I Heart Tech

You, Me and Voice Over IP - an ALA TeleSeminar

Looking for a romantech way to spend Valentines Day during office hours? What better way than this? Join Ben Schorr and me for an ALA Teleseminar. Ben is one of the coolest and best tech consultants I know. First, he lives in Hawaii - that fact in itself makes me want to be his friend - which is not hard as he's so nice and so willing to share his knowledge - check out his blog. He is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional AND you can meet him in person at the ABA TECHSHOW as he is one of our speakers. 

On with it. Get details and register for the seminar here.

Can the Internet Really Provide Free Long Distance Calling — For Firms of Any Size?

February 14, 2007

2-4 pm Eastern    1-3 pm Central    Noon-2 pm Mountain    11 am-1 pm Pacific

Any size firm, whether you are large or not-so-large, can find major savings using the Internet to make free long distance calls. It’s called Voice over IP (VoIP) — a combination of hardware and software that enables businesses to use the Internet to transmit and receive telephone calls.  All firms should investigate this opportunity, although small firms are particularly suited to move to this technology since they are more nimble and traditionally do not place a huge investment in one type of telephone technology.   The realities of VoIP, however, are more complex than simply plugging in some high-tech phones. Whenever you’re ready to talk with a consultant to see if this technology fits your firm’s needs, you need to know the terminology, the benefits and pitfalls. In this program you will learn:

• How VoIP works
• Its advantages and disadvantages for small, mid-sized and large law firms
• Possible costs — and savings
• Equipment needed to implement VoIP
• Internal changes needed to support the required hardware and software
• Key factors to consider when you analyze the VoIP return on investment
• How to work effectively with a consultant on a VoIP project

ABA - TECSHOW Update and CLE Session on VoIP on Thursday

I'm back from the deep south of South America. I spent a few days on the beach, the family ranch (yes, Gaucho's!) and in the big city of Montevideo.  It was a great trip - but man am I glad to have 24/7 access to the Internet! Although I'm not home for long as I'm off today to do some Word training in Houston for a research group associated with Baylor U.   Anway, on with it.

As a member of the ABA TECHSHOW Planning Board I'm pretty excited about the Keynote Speaker we have for 2007, The Honorable Judge Shira A. Scheindlin, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Can you say Zubulake? Get details here.

Also, be sure to check out the program grid detailing sessions for the conference. I'm the track leader for the MS Office and Going Mobile tracks.

Seems to be the hottest thing going these days - VoIP. The ABA is hosting what looks to be a great Teleconference and Live Audio Webcast tomorrow (Thursday Nov 29th). Get details here.

Perfect Match: Packet8 and my Treo

Has my absence made your heart grow fonder? That's what they say happens, you know? Aside from getting ready for the NOLA Tech Revival -which starts tomorrow! - one of the many projects that has kept me away was co-authoring a  Technolawyer TechnoFeature with my dear friend Ernie the Attorney. We tend to tinker a lot with all kinds of tech and as you can tell, we like to share what we learn. So we wrote a piece about our experiences with various VOiP tools - both web based calling and internet phone calling. It comes out on Tuesday, May 30 (you'll have to subscribe to Technolawyer to receive it via email and shame on you if you aren't already a subscriber - their newletters rock). But writing it made me think to expound here on one of the points we made.

Like Ernie, I use Packet8 VoIP  for my office phone and it's great. This business of only having one line - a cell phone - doesn't work for me. I try to protect my cell phone number like I do my main email address and my social security number. I'm not kidding. I manage technology, rather than let it manage me. Sorry, I digress...the point is, I have a Packet8 phone for my office line. I have it configured so that a voicemail message left by a caller is immediately forwarded as an attachment to my email inbox. This means that no matter where I am, I will be notified of a new message and be able to listen to it. How? Well, thanks to my most fabulous  Palm Treo 650 . I use Versamail (and actually Chattermail also) on my Treo to get email messages for my various email accounts. Both of them allow me to download attachments such as  documents, pictures, and now voicemails. Check out the  screenshot of my VersaMail inbox displaying the email from Packet8.  The Treo comes equipped with a WAV player - which is the file type Packet8 uses to send voice mail messages as attachments. On opening the email message and tapping on the attachment, the voicemail message plays. How cool is that?