantially finished work, preferring to keep developing work under wraps from the world at large. To fill the gap, Loyola Law School is developing an in-house repository for article drafts. Faculty can post ideas and drafts electronically, granting access to individually selected colleagues or to the entire faculty. Those with access to an article/idea can read what's posted and offer feedback directly on the website via threaded comments. Ideally, the system offers all the same interaction opportunities available at an in-person workshop, but in a non-linear fashion and without the need to coordinate the schedules of an entire law school faculty. The session will provide a tour of the Online Workshop's features and discuss the Drupal framework used to create it.