Mmm… I guess the specialist will also read it, perhaps more drawn to the ‘multi-million dollar’ problem. There are still IT folks, even IT security folks (from my own recent exposure at a recent gathering) who are not aware of ediscovery and they are ‘specialist’ in their own fields and in terms of ediscovery they are amongst the ‘masses’.

From another fellow traveller to others, I feel that the ediscovery space has been over-sold or over-rated or even over-exaggerated by (ediscovery) specialists on the few multi-million dollar cases. What about those cases where ediscovery were also ‘the issue’? For me, I certainly would relish more facts or stories from cases whereby ediscovery is a ‘non-issue’. These stories may not be ‘hot hot’ for the press or the masses but from a problem solving angle, it may reveal stuff which even the specialist have not thought about.

For me, ediscovery is about solving problems or involve problem solving. Even in simple problem, there will be questions and answers. So even if ediscovery is a ‘non-issue’ (a simple problem?) what is/are the problem(s), questions and answers?

I guess asking questions or more constructively, knowing what questions to ask and who is/are around or available to ask are ‘issues’ in ediscovery. Hence, I like the post by Dave Healey, with lots of questions.

Finally, put someone you trust, who is diligent, and who is on the case, in charge of eDiscovery, and task them to actively monitor the process on a daily basis!

Who? – another issue in ediscovery!

I was stranded for nearly one and half hour in a no power train yesterday and couldn’t help hearing several angry and frustrated mobile exchanges between couple of businessmen with the South East HQ customer services. The angry exchanges were mainly triggered because there were no communications (appeared to be no guard on the train either!) to the passengers on what was happening. The lack of visible actions on the train and the lack of reassurance from the HQ certainly did not help to calm the nerves of the passengers in a hot, broken down train in busy Waterloo tracks.

Is it difficult to relay basic information to passengers (who are entitled to be informed) the behind the scenes activities between the train driver, the engineers and HQ? I guess ‘the need to know’ (or walkabout alerting services?) by/to the passengers is not high on the HQ customer services list. No wonder train fares increases every year to pay for ‘unnecessary or avoidable’ situations – just a thought – but a rather annoying thought when one missed several business appointments!

In this age of ‘speedy and accessible’ communication (mobile connectivity etc.), customer’s expectation and fulfilment still pose challenges.

Is it also the same in the ediscovery/edisclosure world? I hazard a guess – a doubtless assertion (with the assumption that access to power/data is obtainable) – that the behind the scenes activities between the technical folks and legal and management team are exchanged too late to avoid aggros and costs. (Hence early confer/meet if this is available to parties).

In ediscovery/edisclosure, one of the behind the scene and less talk about (or blogged or written about) is evidence. This is highlighted by the use of generic term such as ‘information exchange’ in international disputes. The ‘e-words’ including ‘evidence’ are potentially culturally sensitive to use. Imagine having to describe the ‘e-evidence’ to all parties without getting cross-wired or inflicting cross-eyed to reviewers?!

For me, the term and usage of evidence in the context of international disputes requires behind the scenes re-assessment to make sense to me when dealing with ediscovery/edisclosure.

I guess evidence is also being re-assessed by folks in Asia. The ADR in Asia Conference 2009 in Hong Kong on 15th September has a topic: Interim Measures and Evidence – Emerging practices and movements.

Will e-disclosure surface under this topic?
I certainly would love to hear from folks who will be attending the Conference in Hong Kong this September. I will be in Peking University and may not be able to do the trip.

Enjoy!

In keeping with the spirit of goodwill & fun, here’s a challenge of a different sort from a cartoonist, Tom Fishburne at Case in Point.

Do visit the site for the cartoon on E-Discovery Budgeting. The site’s invitation starts off:

About ‘Case in Point’ – ‘Case in Point’ is a weekly cartoon series, created by CaseCentral Corporation, that illustrates the lighter side of eDiscovery. ‘Case in Point’ also runs a contest inviting anyone from the expansive eDiscovery realm – lawyers, IT staff, judges, service providers, paralegals, writers and consultants – to submit their own humorous experience or a scenario they find particularly funny. Participants may submit cartoon ideas online at http://www.casecentral.com/caseinpoint/idea for consideration. Winners will see their idea turned into a cartoon and receive a $50 gift certificate.

Come on all you ediscovery bloggers! Test your case…

I was notified of the BarCamp event just two days before the planned event. Before the actual day, it seems to be a momentous event for the BCS as reported in the BCS blog.

Having attended the event and even run a session, I am indeed surprised that the BCS actually held a BarCamp and hoorah for taking the first step to break away from the conventional meetings and talks (which I tend to avoid these days, unless I have nothing else better to do).

By the way, for those interested in the session I run (or loosely facilitated and participated) and want to read what others discussed and got out from the session, please do check out Conrad’s blog conradiator. Also, please check out another blogger, Arjun’s blog gigogeek.

I certainly didn’t expect mobile interfaces and languages to emerge from the very loose question topic (question without buzzy words). Isn’t this exciting?! That’s the power of collaboration and interaction and dialogue. The challenge though is to do this intuitively and with gusto and fun! My own observation is that our abilities to tune in to our basic communication skills have been lost or rather brain washed with tools and technologies. The style (or non style) of BarCamp breaks the conventional rhythm of one person doing all the talk/lecturing and usually relying on using IT tools to communicate IT solutions/problems.

