In my role as an IT manager or project manager, I will never say to my team ‘we must get along with so and so to build this system’ or ‘we should try to talk to each other’. Who relishes to be ‘told’ or talk to on what to do? Definitely not want that directed at/to me and so why do it to my fellow workmates/colleague? It’s simply counterproductive and easily generate towards an ‘I told you so’ culture which ultimately leads to ‘a blaming culture’. In a blaming culture, creating a meaningful or ‘good stuff’ outcomes gets circuited.

I have recently come across several articles/postings highlighting that ‘IT folks and lawyers are still not talking or failure to co-operate’ in ediscovery activities. This is the posting which got me to blog. BTW, a catchy title ‘Legal and IT Are Still Not Communicating’. The posting ended by stating that ‘Only dialog between legal and IT will change that’. (i.e. the respective responsibilities of legal and IT still are not being carried out by many because they don’t understand them). Understanding starts somewhere and dialog is great if both parties are willing to have a dialog. Even building bridges between IT folks and lawyers have surfaced elsewhere.

Let it be known that it is not that IT folks are not talking to lawyers; it is most likely that ‘the talk’ is directed from lawyers to IT folks. (I am assuming in most organizations, lawyers initiate or announce the litigation hold and other ediscovery requests to the IT department). IT folks are used to receiving requests from other departments (including lawyers). However what is unusual in ediscovery is that most IT folks (unless they are trained on ediscovery terms and have exposure to ediscovery activities or have been fully briefly beforehand by legal staff) will treat the request as an IT request rather than an ediscovery requests. It’s not that ‘we are not talking’, it’s more like ‘what are we talking about?’ and ‘how do we start to get to the ‘same starting page?’. Now, how to get both parties to turn ‘talking’ into meaningful dialogue?

Failure starts when both wants to start building bridges to bridge with each other and failed to recognize that the simplest bridge is defining a raft to get to a bridge. There is always a bridge somewhere already waiting for us, just finding a raft is the first hurdle.

Remember the story of building a bridge? Let’s start by learning to define a raft and not focus on building bridges as there’re already bridges (i.e. ediscovery models, tools/systems) waiting to be used.

Finding willing raft designers from both parties is probably the first hurdle

Many worlds colliding in facebook judging by the number of groups. Oh imagine if (or when) facebook gets meshed up with Google. Just before these two worlds collide, I’ll leave the facebook warning message to me here for future proofing:

Please Read This!
Warning! Your account could be disabled.

Your behaviour indicates that you may be in violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use. Continued misuse of Facebook’s features could result in your account being disabled. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page.

How cool !

Want to know the heart of the issue in ediscovery? It’s not about the ediscovery rules/laws or about judges. To hear one world view, see the interview conducted by IT Business Edge. Like in facebook, people enjoy creating different world views and the real fun starts when two worlds collide like me and the facebook creator/owner.

I dread to imagine my world when Google and facebook becomes ONE.

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