Posted by Jim Donahue on Thu, Jan 31, 2013
Day Two at New York Legal Tech.
Over the years, there’s been snow, rain, bitter cold – but this might be the warmest day for Legal Tech in a long, long time. Maybe ever. It might have been warmer outside than inside.
Speaking of inside and outside: today at Legal Tech brought to light that the “web” content many companies are concerned with most isn’t outside the company on social media or public websites, it’s INSIDE the company on intranets, wikis, collaboration sites, chat applications and other web-based tools.
Here are a couple of examples from conversations today (Cliffs Notes version: Hanzo can help collect internally hosted web content)
Let’s say a company uses an http-based, internally hosted ticketing system to track customer issues, escalation processes and resolution. The company’s response (or maybe lack of response) to the issue, who knew about it, when they knew it, etc., becomes a piece of information relevant in litigation. There’s no record in email because there was no email – all of the communication and documentation about the issue exists in the ticketing system. How does the company get at that information?
What about a company that publishes policy (HR, FRCP, security, compliance, etc.) on an intranet site, but the company doesn’t know for sure what policies are published where and in which version. How does the company ensure that it avoids future issues?
These kinds of scenarios (there are many more) made for good conversations on how Hanzo can help companies tackle complex information governance, compliance and e-discovery issues involving web content.
Posted by Jim Donahue on Wed, Jan 30, 2013
It's LegalTech NY Time Again!
Great to see many friends, colleagues and clients. There’s been exciting buzz around Hanzo Archives and our approach to web content collection and preservation. “We’ve heard great things about you,” and, “we need to start using Hanzo,” are two of the most common (and most gratifying!) comments we’re getting.
One of the things causing the most interest in Hanzo is our "On Demand" web archive service. We’ve had great meetings today with law firms and service providers who see it as an easy, cost-effective way to perform defensible, standards-driven collections of web content. With just a few clicks, the collection starts and automatically returns the collected content in true web-native format.
Law firms like it because it is quick, easy to use and easy to get started. But what might matter more than all of those is that Hanzo’s collections are forensically sound and in compliance with the ISO 28500 standard for web content collection and preservation. Quick, easy and low cost solutions are great, but defensibility is best.
There are several hot topics at this year’s NY Legal Tech, and web and social media content are certainly near the top of the list. It’s probably too late to say it’s an emerging area – it’s already here.
Picture of Flatiron Building thanks to thenails1 and New York Pictures
Posted by Mark Middleton on Wed, Nov 28, 2012
As brick and mortar companies come around to the idea of social media platforms being powerful business tools, they also struggle with regulatory risks.
In his article, "Social Media Carries Regulatory Risks," author Taylor Provost outlines how these risks impact the compliance of regulated organizations, and how they're adapting existing communication policies to include social media. The article also points out that, before social media, there wasn't a far-reaching way for employees to make public statements about companies. Now, it can be done in seconds.
This is one of several reasons we focus on assisting companies with information management. Our blog contains this post and this one about the necessity of including web and social media archiving in all information governance policies for compliance.
There's no question web and social media archiving serves information governance in many ways. One of the main benefits is that, when captured and preserved properly in native format, all of the media and data contained within each archive features proof of authenticity. Another benefit is the easy retrieval and "playback" of the web and social media content as it first appeared online, which in turn creates clear audit trails.
Though Provost's article focuses more on how to reduce or eliminate risks associated with corporate social media use, including web and social media archiving as part of information governance now is a conservative and practical choice.
Email use is fading as new communication platforms arise. This means current methods of preserving ESI for compliance audits and eDiscovery is destined to become obsolete.
Read more on web archiving and information governance by downloading our white paper.
For a one-on-one demo, contact Hanzo.
Posted by Jim Donahue on Mon, Oct 29, 2012
This article (Homo Electronicus) 
is a very interesting read in that it calls out a challenge facing lawyers in the digital age.
