practicehacker

I’ve been in virtual stealth mode since last year’s ABA TechShow, but it’s time to take the wraps off and get jiggy with legal technology again. So I spent yesterday in pre-show meetings with vendors, fellow attendees, speakers, and the short-list of industry insiders I go to for insight; and they didn’t disappoint. Over the next 2 days TechShow 2012 is going to highlight some real strides in areas like

• affordable e-discovery
• document management
• workflow management
• iOS and Android “apps”
• SaaS as a new platform

Today I’ll be on the show floor and in presentations so I don’t expect to report back until Friday or the weekend, Until then, here are a few heads-up points to look for in my coverage:

APIs Everywhere: Clio, MyCase, and RocketMatter want to buddy up with your favorite web services to create a one-stop practice destination. So far Clio is leading the pack, having made deals with DirectLaw (virtual law office), Chrometa (automated timekeeping), and Zencash (invoice and receivables management). There is no doubt that this week’s flurry of announcements is merely the tip of the iceberg. Things are going to heat up fast in this competition, so watch this space for updates.

Forecast Cloudy: In 2008 Clio introduced an all-in-one practice management vehicle just as “the Cloud” became a buzzword. The system became a hit, but the truth is it’s still a mere shadow of the desktop applications it sought to replace. Why? Because the Cloud is not an integrated environment like the office network. In reality it’s a jumble of isolated web-based applications that don’t talk to one another or interact in a meaningful way. But that will change this year as common office functions and software products take to the Cloud, continue falling in price, and start fitting together into unified environments. The results should show up directly in your bottom line via lower costs, better time-capture, and better tracking.

More, Better, Cheaper: Small firms and sole practitioners seldom get what they want. But this year could be the tipping point. Where we once had to put up with one SaaS, e-discovery, document management, or legal research vendor, today other companies are coming into existence all the time; and thanks to lower barriers to entry, more funding in the legal technology space, and proven demand, these new competitors often represent the latest technology, are Cloud-based, offer subscription pricing, and employ the all important freemium to reach small firms and solo’s.

Workflow Rules! I reviewed ActionStep in this post. Now the company is poised to shake things up at TechShow It’s flagship SaaS application handles law office management, document creation, calendaring, contacts, billing, etc. But instead of being matter-centric, the system is workflow-centric. That means its puts goals and tasks ahead of  information for its own sake. In light of the sheer volume of data assailing lawyers already, a Get-Things-Done (GTD) approach like that just seems like a no-brainer.

That’s it for now. See you all on the other side of TechShow 2012. And if you’re already there, find me or give me a shout at @practicehacker. I’ll be at the show all day today, culminating with the Clio Meet Up at Sushi Samba in Chicago’s trendy Near North neighborhood.

I don’t get away much. But last year over Christmas I headed to sunny Florida where I … looked for cool apps online. I know: I have a problem. On the upside, my search revealed several really interesting applications like Tout, which monitors your e-mail and lets you know when messages were read, who read them, from where, etc. – all of which is more important than you may think at first. Tout is still evolving, but even in its current beta incarnation you’ll most likely find it a vast improvement over not tracking your e-mail messages at all. To demonstrate the power of tracking, check out this  analysis of my 2011 e-mail traffic and get your own analysis done here. While you’re at it, sign up for the Tout private beta and start taking control of your e-mail.

It’s about damned time! Gartner recently published this report to make the case that a number of “mega” factors are converging and will make it possible for ordinary people to have their own “cloud” of information in a few years. The factors include:

Consumerization – the simplification and streamlining of services that once took place on site at great cost via professionals and hardware.  The last decade has seen a radical shift away from resource-heavy enterprises towards more agile ones. Thanks to factors like those listed below, that trend will become a Tsunami:

•  Older users of technology are savvier than ever, while younger ones are practically experts
• A vastly different set of expectations is growing in both groups – turn on, tune in, do more
• The internet and social media have empowered users to make fast, often instant, decisions
  
• The rise of powerful, affordable, always-on mobile devices has increased the velocity of data
• Due to the ubiquity of easy to understand technology, users are now the foremost innovators
• Thanks to Moore’s Law and falling prices virtually all users have access to similar technology

Virtualization – IT departments in companies that still need Big Iron can now get more use out of fewer machines by using both actual and “virtual” machines – essentially programs running on the same server that act as if they represent a separate server. As a result, what used to demand 5 servers can now be accomplished by a single machine that vitualizes the other 4.

Appification – really, it’s a word: and it means that the way applications are designed, delivered, and consumed has a dramatic impact on all the size of the market, what users expect and will tolerate, what they will pay, and how much an innovation is worth (i.e. more, less, or the same as before).

The Self-Service Cloud – the “self-service cloud” is really just crowd-sourcing writ large (anybody remember crowd-sourcing, the darling of 2004? Anybody? It means that you can get as much or as little help as you need with your systems, on demand, and often for a lot less than in the past, no contract needed.

Mobility is King – You still can’t lawyer on a smart-phone no matter what TechnoLawyer or Law Technology News says. However, mobile devices combined with remote resources access through (you guessed it) the Cloud can fulfill most computing tasks, and promoters of this equation hope that the obvious tradeoffs will be outweighed by the convenience factor.

From this Wired Article about the ascendency of the “Personal Cloud”

For those keeping track (but why would you?) I’ve been on hiatus lately.  And by lately I mean the past year.  I won’t bore you with the details. Of course I have been Twittering from @practicehacker (blogging lite, if you will). I plan to jump back into the deep end of the blogging pool. Watch this space for more details… seriously, watch this space. It’ll be worth it. Would I lie?

@Practicehacker

Ever feel that if only you had the right tools, backing, money, time, background, education, encouragement and inspiration, you could build a killer app?

I used to think so; especially when I learned about efficient use of widely distributed human resources via frictionless online sharing (a/k/a crowd-sourcing). But like so much of new, new Internet, crowd-sourcing never actually took hold on the ground level where people like me dwell (that is, not in Palo Alto or San Jose). And it never, never penetrated entrenched industries such as law practice.

Then there’s SellanApp, a site that proposes to put the creation, financing, and distribution of mobile apps within the reach of non-techies like me.  Its wonderfully subversive. You might even call it a good way to hack the process of creating apps. And sure it probably won’t work, just as crowd-sourcing failed to catch fire 10 years ago. Then again, it just might.

SellAnApp from NewLogics on Vimeo.