Tablet PCs Invade NCSC Technology Division

Like the old movie The Blob, a new type of computer has taken over our group here at the NCSC; the Tablet PC. Every technology professional in our group now uses either a convertible or slate style Tablet PC. For those of you who don't know, a convertible Tablet PC is similar to a laptop except that there is a hinge that let's one flip the screen around to lay flat across the keyboard. Our group currently has Tablet PCs from IBM (Lenovo), Toshiba, HP, and Fujitsu.

Some of the advantages to this format of computer that we have already found are first, one can use the computer on cramped airline seats. By flipping the screen ( Toshiba currently has a short commercial on their website that shows the flip ) one can use the pen to read, write, and work with applications like e-mail. A second advantage is that the convertible Tablet PC is a full featured laptop. So when I am in the office, I can use it with the keyboard and mouse as I am doing now to write this article. A third advantage is the ability to use the pen to take and save handwritten notes. I have Microsoft OneNote 2003 installed on my Tablet PC and one nice feature is continual file saving. When I write a note, it is automatically saved on the machine's hard drive; no more, click file, click save. Further, we recently saw Colorado Courts CIO, Bob Roper's Tablet PC where he has their entire judicial Bench Book organized in OneNote. We are planning to have Bob and a couple of Colorado Judges demonstrate their systems in December at the E-Courts 2006 Conference. Finally, we have found that the handwriting recognition is very good. Interestingly, for me it seems is more accurate in deciphering my left-hand cursive handwriting versus writing in block letters. And, OneNote lets me be able to search my handwritten notes even if they haven't been converted to text. In general the Technology group is just now learning what we can do with our machines; but from our first impressions, we are happy with out acquisitions. For a good website that collects user's impressions on the hardware, software, and accessories related to Tablet PC's see the Tablet PC Buzz website.

Juvenile Information Sharing Training

Thanks to our friends at the Center for Network Development we received an announcement for two upcoming workshops, Introducing Juvenile Information Sharing (JIS) Guidelines. JIS enables agencies to share essential information through structured procedures and technology. The two workshops will be held from March 20-21 in Arlington, Virginia and April 24-25 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For more information and to receive the flyer and registration form you can contact Ms. Marilyn Webb at the CND in Denver, Colorado at 303-893-6898 or via e-mail at mwebb@TheCND.org

Clark County Regional Justice Center Videoconferencing

Our good friend Chuck Short, Court Administrator in Clark County, Nevada passed along this press release by Michael Sommermeyer.

The District Court has successfully started the court's first transcontinental trial in Department 17 by linking the courtroom with a remote site in Boston, Mass by video conference.

The videoconferencing trial, presided over by Judge Stefany Miley, allows a bed-confined defendant to participate in the proceedings through a two-way video link using court cameras and the Internet. The proceedings continue today.

This success was made possible by the efforts of Wayne Slater, Justice Court, David DeBoef, County Information Technology and Brian Gilmore, DC Assistant Court Administrator.

For more information please contact Michael Sommermeyer, Court Information Officer, Eighth Judicial District Court Las Vegas Township Justice Court, Regional Justice Center at: (702) 671-4534, sommerm@co.clark.nv.us

CTC9 Papers Posted

Many educational papers and presentations for CTC9 are now available on the conference website. Subjects such as the "E-Courts Roadmap", "Court Automation Made Simple - How to get the Cutting Edge without Spending a Fortune", and many others are covered.

SJI E-News Interview on Security

The Halloween, 2005 issue of SJI E-News (PDF) contains an inteview with Wendell Shingler who is the Director of the Federal Protective Service. The Federal Protective Service is the organization in charge of court security for US Federal Judges and Courthouses. There is also an article about the Justice Management Institute's new book on courthouse security.

Ideas for a Secure Laptop

In its October 10, 2005 edition, Federal Computer Week ran an excellent article on how the US Justice Department is implementing new technology to protect data on laptop computers. A sidebar to the article lists 8 ways to improve security such as implementing encryption and tracking devices on laptop PCs; and the use of removable storage. Let's take three of these ideas one by one.

First, turning on encryption in Windows 2000/XP is pretty simple. According to Microsoft's website you perform the following steps: 

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Right-click the file or folder that you want to encrypt, and then click Properties.
3. On the General tab, click Advanced.
4. Select the Encrypt contents to secure data check box.

