LO-07

Ben Fry is a leading member of Fathom, a team that creates programs and applications to visualize, analyze, and understand data of all sorts. They have a wide range of projects, such as COiN, which helps people read and understand contracts. The program breaks the document down into sections, provides definitions, and allows the reader to switch back and forth easily throughout the “living” document.
I like this project because everybody will have to sign multiple contracts and agreements in their lifetimes and most people will have questions as they are going through them. These would traditionally be directed to a lawyer, which can get expensive. This program provides a more even playing field for the average person, without needing to add the expense of a lawyer.
The algorithms that generated the work most likely focus on data analysis and key words that break the document into sections. While the creators do not have much artistic day in data, they were able to use creativity to determine how the agreements are presented in the program. Overall, this program has the potential to serve any adult who has access to a computer, making contracts less daunting overall.

COiN, a project by Fathom, founded in 2010