Many in the law profession are trained to utilize paper and manual research when putting a case together. This still occurs in eDiscovery quite a bit today.
As the article points out, its as if the legal community is unaware of the tools available for approaching eDiscovery tasks in new ways. These tools are compatible with eDiscovery software platforms and provide easy access to extracting and sorting online data, which virtually eliminates the need for paper files in court.
In an earlier post, Hanzo's Mark Middleton defined the web archive scope, which is very important for anyone in the legal profession to read. It gives you the "what's in it" overview needed to understand the inherent value in web archiving for many litigious scenarios.
In terms of eDiscovery, imagine being able to access websites or social media case data within minutes, as if you were performing a typical browser search. It's a different approach to the traditional paper file process, but one that must be learned by all lawyers, as the article referenced above points out. Courts and regulators are now requiring web and social media data to be presented in full context. It's unavoidable. Where are you in the era of digital eDiscovery?
If you feel you've been nudged in the right digital eDiscovery direction, learn more about Hanzo web archives' compatability with Symantec Enterprise Vault™ in this joint solution datasheet. Another point to keep in mind: Hanzo archives are compatible with other eDiscovery software as well.
Posted by Jim Donahue on Fri, Oct 12, 2012
As data gets bigger and more global, the financial services sector, like many others, faces the challenge of big data storage, governance, and management.
In Nancy Turbé's article titled "Five Key Challenges with Financial Services Data", she outlines the looming data crises financial firms face.
With the advent of emergent communication technologies, the challenges Turbé outline promise to get much worse. This digital landscape is changing how every industry conducts business, and virtually none are as heavily regulated as financial services.
Keeping compliant, creating and maintaining a clear and robust audit trail, as well as being able to effectively manage your information governance protocols can be a huge drain of your time and resources. It effects your ability to remain competitive, which is a direct hit to your bottom line.
If you are a financial services provider it's imperative you look into web archiving your data. Not only does it allow you to capture, preserve, and store your web and social media content in foresically sound, native format web archives, but it allows for easy search and quick extraction of the information you need when you need it.Think about the benefits of clean audit trails, easy web and social media content organization, plus hassle-free data storage—that's only part of the web archiving picture.
If Turbé's article and this post have piqued your interest, I invite you to download our white paper, then contact Hanzo for your tailored web archiving solution.
Posted by Christienne Miller on Wed, Oct 10, 2012
Do you agree our love of history is driven by an insatiable "need to know"? We wonder about "lost" civilizations and make careers out of piecing together physical artifacts from the past. What, then, is to become of our digital future?
A similar question is asked in this article published on The Economist's website. Just as some of Hanzo's previous blog posts have pointed out, once web content is lost through any means (website refreshes, operating system and software updates, etc.) it's gone forever. There's nothing to "...piece back together." As if to illustrate this very point, the author of the article mentioned above reports original pages from The Economist's own website are now lost.
Remember GeoCities? In its heyday (1999), it ranked third on the list of most visited websites. Then, Yahoo! purchased it and eventually (2009) shut down the service in the U.S., leaving Yahoo! GeoCities Japan as the sole survivor.
Approximately 38 million web pages were created by countless GeoCities subscribers. Though valiant efforts were made by the Internet Archive (among others) to preserve more than 15 years' worth of online contributions from the GeoCities' vast community, they couldn't prevent a substantial loss of content. A mass extinction of a digital civilization in minutes.
Though much thought and effort does go into preserving historical record and other physical artifacts using digital means, that tremendous work is also in danger of being lost if not captured and preserved in a native format web archive. Look at any website; there are embedded links to additional content (web pages, online videos, etc.), which will disappear as well. Historical records contain born physical artifacts. Web archives containt born digital artifacts.
The same challenge applies to corporate brands and their cultural heritage. Aside from the eDiscovery and information governance aspects of web archiving, there's also the complexity of overall online brand presence. Ask yourself: Where did your brand originate? What legacy do you want to leave behind for future employees and customers to embrace about your brand's history? If you aren't web archiving in native format, not much.
