 Rural Law Online
Background
The rural law website is an information resource on the law for all regional and rural Victorians, provided by the Victoria Law Foundation.
 Rural Law Online addresses what was a serious lack of legal information accessible to Victoria’s regional and rural communities. This leading online resource provides free, comprehensive up-to-date plain language legal information on over 500 legal topics. The website also acts a portal for referral to local legal and other services. It regularly hosts interactive forums for regional and rural people to engage with each other and experts on topics of concern.
Rural Law Online uses the services of legal experts across a broad range of topics of law, as well as linking web users to relevant primary sources of information, including government departments and peak industry bodies.
Project Description
The Victorian Law Foundation (VLF) produce the Rural Law Handbook which has proven to be a popular resource for Victorian farmers and was initially designed as a plain language text for primary producers covering an extensive list of legal topics which impact on their work and lives. However due to constantly changing laws the shelf life of the publication is limited and it was felt that an excellent medium for upgrading, expansion and the broad dissemination of information on the law for primary producers would be the internet. The VLF therefore proposed to develop an internet resource for Victorian primary producers, and related services and industry sector organisations. The Online service was to include a number of core components; a detailed legal resource based on the Rural Law Handbook, a database referral service, extensive web links, syndicated content drawn from government sources and discussion forums around current legal topics.
The VLF approached CeCC to submit a tender for the Rural Law online project, which was successful. Essentially the Foundation was looking for an organisation to fulfil the design, building, maintenance and hosting of a website which would provide comprehensive information, general assistance around matters of law and the opportunity for the sharing of information for rural Victorians.
The primary objectives of the project were:
- to establish, build and maintain a quality and accessible free to user, legal information web site for primary producers and associated individuals and organisations in rural Victoria.
Secondary objectives to this were:
- To secure funding for the ongoing and financially independent functioning of the site.
- To use this model as a basis for a national service
Services delivered
- Complete website management including news, events, navigation and resources facilitated by the web-based Content Builder.
- General website services
- Detailed usage statistics
- Website Search
- Online forms for feedback and enquiries
- Dynamic navigation and sitemaps
- Single source publication management of the Rural Law Handbook
- Publish to multiple formats
- 500 page hardcopy
- Automatically published into over 1000 website pages
- Links database
- Dynamic glossary and index
- Find a service application containing a searchable database of relevant contacts and services
- Fully moderated discussion forums including featured (time limited) forums where experts are available to respond.
Methodology
The Rural Law Handbook provides plain language information on areas of law with a particularly rural focus. As is common with many publications of this type, numerous authors, reviewers and editors are involved. The task of coordinating all the content and ensuring consistency was managed by a VLF project manager. Producing new editions of any book is an immense task and generally only occurs every few years. The product which CeCC developed not only provides the ability for authors to contribute updates to a centralised management interface and for a book to be published to the web in a timely fashion. It also provides the facility for production of an up-to-date hard-copy edition at a chosen point in time.
Outcomes and benefits
Rural Law Online has been produced via extensive community collaboration through relationships brokered by the Foundation with Deakin University, The University of Ballarat, Victorian Farmers Federation, rural financial counselors, the Department of Primary Industry, the Department of Sustainability and Environment and the Department of Transport and Regional Services.
Rural Law Online addresses what was a serious lack of legal information accessible to Victoria’s regional and rural communities. This leading online resource provides free, comprehensive up-to-date plain language legal information on over 500 legal topics. The website also acts a portal for referral to local legal and other services. It regularly hosts interactive forums for regional and rural people to engage with each other and experts on topics of concern.
The 2006 Annual Report for the Victoria Law Foundation confirms that in the twelve months to 30 June 2006 Rural Law Online attracted more than 2.3 million hits, 156,000 visits and averaged 429 visits per day. It is the ranked as the number one resource for 'Rural Law' by Google.
Customer feedback
In a recent interview for the University of Ballarat Enterprise Connections article Clever Books the Rural Law Online Project Manager, Richard Coverdale identified that he has been impressed by CeCC's commitment to rural communities, 'Their blend of expertise in web technology, focus on responding to client needs and commitment to serving and engaging communities, makes for a rare and much valued combination'.
'The law changes frequently and there is a need to be responsive to emerging legal issues arising for rural communities and industry', explains Richard Coverdale, 'Docbook Manager offered us a flexible and inexpensive content updating process'.
Docbook Manager has also been confirmed as particularly suited to publications of a collaborative nature. Multiple contributors can edit and update information with no training, simply by logging onto the web. 'For Rural Law Online this means content may be directly updated "off-site" by specialists in particular areas of law from anywhere around Australia, or in draft form for further review', reveals Richard. 'The built-in safeguards, including access protocols and archiving ensure adequate control, reporting and tracking of all content'.
In a letter to the University of Ballarat on 3 October 2006, the Executive Director of the Victoria Law Foundation, Professor Kathy Laster indicated:
The University's work on Rural Law Online has been first class, exceeding all our expectations. One important measure of the success of the project is the remarkable uptake of this user friendly accessible resource.
... It is also pleasing to see that the Fitzroy Legal Service Handbook is to go online early next year with your advice and support. From the perspective of the Foundation this is an excellent outcome ... we are confident that the Project Grant we have just awarded will lead to a high quality resource for Fitzroy and the users of the Handbook.
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