1. Jack G. Conrad, Thomson R&D
E-Discovery Revisited:
A Broader Perspective
for IR Researchers
Jack G. Conrad, Thomson R&D
ICAIL07 / DESI Workshop
June 4, 2007

2. EDD Outline EDD ― The Big Picture Motivations Background
EDD interactions: the “dance” of the litigants
The complete EDD pipeline
Alternative view of the enabling technologies

3. EDD ― The Big Picture Electronic Data Discovery ―
Context: Practical Research & TREC
Motivations:
(1) Recent characterization of State of the Art in EDD
(2) Informational materials available for participants in forums like TREC

4. EDD ― The Big Picture Electronic Data Discovery ―
Presently exist companies offering some form of EDD software or services.
Several offer complete services across the E-Discovery spectrum
Kroll On-Track
Recently acquired Engenium (Symetric), the concept search engine co. LN
Acquired Applied Discovery in recent past, and also offers a full spectrum of EDD services
EDD performance bar constantly being raised
Essential need to share diverse perspectives in field with next generation researchers
What is the “dance of the litigants”? … the complete EDD pipeline? … possible interactions of the enabling technologies?

5. Source of EDD Survey Responses
The Socha-Gelbmann Report, 2005
In total, 240 consumers/providers of EDD software / services were contacted
139 expressed interest in participating
72 of those were surveyed via spreadsheet or phone interview
3 of the final spreadsheets did not contain enough info to be used
Conducted among 69 E-Discovery consumers & providers
24 consumers; 45 providers
Consumers
A cross-section of Am Law 200 law firms + large U.S. companies
Providers
A broad-based collection of software & service providers who market their offerings as E-Discovery tools or services

6. E-Discovery ― Areas of Industry Strength

7. E-Discovery ― Areas of Industry Weakness

8. EDD Scenarios — “the dance of the litigants”
Employment Discrimination
Party A vs. Company B
(David vs. Goliath)
EDD resources
Securities Fraud
Gov’t vs. Company C
EDD resources
Intellectual Property
EDD resources
Company D vs. Company E
EDD resources
EDD resources

9. Identification (relevant content and its scope)
The EDD Work Flow Model
Breadth and depth of discoverable materials established
Identification (relevant content and its scope)
Hard copy media converted (e.g., OCR) or audio records transcribed
Electronically stored info. is preserved from multiple sources
Data transferred from original or intermediate media to uniform media for analysis
Vetting performed to reduce volume of data (incl. filtering, deduping, clustering, etc.)
Primary review stage. Data transferred to dedicated repository
E-Discovery Pipeline
Searching based upon sources, dates, orig. file types, key words, etc.
Data Entry & Scanning
Data Gathering Preservation & Collection
Media Restoration (data trans. to a std. media)
Advice to clients on strategies & procedures for conducting E-Discovery processing
Data Processing (filtering, format conversion)
Online Review: Hosting & Searching
Production & Delivery
Delivery of reports to clients, systems, in diff. formats & media
E-Discovery Consulting (throughout process)

10. The EDD Work Flow Model E-Discovery Pipeline
Identification (scope, depth of information)
Proposed extended
scope of text
‘retrieval’ task (i.e.,
including filtering,
organizing &
report generation)
E-Discovery Pipeline
Data Entry & Scanning
Data Gathering Preservation & Collection
Media Restoration (data trans. to a std. media)
Data Processing (filtering, format conversion)
Online Review: Hosting & Searching
Production & Delivery
E-Discovery Consulting (throughout process)

11. E-Discovery Technology Pyramid
Reporting I
I I
I I I IV
Fourth Tier ― analyzing: consoli- dating & summarizing; production
Navigating
Searching &
Third Tier ― organizing: classifying or clustering; tagging & linking
Indexing
Second Tier ― vetting: filtering, de- duping, handling similar doc-objects
Hosting
Foundation ― collecting: identification, conversion, migration

12. Additional E-Discovery Challenges
Workflow Support
Process Efficiencies
Per Step
Overall
Tool Integration
Ease of Use
For Customers
For Support
High Value to Cost Ratio
Added value through advanced technologies
A TREC-like forum has much potential to contribute here
Both within and beyond the context of IR

13. Jack G. Conrad, Thomson R&D
E-Discovery Revisited:
A Broader Perspective
for IR Researchers
Jack G. Conrad, Thomson R&D
ICAIL07 / DESI Workshop
June 4, 2007