learn

An intensive training conference

Docacon 2020 took place on June 25 and 26, 2020. The focus this year was hands-on training.

For videos of the training sessions, see the schedule below.

If you enjoy using free and open-source software and attending free conferences, consider making a donation to the Merlin Legal Open Source Foundation to help sustain the open-source movement in the legal industry.

Sessions

Advanced training

Thursday, June 25, 2020, 9:00 to 12:00 EDT

This was a hands-on training for users with substantial experience using docassemble. It was conducted by Jonathan Pyle. Topics included how docassemble logic works, how you can write questions that override other questions, and how to allow the user to review and edit answers while maintaining logical integrity.

Watch the video recording

Screenshare your creation

Thursday, June 25, 2020, 13:00 to 13:45 EDT

This session served as our opening plenary. It featured an announcement about the Merlin Legal Open Source Foundation followed by screenshare presentations from three lawyers who use docassemble.

Watch the video recording

Drop-in Q&A and troubleshooting

Thursday, June 25, 2020, 14:00 to 15:00 EDT and 19:00 to 20:00 EDT

The docassemble community primarily uses Slack to ask questions and get help from peers with tricky situations. At these two sessions, we used Zoom to do the same thing.

Beginner training

Friday, June 26, 2020, 9:00 to 12:00 EDT

This training was designed for people who have no experience or some experience with docassemble. It was conducted by Sam Harden and Quinten Steenhuis.

Watch the video recording

Gathering groups of things

Friday, June 26, 2020, 14:00 to 15:00 EDT

Docassemble lets you gather lists of objects, as well as dictionaries and sets. Using declarative "question" and "code" blocks, you can gather any arbitrary data structure. It can get complicated, though. This training session, conducted by Jonathan Pyle, explained how group gathering works.

Watch the video recording

Happy hour

Friday, June 26, 2020, 16:00 to 17:00 EDT

In keeping with tradition, Docacon wrapped up with a social hour, this time in a Zoom session rather than at a bar.

Instructors

Sam Harden

Attorney and Legal Technology Consultant

Jonathan Pyle

Attorney, Philadelphia Legal Assistance

Quinten Steenhuis

Adjunct Professor and Clinical Fellow, Suffolk University Law School

Format

Docacon 2020 was originally planned as a one-day, in-person conference in Tampa, Florida on June 26, 2020. The conference was moved on-line due to COVID-19.

Past conferences

Docacon 2020 was the third annual conference of the docassemble user community. The web sites for the prior conferences are archived here.

Docacon 2019 Docacon 2018