Collaboration is knowledge: join a forum.

Lawyers must convert huge amounts of information into knowledge. The question is, With today's busy schedules and economic pressures, how can they efficiently and economically transform a glut of information into wisdom? Collaboration is the answer. Low-cost equipment, increasing computer skills, and the Internet revolution in communications and publishing have provided the tools for lawyers to work together.

Lawyers and others can post messages and engage in online discussion in areas devoted to selected topics on the World Wide Web. Messages and files are preserved on the Internet--permanently, if desired--so that lawyers can hold group discussions that stretch over time, checking into the group from their homes, offices, or anywhere else with Internet access. When lawyers new to the discussion log on, all previous discussion is available for their immediate examination. Preserved wisdom!

E-mail is almost universally used by lawyers, who also commonly attach documents to e-mail messages. Groups of lawyers who subscribe to list serves send e-mail to each other via a "store-and-forward mailing list" with just a few clicks of the mouse. When e-mail is addressed to a list serve mailing list, it is automatically "broadcast," or sent to everyone on the list.

For example, I can send an e-mail to the list serve host, and my message is posted on its computer, then broadcast to everyone who has subscribed to the list serve, so that each subscriber receives my message at his or her e-mail address.

List serve participants may choose to click on the "reply" option in their e-mail program and respond with comments to my message. Those responses are sent to the list serve host's computer, stored, and broadcast to all subscribers.

Pros and cons 

List serve technology clearly represents an advanced use of electronic mail because subscribers don't all have to be using the same software to send and receive messages through the host.

By sending a message to the host to be automatically forwarded to all subscribers, the user avoids having to address a message to many individuals--a significant advance in communications. And each subscriber can choose to store or delete the messages from his or her e-mail. All this information is sent directly to you for free.

However, list serves are technologically deficient because messages are not preserved or categorized by focused "threads" --groupings of messages by topic. When lawyers first use a list serve, they are amazed at its communication powers and begin to envision how the technology can be used in the legal profession. However, when the honeymoon is over, they realize that they are being inundated with scores of messages every day--many of little or no interest.

Lawyers may find that they have joined so many lists and are sending so many other e-mail messages to friends, family, colleagues, and clients that they get an overwhelming amount of incoming e-mail.

Once they subscribe, they receive every message broadcast to the list serve, even though list serves generally encompass broad topics, and they may only be interested in subtopics within them. To be sure, lawyers can set up their own e-mail programs to sort and file the messages by subject line or sender, but this system is time-consuming. Further, although most list serves have full-text searching capabilities to find older messages on particular topics, the process is cumbersome and seldom used by lawyers I know. And new users will not be sent any messages broadcast before they joined, so they will have no idea of what has been previously discussed.

List serves do not provide and preserve focused information, but forums (sometimes called conferences or groups) do.

Forums are also online discussion groups in which participants with common interests can exchange messages. But unlike list serves, conferencing technology allows messages to be posted directly on the Web, not transmitted by e-mail to individuals on the list. Forums are usually started by a person or group with a specific interest, so the topic stays focused.

With forums, lawyers can focus on the matters they are concerned about and not get bombarded with everything being discussed on a list serve. For example, if I am interested in insurance company practices or systems of document assembly for automobile and medical malpractice litigation, I can participate in just those forums.

Besides containing focused information, all forum messages can be preserved in their threaded discussions forever. So those who log on six months after a forum started will have all the commentary and information from day one. All recommendations discussed by experts and consensus reached during those months will be a part of the forum.

Forum and conferencing software has been around for at least 20 years. In 1983, I started one of the first lawyer-run bulletin board systems (BBS), which allowed focused topics to be discussed. Users logged on to the BBS via modern, reviewed messages left by others, and left their own messages in response.

In the 1980s, CompuServe provided specialized user areas and the ability to create topics for discussion purposes. When I ran the LAWyers Special Interest Group (LAW SIG) in the late 1980s on a CompuServe competitor called The Source, we used a product called Participate. Other software, such as Bob Parnes's Confer and Windows' Caucus (now NetMeeting), have been around for almost 20 years. Today, there are many products on the market and most of them are excellent.

Some companies allow use of their software to set up free forums. These include Delphi at http:/www.delphi.com, Intranets. com at http://www.intranets.com, and Visto.com at http://www.visto.com. Other companies, such as Web Crossing at http://www.webcrossing.com and the Ultimate Bulletin Board at http://www.ultimatebb. com, sell conferencing software. Two sophisticated, lawyer-focused resources that offer conferencing are HotOffice at http://www.hotoffice.com and Collaborator from Legal Anywhere located at http://www.legalanywhere.com.

For understanding forums software, a picture is worth 10,000 words, not just 1,000 --take a look and see what you think.

Lawyers trying to save time and money may find a combination of basic e-mail, list serves, and forums of value. And because Delphi and some others offer free services, groups that are stuck on list serves may want to experiment with forum technology. If the cost is zero or modest (Web Crossing and the Ultimate BB, for instance, are well priced for the resources they provide), and there are group members willing to oversee forums by acting as moderators, then what is there to lose?

Forum advantage

With forums, lawyers can focus on matters of concern and not get bombarded with everything being discussed on a list serve.

Back issues available

ATLA's membership Department can provide back issues of TRIAL, the ATLA Advocate, and the Law Reporter to those who have missed issues.

For a six-month period after issue date, back issue will be provided at no charge. Between six months and one year after issue date, back issues will cost $10 each. Publications requested more than one year after issue date will be provided, if they continue to be available, for $20 each.

For more information or to order back issues, use the membership hotline, [phone].

Paul Bernstein is an attorney and law office automation consultant in Chicago. He can be reached by e-mail at [e-mail] or through his home page at http://www.paulbernstein.com. The views expressed in this column are the author's and do not constitute an endorsement of any product by TRIAL or ATLA.