Answer Maven

Facebook hires a GOP insider as their GC.  This was a surprise to Silicon Valley but I think it’s a good choice.  Who better to help Facebook weave through the maze of privacy regulations and public policy pitfalls than someone with experience.  Facebook, will inevitably face more governmental challenges as its constiuency grows to mirror the voting public.  Protection and strategic legal planning are a must for survival.   It just goes to show that understanding technology and patent processes isn’t enough for legal representatives of technology companies in today’s market.

I read a report yesterday called E-Discovery View from the  Front Lines by the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System.

This report provided a thorough overview of the growth in importance of E-Discovery to the legal system, a review of how e-discovery has changed in recent years, some interesting discussion of “litigation holds” and other best practices as well as some recommendations for change.

One of the interesting things I noted while reading this and several other publications related to e-discovery in the past few days is the emphasis on fear surrounding e-discovery.  It seems that law firms fear e-discovery due to costs, general counsel fears e-discovery due to costs and businesses fear e-discovery due to costs.  Some would say that if everyone is concerned about costs perhaps ways to reduce costs should be employed more consistently.

I don’t think that anyone affected by e-discovery is unwilling to do find and employ ways to reduce costs.  I think that e-discovery has been mainly reactionary rather than pro-active for all involved, including vendors.  An opportunity to make money by employing technology to manage a process for ESI (electronically stored information) presented itself and vendors adapted.  Law firms often seek out-of-the-box applications in order to solve problems and unfortunately, I don’t think that enough strategic planning is employed before choosing a solution.  This is of course, not the fault of the firms.  In my experience, law firm innovations are often pushed by client demand and all too often that demand is prioritized without the client having done their own preparedness.

A few years back this used to be the problem of big companies and large firms but with the reality of less than .1 percent of information created on paper this is everyone’s problem.  So you may ask what should you do to minimize the fear.

A few practical tips would be:

• Plan based upon ESI work-flow
  • This plan should be a cross-functional team plan that brings the best planners from IT, info centers, and records management into the room with the strategic business planners
• Don’t over retain your ESI, use the plan
• End redundancy in ESI if it is stored at a departmental level, not every staff member should be required to retain the info
• Investigate vendors and strategic who have solutions, not simply applications
• Staff for ESI and E-Discovery – Having someone on board who understands the bigger picture for the Industry and information flow from creation to use is a no-brainer in reducing up-front costs.

Check this post from TechRepublic on some great ways to learn news skills for your own benefit.

I can personally vouch for the information you can learn just by volunteering and public libraries provide so much value for the cost if you just take a look at their offerings.  If you feel the offerings are a bit too basic for your needs how about volunteering to teach a more advanced course.

Last night I awoke in the middle of the night (technically morning) and was astounded that one of the thoughts that drifted through my semi-conscious mind was related to the shift in library roles and functions and what the future of library staffing really is destined to be.

The management, organization and teaching of information is what librarians do in a nutshell, no matter their affiliation.  Special librarians in corporate environments are faced with bringing corporate knowledge into the mix of information in order to maximize resources and allow for good decision making without reinventing the wheel.

The technologies available to provide enterprise search work but most of them need a lot of tweaking.  The tweaking has to keep in mind, regulatory requirements, user security roles and user experience levels to name a few.

Will the responsibility of helping tweak these federated solutions fall to IT, HR or the Library?  How will librarians guarantee a seat at the table?  Librarians are well equipped to understand the nuances of user roles and capabilities.  Keeping organization structure and goals in mind is a sure-fire way to allow information professionals a major role in these continued developments.  Just as a few years ago, law firm librarians were able to establish themselves as the leaders in KM efforts as the importance of knowledge use evolves, librarians can and possibly should be the leaders.

My advise, prepare your arguments, assert your knowledge and claim your seat.

This post by Sabrina Pacifici at beSpacific refers us to a Nielsen Company study that discusses the increased reliance of the U.S. population on cell phones.  17%  of Americans only use cell phones.  We know how quickly email usage grew, how fast Internet usage has grown and with these types of numbers as a basis and users demanding more flexibility with their mobile devices, it seems inevitable that information delivery and search will be a critical part of mobile technology development.

Right now, I’m trying to decide if I want to upgrade my cell phone to one that offers email access.  I’m intrigued, due to the fact that I am traveling more now but I always balk at the cost of the data plans.  I mean really, if I have a cell phone calling me is an effective method (most of the time) of getting in touch for any critical work.  However, I’m faced with the reality that there are still people who prefer to email than call.  Do I really want to risk losing potential business by not being accessible through mobile technology that allows me to access email?  What if I have one of the 10 second questions that a quick Google search could answer I could do the work, deliver the answer and have another satisfied customer.

I’d be interested in hearing from you about how you use your mobile technology?  Do you browse the web? Do you search for information?  Do you use the email functionality?  Are you satisfied?  What are the shortcomings of mobile technology?

As my business grows, slowly but surely, my need for flexibility in searching and information resources is increasing.  Luckily, through AIIP I have access to some great deals on the best sources out there.

My problem is which solution will give me the best bang for my buck.  That is a question that all knowledge workers ask themselves.  Some organizations are lucky enough to have librarians and information professionals who investigate the choices and make the decisions.  Other organizations go with their own methods of choosing the product based on price, past use, the vendor who calls the most often.  Sometimes, that’s not the best method.

I’m currently being pursued by Thomson Reuters.  Is that my best choice?  I’m not so sure.  My information problems are much different than they used to be.  I have to review the solutions available from a totally new perspective.  Luckily, this is a part of my work that I really enjoy.  The pros the cons, the prices, the data itself, the ease of use.  So many factors must be taken into account in order to achieve the optimal solution.

Now I’m ready for the courting to begin.  Test drives are my favorite way to analyze my choices and make my decisions.  Luckily, my experience in the industry gives me a great first hand knowledge of the reputation and developments for each of the players.

If you are seeking a solution for your own organization, make sure you turn on the radio and drive the car, so to speak.  I remember my  mother buying a car and bringing it home, when I got in and turned the radio on…there was no sound.  When Mom confessed she hadn’t even driven the car before buying it I looked at her astounded, you might be able to do that with a new car, but not a used one.  So take an info problem and run it through the proposed solution.  If it doesn’t solve a sample it won’t be a good choice for daily business.