Over the years of working with HotDocs we have encountered many issues with the basic design of HotDocs, client requests and what not, that have required creative solutions. And in so doing, we have changed our approach from one that centered around “documents” to one that centers around data and workflow. In so doing, we have substantially changed the way that we code in HotDocs, using methods and approaches that arise from other coding languages and programming principals. We have found HotDocs to be flexible and powerful enough to support, for example, the use of common elements across multiple templates, use of templates as reusable objects, using local and global variables, internal databases, and dynamic indexing and cross-references. Such features are not required for basic template design. However, there use leads to more user-friendly interviews, more dynamic data entry, and the ability to design templates and interviews that reflect and respond to the data input.
Seth Rowland
Spring is in the Air
A new frugality is sweeping the country. It is posed as a movement towards thrift, a response to the downturn in the economy. But I want to posit that it is a movement towards self-reliance and an assertion of control over one’s fate. If one can no longer rely on the big law firm or the big corporation for sustenance; if one can no longer rely on appreciating home values; if one can no longer on growing 401(k) plans; then one must rely on oneself. And so as I prepare the beds for my vegetable and flower gardens, I think about the implications of this movement.
Digging up the Sod
This year we have expanded our small garden plot. In previous years, we had a 10 foot by 12 foot vegetable garden (cucumbers, peas, tomatoes, string beans and zucchini) and an 8ft by 6ft herb garden (basil, oregano, tarragon, mint, cilantro, parsely and sage). This year, we ripped up a sunny patch by the garage (3ft x 12ft) and have planted fingerling potatoes and yukon gold. We took another patch of dormant soil by the herb garden and planted 24 perennial everblooming strawberries plants. We took a fence border that had previously been the home of weeds (quite successful) and turned it into a bed for wildflowers. We even took some extra potato eyes and planted them in the front yard between the azaleas.
All plants use humous, peat, and cow manure, enhanced with bone meal… all natural ingredients. We would qualify as an organic farm. To fight off the most common garden pest in our neck of the woods, deer, we have purchased wire fences and posts to put up today around the new garden beds. And so, as the soil thaws, the days get longer, and the air gets warmer, we consider the effort we take and enquire, as rational capitalists, what are the implications for the U.S. and world economy of our actions.
Economics of the Home Garden Plot
First we enquire from the perspective of the family budget: are we saving money? In previous years we have calculated our bounteous crop against the cost of sowing. If we include only the sunk costs, out of pocket expenses, and none of the labor, we have either had a net loss or broken even. In other words, the decision, from a purely economic perspective to plant a garden, has always been a poor decision.
Second: we inquire from the perspective of the experience, the enjoyment: Consider the taste of fresh vine-picked tomatoes (sweet, tart and tender), the aroma of freshly plucked oregano and basil, and the savory crunch of oven-roasted pumpkin seeds. These are worth savoring. In the words of the Mastercard commercial, seeing your child pluck a tomatoe off the vine and bite into it (not having to sanitise and ripen it on a shelf). That is priceless.
Third, we look at the labor: There is the family effort in seed-starting, planting, tending, and ultimately harvesting the crop. Here the family works closely together, with a shared responsibility and reward. We can teach the value of work, since there are clear tangible results from the labor. By contrast with real work, where the result is an exchangable and fungible currency, in gardening the work results in tangible outputs that can be held, admired and consumed.
Lessons from the House Garden
So what does gardening teach us; and are there lessons for business? Gardening teaches us self-reliance. Last summer, I remember an article about people in California hiring garden specialist to plant and maintain private gardens in their backyard. These Californians were overseers of organic gardens where they could wander in and harvest, but did not share in the labors of the planting or tending. I can see the value of assistance, but such “hired gardeners” misses the point of the family plot. My son wants to harvest the cucumbers and sell pickles on the street in front of our house. If the success of the neighborhood lemonade stand or homemade cookie booth is any measure, this will be a losing proposition. Rather, we will share our harvest with friends and family over a few bottles of chardonnay.
Going beyond that garden, I am seeing my friends, colleagues and clients taking stock of their own lives; seeing what they can do for themselves, searching for stability and dependability in some form of self reliance. Some have been willingly, or unwillingly become entrepreneurs. Some, business owners, have shelved their growth plans and plans for world domination and looked to cut costs and moderate growth. Others have tried to do it all, as I have done in planting my garden, I have tried to grow plants from seed ($1.25 a packet) rather than buy a pre-grown plant ($3.50/plant).
