A 'Techno' Moment

Ever tried to get lawyers together to work on a joint document? Thanks to WebEx, you can gather them on the Internet and let them work from their offices.

BY PAUL R. KIESEL

How many times have you had to prepare a joint document with several lawyers and spent more time coordinating the attorneys' schedules than preparing the document?

I imagined the future: A dozen lawyers need to "get together" to prepare a joint document. Rather than meeting in one of the attorneys' conference rooms, they could meet on the Internet.

At the designated time, all counsel would turn on their video cameras, enter the Web site and join the others "meeting" live, on the Net, to prepare the document. All counsel would be able to see one another in small windows on their monitors, and in the middle of the monitor would be the document.

The document would be accessible by all counsel through a cursor-control function that would allow anyone to modify the document (I realize you could have some horrible fights for control, but in my dream, all counsel get along).

In November, when I attended the Daily Journal Legal Technologies program, I found that, to my great surprise, that such a system already exists. Although the demonstration did not include video, I suspect that as bandwidth (the amount of data that can be transferred per second) increases, so will the ability to integrate video into the process. The demonstration was of an Internet site called WebEx.

This was precisely what I had envisioned.

Several months ago, I was in a situation where 12 attorneys needed to coordinate to prepare a memorandum of understanding, and we had only three weeks to get it done. Trying to find a time within those 15 business days when all 12 of us would be available to meet for half a day seemed like a daunting task. Then I remembered the WebEx demonstration.

While reading this column, if you can, turn on your computer to access the WebEx.com site. When I did so, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that WebEx has online demonstrations of their system throughout every business day.

The demonstration is an absolute necessity. You are instructed to download the necessary software to operate on the WebEx site (this takes about three minutes with a standard 56K dial-up) and provided a toll-free number to call. I anxiously dialed the toll-free number and was connected with Rick, my online WebEx tour guide. My name appeared on the computer screen, along with about a half a dozen other names, not surprisingly, including a number of lawyers.

About 20 percent of the screen showed the names of those participating in the online conference; the other 80 percent was the demonstration "slide" Rick was showing to everyone on the tour. Rick explained that we were seeing the same document, and Rick could, with the click of his mouse, give any one of us control of the cursor, so we could edit the document.

Everyone on the call was provided a unique color to mark up the document. What was amazing about the demonstration was that here we were, individuals calling from throughout the world, speaking on a conference call and all viewing the identical document on our computer monitors. I was having a "techno" moment.

I was concerned about being able to operate the WebEx site without Rick in the driver's seat. When I agreed to the demonstration, WebEx asked whether I wanted to be contacted by a sales associate after the demonstration. Sure, I said. Rick explained the different pricing options. Rather than take you through the different options, I suggest you visit the Web site and evaluate which option is best for you.

The pricing option that appealed to me was "pay for use." With this option, all participants dial in to the WebEx conference call number (not a toll-free number) at a cost of 5 cents per minute per line. The WebEx access fee to the site itself was 20 cents per minute per user. With the conference call and WebEx access service, total charges were 25 cents per minute per user (that's $15 per hour per user, for those mathematically challenged among you).

I think that's one heck of a bargain. When you compare the time and expense for 11 attorneys from throughout California to fly, drive or crawl to my office in Beverly Hills, using this service is, as we said in Jersey, a "no-brainer."

Of course, I needed to be sure I could "drive this car" before loading all the attorneys on board. WebEx to the rescue. WebEx has free unlimited access of the site for 10 minutes every time you log in. I wouldn't recommend the 10-minute option, other than to make sure you know how to operate the system, since after the initial 10 minutes, your access is extremely limited.

What I could do in 10 minutes was turn to my trusty Web tester, my father. I figure that, if my dad can use this computer technology, anyone can. The other benefit of using my father as a test partner is that, while my office operates on a DSL line, my father accesses the net at 56K through AOL. If the system functions adequately with my father's limited Web access, I knew it would work for anyone (No offense, Dad).

Because this was going to be a normal phone call, I didn't need to set up a conference call to test the system. To my relief, my father was able to access the Web site and, within a few minutes, was able to see and manipulate the document I posted on our shared WebEx site.

Each session is password-protected, so you don't have concerns that some stranger is eavesdropping on your session. Even though my father was coming in at 56K through AOL, we were both able to use the system. I was ready to take the show on the road.

WebEx allows you to schedule "meetings" in advance and list the e-mail addresses of each participant. Once you've set up the conference, the WebEx system sends out an e-mail to the participants advising them of the time, meeting name, password (which you assign) and phone number needed to access the session.

Several days in advance and, having cleared the date and time with counsel, the call was set and ready to go. At the appointed hour, all counsel met, and within about 30 minutes (and with a little technical support from the WebEx personnel), we were up and ready to go.

For two hours, we cursored through the 24-page memorandum of understanding, discussing issues on the phone and making changes directly on the screen. Wow!

While we didn't have video of one another at our respective desks, with the document on our computer monitors and our voices on the phone, we moved through the memo in a way we could not have done had we been together in our conference room. No coffee breaks, no bathroom breaks. I calculate that the cost savings to the parties exceeded $10,000.

I've seen the future and it's pretty cool. Give it a try. I think that, much like Mikey, you're gonna like it.