The question then becomes: Does the brand you've spend millions on developing, or the time and effort devoted to the historical preservation of your corporate heritage, matter enough to give it an eternal life span?
If so, contact Hanzo.
Posted by Jim Donahue on Mon, Oct 01, 2012
There's no use in pretending anymore that web and social media content in eDiscovery doesn't need to be presented in its full context as part of a native format web archive. Courts and regulators are requiring it, and it's something I discuss with current and prospective Hanzo clients all the time. Another topic: The skyrocketing costs of eDiscovery attorney review fees.
These fees are often the most expensive part of eDiscovery. How does that relate to web content capture? From a digital standpoint, websites can contain thousands or millions of pages. Also, the aggregate review of Chatter posts, tweets, and Facebook comments — you get the point. Consequently, with the web presence of some companies being in the hundreds of millions of pages, that's a huge amount of content to have to sort through and review.
What makes the costs of eDiscovery even more unpalatable are recent reports of judges reducing the amount of reimbursements awarded in relation to eDiscovery expenses. Even attorneys are looking to wrangle potential runaway costs for their clients.
This brings me to where web and social media archiving assist both attorneys and clients. The first step, as with network data, is to know where to look for relevant content. A proper web archive policy will enable you to quickly locate relevant content from a documented, defensible, well-organized archive. This means less content for review from the outset.
Additionally, well-constructed, native file web and social media archives:
- Provide a more efficient way to filter and search relevant content for review
- Make it easy to export selected archive files, data, and full text to Clearwell, Recommind, Symantec Enterprise Vault™, and other review applications for further culling or filtering prior to review
- Enable legal counsel to present web and social media content in original, native format context from forensically sound archives immune to spoliation as valid evidence in court
With personal experience in the world of eDiscovery, I can't stress enough how important web and social media archiving is for all corporations interacting with customers or business partners via the web. To continue this conversation and learn why, contact me to schedule a one-on-one demo.
Posted by Jim Donahue on Tue, Sep 18, 2012
As web and social media platforms evolve, many corporations are unable to manage critical, online information for possible litigation.
Tracking all specifications and representations of product lines, which are published online, is a nightmare for those charged with any product manufacturer's eDiscovery process. This is one instance where using Hanzo technology to archive web content definitely matters.
Take the recent conversation the Hanzo team had with a potential client. The company stakeholders asked what data Hanzo could capture and preserve within a web archive.
The answer is, of course, whatever the client requests.
Hanzo native format web and social media archiving technology collects and preserves every byte of data associated with original web and social media content. A Hanzo web archive is forensically sound and provides a complete audit trail for this captured, original content. Links work, videos and animations play, calculators calculate—essentially every web page, Twitter feed, or Facebook conversation operates exactly as it did at the time of capture.
Hanzo web archiving can also capture the Chatter feeds of key custodians (designers, engineers, product marketing personnel, etc.) which may contain information or evidence essential to a case. Another benefit of proactive, periodic archiving of publicly available content from associated suppliers, is the ability to collect warranty information, product specifications, ratings and other communications that may be at issue during a product liability case.
In the instance of product liability management, the few considerations outlined above may warrant a further conversation. If that's the case for you, I'd be happy to connect and discuss web archiving solutions for your company. Contact us.
Posted by Mark Middleton on Wed, Aug 15, 2012
Have you been following the Apple vs. Samsung patent trial? We have. Many interesting turns of events populate legal articles across the web, which grab my attention.
There's a lot of analysis of spoliation and what constitutes as failure to produce evidence relevant to individual trials.
In his article on Law.com, Henry Kelston reports that, "On July 25 Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ordered an adverse inference jury instruction against Samsung for failure to take adequate steps to prevent the destruction of relevant emails."