In advising these friends and clients, I ask them not to consider the home garden in their business equations. Rather, they need to recognize that this is a time of examination and reinvestment. We cannot assume that all efforts will turn to gold. Nor can we sit back and try to do everything ourselves. There are specialists who can effectively aide us in our efforts and we should draw on their expertise. Yes, we should look at how efficiently we operate our business.
There is one lesson from the home garden. Years ago, during the days of communist rule in U.S.S.R. and the days of the collectivist farm, I was told a statistic, that the big farms of the Soviet Union, which occupied 95% of the arable land in production, produced 20% of the consumable food, and the 5% uncollectivised home farms produced 80% of the consumable food. If you look at the production per square foot of tended land in the typical home garden, the output will be 4-10 times the output of the same land in a commercial farm (go read Michael Pollan). And the lesson in the home farm is how to take that limit space, and with proper inputs and tending, make a sustainable business.
Cloud Based Practice Management
In the next few weeks, my reviews of CLIO and RocketMatter will appear in Technolawyer, with copies on this site. I don’t want to give away the results, but I want to comment more generally on the development goals of cloud-based offerings versus client-server offerings. To some degree, I have dealt with that tension in my development and advisory role in the creation of Wealth Transfer Planning and its unique front-end for HotDocs. It is this balancing act between simplicity and sophistication, between stability and customizability, that marks really good software. CLIO and RocketMatter are following in the footsteps of the two giants of software development.
CLIO and RocketMatter are following the outsized success of SalesForce.com and that of Bob Butler’s efforts in building Time Matters. SalesForce.com is a ubiquitous platform that promises data anywhere, on any platform, from any location. Resources are “rented” at a hefty monthly fee. The user has no upfront costs, no hardware costs, and pays only based on usage. The user gets service guarantees. But what has made SalesForce.com so successful is the API (application programming interface) which lets it read data from and write data to just about any resource, its customizable front-end, and the ability to create and purchase add-ons that interact with the data. All this together is responsible for SalesForce.com’s outsized lead in the Cloud market. It can be whatever you need it to be; and it is likely, if you want it, that someone else has already customized SaleForce to meet the needs of their industry, and can give or license you that customization module.
Time Matters, in the Client-Server environment is much like Salesforce.com. It is a powerful, structured database that allows near infinite customization. Out-of-the-box Time Matters works as a full-blown practice management system. It can be easily customized. There is a network of consultants and third party vendors who have harnessed the power of the data in Time Matter’s SQL databases, and those who, like yours truly, have built and marketed add-ons for Time Matters.
So how can CLIO and RocketMatter follow in the footsteps of the two giants? At the moment, they are ensuring the stability of their core offering. Both have delivered solid, functional practice management systems. Both have unique visions on what usability is, and how it should work. Their interfaces are innovative; client/server vendors should take notice of what they have done in terms of usability. And yet, both CLIO and RocketMatter have a singular vision; a single view of what the interface should be, what features should be available. They try to fit all lawyers and all law practices into one mode of operation, one mode of billing, one mode of practice.
In their efforts to get out a 1.0 release, the software at present does not represent the full diversity of practices of lawyers in the market place. This is not to say that these programs will not or cannot represent that diversity. Unless your core product works, is stable and supportable and dependable, it doesn’t matter how customizable and flexible the product will be. The learning curve on both products is measured in hours, and not days or weeks, like it is for other practice management solutions. CLIO’s tagline is “Practice Management Simplified”. RocketMatter, in some ways, seems to think for you, seamlessly building interrelations between contacts and matters. Both make it easy for lawyers to bill and capture their time.
And yet, in this drive to simplify, make practice management easier, more available, these vendors have missed the richness and diversity of the practice of law; they have missed the benefits of interconnectedness between data and documents, between applications. Much of what I am asking for in these offerings can be added on and built into these offerings, and most likely will. And since the cost of distributing updates of Web 2.0 technology are zero, may come to pass. We need more recognition of that diversity, the ability to customize by practice area, to recognize user-specific preferences in the interface, to recognize new and unique record types, and the ability to package and deliver such features.
