Posted by Mark Middleton on Wed, May 09, 2012
In one of our more popular blog posts of 2011, I discuss how and where a web archive fits into EDRM (eDiscovery Reference Model.) One key point made is the necessity of capturing and preserving web and social media content in native format. The reason for this is the collection of the "seen" (rich media, blog posts, tweets, intranet wiki content, etc...) and "unseen" (metadata, http protocol, hashes, links or embedded content, intranet wiki admin pages, etc...), which only maintain integrity and authenticity when captured and stored in native format.
At the time I wrote the original post, the understanding of the important role native format web archiving plays in eDiscovery remained limited to the circle of early adopters. Fast forward to today, and the understanding has expanded and pushed native format archiving into the realm of necessity. In this recent Law.com article, "Metadata Meets Facebook E-Discovery," author Mark A. Berman cites several cases in which metadata is being required for presentation along with its "seen" ESI (electronically stored information.) Crucially, metadata proves authenticity and that no electronic files were altered, which came into question in the first case Berman mentions, regarding email tampering. When metadata is not present, proving that emails and web and social media content contain all the original elements and files is impossible.
Throughout the remainder of Berman's article, there are numerous instances where metadata is requested to be included along with social media content, because the courts don't look at web and social media content as being different than other ESI. Technical limitations on this are no longer a valid excuse! This is why Hanzo Archives' technology archives web and social media content in native format.
A case in point of what happens when companies don't have active archiving policies is outlined in a post we published last November.
With interactive web content, business social networks and collaborative web technologies continuing their fast evolution, its no wonder native format web archiving is becoming more common place across all industries worldwide.
Have you thought about how your company would respond to electronic eDiscovery? It seems like a good time to do so.
Hanzo Archives provides proactive web and social media archiving to some of the worlds greatest organizations. Our technology archives websites, wikis, business social media, and public social media at scale and in native format.
Posted by Christienne Miller on Mon, May 07, 2012
Almost daily, information keeps pouring in on how social media is increasingly being used in court cases.
(If I haven't mentioned this resource before, Edd Blog Online is an excellent aggregate service, which collects articles for keeping up with this trend.)
Take this recent case Edd alerted me to, as reported in The Daily Dot for Mashable. In the article: "No Warrant Necessary: Judge Rules Tweets Can Be Used In Court," it states that any online content made public by a third-party provider can be subpoenaed for use in court. The article goes on to explain the court case against an Occupy Wall Street protester, Malcolm Harris, in which he faces 15 days in prison for disorderly conduct. Apparently, during a protest march on the Brooklyn Bridge last fall, Harris implied through his tweets that he willingly marched on the roadway of the bridge, along with other protesters. When brought to court, Harris stated that it was the police who made him step onto the roadway.
This makes me ponder a few things: Watch what you tweet (no brainer), where does freedom of speech enter into the idea that social media content doesn't belong to an individual, and going back to delete social media posts doesn't guarantee that content can't be used against you in a court of law.
Social media isn't going anywhere. So, what does that mean for individuals and businesses? I'd say, from an individual standpoint, there's nothing much to be done except for knowing that what you say publically isn't heresay any longer. As for businesses, it seems to be the right time to consider social media archiving as part of a comprehensive information management policy.
Posted by Christienne Miller on Fri, Apr 13, 2012
Today, I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with Cindy Jutras (pictured), President and Founder of Mint Jutras and renowned expert in analyzing the impact of enterprise applications on business performance.
With more than 35 years of corporate experience, Cindy has spent the past 6 years benchmarking the performance of software solutions in the context of the business benefits of technology. I had received an email invitation to her upcoming webinar, so I decided to give her a call.
During our conversation, Cindy explained that many world-class enterprise organizations are migrating to cloud-based accounting SaaS programs, for reasons such as: competitive advantage, streamlining their operations, and supporting the growth of their businesses.
