The Gazette 1946-49

GAZETTE

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1988

Apparently, all English solicitors'

offices now have telephones! He

warned us that electronic mail had

been available in the UK for some

time and had not caught on. He felt

that it was relatively expensive and

inconvenient. He explained that the

concept of electronic mail was that

one purchased a relatively inexpen-

sive modem which one attached to

an existing computer or word-

processor. One then joined the

electronic mail system by paying

an annual subscription. This entitl-

ed the subscriber to the use of a

mail box, which is in reality, a small

segment of memory in a central

computer maintained in Britain.

Other subscribers could, using their

computers, send messages of

whatever length to the mail box.

One had to have the discipline of

calling up one's mail box on the

computer to see if there was

anything in it. Assuming one did

this, one could see a list of

messages and from whence they

had come. One could either read

the message on the screen or copy

it into the memory of one's own

machine for printing later or for use

as a basic document. There were

huge problems of compatibility and

no standards have been set in the

Un i t ed K i ngdom wh i ch w i ll

guarantee that the text can be pro-

perly understood by the receiving

computer. This often results in all

sorts of gibberish wi th words be-

ing lost and consequent lack of

understanding by the recipient. He

we l c omed the f act t hat t he

Technology Committee in Ireland

were attempting to pre-empt such

chaos by devising their own

standards.

Frank Lanigan, explained that

each of the members of the

Technology Committee had joined

the Eirmail (Irish Electronic Mail)

service and were experimenting

with its use. They had used a com-

mon supplier of modems and

because each member had com-

puter equipment supplied by dif-

ferent manufacturers, he felt they

represented a relatively good cross

section of the profession as a

whole from the point of view of

diversity of types of computers.

The Committee was attempting to

set standards amongst themselves

which if adopted should result in

the avoidance of the sort of diffi-

culties which had been outlined by

Mr. Bellord. He explained that the

Commi t t ee had only recently

started the experiment and still had

an open mind on the usefulness of

electronic mail.

A representative of ITELIS the

Irish Times legal data base service,

which is the Irish component of the

international legal database Lexis

then demonstrated their service. He

explained that if one had the

equipment necessary for electronic

mail, it was simply a matter of

paying an annual subscription and

usage charges in order to have the

benefit of ITELIS. A representative

of t he supplier, f r om w h om

members of the Technology Com-

mi t t ee had pu r chased their

modems t hen exp l a i ned t he

practical difficulties which had

been met and the requirements for

equipment needed to utilise these

aspects of technology. Mr. Bradley

Brown, t he Chairman of the

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