I will save for another time why The Cloud is so important, particularly for lawyers.
Social Networking – BestThinking – Twitter – LinkedIn
Over the past week, I have dabbled my toes in the world of social networking. I have not yet activated my facebook profile (bashasys) or sought my “friends”, but I have looked as some of the more narrow market social networking tools. The problems is that many of the tools are TOO open. That means lotsa people to follow, lotsa posts to sift through, and oodles of time to waste. For that reason, my recent discovery of “groups” in a number of these sites heralds a change in my opinion of them.
Groups, for those who don’t know, are more like amorphous electronic social clubs. They each have a dynamic. Have too few people in a group, and nothing happens; it sits dormant, waiting for someone to provide a spark, and eventually dies a slow death of obscurity. Have too many people and the group become a raucous nightclub with EVERYONE SHOUTING, and no-one able to be heard. In some ways, like a busy pick-up bar (from long ago memory), there are those select and talented individuals who can actually meet someone in such an environment, with the unique capacity to say the right thing and hear the right thing in a way to make a connection. For the majority of us, myself included, the noise and business is a turnoff; there is no way to get to know someone, to connect.
And so, finding myself in the role of group moderator and host, I have faced a choice. Do I open up the group to anyone interested who clicks a join button, thereby boosting my number of “groupies” and friends. Or do I handpick my friends and invite them into the club, ensuring that the members have something in common, that the group doesn’t get too big. I have chosen a middle ground. I have tried to define the space, the credentials required for membership in the group. I have albeit invited my friends; but I have also asked them to invite their friends, and them to invite their friends. For my HotDocs Wizards Link, my criteria is that any participant actually program in HotDocs, not just be interested in following or marketing to group members. For The Virtual Lawyer, I have asked that members be either lawyers or technologists working with lawyers who use and promote the Virtual Practice of Law.
Only time will tell whether this is a waste of time, my time and my members time. For the moment, it is fun; there are some useful ideas; and I have learned what others with similar interests are doing. It has allowed me an excuse and a forum to hook up with those whom I see only occasionally and others who may know of me but whom I do not know. It has been commented that this blog is closed to comments (Mark Deal, we know who you are and where you live). The main reason has been the commenting capabilities of blogs are really inadequate to the development of useful discussions. This blog, however, is NOW being fed as a newsfeed on the HotDocs Wizards Link. If you do want to post comments, be sure to join the HotDocs Wizards group and post your comment there.
The Virtual Lawyer – LinkedIn Group
A few days ago I decided to check out the new enhanced Group Management tools at LinkedIn. A year ago, I put up my CV on LinkedIn. Over time, I have dutifully built my network, making occasional invites, and accepting other invites. I set up a group for HotDocs Wizards —LinkedIn Group: HotDocs Wizards about a month or two ago. Out of the blue, we actually got two job postings. Just a few days ago, I started up The Virtual Lawyer—LinkedIn Group: The Virtual Lawyer and this time I was able to see the potential of LinkedIn.
In starting the group, I extended invitations to all MyConnections. I then asked the members of the group to invite their connections. In a short time we had over 40 members. Then, to keep it interested, I tried posting some discussion topics. Since my network tends to be of fairly vocal individuals with a range of legal and technical experience, we quickly got a lively discussion. In time, I hope that discussion will lead to some useful information for the participants, as well as further the reach of each of the group members. Since The Virtual Lawyer group is committed to breaking down walls between individuals, my hope is such group will foster new connections and new resources for all the participants.
I may, on occasion cross-post some of the discussion here on this blog. More likely, I invite you to join linkedIn and to join ONE or BOTH of the Groups.
LinkedIn NewsFeed to Document Assembly (and Case Management)
As part of the HotDocs Wizards group on Linked in, I have now made my blog, Document Assembly (and Case Management) available on Linked In. For those who don’t know about LinkedIn groups, the HotDocs Wizards group is a place where REAL HotDocs developers can meet to share ideas and even business prospected. In the past two weeks, I have been asked to post two job offerings to the group. It may be that is only a trickle, but enough trickles turn into streams, and streams feed into rivers.