Other advantages these enterprises anticipate from cloud computing are: automatic upgrades to technology instead of relying on manual processes, centralization of standards, and the ability for employees and satellite locations to have remote access to business transaction capabilities.
On the downside, some concerns are: issues of security (which Cindy disputes can be better in SaaS systems than on-premise solutions), the fear of escalating costs, and unpredictable performance (which Cindy also disputes based on track records of SaaS accounting systems, some of which come with guarantees of up time.)
Speaking with Cindy was extremely beneficial on many levels. Primarily, my takeaway is a better understanding of what specific challenges companies are facing in cloud and how Hanzo's web and social media archiving solutions may be tailored and applied to the specific needs of enterprise organizations.
For those interested in more information about Cindy, her services and insights, I invite you to read her biography, check out her website, browse her blog, and attend her webinar.
Posted by Mark Middleton on Thu, Apr 12, 2012
This past December 2011, Hanzo's Mark Williamson wrote this post about the impending death of email due to the rise of the social enterprise.
A few months ago, in January, I attended LegalTech NY 2012, where I had the opportunity to catch up with Jason Velasco, CEO of the eDiscovery Journal (eDJ), and discuss the growing, critical role native-format, social media archiving plays in eDiscovery.
Last month, March 2012, Barry Murphy, an eDJ Expert Consultant, wrote this blog post titled "Social Media Collection and Preservation", which gives Hanzo Archives a nice mention. Doesn't this confirm the necessity of capturing and preserving social media and web activity across all industries?
At Hanzo, we have clients who use their web and social media archives for eDiscovery, Information Management, and Cultural Heritage. Often though, corporations who should be engaging in web and social media archiving aren't sure of what it is, how it works, and where to start. To that end, we've published several resources for your edification—from this datasheet on our joint solution with Symantec Enterprise Vault™ to white papers on using web and social media archives for eDiscovery and Information Management.
Should further questions arise about what web and social media archiving solutions are the best for your business, please feel free to contact us for a demo.
Posted by Mark Middleton on Tue, Apr 03, 2012
As the demand for comprehensive web archiving grows, so do exciting opportunities for current graduate students to dive deeper into the web archiving and web science fields.
In support of these emmergent industries, one of the champions for increased collaboration and technology sharing, the Web Archive Cooperative (WAC), is hosting a free summer workshop at Standford University in Palo Alto, CA: 'Exploring the WAC: Challenges in Providing Access to the World's Web Archives.' The workshop dates are June 29 - July 1, 2012, and more information may be found by selecting the link above.
The workshop organizers are:
Frank McCown, Harding University
Hector Garcia-Molina, Stanford University
Michael L. Nelson, Old Dominion University
Andreas Paepcke, Stanford University
Some of the topics addressed during the workshop include:
- Preservation of web archives
- Deep Web archiving
- Data mining techniques
- Analysis of social networks
- Legal and social issues related to web archiving and web science
Attendees are to be compensated for their travel (in the contingious U.S.) and two nights of accomodations. Overseas registrants will need to pay for their travel, but are encouraged to apply.
Posted by Christienne Miller on Fri, Mar 02, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- March 2, 2012 -- Hanzo Archives is now in partnership with Bishop Technologies, adding native format web archiving and social media archiving solutions to Bishop's client offerings.
This partnership represents both Hanzo's and Bishop's commitment to expand customer adoption of web and social media content as required forms of archival data in the enterprise. Though currently active, the two companies plan to discuss the results of this new partnership during a webinar on March 15 at 9:00 a.m. PST.
As a world leader in social media and website archiving solutions, Hanzo ensures Bishop can capture, preserve, and store online content in native format for its current and future client base. Bishop, a full service provider of custom archiving for electronically stored information (ESI), e-discovery and data migration solutions, boasts a long-standing relationship with partners such as EMC (SourceOne) and Autonomy. Hanzo currently supports Symantec Enterprise Vault™ via its Web Archive Connector, and continues to broaden support for other enterprise archive solutions.
