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Technology is full of
buzz words. Those words can confuse and befuddle the most intelligent of
listeners. Therefore, we are going to describe some of the common
terms and their common definitions. Users need to understand the
terminology before they can learn the tools.
CLOUD
The buzz word of the
moment is cloud. Not the high-in-the-sky clouds, but the technological
term cloud; otherwise known as a network. Yes, the cloud is a
network. And there are two types.
One is a WAN or Wide
Area Network (such as the internet). The other is a LAN or Local Area
Network (such as a network within a particular organization or law firm).
That is it. A term
stated to describe that which occurs somewhere beyond the desktop/laptop and
out in the cloud (network).
APP
Another current term
thrown about is app. It simply is the shortening of the term
Application. Thus, think of an APP as a shortened application. The
term APP is utilized when referencing a small or specialized Application that
functions primarily on a mobile device. Microsoft is trying to end the
mobile device portion by incorporating the APP idea into Windows 8 furthering
the blur between mobile computing and desktop computing. This is odd
because the executable file extension for a Mac application is .app.
Mobile Computing
What is mobile
computing? It is a fancy way to say on-the-go computing or the using of a
portable computing device such as a laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Metadata
Now, let us talk about
metadata. This is commonly described as “data about data” which
provides an easy way to think about the data.
Of course, it means more than that. Believe it or not, metadata
has been around for centuries. But it has only become part of everyday
vernacular because of its application to electronically-stored information or
ESI. But to understand its application today, it is useful to look
at its application in the non-computer world. The easiest description of
metadata is at a library’s card catalog.
The card catalog
contains a plethora of information about the library’s books without actually
providing a summary of the work itself. The METADATA found on a catalog
card will enable a person to find the book’s author, title, subject, location
in the library, category (Dewey decimal system), edition, literary or topical
character, year of publication, publisher, number of pages, and any other
pertinent “data about the data.”
Another easy way to understand METADATA is to look at a globe. Think of
the earth as the data. The metadata would be listed on the globe:
latitude, longitude, axis, topography, meridian line, country lines, names and
locations, and additional “data about the data.”
Moving from the physical
metadata to digital metadata is not complicated. It is just like the
globe and the card catalog. You just need to know where to look and what
to look for.
Digital METADATA is
commonly used to describe the contents, context, and creation of the digital
data. Example: Program or hardware that created the file,
propose of the file, time and date of creation of file, last edited time and
date, creator or author of file, location on computer/network, and standards
used in creation. As stated in Aguilar, “[t]o understand why
the importance of metadata varies, it is first necessary to explain what it is
and distinguish among its principle forms.”[1]
There are several ways
to describe the different types of visual and hidden information or digital
metadata.[2]
As described in Aguilar, it is easiest to break metadata
information and creation into three subsections: System, Substantive and Embedded.[3]
System Metadata is the type generated by hardware such as a digital camera,
phone, computer system or other device. It also includes the information
management systems or networking data. It is completely crafted by the
system and does not involve user input. Substantive Metadata reflects the
changes to the document’s content by the user within an application (track changes,
text changes, editorial comments etc.). The depth and history of this
metadata information is application specific. “As a general rule of
thumb, the more interactive the application, the more important the metadata is
to understanding the application’s output.”[4]
Embedded metadata is the metadata coding inputted by the user (text, numbers,
formulas, hidden columns, linked files, etc.) and is not typically visible to
the user viewing the output display.
Let us look at a digital
image file and its metadata: If you
right-click on the file and choose the bottom option labeled Properties,
another screen will pop up with some useful but limited METADATA:
Location of file, size of file, time & date created, modification date,
last accessed date, and file type. If you want additional metadata, click
on the details tab. From there, you move
to a lot of information about the file: Title, Subject, date taken, time take,
program name for creation of image, camera make and model that took the photo,
image dimensions, width, height, resolution, bit depth, color representation,
exposure time, F-stop, ISO speed, exposure bias, focal length, Flash mode,
white balance, GPS coordinates, Folder Path, Date file was created, Date file
was modified, Date this copy of the file was created, size of file, and the
computer hosting the file.
A picture can speak a thousand
words, but the metadata on the picture can speak volumes about the image
itself. Metadata can help provide substantive discovery. Yet, the
battle over its discoverability is still in its infant stages. And, if
the Electronically Stored Information is not provided in its native format, the
relevant metadata may not be seen. Further, people are utilizing
Meta-scrubbers or metadata removal tools to “clean” documents and limit the
risk of sending unwanted sensitive data about the data.
Electronically Stored Information
During our discussion on
Metadata, we mentioned ESI or Electronically Stored
Information. This is more of a legal term than a technical term. The
definition originally given by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure was
“information created, manipulated, communicated, stored, and best utilized in
digital form, requiring the use of computer hardware and software” but has been
changed to now be “stored in any medium”.[6] The
reason for the change is to “encompass future developments in computer
technology” and be a “broad” and “expansive” definition.[7]
It should be noted that ESI stands on equal footing with discovery of paper
documents.[8]
The legal term can be
found in our New Jersey Court Rules: R. 4:10, 4:18,
4:23, 4:17, and 1:9. New Jersey appears to purposely leave out a specific
definition and use the wording for what it is; information stored
electronically. This makes for a truly expansive definition and fixes the F.R.C.P.’s
fear of continually growing developments in the field of technology.
