TECHSHOW 2001

Everyone feels the pull of the portable culture. We can take our world with us, on the road, into the conference room, in the den, even to the beach. Everyone watches the television commercials and reads the advertisements. It looks so easy. It looks so simple. But when it comes right down to making choices and paying money, it is not so simple. Read on for guidance on the road to mobility.

Objectives

Why bother with going mobile?

· Get more done

· Be more effective

· Survive the trip comfortably

Read on. We review the tools and techniques to get you there.

What Are Your Needs?

Sure, the gadget the person next to you gushes about looks interesting, but will is it really worth your time and trouble to learn? To focus on mobile technology that will help you the most, answer some questions beforehand.

Where can mobile technology help you?

In your home office

In airplanes, airports

At other law offices

In your hotel room

At branch offices of your firm

In a car

Decide whether you can and want to be more productive in each of these locations. The more places you go, the greater the return on your investment in mobile tools. To make this decision, take a look at what you may need in these places.

What is the same out of the office?

Even without tools that are not commonplace by today’s standards, you can get a lot done away from your main office.

Most important client documents are with you

You carry your personal calendar

You can place phone calls readily

Faxes and voicemail messages arrive regularly

You focus more on one primary client

With a cell phone, a paper calendar, and a file of client papers, you can be productive in most places. The important question is: What tools and techniques will make you significantly more productive or comfortable?

What is different out of the office?

You have fewer resources

You have a harder time serving other clients

You feel out of touch with the office

You take fewer incoming phone calls

E-mail is harder to get

Books and firm documents are unavailable

Most files are inaccessible

That is quite a list. You are cut off from an array of resources that you could have at your fingertips. Let’s get into specifics.

The Universe of Mobile Tools

In the Beginning: Power

And God said, “let there be light!” The electric utility company responded, “pay your service bill.” The first rule of mobile computing is that you’ll need a power source. Whether it flows through the wall socket or out of a battery, you can’t escape the need for electricity. Of course, that which flows through the walls has no limits. That which flows from batteries has definite limits. Therefore, rule number one of mobile and portable computing is to know the amount of time each battery-powered device provides before a recharge or replacement of cells.

In this realm reading the manual really makes sense. Check the index under “battery” or “power” for:

• Tips on how to set up the power-saving features of your device

• Options for batteries and recharging

• Overly optimistic estimates of how long a charge will last.

Go for a happy medium between settings that annoying shut off your device too soon and settings that needlessly drain your batteries. Also, don’t rely solely upon the manual. Verify! Run you own tests to be sure you don’t get close to the end of an important function and have the battery take a vacation before you’re ready to stop working.

Green Batteries

Nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries are know as “green batteries” because they protect the environment in two ways:

· Recharging them thousands of times stems the flow of dead alkaline batteries into landfills

· They do not contain environmentally damaging substances

An added benefit of NiMH batteries: they are significantly lighter than alkaline batteries. For perhaps more than you want to know about green batteries go to this Web site:

http://www.greenbatteries.com

It is a bit of a mom and pop operation, but their customer service is excellent. The power curve for NiMH batteries is different than that of other batteries, so you may want to check into some of the finer points. For example, when a Palm organizer signals that it is time to change batteries, it really is time with NiMH batteries, whereas you have a bit more time with some other battery types.

Battery Chargers

GreenBatteries.com offers the best mobile battery charger in the business for about $17.00. That is a little more than other chargers, but this one is incredibly small, light and smart. The smart part is really important. This charger uses a smart chip to prevent the overcharging of your batteries regardless of their charge level when you recharge them. NiMH batteries have no memory, so you can stick them into the charger any time you want.

A word of warning: other cheaper battery chargers may fry your NiMH batteries. They don’t take well to being continuously charged long after they already have a full charge. The cheap chargers use a simple timer that governs how long full current is applied to your batteries. Bad idea.

