Conferences Go Virtual - And Have eDiscovery Implications
By Ron Friedmann and Eric Feistel
“Virtually attending” a conference is increasingly popular, enabled by both official and unofficial social media and video “feeds”. We experienced this first-hand at the recent International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) annual conference. We report here on our experience and on the potential e-discovery implications.
ILTA hosted its first Virtual Exhibit Hall with roundtable discussions, and its first live streaming video interviews over ILTA TV. In addition, many individual attendees thumbed “tweets” on Blackberries, iPhones, and other smart gadgets, or shared their latest “pics” and “vids” from an inspiring keynote address, educational session, or other conference related event. Participation at a distance was easy via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and video feeds, including a complete video walk-through of the exhibit hall posted on YouTube by “Twitterer” Ed Valio, who also put together a nice picture album of the event.
Most of the online traffic reported presentation highlights. By many accounts, knowledge management expert and Above and Beyond KM blogger V Mary Abraham provided the best real time Twitter feed at @VMaryAbraham. Others chose the more “traditional” blogging route; for example, Integreon’s Ron Friedmann posted some detailed reports at session-end: e.g., Technologies that Will Disrupt Traditional Legal Practice (ILTA 2009). Some online traffic, however, was more “local”: Monica Bay of Law Technology News, for example, Tweeted that “everything Babs sez about the nachos is true,” commenting on advice from Integreon’s Babs Deacon. For transcripts of all the Twitter traffic that either mentioned “ILTA” or “ILTA09″, you can take a look at JD Supra’s Law Practice News Facebook page, which aggregated such Tweets on a daily basis during the conference.
We were intrigued at the video explosion too. ILTA-TV, sponsored by ILTA and produced by ii3, Inc., had a professional studio set-up across from the registration booth and conducted many live sessions and some taped ones. Integreon’s Ron Friedmann offered insight into key legal outsourcing considerations during a 5-minute ILTA TV interview with host Shy Alter. Thomson Reuters also interviewed several attendees using a hand-held camcorder, posting edited versions within a day. Ron’s one-minute segment on law firm billing trends is at Thomson Reuters’ Legal Current blog.
Integreon itself generated good online buzz. Our reception featured blogger Charles Christian of Orange Rag / Legal Technology Insider fame, who entertained with a lively comedy routine (and no, it was not about legal technology). During his performance, some of our guests Twittered away, including blogger extraordinaire Gabe Acevedo, of Gabe’s Guide to the e-Discovery Universe, and also Inside Legal, a co-sponsor of the 2009 ILTA technology purchasing survey. Of course, in good Twitter etiquette, we reciprocated those “tweets” with “retweets” from our own Twitter feed, IntegreonEDD.
While all this new technology has obvious benefits, it does carry some risks. Integreon has a sizable e-discovery business so we are very aware that any recorded information is potentially subject to discovery. “Those who have embraced the various forms of social networking seem to be on the forefront of Enterprise 2.0 communications and technology,” said Jeff Fehrman, Integreon’s VP of Forensics and Consulting. “More collaborative forms of digital text communications are rapidly evolving that closely mirror the speed and feel of dialog that traditionally has only been possible in person or on the phone. Because these discussions could be relevant to litigation, the implication for electronic discovery is an area of great interest for legal technologists like me.” Not surprisingly, this topic was the theme of several ILTA sessions. Video (and audio) recordings are also subject to discovery and pose their own set of challenges to manage and review. While we don’t expect any ILTA content to likely be targeted for discovery, the explosion of social media and video in the corporate context certainly does raise challenges for information governance and e-discovery management.
To close, we note that some conferences now dispense with any physical presence. ALM, sponsor of LegalTech, has announced a Virtual LegalTech Conference. This conference + exhibit hall runs around the clock; in addition, there are quarterly “live webinar” days with multiple sessions offering complimentary CLE education. One of the live webinars on November 19, 2009, the kick-off day, will be The Challenge of Preserving and Collecting Evidence in a Cloud, featuring Integreon’s Jeff Fehrman and the renowned e-discovery consultant and commentator Craig Ball. Like social media, cloud computing is another hot EDD topic, so be sure to mark your calendar for this event. For details on how to register for Virtual Legal Tech, click here. We look forward to seeing you there, virtually that is.
[For readers interested in learning more about e-discovery, we encourage you to follow us on Twitter @IntegreonEDD.]