In Search of Quality: Is It Time for E-Discovery Search Process Quality Standards?

Ed Valio | March 22nd, 2011 - 12:44 pm

From e-Discovery Team:

Robert Pirsig spent a good deal of time on his motorcycle in the 1970s contemplating the metaphysics of quality. In my own way, I’ve been on a similar quixotic mission for at least the past eight years — in search of “quality” in the e-discovery search space. This particular quest for the Holy Grail has involved seeking out the perfect search where one finds “just” highly relevant documents in response to a FRCP 34 document request,  or, as a matter of early case assessment, “just” the hot documents one needs to win the case. I’ve searched the world over for answers, and along the way decided that I had been asking the wrong question.
At one time, I thought I knew what the problem was, and what the information retrieval “task” should be to overcome the problem. The problem, I thought, was simply the naïve use of keywords. Or at least, the way lawyers naively think about keywords when going about the task of searching for electronic evidence. I think many lawyers still practice with the assumption that using simple keywords, without more, to find responsive ESI is sufficient to get them through the day in dealing with their e-discovery obligations. While this remains a problem, it is not in my view the problem. And the task is not simply to try to “beat Boolean” with other search methods.

Robert Pirsig spent a good deal of time on his motorcycle in the 1970s contemplating the metaphysics of quality. In my own way, I’ve been on a similar quixotic mission for at least the past eight years — in search of “quality” in the e-discovery search space. This particular quest for the Holy Grail has involved seeking out the perfect search where one finds “just” highly relevant documents in response to a FRCP 34 document request,  or, as a matter of early case assessment, “just” the hot documents one needs to win the case. I’ve searched the world over for answers, and along the way decided that I had been asking the wrong question.
At one time, I thought I knew what the problem was, and what the information retrieval “task” should be to overcome the problem. The problem, I thought, was simply the naïve use of keywords. Or at least, the way lawyers naively think about keywords when going about the task of searching for electronic evidence. I think many lawyers still practice with the assumption that using simple keywords, without more, to find responsive ESI is sufficient to get them through the day in dealing with their e-discovery obligations. While this remains a problem, it is not in my view the problem. And the task is not simply to try to “beat Boolean” with other search methods.

e-Discovery Team - In Search of Quality: Is It Time for E-Discovery Search Process Quality Standards?

Dell: 90% of data is never read again

Ed Valio | July 13th, 2010 - 10:53 am
Dell: 90% of data is never read again

From PC Pro: ”According to Dell, 90% of company data is written once and never read again. This arresting claim cropped up in the middle of a presentation from Dell’s Enterprise division, recently given to Jon Honeyball and me. Given our usual style of dealing with such events, the poor devils didn’t stand a chance [...]

PrintConductor Prints Documents in Batches Without Opening Them

Ed Valio | May 27th, 2010 - 10:43 am
PrintConductor Prints Documents in Batches Without Opening Them

From Addictivetips: ”Lets say you want to print different types of documents in one go, such as, Adobe PDF, Word Document, Wordpad text, Excel spreadsheet, Visio or AutoCAD diagram, and so on. The only way would be to manually open each one of them and click Print. This is a tiresome procedure which will waste [...]

How to avoid death by backup in e-Discovery

Ed Valio | April 19th, 2010 - 9:09 am
How to avoid death by backup in e-Discovery

From Information Week:  ”Many organizations are sitting on stockpiles of dangerous materials. No, we’re not talking about hazardous chemicals or unstable explosives. We mean backup tapes, which are routinely included in requests to produce electronically stored information (ESI) as part of potential or ongoing litigation.
The e-discovery realm is rife with cautionary tales of organizations tripped [...]

Please do not change your password

Ed Valio | April 12th, 2010 - 12:48 pm
Please do not change your password

From The Boston Globe:  ”To continue reading this story, enter your password now. If you do not have a password, please create one. It must contain a minimum of eight characters, including upper- and lower-case letters and one number. This is for your own good.

Nonsense, of course, but it helps illustrate a point: You will [...]

How to deploy and support the iPhone in a law firm

Ed Valio | February 9th, 2010 - 6:25 pm
How to deploy and support the iPhone in a law firm

From TechnoLawyer Blog (registration required): ”Apple’s iPhone is cool, but could it compete with the BlackBerry as a business tool at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, one of the world’s largest law firms? In thisTechnoFeature article, Sonnenschein’s Manager of Software Services Christopher Lewis explains why Sonnenschein decided to deploy the iPhone to its lawyers, how [...]

30 Years of Failure: The username/password combination

Ed Valio | October 19th, 2009 - 3:30 pm
30 Years of Failure: The username/password combination

From ARS Technica:
”A lot of the effort involved in establishing a secure computing environment focuses on technological solutions, from providing warnings about phishing attacks to blocking the propagation of botnets. But, as previous research has shown, security involves a significant human component. Nowhere is that more true than the item at the heart of basic [...]