Law Technology

My Latest ABA Journal Technology Column Introduces the Mobile Platform

By Dennis Kennedy

My latest technology column for the ABA Journal is out. It's called "Going Mobile: Your future work platform is on the phone " and it takes a practical look at what is starting to seem like a smartphone revolution.

My goal in this column was to provide a simple introduction and primer to what Tom Mighell and I have been calling the "mobile platform" on our podcast. We are moving to a world where smartphones are commonplace, where smartphones run applications and give us anywhere, anytime Internet access, and, as a result, the everyday world of technology use seems to be moving us to working on our smartphones.

In the column, I offer a gentle introduction to world of iPhone and other mobile apps, the implications of anytime, anywhere access, and how expectations are changing and will continue to change. The idea is that you need to start looking at your smartphone to do more than handle email and make calls.

I highlight three key developments:

1. New expectations of availability.

2. Moving from synchronization to realtime access.

3. The "apps" phenomenon -using a smartphone to perform computer-like functions.

I end with four simple and gentle suggestions to get started on the mobile platform. None of this will be big news for heavy smartphone users, but it's meant to be a primary for the many lawyers who are upgrading or moving for the first time to smartphones rather than standard cellphones. On the other hand, it might give you an outline for making the argument why you need a new-generation smartphone - iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Palm or other platform. I do hope you'll like the column more than the first commenter, who seemed to be a little underwhelmed.

The money quote:

Mobile is an area of technology where you don?t realize that you have a need until you understand what?s out there. Even a simple application for timekeeping can have great benefit if it helps you contemporaneously track time that you might otherwise forget.

Check out my new column. I also recommend a podcast on the mobile platform that Tom Mighell and I recorded a few months ago.

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[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

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Now Available! The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on the Legal Talk Network. Twitter: @tkmreport

Technorati tags: legal technology mobile platform apps iphone column

Full post as published by DennisKennedy.blog on February 09, 2010 (boomark / email).