SharePoint Tech Con 2012-First Day Thoughts

by Cary J. Calderone, Esq.

My mission for this conference (link) was to find experts with hands-on experience implementing RIM and governance (i.e., records and file management, legal hold and DRED) via SharePoint 2010.  Could it really work?  Or, would this be Mission Impossible?  Cue the music.  Records Center and legal hold  management were highly touted feature upgrades to SP 2010 but my research found very little documentation for admins to learn how to effectively implement these features.  Further research found that those who did RIM in SP used third party applications to accomplish it.  Fortunately, I found a couple of great experts:  Amanda Perran and Scott Jamison.

Judge John Facciola Says Discovery Practice Becomes Crucial

by Cary J. Calderone, Esq.

Judge Facciola

For those of you legal professionals and information managers who are avoiding learning more about the technology aspects of electronic information and how it applies to litigation and compliance, you need to listen to the interview Judge John Facciola gave to law.com (link here) on e-discovery training.  In his words, "discovery practice becomes crucial."  Or, you can read an older post recapping our enjoyable visit with Judge Facciola in 2009, at the RSA Conference (link).

Cloud Connect 2012-Quick Overview and A Few Lessons On The Side

by Cary J. Calderone, Esq.

This was a terrific show with excellent presentations.  Here are a few notable comments:

From Steve Wylie

• The past was about defining the Cloud.  Now it is about the Cloud in action.

From Jesse Robbins of Opscode

• Everything breaks at scale.
• Train for disaster. Start small, then add large scale fault injection across critical systems. 
• Failure is multiplicative 99.9 x 99.9 x 99.9 = 99.7% reliability.
• Cloud failure has stages like death:  Denial, Anger, More Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and finally, Acceptance.

Cloud Connect 2012-Why I Think The Cloud Will Rule Your Future

by Cary J. Calderone

The keynotes on Tuesday and Wednesday, the official full days of Cloud Connect 2012, were both interesting and entertaining.  My comment from last year still stands.  Short and to the point 15 minute speeches by many industry influencers beats the heck out of one long keynote.   This format means that speakers do not have to worry about filling time for an hour or more.   Instead, they make their most important points fast.    I'll list a few of my favorites later, but to me, the energy and focus of the show lead me to one conclusion.  The Cloud is important because it offers a rare combination of the aspirin and the vitamin in the same pill.   Silicon Valley lives and breaths by startups coming along with aspirin, to solve headaches, and vitamins to boost your revenue.   Cloud solutions offer you both.   At last year's Industry Summit, John Hagel quipped that with all the hype, we were still underestimating the impact of the Cloud.   After this year's show, I think I can fully appreciate his forecast.

Cloud Connect 2012-Five Things You Need To Do Now

by Cary J. Calderone, Esq.

One of the advantages I have being based here in San Francisco is I can report on technology innovations as they happen in Silicon Valley,  long before lawyers get information at legal shows and can consider how these technologies may affect work at their firms.  The Cloud Industry Summit was the original focus for what has grown into the Cloud Connect show.  Attending last year I felt I had advanced knowledge of what was going on with the Cloud and this year is no different.  Kamesh Pemmaraju of Sand Hill spoke of major announcements about new Cloud services that will keep your data for you, behind your firewall.  In other words, there is another major security road block that has been cleared for many companies wishing to take advantage of Cloud services.   One of the most important best-practice takeaways came from Jim Stikeleather, Chief Innovations Officer, Dell, inc., who kicked off the Industry Summit.  He talked about the evolution of the Cloud and gave 5 Things To Do Now!

Churchill Club-Online Privacy Rules Revisited

by Cary J. Calderone

It has been one year since I covered a terrific Churchill Club event on this subject (Location and Privacy).  I was anxious to see what we have learned and what was new on the subject of online data privacy.   Unfortunately, the short answer is, "not much."  I really enjoy the Churchill Club events, but while this panel had members from various stages across the privacy spectrum, from the ACLU, to private companies like Microsoft (panel information below), it seemed like the discussion covered the same issues, with no new takeaways.   It was the first time I have ever been a little bit disappointed by a Chuchill Club event.   I was expecting a few new best practices for businesses but there really were none.  That said, if this was your first event about online privacy, you would have learned the major issues the government regulators, companies, and consumers, need to consider.

