Nothing persuades like a demonstration

Here is a sample of a mindmap that I produced from the judgment in Dyson v Registrar [2007] RPC 27.



I have included two versions - the Mindmap as a web page . Or here is a PDF version.

I havent yet worked out how to make the full mindmap available for download. Which is a shame because - although you would need the reader - only then will you see the full functionality - and potential - of the mindmap.

If anyone has any suggestions for how to make the full mindmap available let me know. (Or indeed any comments on my Dyson v Registrar map).

Baby Steps

I bought my tablet PC just before Christmas 2005. After I finished stroking it and just doodling on it with the digitiser pen I set about prepping it for use.

First I went to the Microsoft website to make sure my software was up to date and to read their guides. The inbuilt program "Get Going with tablet PC" that came packaged with the tablet was a good introduction but was relatively limited in the information that it provided.

Then I got excited about all the software options available to me. My particular concern was note taking. My problem proved to be the range of choices available to me.

I started with trials of gobinder and onenote.

I'd tell you more about my trials and tribulations with them except that I suspect I am out of date. New editions of both programs are out. Perhaps they will solve some of my concerns with both of them.

Then I went on a general hunt for advice. In so doing I came across three websites that keep you up to speed on developments for the tablet pc.

Although ostensibly directed towards students much of the advice and suggestions applied equally to what I wanted to achieve with my tabletPC. They have a beginners guide and better yet a list of top tips and tricks.

I also discovered tabletpcbuzz. A forum full of good ideas and links for the tabletpc user.

Finally gottabemobile this site will keep you up to date with all the latest hardware and has some interesting, if a little basic, webinars on popular software.

What are you doing?

The primary aim of this blog is two-fold.

First, to pass on what I have learned about using a Tablet PC and in particular how I have adapted it to my work as a barrister.

Second, to encourage people to let me know what they have learned about using a Tablet PC and in particular how they have made it work for them in their professional lives.


What do I want to achieve with my tablet? I hope to use the Tablet PC to transform the way I work. Ideally I would like to move to a paperless office. Where once was paper let there be digital ink. These are the specific tasks that I think I should be able to use my tablet for:

Reviewing documents in a case: In my work I have to review, absorb and remember large amounts of information. Normally this information comes in paper form as witness statements, exhibits, disclosure documents, expert reports, patent specifications, prior art documents and so on and so forth. Even in a small case I can have several bundles of documents to master. I read them, I note them, I make notes on them, I mark them with post-it notes and tabs. They have to be carted with me to wherever I need them - home, the court, another barrister's chambers. If the indexing is updated by new documents I have to re-arrange all the files. I can only search them manually or by remembering where a particular passage is or by looking for a post-it note that I have left as a marker. With the tablet PC I can import the documents in scanned form and mark them up directly. Re-indexing them is no more than the moving of a file icon. No post-it notes will come unstuck between Chambers and the court. If I need to search I will be able to do so automatically rather than by trying to remember where in a 60 page expert's report a reference is to be found. It should be wonderful.

Annotate on the fly: One of the banes of a junior barrister's life is the creating of a "Transcript Bash". This is the process whereby after each day of trial the junior barrister takes the transcript of the day's proceedings (which usually does not arrive until 7pm) and reads through it making an index of useful evidence references in preparation for the following days proceedings. Depending on the day's events it is a task that can take several hours to finish. If, however, I could directly annotate the witness statement of the person being cross-examined and then take those annotations and automatically generate a neat and distributable document from the annotations the task could be completed much more quickly and virtually as the cross-examination was happening.

Handwrite: Although I can touch type faster than I can handwrite it is sometimes easier to handwrite - especially if the information is unstructured and coming at a speed dictated by another person - like an extempore judgment for example. With the tablet I can take it down by hand and convert it to text later if I want to.

Store all manner of notes: Some things are better done without the constraint of a word-processor. Mindmaps, brainstorming, diagrams, quick notes are all more easily and effectively accomplished by hand. Yet if I want to keep them the easiest way is as a digital image. With the tablet I will be able to do both.

Cart it all about easily: If everything I am working with is digital then it can all be carted about in something less than an inch thick and weighing less than a single text book. No more bicycling home with four lever arch files strapped to my bike. That means that I can work where I want and when I want. Sometimes it is good to get out of the office and away from the distractions of phones, email and internet - impossible if you have to drag five files with you - easy with the tablet.

So these are the things that I think will be useful about the tablet. Is there anything I haven't thought about?

(Obviously I also plan to use this blog to post up anything I please - that is the joy of vanity publishing.)

A blog? Really? Is that wise?

2006 was going to be a year of many firsts. Among them was to be my entry to the world of blogging.

So much for my grand plans. But better late than never.

What stopped me, and what has made me consider starting again, was the realisation people actually went to benetbrandreth.com. But not friends, oh no! Strangers. Worse than that - potential employers of my services. After all that means that these posts are not just little messages in a bottle sent off into the ether never to be heard of again. They could have real-world implications. Naturally, it gives one pause...

And frankly I have been left pretty bemused by the whole blogging experience. Why would anyone want to read the unregulated, unedited ramblings of nonentities? No-one would. Or at least no-one for whom time is a precious, precious commodity that is slipping away faster than booze at the end of a hard day. Certainly there was no way that I wanted to add to the mass of burbling on the interweb. If I was to write anything for public consumption it would be because it was worth reading not just because I wanted to get it out.

Why then do I think I am safe to start now?

Not all blogs are simply idiots gibbering into the ether. There are some worth reading - those that bring some particular expertise out into the open Michael Fumento or which, by dint of their quirkiness Memepool, offer some particular outlet for distraction. My blog is not intended to be the latter but it might manage to be the former. In particular I think it might have some insight to offer into how technology can be harnessed by lawyers to make their lives easier and their work more effective.

You might think that most lawyers would be pretty up to speed on modern technology. You would be wrong. But I am based in a set of Intellectual Property barristers [www.11southsquare.com]. A large part of our expertise is patent law and cases that concern technical matters like computer contract disputes. Indeed many members of chambers have PhD's in some scientific discipline or another. But more than that - a lot of us are geeks. I for one revel in the role of early-adopter. But I don't think this is typical of barristers. I suspect most still shy from Maplins with real concern. Perhaps an indication of the general level of computer knowledge is given by Bar Council publications on the use of technology by barristers that include the most basic lessons on how to use Microsoft Word.

So there seems to be some potential interest in the musings of a barrister who is actively trying to use technology to make his work easier and better.

Now enter the Tablet PC. Long have I wanted one. I love digital information. The ease with which it is stored, transferred and disseminated. You can search digital information so much more comprehensively. You can cross-reference information so much more easily. You can order it and control it in so many ways. Best of all there are no piles of papers mounting on your desk but elegant boxes tucked away behind a cupboard humming with knowledge.

Yet certain kinds of information are difficult to digitise - hand-written notes, post-it notes that you stick on the witness statements at the appropriate paragraph, underlinings on the patent specification. Furthermore, certain kinds of information are hard to record except by hand-writing, post-it notes or underlining - an extempore judgment, a thought that comes to you as you are reading the witness statement again on the tube home, a response from an expert witness in cross-examination. What I wanted was the ability to take hand-written notes, on documents if necessary, and be able to treat them as handwriting. The Tablet PC seemed to promise this.

So I bought one. It’s an IBM Lenovo X41 with a 40Gb hard drive, 512Mb memory, 1.5GHz Pentium M processor. This blog was intended to be about me learning how to use it to maximum effect. Of course I was distracted. By actual work. But the lessons I learned are still worth disseminating. So if you're interested stay tuned...