"Websites, collaborative websites (SharePoint and Wikis for example) and social media are increasingly used in enterprise settings, and need to be processed alongside other ESI. We're excited to work with Bishop Technologies, who already offer their clients a broad-spectrum archiving solution for many forms of ESI. Together we broaden their support further with dynamic web and social media content.” Explains Hanzo's CEO, Mark Middleton, about the new partnership.
Bishop's President and Founder, Dale McVeen, shared this view of the partnership, “Bishop's foundation began in providing and supporting email archive solutions at a time when companies were just realizing the importance of accessibility and retrieval of their messaging content. Messaging content has gone well beyond just emails, and we recognize Hanzo as being in the forefont in their development of a web and social media archive solution that is like no other. As a leader in providing electronic messaging solutions and offering only the best in technology, we're excited about bringing web and social media into the marketplace.”
Those interested in further details on web and social media archiving are invited to download this white paper.
Posted by Mark Middleton on Tue, Feb 14, 2012
This past Friday, I received excellent news from Gildas Illien (Director, Bibliographical and Digital Information Department, Networks and Services) of Bibliothèque nationale de France — the national library of France.
His email addressed all IIPC members, and informed us of the publication of a decree enforcing the law of internet legal deposit. THIS IS IMPORTANT!
This is an incredible accomplishment for all of our fellow colleagues and members of the IIPC, and everyone involved in web archiving. I and we at Hanzo Archives give hearty cheers to those who advised and lobbied since before 2000 for this to happen.
To those who "...never gave up struggling with the law until it included 'us' as heritage material," Gildas's email points out: pioneers like Julien Masanes, Catherine Lupovici, Sara Aubry, France Lasfargues and Clément Oury. Thank you for your foresight. Archivists are unique and amazing people—curators of our collective memory. It's what they work for—preserving our memories. THIS IS IMPORTANT TOO!
As Cicero said, “Memory is the treasury and guardian of us all.”
More than eight countries now include web archives in their legal deposit laws. This is a growing number and we're proud to be a part of it all.
Again, to my colleagues at BnF, well done, and thank you.
Posted by Mark Middleton on Mon, Feb 13, 2012
Chris Dale
For me, this year's LegalTech 2012 in New York City began with a cup of coffee and conversation with Chris Dale, of the e-Disclosure Information Project. We caught up on our respective projects, and launched into a conversation about the emergence of the social enterprise.
The focal point of our discussion quickly surrounded the challenges business social networks like Chatter and Yammer pose to e-discovery. As these may eventually eclipse email, surely the same rules and regulations would apply to this new mode of digital collaboration and communication. Wikis, Sharepoint, new web- and cloud-based technologies herald the rise of the social enterprise.
Chris expressed concern about the social enterprise being another form of content which needs to be archived for litigious reasons, and the difficulty in doing so. I explained that Hanzo Archives has a solution, because we archive all of the technologies that make up the social enterprise.
We parted on a satisfying note, contemplating the inevitability for all businesses to archive their web and social media content, just as they have with email. Not really. We just said goodbye.
As always, though, I look forward to my next encounter with Chris.
LegalTech NY 2012 Floor
Following Chris Dale, I wandered the exhibit floor, which was packed—like always. Reminds me of a bazaar in Istanbul (except that Starbucks is no lunch at Hamdi, nor does it have the scenic views.)
Listening to a selection of panelists, not suprisingly, the judges ruled.
I also had an interesting chat with Mary Kay Roberto about her new start-up, Akaibu, in Austin, TX. Its focus is on archive migration, and I encourage you to check it out.
Running into one of the VPs from Globanet, Ade Tellar, was great. As fellow Symantec partners, customer engagements and our markets and products monopolized that conversation.