Laptop Computers

As always, the portable or laptop computer is still the device of choice for the road-equipped attorney. They come in a variety of sizes and configurations. Carefully evaluate your budget and tolerance for schlepping a bag of gear on the road. On the light side, some of the new notebooks are in the 3-pound range. However, devices such as floppy drives, CD-ROMs, and power bricks add a few pounds to the package and afford you an extra opportunity to forget one of the peripherals or the necessary umbilical cord to connect the device to the notebook.

All-in-One Heavyweights

If you want it all in one box, you should explore the so-called “three spindle” machines which include the floppy drive, hard disk, and CD type device within the main unit. Referred to as “desktop replacement,” these boxes will average between 7 to 9 pounds, depending upon battery weight and screen size. However, you won’t have to worry about losing cords to connect out-board devices. In some of the better units, you may remove one device and replace it with a second battery, thus affording more computing time away from the wall socket.

With the prevalence of e-mail and the ability to send attachments, floppy diskettes are becoming less important as a means of giving electronic documents to clients and associates. Unfortunately, when you need to use a diskette drive the most you may find to your dismay that you have left it in your hotel room unless you are lugging one of these heavier three-spindle machines.

Does It Fit You?

With portable computers the two weak points are often the keyboard and the screen. Personal preference dictates that you try both before making a purchase. Is the keyboard firm and are the keys reasonably sized for touch typing? Is the screen large enough to be read comfortably in all lighting conditions? Is the screen viewable from an angle in case you’re not directly in front or wish to show the display to another person?

Some of the new portables come with a screen measuring in excess of 15 inches on the diagonal. This is a larger viewable area than a 17 inch desk-top monitor. With something this large, you might want to consider becoming a portable-only lawyer!

Another screen issue you should consider is resolution: how much squeezes into one screen. Most desktops are set to 800 by 600. Desktop monitors of 19 inches and larger easily handle the higher resolution of 1024 by 768, so they can display wider toolbars and show more of a document on one screen. But be careful about laptops with 1024 by 768 resolution. Some of them do a very rough job of displaying the standard 800 by 600 resolution on the laptop screen, most notably IBM ThinkPads.

Size and Speed

As with any technology tool, size and speed are factors to consider. You don’t need a speed demon for text typing. However, you do need speed if you plan on showing video, DVD movies or running the latest version of voice recognition programs. For these purposes, buy a machine with a fast processor that has been on the market no longer than a year.

Besides physical size, the size of a laptop’s hard disk and RAM (the memory it thinks with) are important. As of early 2001, we recommend at least a 10 GB hard drive and 128MB of RAM. Be prepared to add more if you plan on using the latest and greatest software. Although it has been said that you can’t be too thin, too rich, or have too much computing horse power, you can go broke before you have it up and running! Portable computing is full of compromises.

Handheld Organizers: Palms and Visors

Of all the devices we’ve used over the past several years the one that has helped the practicing attorney the most is the handheld organizer, including Palm models, Handspring Visors and related products. Sometimes called the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), these pocket-sized devices that hold your address book, calendar, to-do list, notepad, electronic business cards, and a host of other applications.

The market for add-on software has blossomed. On the practical side, Palm devices can be equipped to record your time sheets and synchronize them with your office-bound time and billing system. With an inexpensive software tool you can carry Word or WordPerfect documents on your Palm device. Of course there is specific software for just about every legal niche and there are hundreds of fun accessories too. For those who love to play there are utilities that allow your Palm device to serve as a remote control for your TV and, with some new cars you can program the device to open your car doors!

For the lawyer who is always on the go there is no better way to impress your clients with your desire to provide prompt service than using your Palm device to book an appointment when you meet the client at the ball game or supermarket. Upon return to the office, the appointment is automatically entered into your office schedule with a single press of the finger.

You may get a phone message at home from your very best client that he needs to talk with you right away — but doesn’t leave a number. Or you find out about a development that your client should know about right now. Just reach for your Palm device and look up the number.