Data Privacy Rules in the EU, Asia, and USA and How John Cleese Might Summarize

Copyright © 2012 Cary J. Calderone, Esquire

I had the pleasure of attending a terrific breakout session run by Amor Esteban (bio) and William Kellermann (bio).  My words would not do their presentation on Cross-Border Discovery and Data Privacy  justice.  So please forgive me for borrowing the words of John Cleese from The Meaning of Life to summarize:

Before we begin your lesson, would those of you playing in the match this afternoon move your clothes down onto the lower peg, immediately after lunch. before you write your letter home, if you're not getting your hair cut, unless you've got a younger brother going out this weekend as the guest of another boy, in which case collect his note before lunch put it in your letter after you get your haircut and make sure he moves your clothes down to the lower peg for you. (Age restricted Python video clip on Youtube)

Yes it's perfectly simple!

The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of E-Discovery???

By Cary J. Calderone, Esquire

Still available on Amazon!

It is the Christmas season.  Those of us involved in DRED Law wish you and yours the happiest of holiday seasons.  Along with many of the more important traditions that occur, this time of year brings television repeats of classic movies like The Sound of Music.  For the past few years, I could not help but think of e-discovery while watching parts of this movie.  Now, I am not obsessed with e-discovery and data law. I promise you.  However, a few scenes from the movie explain in most vivid detail just why the EU has a very different attitude and set of rules towards email and other information that may reveal a user's personal identification.  So, this post is for all of you who are not aware, or, are uncertain as to why the EU Data Protection Act is far more strict and penal in attempting to protect personal privacy at work.  Let's see if these bits of dialogue from the movie validate my point and perhaps give you an idea of who, is to blame.  Take, for example:

Rolf to Lissel when delivering a telegram for Captain Von Trapp- “We make it our business to know everything about everyone.”  

Or, dialogue from Heir Zeller-“You were sent a telegram which you did not answer.  A telegram from Admiral Von Schreiber of the navy of the 3rd Reich.”
Captain Von Trapp “I was under the impression Heir Zeller that the contents of telegrams in Austria are private!  At least the Austria I know.”

The reasons should now be clear.  Once we in America understand the origins of the EU Data Protection Act, it will be easier to put in the systems and policies  necessary to better comply with the rules.  We will follow-up this holiday post in the new year with a more detailed explanation of the EU Data Privacy rules courtesy of a terrific breakout session run by Amor Esteban and William Kellermann.    Until then, if you are frustrated and angry with the challenge of navigating US Data rules and EU Rules at the same time, take heart.  You are not alone.  We can all just blame the Nazis...

Happy Holidays

Churchill Club Presents The Big Data Effect

Copyright © 2011  Cary J. Calderone

Is Big Data being over-hyped?  "I certainly hope not" was Ping Li's heartfelt response to moderator Michael Chui's question to the panel (bios below).  Li's firm,  Accel Partners, made a splash in the news recently by announcing the creation of a 100 million dollar fund for investments in Big Data.   The Churchill Club panel members each gave their own interpretations of the Big Data Effect. They emphasized that Big Data was not just about  the volume of data, but how it could be researched, extracted, and analyzed.

Big Data-Not Just Big Storage Or It May Be A Big Headache

Copyright © 2011 Cary J. Calderone Esq.

Time to give the busy professional's definition of the latest technology buzz phrase, "Big Data."  In brief, it is about being able to process and mine very large amounts of data (even petabytes) for business intelligence.  Big Data indexing and database technologies, like Hadoop and NoSQL allow for distributed processing that previously was impossible with standard table-based relationship databases.  However, too many short-term thinkers will try to implement a Big Data strategy by doing nothing more than keeping everything they can and figuring it out later.  This approach is fraught with Big danger.