Merrill Corporation
Sitting down with a few VPs from our new partners, Merrill Corporation, produced some excellent e-discovery insights. After discussing case studies and the value of native format archiving, we speculated that this type of web archiving may be the digital equivalent of DNA testing in the physical realm. Another highlight of this meeting was focused on how native-format web archives can best be used in the e-discovery process. Our colleagues from Merrill gave us specific e-discovery ideas on new technology to develop. So, I grabbed a few months of additional programming for our developers from there. They are incredibly happy with me right now.
eDiscovery Journal
The eDiscovery Journal hosted an excellent happy hour. I did find out, however, that arriving early meant my martini would have to be room temperature. But, I was able to catch up with Jason Velasco (new CEO of the journal, former Director Advisory Services at KPMG, and former VP of client services at Merrill.) He's brilliant about e-discovery. He's the type of guy that if you think you know all about e-discovery, he'll remind you how much you don't—and rightly so.
I rounded out my evening chatting with other e-discovery professionals over fresh, chilled martinis. It was a very happy hour.
Non-E-Discoveries
On a parting note, here are some suggested escapes to compensate your time spent indulging in LegalTech catering and exhibit hall atmosphere:
So, was your LegalTech NY 2012 experience anything like mine?
Posted by Christienne Miller on Mon, Jan 30, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- January 30, 2012 -- Hanzo Archives and Merrill Corporation announced today that the two have formed a partnership to launch comprehensive social media archiving and web archiving solutions in the enterprise market.
This partnership combines powerful software with a unique methodology to easily collect, archive, preserve and playback websites, blogs, and social media in native format. Enterprise clients can now implement their web archiving policy both on-premise and in the cloud.
Hanzo Archives, a world leader in social media archiving and website archiving solutions, and Merrill Corporation, a leading global legal services company, will provide enterprise clients with enhanced e-discovery capabilities for their entire web presence, and internal and external business social networks. These web and social media archiving solutions also ensure compliance with regulatory standards of information governance such as SEC 17-a4, FINRA 11-39, and others.
“What we’re seeing from clients is an aggressive shift from traditional marketing and corporate communications to collaborative web platforms and business social networks,” explains Hanzo CEO, Mark Middleton. “One of the major challenges from a compliance and e-discovery standpoint is the inability to manage, collect, or preserve these important content types together with the full contextual experience. This is particularly important for internal and external business social networks and collaborative environments. Our native format web archiving technology solves these issues for all web technologies.”
When asked about Merrill’s new partnership with Hanzo, Daniel Pelc, Senior Director of Marketing-Litigation Services, provided further insight, “Merrill sees great value in the use of Hanzo software. Social Media and complex websites are one of the fastest growing sources of potential discovery documents. The Hanzo system is incredibly effective and easy to use.”
More information about this partnership and web and social media archiving is available by contacting Hanzo Archives and the Merrill Corporation.
Posted by Mark Middleton on Wed, Jan 25, 2012
With cloud and social media use gaining steam in corporations world wide, new information governance and e-discovery concerns have come to light.
Reading this press release from the eDJ Group, posted on YAHOO! Finance, it's easy to see why.
According to the eDJ, of the companies they researched, "< 16% of respondents put an e-discovery plan into place before moving data into the cloud." That's a very small percentage addressing critical issues of e-discovery and information governance in the cloud, with a majority of companies ignoring these issues or giving them low priority.
So let's assume your company moves your data to the cloud without developing an e-discovery, information governance, and for that matter, a web archiving policy. Data loss happens. And, what of proposed legislation like SOPA and PIPA being pushed to pass? By not developing a comprehensive web and social media archiving policy, which serves both e-discovery and information governance (among other needs), you're exposing your web data to multiple vulnerabilities. Given the web's continuous evolution, this is not the situation you want your company to be in.
Our newest white papers goes into more detail about information management and the necessity to capture and preserve your web presence in native format. I invite you to download it here.
One final note: In the eDJ press release, they recommend being prepared with e-discovery and information governance policies in order to manage cloud and social media use challenges. I agree. When dealing with data, it's never a good idea to get lost in the clouds.