When you meet other Palm users, don’t reach for your business card, just point it at the other Palm, hold down the address book button for a few seconds, and your business card is automatically transmitted. No typing, no lost cards!

Clearly, Palm devices are for short data entry on the road. Anyone who has used one will tell you that you don’t want to try taking notes at a meeting using a stylus and scratching out words on that little rectangle. However, if you do want to take notes and you don’t want to lug a laptop computer, consider buying one of the add-on keyboards for the Palm devices. For less than $100 you can have a fold-out keyboard that is as wide as one on a portable computer. You can take notes using the keyboard and then simply paste the text into your word processor when you return to the office or hotel room. As the saying goes, carry only what you need — and if you’re only taking notes at an hour long meeting, you don’t need a portable computer, just a Palm device.

Wireless Phones

There’s no escaping the cell phone. No matter what we do, there’s something reassuring about vocal communication with the outside world. Keyboards be damned! I want to talk to my assistant when something blows up in the office. E-mail text just doesn’t carry the same degree of emotion as vocal tones on the phone.

Cell phone service comes in so many sizes, shapes, flavors and costs with variations from market to market that it is impossible to make an overall recommendation. However, start with the basics and determine if you only need coverage near your office or if you travel through a certain region or across the entire country. Next, determine if the coverage they promise is a reality or simply puffery. Don’t sign up for extended contracts – longer than one year – as pricing is sure to drop and competing services improved well before you get to the expiration of the contract period. Remember, cell phones are a service, don’t get lost in wasting a lot of time computing the cost of the phone, it’s the quality of service that really counts.

Since we’re on the topic of mobile lawyering, you may wish to consider if your cell phone can do double duty as a modem to connect your Palm or portable computer. It’s not a long reach to connect cell phones to computers, but they don’t currently provide the same speed as a land-line dial-up connection. If you have a boatload of cell minutes, it may be cost effective to use your cell phone instead of paying hotel room rates for modem access in addition to traditional phone calls.

Oh, let’s also remember that device convergence is upon us. The newest version of the Handspring Visor (PDA) has a telephone module that plugs in to allow cell phone service.

For those who really need constant affirmation of their personal importance, many of the newer versions of cell phones have a web browser capability. Well, at least that’s what they call it. Try to imagine viewing the web on a 6-line screen in green monochrome – not a pretty picture! However, it is great for short bursts of information such as stock quotes, weather reports and the like. The problem is that sending information from the phone outbound is a real pain since you’re working with a telephone keypad. For example, to type the letter “f,” it takes three key presses. You get the idea. Anything more than a few words takes a significant amount of time to enter. However, keep the faith, as there are new phones on the horizon with a keyboard much like the two-way pagers described below.

Two-way pagers

There are times when you can’t reach for the cell phone but may want to stay in touch with the office. Maybe you’re stuck in the back row at the courthouse waiting for your case to be called. Answering or placing a cell call is a guaranteed scowl from the bench, or worse! Two-way pagers are gaining a foothold. These devices are a little larger than a traditional paging device, but have a mini-keyboard. “Pager” has really become a misnomer. Though as convenient and portable as a pager, they are really two-way e-mail devices. If your firm uses Microsoft Exchange for e-mail, the Blackberry or RIM can be an efficient method of improving communication and coordination within the firm. E-mail is truly synchronized, not just copied to the mobile device.

When we first tried the Blackberry, (also known as a RIM Pager), we thought it would be hard to peck at the keys, but after a few minutes we realized that it was not hard — and far better than trying to use a numeric keypad on a cell phone. We can be in a meeting room and input e-mails to an assistant asking for a particular piece of information. Within seconds a response arrives – and no spoken words were exchanged during the process. They are great tools to fill the time during a long boring meeting.

On the topic of device convergence, the new versions of the two-way pagers also have scheduling software similar to the Palm devices.