Ok. So, we know
that we want to request ESI and want that to include METADATA.
What format do we request the information in to make sure it holds what we’re
looking for? That leads us to the next term, native format.
Native Format
Native format is a
user-create file, in its original format, derived from the program which was
used to create the file, and inclusive of any and all metadata. It should
be noted that the problem with the request asking for native format is that you
must have a compatible system with compatible programs to open or access the
information.
E-Discovery
Another tough thing to
deal with is the discussion about E-Discovery. The easiest way to
describe this all-encompassing term is “relevant electronically stored
information (ESI)” or relevant evidence in a court case that resides in
electronic format. E-Discovery is all ESI that is relevant to a
particularized case. The companies that market their e-discovery
platforms are providing either predictive coding, organization, review, or
hosting of the E-Discovery.
Predictive coding is also hot right now. This
references specific software utilized to comb through E-Discovery. The
service is usually offered by third party vendors. The software developed
by these companies offers a way to find specific types of documents in a
voluminous file. They use input from the attorneys on what the file is
about, code in a keyword-based search, and provides suggesting key
documents. It removes document review from humans and places a computer
in the review chair. This does not completely replace human review.
It merely provides a way to limit the time spent on the task. Predictive
coding takes all electronically stored information related to the requested
issue, ranks them in order of perceived importance, then tags them so the attorney
reviewing the document can verify the relevance of the document. This
also provides a way to search for privileged documents within your own ESI
prior to production.
Now that we have
moved into organization of electronically stored information, it may be a good
time to review and separate the terms case management, document management, and
trial management. The three terms can overlap. And some software
claims to do all three management systems. But, it is best to look at
each one for what it is.
Case Management System
Case Management is the organization of information about
the case without the documents. It should be noted that sometimes the
case management system links to the document management system. Yet, the
purpose is not for organization of ESI. The purpose of a case management
system is to organize information about the parties involved, the counsel
assigned, the adjusters involved, the judge overseeing, the attorney’s notes,
negotiations, list of records, dates and information on scheduling, to-do
checklists or tasks, form creation, valuation overview, etc. These
systems provide all the relevant information, in a case, at the attorney’s
fingertips. No longer will the attorney have to yell for his staff to get
the attorney on the Smith file’s phone number. The claim numbers,
reference numbers, and an overview of the matter are all organized with the
case management system.
Document Management System
Document Management is the capture and management of documents
within an organization or case file. Originally, this term was the
management of documents after conversion into electronic format. It has
expanded to be a broader term which includes document imaging, organization,
and retrieval. Document management systems allow for the management of a
large variety of documents in different formats to be accessed, searched, and
published across a LAN or WAN. The system will allow search
capabilities within the contents of a document as well as the naming of the
document.
Trial Management System
Trial Management is a system that helps with the organization of evidence
that may be utilized during a trial and provides software to reproduce the
evidence in a visual form to be displayed in the courtroom. This can
include, but is certainly not limited to: video depositions, depositions,
physical evidence, demonstrative evidence, requests for admissions, etc.
The software usually provides a way to annotate and mark the digital
evidence. Trial management can be supplemented with a slide-presentation
or time-line presentation program.
[2] The Sedona Conference, a well-known nonprofit
and educational institute crafted to the advancement of technology within a
legal technology working group, found at www.thesedonaconference.org, has crafted substantial and influential
legal/tech glossary (Sedona Principles Third Edition) providing an
extremely comprehensive definition of most tech terminology. Their
subpart definitions of metadata includes the following seven types of metadata:
“Application Metadata: Data created by the
application specific to the ESI being addressed, embedded in the file and moved
with the file when copied; copying may alter application metadata. Document
Metadata: Properties about the file stored in the file, as opposed to
document content. Often this data is not immediately viewable in the software
application used to create/edit the document but often can be accessed via a
“Properties” view. Examples include document author and company, and create and
revision dates. File System Metadata: Metadata generated by the
system to track the demographics (name, size, location, usage, etc.) of the ESI
and, not embedded within, but stored externally from the ESI. Email
Metadata: Data stored in the email about the email. Often this data is not
even viewable in the email client application used to create the email, e.g.,
blind copy addressees, received date. The amount of email metadata available
for a particular email varies greatly depending on the email system. Contrast
with File System Metadata and Document Metadata (emphasis added). Embedded
Metadata: Generally hidden, but an integral part of ESI, such as “track
changes” or “comments” in a word processing file or “notes” in a presentation
file. While some metadata is routinely extracted during processing and
conversion for e-discovery, embedded data may not be. Therefore, it may only
available in the original, native file. User-Added Metadata: Data,
possibly work product, created by a user while copying, reviewing, or working
with a file, including annotations and subjective coding information. Vendor-Added
Metadata: Data created and maintained by the electronic discovery vendor as
a result of processing the document. While some vendor-added metadata has
direct value to customers, much of it is used for process reporting, chain of
custody, and data accountability.”