Encrypting a Microsoft Word document is also a fairly easy affair. If you have a document you wish to secure, first open the document, then go to the Tools menu, select Options, and click on the Security tab. You can then enter the password for that specific document. But of course the danger in all of this encryption is forgetting the password, so rather than writing it on a "sticky note", one might consider an embedded fingerprint scanner such as the one built into a new laptop model when it's time to upgrade.

Second, the idea of a stolen laptop being able to "phone home" is now possible. There is a number of stealth tracking software solutions available that can be installed on your computer. When a laptop is stolen one notifies the service provider and they begin a process of tracking down your computer once it has been connected to the Internet. One could argue that if the thief simply erases the hard disk drive they could thwart this system. However, most computers have hidden sectors on the hard drives where this kind of software can be placed and disguised. And besides, as we know working in the criminal justice system, thieves are often not very clever.

Third, the use of removable storage is a great idea. There are three common ways that this can be accomplished. Currently for under $150 a two gigabyte USB storage flash drive can be purchased. While you won't be able to store your entire library of Beethoven Symphonies on this drive, it should be sufficient for most judges' working document files. A second option is a removable PC Card hard disk drive that contains 5 gigabytes of storage. And finally, for those of you who wish to backup everything on your computer along with your Beethoven, there is the popular Apple iPod (or other alternative) which in the near future will be able to store 60 gigabytes of information.

US National Archives Awards Electronic Archive Contract

We missed this announcement somehow last month in the run up to CTC9; but after a year long competition the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) held a press conference on September 8, 2005 to announce that the team headed by Lockheed-Martin had won. I have been searching the Internet, but technical details on the new system seem to be in short supply. Federal Computer Week wrote that the plan is to build a multi-tiered platform that will allow new technology and systems to be easily added to the archive. Washington Technology adds that it will be built using open standards. This is definitely something for our court community to watch as we transition to electronic records and archives.

CTC9 a Success!

We are just now recovering from CTC9. What a great conference. First, if you missed the conference, or attended and wanted to share the keynote and several sessions with your colleagues, you can do so via streaming internet video. Go to the CTC Streaming Media website to see keynote sessions by Senator Slade Gordon, former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith, and Microsoft's Chris Capossela. Several educational sessions focusing on GJXDM technology and security were also captured.

Too many other things happened during the conference to be discussed in a brief article but, Scott Fairholm wanted to pass along that the Chief Information Technology Officers Consortium (CITOC) held its first meeting during the Wednesday afternoon SIGs. Over 100 state and local court CIOs attended the meeting to hear from Chief Justice Toal (SC) who opened the session and to learn more about how they can be involved in CITOC. If you are a court CIO and missed the session, you can go to the CITOC website to learn more and to join.

Larry Webster noted that he was impressed with the progress that has been made with electronic filing and document managements systems in recent years. And another thing that struck him was how much more important electronic information sharing seems to be to courts than it has in the past. So the good news is that the courts are becoming more electronic and more connected.

Finally we would like to thank everyone who attended the conference for their participation and support. It was wonderful seeing all of our friends and we look forward to CTC10 in Tampa, Florida in October, 2007.

See You in Seattle!

Please come by the National Center for State Courts booth at CTC9 and say "Hi!" We are always happy to see our friends in the court community. There will be information about the various technology programs and initiatives plus a free NCSC Research and Technology CD packed with useful information such as the State Court Guide to Statistical Reporting and the first complete Global Information Exchange Package Documentation for Traffic Citations. See you in Seattle!

ABA Responds to the Aftermath of Katrina

From our friend Larry Smith at the American Bar Association:

The American Bar Association is coordinating with FEMA to provide resources, and will serve as a clearinghouse for lawyers and those in the legal profession who are willing to volunteer, either generally or specifically for law firm clients and for the firms themselves. This week, we (the ABA Law Practice Management Section and others) are also gathering resources that we have previously published on practice interruption/continuation and disaster recovery for the benefit of those practices that cannot continue. These resources will be published both at the LPM and ABA-wide pages, linked through the ABA Web site at www.abanet.org. We continue to field inquiries on these topics. If any of you have materials that you believe are appropriate for this effort, we encourage you to share them.

Thanks,
Larry C. Smith, Director
Law Practice Management Section
American Bar Association
E-mail: SmithL@staff.abanet.org
Phone: 312-988-5661
Web: www.lawpractice.org