I went to BarCamp because I was curious who will turn up and whether the BCS office will be attractive (fun?) enough for people looking to experience something ‘bar’ and/or ‘camp’ erish. Well lots signed up but only a handful (less than 20) turned up. I am sure there are lots of reasons why people failed to turn up. For those who turned up, I will say to them ‘great showing!’
I am blogging this event here as I am pondering on doing a Camp type event (based on OST) with the overall theme on IT-Law-Fun. Well.. can we make ediscovery/disclosure event fun? One thing for sure, I will certainly learn a bit about myself.

Well…I’m reporting yesterday’s news as I’m still suffering from jet lag or rather the time zone (& sunshine) differences from being up and down from East-West (Hawaii in the zone between East-West). One lesson which I just can’t fathom or learn is that my body–mind-spirit (wholeness?) just can’t recognise or register or adjust to the different time zone as required by where I am now. This doesn’t stop me from travelling to far flung places. Mmm do we need a meltdown to learn from our experiences? Good job my memories are still ‘fresh’

I spotted one large advertisement board (marketing board) as I was walking towards the international airport concourse in Toronto Pearson airport. (I flew from Vancouver to Toronto – this is just one lag). Guess what a saw! A marketing board (from one Ediscovery Company) with a one liner ‘e-mails are now legal’. I wondered how many people really understand the one liner. Does it concern me? Still…I had a phone call from a friend (yesterday) about his e-mails access and problems with Internet Service Providers. Memories still fresh; I said to him ‘e-mails are now legal’! Arghhh.

Lots of legal and non legal e-mails to ponder through.

I wish I can go to the Beijing Olympics…oh well…

Today, I heard over the radio (most likely BBC 3) advising visitors to the Beijing Olympic on what not to do?!

One ‘not to do’ is ‘not to ask what they do’ (i.e. avoid asking the Chinese what they do for living or their work).

Gosh! I have lived in Shanghai and Kunming (& have travelled to Beijing and other parts of China) and my advice to anyone going to the Olympics is not to avoid anything especially asking questions?! I guess it’s just radio commentary and not to be taken too seriously.

How about this ‘East meets West style of psychological integration’?

Professor Mok from the National University of Singapore gave a speech, titled “Ancient Chinese thoughts and modern leadership” at the Fudan University . Professor Mok’s suggestions are interesting. If his suggestions are adopted by the Chinese scholars in Fudan, soon all MBA students around the world (for the integration to be meaningful) will also have to study the ancient Chinese thoughts, i.e. Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism, Legalism, Military Arts .Whether future leaders will be able to grasp these ancient Chinese thoughts and think like Confucius etc. will be something I won’t be interested in.

What I am interested is how and why Professor Mok makes the connection between corporate decision-making with Taoism. This is indeed worth checking out. Would Taoism thinking helps with ediscovery/disclosure decision-making?

Maybe I ought to find a way to return or to Go East

When I started on my research back in October 2007, ediscovery/edisclosure was not a term recognised in the IT corporate environment in London. I know this for a fact as my colleague and friends said ‘what is that?’ when I told them my subject matter for my dissertation.

I came across ediscovery only because I was looking for a topic for my dissertation. As I was involved in a Document Management implementation project (with many challenges!) last year, I decided to explore various IT and legal issues related to document management. So, I too have no clue what is ediscovery until I started my research. The research subsequently led me to start this blog and also opened up a vast area of ‘unknown or ‘mysteries’ to explore further. So far, I have met several interesting folks from various fields.

Right now, I am looking for ways to pursue a PhD and will welcome any suggestions as to where to get funding and/or sponsors. I am told three years full time will costs a ‘lot’ of £££££. It will be worth more than £££££ as I know what I want to research will be stuff worth writing about.

For my IT friends and those in the IT corporate world and also the IT community in general, ediscovery/edisclosure may still be a mystery or simply another ‘e-something-fad’ and if you think you can avoid or rebel, think again and share your views here. Even the storage people (or IT storage stewards) have shared their views, read what was reported in Users rebel against e-Discovery liabilities by Beth Pariseau, June 19th, 2008

According to Prof. Tony Hoare at a BCS evening talk, the collusion of the Science of Programming with the Engineering of Software provides interesting areas for research in domain modelling and ontology related subject areas (e.g. ontology languages).

Maybe one day there will be a ‘perfect domain model’ to represent our ‘real world’ with unbounded boundaries and constraints. Until that day…the present reality is that there are hosts of all kinds of information sets to talk about and write about.

If one can create a ‘wall on collusion’ of all existing laws and regulations on data and information, what would it look like?
Daniel J. Langin, Attorney at Law LLC provided a sample just on e-mails, A Guide to Keeping E-mail Legal: Four Pillars of Compliance‘.

Sounds an interesting presentation from the flyer which says ‘the presentation will explain in depth the approach taken by the Serious Fraud Office in the collection, analysis, investigation and presentation of digital evidence for the purposes of achieving successful criminal prosecutions. The presentation will also cover the interrelationships between digital forensics as a science, and the investigation as an art.’

Ah! I will need a sponsor for a PhD.

Thanks Angie for her kind support and encouragement.