But, what is at the bottom of this adverse inference against Samsung? The failure to institute a litigation hold, or suspend the auto-delete functionality assigned to the management of the company's electronically stored information. If you aren't sure what litigation hold is, this SlideShare primer will help you.
So, how is a litigation hold connected to web archiving? The simplest way to place your web content on litigation hold is to capture your websites, social media, and internal business and collaborative communications in native format archives. An illustration of this is shown in the following diagram:
Proactive Web Archiving
Setting up an archiving policy in anticipation of litigious situations is a key element to your information management best practices. Think of it as an insurance policy. For a small, ongoing fee, you can avoid future risks, costs, and adverse inference by preventing deletion of critical data.
Reactive Web Archiving
Not having a proactive information management policy for your web content isn't a complete crisis, however, because collecting your web content reactively is very straightforward. If you have any legal or other need to preserve your content as it is today, Hanzo can archive it in native format in the same way we do for proactive policies. The only catch is that we can't go back in time and preserve data which is already lost.
Either way, Hanzo Archives can help. If you don't have an archive policy, we can deliver one that meets your needs. In fact, Hanzo Archives technology and services address each phase of eDiscovery as it applies to your website and social media data, from information management to preservation to collection and production. Additionally, our Web Archive Connector packages your web archives and sends them to leading eDiscovery tools for review and processing.
To learn more about how, join us for our latest Webinar: Web Archiving for Websites and Social Media Redux.
Posted by Mark Williamson on Mon, Jul 30, 2012
I noticed this blog post today, which is an excellent write up on some of the challenges that we web archivists face and highlights what I think is an important point. First off, after reading the post, I must admit to feeling a twinge of pride.
When Hanzo first started back in 2006, we also used the available, open source web archiving technology. Soon came the realisation that keeping up with the dynamic web was going to be a colossal challenge. This is when we decided to develop our own software, enabling us to capture content of this kind.
Today, we know the right choice was made. The web of 2012 often makes the web of 2006 look rather simple. Our software has kept us in good stead. Already on its fourth iteration, there's now little on the web we can't capture (As you might guess I'm not giving our secrets alway as to *how* we capture it.) Sometimes playback within the web archive presents us with one or two challenges, but are quickly remedied. We also have upgrades in the pipeline to tackle any future issues too.
That’s not what I want to talk about though. The blog post I mentioned illustrates perfectly one of the complexities of the web presenting a challenge for eDiscovery and compliance - it's the fact that a web page isn’t a “thing."
When you view a webpage, you are pulling many small files across the web in a host of different formats (e.g. html, css, javascript, xml, PNG, etc). Each of which is interpreted, and some of which, like javascript or flash, represent full blown programs in their own right. We as readers of the web may see web pages like pages in a document, but a web page has a closer semblance to an ‘app’ than a Word document.
This makes the challenge of web archiving for compliance and eDiscovery two fold.
- First off, we need to meet the challenges presented in the blog post and, as you've seen with Hanzo web archiving technology, these challenges are something we regularly solve.
- Secondly, we need to get the web content into powerful eDiscovery tools. We do this using a component called the Web Archive Connector.
Using the Web Archive Connector, we are able to take each page (interesting in itself as pages are an emergent property of websites, but that is a post for another day) and create a package containing the text of the page, a searchable PDF of the page, and a host of metadata including (most importantly) links back to the full native format archive. This package can be loaded into eDiscovery tools, search engines, and many others. With the Web Archive Connector, you get the best of both worlds. All the salient information can be searched and worked with, and it's backed by the depth of the full archive. It also has the ability to ‘run’ the pages, explore the full user experience, and see the original content with all its nuance and dynamic behaviour.
Other twinges of pride I have are for our Web Archive Connector and web capture capabilities. They truly provide the best of both worlds: A page view of the web, and the full native format archive, working together. It's very powerful stuff, and I can’t help feeling that we and our customers have only dipped our toes into the pool of possibilities it opens up.