Lockey White JD ’01 E-database of Legal Research Saves Trees

In a world in which profit often prevails over protecting the environment, Lockey White is proving what’s good for the pocketbook can be good for the planet.

“Smart Mediary Systems is currently the best option for individuals and small- to medium-sized publishers and creative teams who want to move away from paper printing toward electronic files that don’t use toxic ink for printing, trees for paper, and fossil fuels for distribution,” says White.

Launched in early 2002, Smart Mediary Systems is the parent company of Briefsmart, a venture she started two years earlier while studying environmental law at Lewis & Clark Law School. White discovered that litigators for public interest groups were unable to access costly, complex legal documents typically available only to large firms with ample funds, so she decided to even the playing field.

Smart Mediary Systems is a database system that offers an affordable way for people to buy and sell creative and intellectual material on a per-file or per-library basis via the Internet. Proprietary software protects the authors’ creations against illicit distribution.

White describes her Web-based business as an e-Bay clone, sans the bidding element, that provides a world audience for the “little guy” whose creative and intellectual contributions, until now, were usually filed away permanently after perhaps only a single public airing.

Around the world, people are starting to take notice. In early autumn, White traveled to Alexandria, Egypt, to accept one of five international awards given by the United Nations–sponsored Youth Employment Summit. The summit recognizes and encourages programs that create environmentally sensitive livelihoods for young people around the world.

Only days before, journalists from Oregon Public Broadcasting’s American Business Review taped an interview with White, which 120 million viewers around the world are expected to see via a Voice of America webcast.

“Smart Mediary Systems makes it possible for young people to make money from their creative works without negatively impacting the environment,” says White. “We have created a technology system that makes it easy to upload their content and put it out for sale. It’s a revolutionary tool that empowers people.”

—by Dee Anne Finken