LinkedIn currently has over 30 million connections. What people do with their LinkedIn profile is up to them. It may be worthwhile to but you bio/cv up on LinkedIn. It may not make sense to get a paid subscription. The choice is yours.
DECREMENT and INCREMENT
The DECREMENT and INCREMENT instructions are relatively new to HotDocs and they serve identical, but reversed purposes. DECREMENT will reduce a given number variable by one, whereas INCREMENT will increase by one.
These two instructions are most useful in conjunction with WHILE and REPEAT instructions. Lets say we are doing some real estate templates and one of the templates is ONLY required where there are one or more corporate borrowers. To do this, we could just use a TF variable that is set to TRUE if there is at least one corporate borrower, but that isn’t as useful as knowing exactly how many corporate borrowers we have. Making MORE specific information available to your system is nearly always better than “the shortest approach”.
SET BORR Corporate CNT TO 0 //our var to store how many corporate borrowers
REPEAT BORROWERS RPT
IF BORRS Corporate TF = TRUE //a checkbox on the dialog if the borrower is a company
INCREMENT BORR Corporate CNT
END IF
END REPEAT
And that’s it. At the end of this, BORR Corporate CNT will contain the number of corporate borrowers we have. The same usage would apply in a WHILE statement, except that in a WHILE loop, it is nearly always imperative that you have an INCREMENT (or DECREMENT) statement. The reason for this is that REPEAT will auto terminate when you have finished the repeated answers whereas WHILE does not – YOU must manually code that ‘cut out’. And that’s where INCREMENT comes in.
At the end of the day, INCREMENT and DECREMENT could already be achieved in HotDocs scripting as follows:
INCREMENT: SET Variable NU TO Variable NU + 1
DECREMENT: SET Variable NU TO Variable NU - 1
Both of these would work. But these two new instructions are cleaner and easier to type. And lets face it – convenience and clean code are pretty cool things to have.
Customer Service 101: Connecting in an Interconnected World
Rose Rowland, Developer and Trainer for Basha Systems adds her thoughts on customer service in an interconnected world.
For several years now, I have gone to a drycleaners that is farther from my house than at least five others. This drycleaners is not particularly cheaper or even better in any appreciable way than the ones that are nearer to my house. And still, I make the extra trip for one reason – the lady behind the counter.
Read moreCustomer Service 101: Connecting in an Interconnected World
Twitter Twitter Twit … What is in a Twit
I have recently noticed a number of attorneys and software vendors getting “Twitter” personas … see www.twitter.com. So I got one for myself. I can be reached via @bashasys. I had a long drive up to Montreal with time to kill on my new Blackberry Storm (Rose was driving). And so I enrolled in Twitter and began to Twit (yes… that is a new verb that I cannot claim credit for). And here are some of my thoughts after a week of Twittering.
Twitter, for those who don’t know, is a hybrid of “texting” (or using cell phones for Text messaging) and Blogging. It is texting in that it limits all posts or messages (aka Twits) to 140 characters. For people like me who can barely keep a sentence under 140 characters, such limits can be crippling. The message box for Twitter is titled “What are you doing”. And so the initial inpulse is to answer the question.