Call Me A Sherpa – Carrying Cases

Now that you’ve got all this gear — and we assure you that it proliferates at night in the dark – you’ll find that you really need a good bag to carry all this stuff. Again, personal preference dictates that you try a few configurations. Some people like a bag where the computer drops in (gently) from the top. Others like a bag that opens from the side and the computer gets strapped inside. A third configuration gaining popularity is the back-pack style. Some want a cell phone holder on the outside and others want a bag with wheels. In reality, you’ll probably want two different bags. One will be for long trips where you’ll take the “kitchen sink,” and the second bag will be for the minimal gear necessary to go between home and primary office.

As to price, Dorner’s favorite bag is a Kensington Sky Runner which, with rebates, cost only $40.00. Anderson now totes a Targus backpack model costing about $60.00. Though he rarely straps it on, it is lightweight and looks less like a laptop case – an open invitation to thieves.

We’ve both used bags costing well over the $200.00 mark and some are good, some are not. When you go to the store, bring your gear and stuff the target bag and lift it. If it fits and feels good, you’ve got a winner!

Beam Up The Data, Scotty! Handheld Scanner

Just because you’re on the road doesn’t mean you can’t have a copy machine in your suit pocket. Hewlett Packard makes a great device called a CapShare. It’s about the size of a paperback book. You drag the sensor over a page of text in a U shaped form (down one side and up the other) and it electronically stitches the text together. It’s a wonderful device in the library or at a deposition when a full-size copy machine is not accessible. Even better, once you have the electronic picture of text on a page, you can bring the text into your word processor through software optical character recognition (OCR). The device also has an infra-red (IR) port so you can scan a document to capture it, then merely point the IR port at most IR-equipped printers and a copy will spit out on paper!

Spotlighted Technologies

We recommend the following technologies because of their importance and impact on the practice of law away from your main office. Included here are both simple and more ambitious approaches. Most can help you as much in your home office, if you choose to work there, as they can in a foreign city.

There are many outstanding tools and techniques. These are some of the best.

Document synchronization

Dictating on the road

Your information through a Web browser

Document synchronization

Whether you use a highly automated document management system to check documents in and out or a simple software utility, document synchronization can save time and reduce confusion.

Document synchronization allows you to choose which documents or which folders of documents you want to copy to a remote computer. Different approaches allow you to make sure you take the most recent version of a document with you. You can also automate the process of putting updated and new documents back onto your law office server.

Time Matters – Documents and more

Time Matters began as a case management system, but has grown beyond managing client information, calendars, tasks and case information. Each year its document features have grown and deepened. Now they include automatic document assembly, document management, and replication.

With Time Matters, you designate a master document folder on your server. Documents in that folder, and its subfolders, can be synchronized with remote computers, whether they are laptops on the road, home office computers, or a network in a branch office of your firm.

Ways to Synchronize with Time Matters

This diagram shows how documents and other information in Time Matters can be synchronized among different computers:

Time Matters offers three ways to synchronize:

1. Direct network connection – If your laptop has a network card, you can synchronize be connecting directly to your office network.

2. E-mail – You can exchange documents and other information between a remote computer and the office via an e-mailed attachment. Time Matters walks you through the simple process with a wizard.

3. File transfer – You can create a transfer files with Time Matters and then exchange them via floppy disk or file transfer over the Internet. Time Matters compresses everything into a single file.

Accessing Documents Synchronized by Time Matters

Once new and change documents have been transferred to your mobile computer, you can get to them through Windows Explorer or through Time Matters.

For more information: http://www.timematters.com or 800-328-2898

SynchronX – Simple two-way file sync

SynchronX delivers the most import functions of the Windows Briefcase without the hassle. It is far easier to understand and the price is right: free.

When you open SynchronX, it prompts you to select two folders. For example, if your notebook PC is connected to your network, select a network folder and a folder on the notebook. When you click OK, the program copies all new and changed files in one folder to the other folder. It is smart enough not to copy an older file on top of a newer one. You end up with all files in both folders.

SynchronX is not long on options, so you shouldn’t get confused. You can tell it to:

· Include sub-directories, so that all folders inside the two you pick will be copied.

