Technology Tools for Legal Aid Gabrielle Hammond, NTAP January 31, 2007

I never…

       Participated in a Legal Meetings (WebEx) call Hosted a Legal Meetings call Visited the new LSNTAP website (www.lsntap.org) Completed an online survey using the Poverty Law Survey Tool Used a wiki Created a survey using the Poverty Law Survey Tool Added content to the LSNTAP Website

Technology Tools for Legal Aid

    LSNTAP.Org

Poverty Law Survey Tool Wikis LegalMeetings Coming soon….

 GIS Mapping Server

Other Tools

   Meeting Scheduling Online RSS Feeds and Readers Open Source Apps

Why are you here…

    Want to learn about all the tools available to my program.

Want to learn how the community is using these tools (generally) Want to learn specifics (i.e. nuts and bolts) how to use tools  Which tools?

Curious about what all those acronyms in the agenda meant:  LM, LAU, GIS….

LSNTAP.Org

     Technology information for poverty law Training for poverty law Blogs and entry to national projects (national wikis, email lists) It is not just for techies….Your role: Tell other staff about it in your program Bookmark: www.lsntap.org/techlibrary

The LSNTAP.Org Tour

      Tech Library: Name that Tech Topic! (or Search Game) Portal for national email lists and wikis News and Views (blogs available) Training (Calendar, Lists, and Registration) Posting Content and Logging In Posting Jobs

Resources

  www.legalmeetings.org

(aka www.lsntap.org/aboutlegalmeetings )  Information on Sign Up  Information on Using LegalMeetings Trainings: 

Energizing Online Meetings, Oct 26

 First Tues of Every Month: LegalMeetings Roundtable). Starts February (For Existing Users)

Online Surveys

     Client Satisfaction Surveys (from Hotline) Staff Surveys on Management Issues Retreat and Conference Planning National Initiatives -- Getting Feedback Technology or Other Project Evaluation

Online Survey Tools

    Survey Monkey Poverty Law Survey Tool Zoomerang Others…

Poverty Law Survey Tool

   Free Robust Features Support is Available During Use

Important Features

      Customize look & feel and include images Question types and logic of questions Share Your Surveys with Others in the Community (avoid recreating from scratch) Send Surveys Out Anonymously, With Tokens, with Registration Options Reporting and Statistics includes Charts and Graphs Ability to copy questions between surveys or reuse yours or others’ shared surveys as a template

Before You Begin

   A Survey Tool cannot write the survey for you… Strength of your survey depends on preparation Before you go online, know:     The Question Types How you’ll distribute the survey How it will be administered Start and end date

What if….You Don’t Know

  How would you know which one to use?

 What are Tokens?

  What do you mean by Question Types What do you mean by Skip Logic and Branching?

We have resources:    http://lsntap.org/node/1706 (question types) http://lsntap.org/surveyhowto http://lsntap.org/node/890 (step-by-step) (administration options)

Basic Steps in Survey Creation

       Login to your account and create a new survey Fill out as much of the survey metadata as you can at this point Create a group (to contain one or all questions) and name it with the knowledge that groups are arranged alphabetically Create a question and choose an appropriate question type. Enter the possible answers to the question. (for certain question types) Create new questions/groups as required Test the survey and make any changes required Activate the survey and send the link to your respondents

Resources

    Sign up for an account at survey.lstech.org

Trainings and resources available in the lsntap.org resource library Sign up for upcoming NTAP trainings on using the survey tool   February 15, 2007 November 16, 2007  ADVANCED training for current users only: TBA (likely March and December) Email support: [email protected]

Online Tool for Collaboration

 What if there were an easy way to:    Share versions of your hotline or housing manual across multiple authors, without using email… Store and update passwords that change quickly (like tech pwds) so you don’t have to wait to find your techie to log back in… Save on the email bulk…

Wikis

   An online space, like a website, where "anyone" can add, edit, or remove web pages without specific web tools or knowledge. Preserves prior versions of pages and logs changes made to its pages.

A group of people can use it to create a collaborative work or reference environment.

Some uses in Legal Services

      Personnel Manuals, Administrative & Litigation Manuals Technology State Task Force Projects & Conferences National Projects To support meeting planning Examples

Wikis In Action…

     Wikipedia Fema Answers ( http://femaanswers.org

) NTAP’s Wiki (password protected) LSSCM’s Technology Wiki Cyber Piracy Wiki

Starting a Wiki: Determine Platform

 Just like with website platforms, there are many wiki “platforms” to choose from…  Decide whether you host it yourself or have it hosted. (Security versus ease of use and administration)**  We use MediaWiki -- not the prettiest, but “industry standard.”  NTAP will be offering programs wiki hosting (we’ll give you space on a server to host your wiki) starting in March.

 Other options: http://lsntap.org/node/1064****

Starting a Wiki

   No one is that excited about a blank page Change of Mindset (NTAP’s example) Tips for Successful Wikis    Get someone who is willing to try Put up content before you distribute Share materials on how to edit (on the wiki itself)…make it easy

Basic Editing (Mediawiki)

 Let’s see how to edit a Wiki:  http://lsntap.org/node/1062  Other Resources: http://lsntap.org

 Tutorial    All About Media Wiki Lessons Learned And more….

Resources

   LSNTAP.Org resources on wikis Mediawiki resources at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents Upcoming Trainings  March 2, 2007

Wiki Tools

    Jotspot Confluence (free for nonprofits) MediaWiki PBwiki

LegalMeetings Web Conferencing

   How many use it?

Sign Up: www.legalmeetings.org

Use it: http://lm.webex.com

  Prices range from $10 - 32 a month depending on program budget size…first three months for LSC funded programs free.

Non-LSC funded programs at $75 a month, first three months at $50.

Poverty Law & LegalMeetings

         Staff Meetings, Task Force Meetings, Staff Training, One-On-One Document Review and Edit, Advocacy Brainstorm Sessions, Substantive Law Review Sessions, Board Meetings, Management Meetings, and Remote Tech Support.

A Look at Use

 GLSP     157 Online Meetings 47 of these meetings were used to train on new CMS, LegalServer Average distance between offices is 175 miles (3.5 hours) Estimated $$ saved just in LegalServer trainings: $23,424.00

 Community Legal Services - Mid Florida  26 meetings in last year (started in Sept)   Used to train Helpline staff on areas of law Average distance is 59 miles  Estimated $$ saved is $1076.00

What if we all…..

  If 30 programs used it like GLSP, the national community would have saved an estimated:

$820,704.00.

If 30 programs used it like CLSMF, the national community would have saved an estimated:

$68,194.24.

GIS Mapping National Server Project

   Map Census Data by Legal Aid program Map Case Management Data with Google Earth www.lsntap.org/gisnationalserver  Coming Soon: April

Other Tools

 Meeting Scheduling  www.meetomatic.com

 www.meetingwizard.com

 Upcoming: Phone Conferencing for Legal Aid Programs  6 cents a minute for toll-free  Award winning phone service  RSS Feeds and Readers: www.lsntap.org/techlibrary

Other Tools

 Open Source Software   Diagram Software: http://live.gnome.org/Dia Open Source Suites: http://openoffice.org

 More Tips  Training by NTAP on May 4  http://lsntap.org/50techtips