Comments on DSHR's Blog: Spring CNI Plenary: The Remix

There are some interesting thoughts expressed in r...

2010-07-27T16:49:06.065-07:00

There are some interesting thoughts expressed in regards to lawyers. I ran across your post while doing some research on e-discovery for a case I'm currently working on and it really got me thinking about other issues as well.

But first back to the e-discovery aspect. As an attorney in this new digital age it has become more and more important that I'm able to track down records that may or may not be hanging out in cyberspace. For me preservation of these records is vital. Our cases often hinge on what we find during this discovery, so of course I am wanting companies to spend whatever is needed to make sure that they have secure storage of documents with adequate capacity for all needed storage.

The second issue this made me think of is the new rage of SAAS or software as a service. I know that I use two different providers to keep my client contact information, files, billing and basically everything in the "cloud". As more and more companies move toward this and more safe storage is needed how will this effect the current landscape?

And finally a very small issue, but one which is important to firms such as mine is how do we make sure that everything we ever post, comment on or make a note about in our professional lives on the internet is safely stored and retrievable? Again, as a lawyer I'm supposed to keep records of everything I ever do on my website. On my Memphis personal injury website/blog for example I have hundreds of pages of content that I'm changing up all the time to reflect new changes in the law. Under my state bar associations rule I'm supposed to keep a copy of each and every page, each and every time it is changed. These regulations are ridiculous and cause me a huge headache. But it's just another example of why reliable and affordable storage is so important.

Oh well, I'm rambling. But from the point of view of someone who is definitely not an expert in this field, I really enjoyed browsing through several of your posts.

Jami Ferrell - (just a simple lawyer trying to enjoy life, and better himself if at all possible)

As someone who has worked in digital preservation ...

2009-07-29T07:15:36.191-07:00

As someone who has worked in digital preservation at the UK National Archives for several years, I would like to correct a few misconceptions in the linked BBC story.

The volume of digital data managed by the UK National Archives is simply wrong by several orders of magnitude (this has done the rounds on the internet until it has now become a virtual fact!).

The formats we hold digital data in are mostly open standards, and even the proprietary formats are still fully readable using current software. We have never had lots of data in unreadable formats.

Microsoft did donate virtual machines with older and current versions of its operating system for us to experiment with in our preservation laboratory. However, the primary digital perservation strategy of the UK National Archives is still, and always has been, format migration.

CNI has posted the video of Cliff's introducti...

2009-07-13T16:09:25.984-07:00

CNI has posted the video of Cliff's introduction, my talk, and the questions here.

The promised post of Sheila Morrissey's comment wi...

2009-05-06T10:28:00.000-07:00

The promised post of Sheila Morrissey's comment with my responses is now available. I'm sorry for the delay; I had less Internet access and less time to work on it in my holiday hotels in Tasmania than I expected.

Readers who wish to see the response to David’s ta...

2009-05-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

Readers who wish to see the response to David’s talk can find it here.

I'm grateful to Portico's Sheila Morrissey for set...

2009-04-23T03:29:00.000-07:00

I'm grateful to Portico's Sheila Morrissey for setting out the conventional wisdom I was arguing against in my plenary talk. Unfortunately, the length of her comment appears to be inhibiting others from contributing to the discussion the talk was intended to spark.

I have deleted Sheila's comment but have preserved the text, which will shortly appear as a post, interspersed with my responses to her points. I hope others will now feel freer to comment at less length on this post.

Clearly, this is a blog where relatively lengthy comments add value. But the urge to expand one's thoughts in a comment needs to be balanced against the imposition on readers to scroll past one's contribution to find other's comments that they may find equally valuable. If the Daily Kos FAQ had been accessible from my present remote location, I would have linked to what I remember as valuable advice on the length to which a comment should grow before it should mutate into a post less it disrupt the discussion.

2009-04-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

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