Bluebook Rule 18 specifies how materials available in electronic formats should be cited. However, merely proving an “available at” citation does not ensure the content you are referencing will be available at the URL on a later date. In the past, printing a hard copy of the URL or saving an image of the site a PDF documents have been the preferred methods to preserve the content being referencing. Now there is a better way to ensure a website is available for future reference exactly the way it was when you made reference to it: Iterasi.
Iterasi allows you to save a complete webpage on a secure, searchable account while retaining all of the site’s dynamic content. Importantly for lawyers, it allows you to “notarize” a website, which provides verification of the authenticity of the saved page. Once Iterasi is installed, you will see the Iterasi buttons in your browser menu, allowing for one-click notarizations and easy access to all the pages you have notarized. As the Iterasi website puts it, “When a user wants to save a page, one click on the Notarize button instantly transfers the page to a secure personal account, providing a high-fidelity copy of the page, including images, forms, transactions, receipts, confirmations and personalized content.”
Unlike bookmarks and favorites, Iterasi ensures the page you saw is available for future reference long after the site content has changed. While some websites like the Internet Archive and Google Cache are able to retrieve cached pages from the internet to show you what a page looked like in the past, (See eg. Yahoo, circa 1998) there is no guarantee the page you need will be cached from the date you need it or cached at all. Notarizing a website through Iterasi ensures you will be able to save all the data on a website. Because Iterasi also retains the interactive capabilities of a website, it is a much better option than saving a webpage as a PDF document. So next time you are using a “available at” citation to an internet source, consider using an Iterasi link as additional way to ensure the content you are referencing will available whenever you need it.
Iterasi, responding to beta-tester feedback, has also implemented an automatic scheduler that allows you to schedule notarizations of websites you want to keep an eye on. You can also add notes and tags to your saved pages so that your notarized pages can be found quickly later. Saved pages can be shared through email, and Iterasi allows the recipient to see the shared webpage without logging into Iterasi.
More about Iterasi:
The one drawback of Iterasi is that currently on the Windows platform is supported, though a Mac version is scheduled to come out later this summer.
Demonstration of Iterasi:
You can sign up for Iterasi and get more information here.
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Written by Benson Varghese. ♦ Contact Benson.♦ Have Res Ipsa Blog delivered to you.
Thanks for the post about iterasi and how it would be used by attorneys when referencing a web site for Bluebook Rule 18. Just fyi, our Mac version is coming out in just a few weeks.
Would you have some time to talk? I’d love to further discuss your perceptions of the product.
[...] As previously mentioned, Iterasi allows you to save dynamic webpages for future reference, even after the content of the original page has changed. Since I posted my review of Iterasi, Iterasi has added support for Mac OS X, and a scheduler which automatically archives webpages on a regular basis. In a conversation I had with Alex Williams, the Director of Product Marketing for Iterasi, I mentioned the availability of short permanent URLs to access the notarized pages would be a feature I thought users would really appreciate so they can more easily use Iterasi for citations in professional publications. I am happy to report that the most recent version of Iterasi offers this new feature. This is a company that is listening to what users want and responding quickly. Keep an eye on this add-on for additional features in the future. [...]
Benson,
Fantastic resource! So glad you posted on it. Am in the process of iterasi-ing all the “See, e.g.” links on the Clerkship Notification Blog. Keep up the great work as always!
-DOD
[...] Res Ipsa Blog discusses how iterasi may be used for attorneys who need to cite web sites in their original format. Most often, attorneys will print out the web site or create a pdf. According to the Res Ipsa blog, iterasi is a better way as it provides lawyers an exact copy of the site when they referenced it. [...]