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| Alextronic Discovery An Electronic Discovery Blog covering News, Articles and Thoughts for the Legal and Corporate Community Author: Alexander H. Lubarsky, LL.M., Esq. - alubarsky@enterusa.com - Tel. (415) 533-4166 OR 800-375-4222 THIS BLAWG IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE WEB SITES WWW.DISCOVERYRESOURCES.ORG OR WWW.DISCOVERYRESOURCES.COM |
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Sunday, April 18, 2004 Back in the Saddle Back in the Saddle Julia Wotipka who is the force behind Alextronic... my Don King yet without the spikey hair (otherwise the resemblance is pretty stunning) lamented the other day... "Alex, your daily Blawg has turned into a weekly Blawg... what gives?" Ugghhhhh. I sied. I thought that reaction said it all. Don... I mean Julia didn't seem to let me off the hook so easily. "You need to publish a bit more frequently Alex... your fans want your art." Double ugghhhh. Julia offered to send me a box of chocolates to jump start my creative juices and keep me up later at nights pontificating my next move in Bloggerville. The sweets were intended to make vision of .pdfs and .nsf's dance in my head. I promised Julia that the chocolates just may do the trick... but, tragically, the chocolates never arrived and I remained hunched over my laptop pulling at my hair. Had the chocolates arrived, Blawgs would have been spilling out of this site in a manner that would make the late Henry Ford envious. I also would have refrained from claiming that Julia looks like Don King and would have referenced the more appropriate (and accurate) celebrity look alike - Wynona Ryder... but no chocolates mean unflattering Don King comparisons... Got that, Julia? I prefer Cadbury or Hersheys. Julia called again... "Hey, so, where is our Blawg entry...". Lacking my fix of cocoa - I had one word for her. Well, make it two words: Writer's Block. Hey, the subject of this Blawg is not Christina Aguillera's hair color. The industry is fast paced... but does it merit daily reporting? I was beginning to think not. I just didn't know what the heck to write about. Another on de-duplication? No, I could not subject my reader base to that. An ode to the document retention policy? We're not ready for that yet. A pre-processing filter query haiku? That's still a work in progress. That was, of course, until Glasser Legal Works rolled around. The SF Glasser show which rappe dup last week was nothing short of an infusion of ideas. I felt as if I was strapped to a guerney and the ED intravenous tube was plugged into my arm. The Glasser show is, for me, a reunion. A chance to catch up with my clients, co-workers, former-co-workers as well as fellow practicing attorneys. Harold Spar who went toe-to-toe with me in court last week stopped in front of the Fios booth, dropped his jaw as he glanced the company logo strewn across my chest and exclaimed... "What the hell are you doing in some booth?" The Glasser show is also a bit like a rock concert in that I can catch a rare glimpse of the ED and legal tech rock stars whose words I read, sites I visit and lectures I absorb - I'm talking about legendary luminaries such as Ross Kodner, Geroge Socha, Chris Greene, Judge Richard Best, Judge James Rosenbaum (I had the true privilege of speaking on a panel with these two judges and I have not yet come back down from the euphoria), Peter Krakaur, Tom O'Connor, Browning Marean, John Tredennick and other notables. When I was invited to have lunch with Judge Rosenbaum and later invited to breakfast by Judge Best, I felt as if I were thrust back to 1979 and approached by Gene Simmons and Ace Frehely... imploring me to join them on the tour bus to complete the Kiss Dynasty tour... OK, wake up Alex... wake up... time to go to school... So now that Lynn and Steve Glasser and the folks at Findlaw have managed to reinvigorate and motivate (even without the aid of chocolates) I don't even know where to start as far as new blawg material is concerned. Every time I think I got this ED thing down, I am proven drastically mistaken when I sit in on the Glasser workshops. I learned so much that a daily blawg is now doable (no promises without Ms. Godiva present, Julia). One of many topics debated at the show was brought up at the keynote luncheon by Judge Rosenbaum (perhaps one of the most thought provoking and entertaining speakers I have ever been exposed to) who inquired to a panel of ED experts... "Who authors metada? Can Metadata be privileged or hearsay if the declarant is not a person?" Think about that one. Who is the "declarant" of metadata? Is it a person or a machine? If the metadata is machine made, do the same rules attach to human-being made communication? On one hand, the metadata is clearly machine made as the author of the e-mail message, word processing document or spreadsheet does not directly input the data that appears underneath the hood. The computer notes the creation date, number of modifications, last saved time etc... . On the other hand, without the human being there would be no metadata. The old chicken or the egg... . I can't quite figure this one out. I tend to analogize the metadata as the post date stamp. The human being writes the postcard and as a necessary step of the mailing process, the post office applies a post date stamp. Did the author of the post card personally place the post date stamp on its cover? No. Can the post date be relevant and possibly even turn a question of law or fact? Absolutely. Is it a declaration? Yep. Is it a declaration by a human being and thus subject to so many restrictions and rules associated with admissibility of evidence? Not sure... This debate could be endless... I'd continue but I am beginning to feel a bit fatigued at this point. If I only had that chocolate... posted by Alexander | 8:51 PM |
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