· Exclude designated files, so that you don’t have to copy everything.

Automating SynchronX to synchronize multiple pairs of folders is not very polished. But again, it is simple. You can save multiple SynchronX icons onto your Windows desktop. Each one will synchronize a different pair of folders. Or you can create a text file that SynchronX can read. Then it can execute multiple synchronizations automatically.

To move documents back and forth between office and home, you could synchronize to a floppy disk at work, and then synchronize the floppy disk to your PC at home. Repeat the process in reverse when you return to work. You will never have to worry about missing a document or having an out-of-date version if you synchronize your file.

Another alternative is to synchronize your files to a WebDrive. Further information is provided in a subsequent tip.

Sure, e-mailing documents to yourself works fine with a few documents. But you tend to end up with various versions in various places. And you always seem to want the one you didn’t see fit to e-mail. If you have a limited number of folders to work with, this can be a good solution.

Caution: Synchronizing files could result in losing information. For example, you might delete a few paragraphs from a copy of your document on your notebook PC. If you then synchronize its folder with the folder where it came from, your earlier version with those paragraphs will be overwritten.

SynchronX could get you into real trouble if you are working on the same files with several other people. The last person to modify a file wins in that situation. But you may find it to be an excellent tool for handling your own documents that others don’t change.

SynchonX Cost: Free

http://www.clickteam.com

Dictating on the road

CyberSecretaries – 1-800-YOUDICTATE

You could pay a full-time or part-time secretary to transcribe dictation on tapes, but that approach is expensive. Besides, secretaries are not usually available late at night, in the wee hours of the morning, weekends, and on business trips.

Dictation Options

With CyberSecretaries, you can dictate anywhere. Use a cell phone, public phone, handheld device or a computer headset microphone. Or fax in your handwritten or printed documents. CyberSecretaries makes the process easy. They can even send you a cable to connect a dictating device to a telephone.

Because an experienced secretary transcribes your dictation, you don’t need to concern yourself with using the limited set of commands that voice recognition software understands.

You can also send document templates for use with your dictation. Using templates, you can include boilerplate language and the formatting you want.

Receiving Transcribed Documents

You can receive your dictated documents in a variety of ways:

· Via e-mail, in any version of MS Word, WordPerfect or plain text

· Via fax

Revision Options

If you receive your document via e-mail, you can revise it yourself on your word processor. Or you can print it out, revise it by hand, and fax it back to CyberSecretaries.

If you have access to a PC, you can receive your document via fax, mark up changes and then fax it back.

Cost

Dictation costs one cent per word. There is no up-front cost and no monthly cost. Pay for what you use. Boilerplate in a template is charged at 1/2 cent per word.

CyberSecretaries

Cost: $.01 per word

1-800-YOU-DICTate

http://www.youdictate.com

Dragon NaturallySpeaking and IBM ViaVoice

Though the competition is hot between these two voice recognition programs, reviewers have repeatedly given Dragon NaturallySpeaking an edge over IBM ViaVoice.

Voice recognition software allows you to create documents with a microphone plugged into your computer. But first you need to move up three learning curves. To adequately address the subject of voice recognition would require at least ten pages. We welcome you to attend our session on Friday, “Talk to Your PC – Voice Recognition is Ready for Prime Time.” Also, our materials are available on the Techshow CD.

For more information see:

It’s Time to Talk to Your Computer http://www.wellslegaltech.com/talk-to-your-pc.htm
Dragon NaturallySpeaking http://www.dragonsys.com
IBM ViaVoice http://www.software.ibm.com/voice

Your information through a Web browser

W: drive on your laptop – WebDrive

The chief advantage of WebDrive is its simplicity. It works like another disk drive on your computer, but it is actually a folder on your Web site. If you have computers in different places, such as at work and at home, you can keep files on your Web site and get to them easily from both places.

WebDrive lets you:

· Save and open files using a disk drive letter, like “W:,” so that all your current software can work with WebDrive.