Note my early posts on my drive to Mont Tremblant:
# Bilingual jokes á Le hotel de ville and 30 degrees below zero … Celsius 4:26 PM Feb 15th from TwitterBerry
# Lost to my son in the brain activity game … Can move the ball with alpha waves 12:06 PM Feb 15th from TwitterBerry
# 30 degree below zero Celsius in downtown Montreal 12:04 PM Feb 15th from TwitterBerry
# Just got through the border crossing … They speak French here 4:03 PM Feb 14th from TwitterBerry
# All stop… Just arrived at the Canadian border. Do they still have borders 3:05 PM Feb 14th from TwitterBerry
# How to build self organizing systems for practice management ….with a simple memo field. All in the markup and the interpreter. 12:52 PM Feb 14th from TwitterBerry
# More snow as we get closer to Montreal
Others have taken to use Twitter to announce product developments, links to interesting articles, and business gossip. Take a look at posts from RocketMatter, a cloud based case management system:
# @adamr Brilliant move. Even more brilliant would be sending a new Kindle 2 to me as well. about 22 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to adamr
# @TheHRLawyer I would agree. Most theft is low-tech, not high-tech. Overwhelmingly so. Thanks for reading! about 22 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to TheHRLawyer
# Get an understanding of this murky “Cloud” thing. See “The Cloud” Explained, Part 1 of 2 at FindLaw.com: http://is.gd/ky96 about 22 hours ago from TweetDeck
# @RonJeffries Find you where you are – usually at Panera Bread with Chet, no? about 22 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to RonJeffries
# @claxtonlegal Rocket Matter does not make you sign a yearly contract. Pay per month and cancel anytime. 30 Day $$ back guarantee. about 24 hours ago from TweetDeck
Ross Kodner chooses to use this as a links exchange that primarily announces posts on his blog:
# Ross Ipsa Loquitur: All a Twitter About OutTwit: While I’m personally still baffled abo.. http://tinyurl.com/bzw3b9 10:10 AM Feb 7th from twitterfeed
# Ross Ipsa Loquitur: Coolest Demand Letter Ever: Just ask El Paso lawyer David Ferrell who dem.. http://tinyurl.com/b4qtwe 10:10 AM Feb 7th from twitterfeed
# Ross Ipsa Loquitur: No Longer a SkyFi Virgin! Now a Member of the 7 Mile High Club!: Yes, on .. http://tinyurl.com/bbtbxm 10:10 AM Feb 7th from twitterfeed
# Ross Ipsa Loquitur: 12 of 14 . . . No, it’s Not a New Star Trek Character: No, it’.. http://tinyurl.com/adyubj 10:10 AM Feb 7th from twitterfeed
# Ross Ipsa Loquitur: The Inauguration Live!: See it unfold live at www.hulu.com! Wow! May God .. http://tinyurl.com/9p8gdh 11:12 AM Jan 20th from twitterfeed
So what should I do with Twitter?
Who is my audience?
Send me a twit to @bashasys
For now, I will keep the personal twits down …. I do not have papparazzi on my trail, nor ever will. If you do what to follow me, you have to ANNOUNCE yourself and request permission to follow. That may be “unfriendly” of me, but I do want to know who my “friends and followers” are. Further, I will strive to come up with something interesting for that millisecond you review my twit … and maybe links to my more extensive ramblings.
Cheers.
The Return of Bob Butler – BestThinking.com
There is not much to write at the present time, but rather, a heads-up of something coming down the pike. Bob Butler, former CEO of DataTXT (aka Time Matters Software) has gone public with a new venture called BestThinking.com. The website has been in development for a while and has just been launched. It promises a blending of the best social networking in Linked-In and Facebook, along with the social ranking in Diggs, and the collaboratively edited content of Wikipedia.
Related Link:
Here is what Bob writes in his public email announcement:
Friends and Collegues:
Everyone who knows me knows that along with an amazingly talented team, I have been working for the past 2 years on BestThinking.com. Well, BestThinking.com is now open to the public!
As we all know, it’s not only who you know, but it’s also what you know. While there are many places on the Internet, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, etc. for showing who you know, BestThinking is the new best place to show what you know.
Since all of you are working to advance careers, find better jobs, or expand your businesses and practices, I thought BestThinking.com might be of interest to you beyond just what I have been up to. I’m sending this email to introduce you to a no cost opportunity to establish a new and important web presence.
There are several advantages to getting started early, including improving your visibility to search engines by being the founder of high profile Topics and securing your name and unique URL for your Thinker page.
It has never been so easy to become widely recognized for your passion and expertise. Don’t forget to tell your friends and colleagues that you are now a Thinker at BestThinking.com and ask them to join us.
Bob Butler
CEO
BestThinking.com
At present, BestThinking represents the best thinking of web designers, rather than actual thinkers. View it as a new home that still needs to be furnished. The structure has been built and the rooms created. But at present, there is no furniture or decoration. There are “Latin” placeholders. It is up to you (the Thinkers) to turn this website into a new home and place to go.
What makes it real exciting is that the website can build a self-policing community. Each Thinker and each Thought can be rated by users. Based upon user ratings, articles and thinkers will rise into favor or fall from favor. That is the genius of the website. It is now up to you, if you view yourself as a thinker, to hang out your shingle. Be prepared for the critical review of the masses. Who knows, you will be able to get some recognition and maybe even some engagements.