LegalIT 3.0: 90+ Legal Tech Tips in 90 Minutes

Liveblogged at Legal IT 3.0 in Montreal. Some of these tips are excellent time-saving tips, others are tongue-in-cheek. I didn't catch all of them! But here are the ones I did---

Ross L. Kodner

Metadata removal - Metadata Assistant from Payne Group

Google Chrome browser

Ultimate Gear Management Clothing - carry all of your gadgets! Fill all the pockets before going through airport security

NeatReceipts - scanner plugs into PC $230 US - the software takes the receipt and recognized the information on the receipt, categorizes it, puts it into a spreadsheet that can be exported as a Quickbooks format - extremely accurate

Remote-Controlled Golf Ball - fool the people you are golfing with

Electronic charging stations for all your gadgets

Disposing of old PC systems - beware packed with confidential client information - how can you eradicate this information - "electronic shredders" delete the data - he recommends the Red Dragon Jet Torch Kits

iPhone - he thinks the keyboard has to improve before widespread adoption by lawyers

Virtual law practices - onebox.com - your staff can be anywhere, acts as your receptionist

Lifehacker.com - focussed on tips for everything useful in your life and business - worth someone 10 minutes every day in your office to monitor for tips you can use.

Document management & email management - Worldox - how much substantive content is buried in your email folder? This product is good for a firm 250 lawyers or smaller. There are other products for larger firms

Virtual Legal Assistants - LegalTypist and Virtual Paralegal Services - e.g. call in and dictate; send electronic email - trained North American legal paralegals & assistants. Typically charged by word (1-3 cents per word) [Connie's note: check out Canadian legal paralegal Halo Secretarial]

Ross Ipsa Loquietur - his own blog

YouSendIt.com - send large attachments for free, secure - comes from you, far more secure than open Internet email

Logmein.com - an alternative to GoToMyPC.com - run the programs on your office system from home

Crosley USB Turntable - transfer your album tracks to your iPod via USB

Netbooks - small laptops (9 or 10-inch screens) e.g. Lenova Ideapad - runs Windows XP home edition - incredible amount of computer power for tiny amount of money - sweet spot is around $400. Easier for travel; turn on and turn off much faster.

Long-lasting keyboards - http://www.cvtinc.com/products/keyboards/stellar.htm

Xavier Beauchamp-Tremblay

He gave a number of Firefox and Twitter tips, and also:

Zotero - personal research assistant inside your browser - add commentary to sources

KeyPass Portable - secure password manager

http://www.cba.org/abc/activities_f/code - proposed minimum technology skills base for lawyers

Simply File

Inbox Zero - tricks for reducing your email from the people at 43 Folders

Yubnub - social command line for the web - he is sing it with CanLII, for example

http://feedity.com - uses with RSS such as with Canlii - post a feed to a website

http://search-pdf-books.com - PDF search engine

PDF Hammer - edit PDF documents online

OmniFormat - "a free document conversion utility which allows dynamic conversion and image manipulation of over 75 file formats including HTML, DOC, XLS, WPD, PDF, JPG, GIF, TIF, PNG, PCX, PPT, PS, TXT, Photo CD, FAX and MPEG"

Zamzar.com - change files from any format to any other format

Evernote - capture hand-written notes, place notes onto web pages.