· Store your files with the same company that hosts your Web site.

It is not difficult to have a Web site set up for you and the cost varies from free to $10 - $25 per month, depending on what else you want to do with your Web site and how much storage space you need.

For WebDrive to work, you need to have FTP access to a folder on your site. You will have a username and password that WebDrive uses to access that folder.

WebDrive is not without its limitations. Your security is only as good as the security of the Web server of the company hosting your Web site. To set up WebDrive, someone needs to have or gain a little familiarity with File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Settings may need to be adjusted to optimize performance for your particular use of WebDrive.

WebDrive 3.0 by Riverfront Software

Cost: $39.95 per user

http://www.webdrive.com

Your e-mail account on a Web page

This has to be one of the easiest technologies to use on the road. The biggest catch at this point is getting access to the Internet.

Once you are sitting at a PC connected to the Internet, you need very little. You need to know how to use the Web browser software on the PC, a task that many three-year-olds have mastered. And you need your e-mail username and password.

Here is an example of a sign-on screen for Web-based e-mail:

From the Web browser, you can read new e-mail messages, store them in folders, reply to messages and compose new ones. For this to work, your e-mail needs to be set up to be accessible over the Web.

Some people use one of the free e-mail accounts available through Hotmail, Netscape, Yahoo, Excite and others. They give out this e-mail address to people who may need to contact them on the road. This approach may be adequate, but it leaves a lot to be desired. You may miss important messages from people who do not know you are out of the office.

A slightly better approach is to have your e-mail forwarded or copied from your normal e-mail account to your free Internet e-mail account. With this method, you end up wasting time with duplicates of messages and having copies of messages in different places. But, it works in a pinch or when your own computer takes an unscheduled vacation while you’re on the road.

The best approach is to Internet-enable your e-mail account. Many Internet Service Providers offer a free Web interface to e-mail accounts of their customers. If you retrieve your e-mail from a mailbox at your firm’s ISP, this may be a good solution.

If your firm has its own e-mail post office, you have a number of choices for accessing e-mail via the Internet. With this approach, you work with the same collection of messages that you have when you are in the office.

For more information, talk to your Internet Service Provider or the people responsible for your firm’s e-mail system.

For those who are financially challenged, take a look at: http://www.mailstart.com .

Document management – Worldox

For a more sophisticated, full-featured approach to document access and management in and out of the office, look a Worldox Web. It uses a Web server to give secure access to documents and files of all types over the Internet.

Worldox has been especially successful in the legal profession. It permits, but does not require, the use of a heavy duty SQL Server, but instead comes with its own document server software. It integrates directly into Word or WordPerfect, as well as many other applications. Worldox lets you do full-text searches through your entire document collection in addition to organizing documents into structures you have set up, such as Client / Matter / Folder.

Worldox Web is available as an add-on to the Worldox document management software that costs $350.00 per user plus $60.00 annual maintenance.

World Software Corporation 800-962-6360
http://www.worldox.com

Conclusion

The array of mobile technologies can bewilder you. If you don’t know where to start, look over the section above on What Is Different on the Road. In what area do you experience the most problems? Take a look at the technologies that address those problems. Get started by choosing one and giving it a try.

In the authors’ experience, the Palm organizer synchronized with Time Matters has been the most valuable single addition to an attorney’s briefcase on the road. Be sure to attend a presentation at this or another conference that focuses on Palms and other Personal Digital Assistants. Go through the course materials. No doubt you will find a good reason to carry one of these handy, multi-purpose devices. They are a great place to start.

Wells H. Anderson is president of Wells Anderson Legal Tech Services in Minneapolis. His firm works with attorneys and staff who want to implement better computer systems. Mr. Anderson focuses on tailoring technology to the particular needs of each law office.

Winner of the Legal Technology Consultant of the Year Award for 2000 from TechnoLawyer, Mr. Anderson presents on legal software topics at international conferences and participates actively in legal technology listservers.