CEO Bans Email-Maybe Email Really Is Dead

Atos Headquarters Location at Lago Maggiore

A few weeks back I pointed out to DredLaw readers ways that new technology would be superior to email. (Link to article)  Now here is a European company, Atos, that is banning employees from using email to communicate with fellow employees (Link to article) and for precisely the same reasons mentioned.  They will be using new collaborative tools and instant and video messaging as alternatives.  While I applaud the effort, they will have to be very careful with their data retention and privacy programs.

The C-Level Nightmare-Do You Know What You Do Not Know?

Copyright ©  Cary J. Calderone 2011

Is this your CEO, CTO, or, General Counsel?

This post goes out to all those C-Levels who have not approved pro-active information management and DRED work because, "they can just search and find what they need when they have to."  For almost any attorney or e-discovery professional with experience, this cavalier attitude causes a  LOL moment.   We also call this approach, "head in the sand," or sometimes, "ignorance is bliss...until it's not."   After the 9-11  attacks, when the Department of Homeland Security was created, I remember Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, speaking about 3 things: 1)  What you know as fact,  2)  What you do not know but can research and discover and, 3)  What you do not know, you do not know.  C-Levels who think they will just find what they need, when they have not tested their approach under the threat of pending litigation, are in the last category.  They do not know, what they do not know.   Not convinced?  Then please consider these items:

Coming to a Law School Near You- eDiscovery Class 101

Professor Rick Marcus

Copyright © 2011 Cary J. Calderone

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a Hastings College of the Law alum event where Diane Gibson, a prominent San Francisco litigator with Squire Sanders et al., and UC Hastings Professor Rick Marcus, presented, E-Discovery and Preservation.  There was some good DRED news.  For an alumnae event, this was very well attended.  There were over 100 people who showed up because they were interested in learning about E-Discovery.  The bad news was that when Professor Marcus, a principal drafter of the 2006 E-Discovery amendments to the Federal rules, polled the audience to find out who had heard of FRE 502 (critical for protecting privileged material from accidental disclosure) only myself and three others raised their hands.  Scary!  During the lecture and the Q&A afterword, we heard about many of the interesting E-Discovery and preservation issues, and what the Advisory Committee is considering for future amendments, but for me, the most important item was that Professor Marcus will, for the first time, be teaching Hasting's E-Discovery class in the spring of 2012.

New Facebook Privacy Settings-Are You Now A Publisher Or A Public Figure?

Copyright © 2011 Cary J. Calderone

This calls for a quick overview of Libel Law 101.   A publisher has standards for accuracy or else they can be sued for defamation and other things (see Description at Student Press Law Center).  There are things you can do to limit your exposure to legal action, by following certain protocols and guidelines.  For example, you have heard the phrase, "the truth is an absolute defense."  This may save you from a legal action for libel.   But, unfortunately, sometimes publishing the "truth" can expose you to other legal claims, like invasion of privacy.  This is especially so when the items published are, in fact, true, and perhaps, a tad unsavory.  However, there may be a defense for that too, if you happen to publish these unsavory truths about a public figure.   Public figures are pretty much considered fair game, or, at least at a level where even if you publish something about them, even with some non-truths or inaccuracies, you will be held to a more lenient standard.   At this point you may be a bit confused by this area of law and are thinking that you would never consider yourself a publisher anyway?  You don't even have a blog.   So why worry?  No reason, unless you happen to be on Facebook or another Social Media site and have a lot of friends, followers, or the newly created category of "Subscribers."

"ISSA: Emails Prove Holder Knew" and Other DRED Headlines

Sometimes a headline can be a DRED story in and of itself.  Today, while browsing the internet, I saw a headline that said "Issa: Emails Prove Holder Told About Fast And Furious."   I could not help noticing how frequently we see those two words, emails and prove, together in a headline?   By Googling "emails prove" it came up with 45,900 results.  The list included story headlines with names like, Eric Holder, President Obama, Sarah Palin, Mark Zuckerberg and British Petroleum-and that was just on the first page of results.  Do you still think it is acceptable to treat your email as non-records, non-information, and, nonchalantly?