Law Times

PAGE 10 FOCUS The future of e-discovery: An interview with author Michael Rogers BY JANA SCHILDER For Law Times M ichael Rogers is an author and journalist whose consult- ancy, the Practical Futurist, helps businesses think about the future. He has consulted to FedEx, Boeing Co., NBCUniversal, Prudential Financial Inc., Dow Corning Corp., American Express, and Genentech Inc. For two years, he was the futurist- in-residence at the Th e New York Times. For 10 years, he was vice president of the Washington Post Co.'s new media division, which included both the news- paper and Newsweek. He was recently a speaker at the LegalTech 2011 confer- ence in New York. In an interview with Law Times, he discusses the future of e- discovery. LT: E-discovery is the confl uence of law, information technology, and records management. Will evolving technol- ogy help or hinder e-discovery? Rogers: Technology will not only help the new fi eld of e-discovery, tech- nology will be absolutely essential to e-discovery. We won't be able to function without e-discovery for one simple reason: there is going to be so much data in the future. One reason for this data explo- sion is that all objects will have embedded sensors that will talk to each other and to the Internet: cars, appliances, and infrastruc- ture. Th at's why e-discovery is hugely important. Today, we're parsing documents containing words. In the future, we're going to be parsing a lot of data. LT: Facebook has 600 million users, and there are 95 million Tweets per day. What role is social media playing in e-discovery? Rogers: Th at's an interesting question. We're at the very early stages of social media. By 2020, children Michael Rogers spoke recently at the LegalTech 2011 conference. will have to be taught what of- fl ine means. We will live our lives pretty much online. Life will be social media. What we're going to see in the future is the evolution of a social identity that you'll carry with you for Internet applications such as eBay, Facebook, LinkedIn, and so on. LT: What would a social identity look like? Rogers: Probably something like a pass- port or a driver's licence. LT: Th at sounds like George Orwell's 1984, just 25 years late. Do you an- ticipate pushback? Rogers: Absolutely. I suspect in the U.S., it will be voluntary. But in the same way you need ID to board an airplane, you will need ID to do certain things on the In- ternet. LT: What are some specifi c artifi cial intelligence applications that might be useful for e-discovery? Rogers: We're going to see software that will be quite good for ana- lyzing video as part of e-discov- ery. In other words, you don't have to have a human watching a TV screen. Th e software will warn you that something is odd and a human should look at it. Security companies will begin of- fering video recognition technol- ogy in the next two or three years, certainly within fi ve years. LT: What can you tell us about Watson, IBM's new artifi cial intelligence computer featured on the game show Jeopardy? Rogers: Well, IBM has been working on Watson for at least 20 years. Watson is made possible by a couple of things: fi rst, incredible acceleration in computing speed; and second, software that really understands language, and that's the critical piece for e-discovery. LT: How long until we have this level of artifi cial intelligence available com- mercially for e-discovery? Rogers: Law is actually an easier prob- lem to solve for Watson because law is rule-based. Law doesn't re- quire making inferences to try to diagnose a diffi cult medical case, which was the original intent of Watson. So in fi ve or 10 years, Watson could end up being a 1-800 service. Lawyers tell Wat- son the facts of the case, and Wat- son tells them their options. Th en lawyers and clients discuss those options. Already, the software from the most sophisticated e-discovery software vendors enables you to search on key phrases and patterns of unusual correspondence be- tween people. Th is is much better than having junior lawyers read- ing thousands of pages. In many ways, Watson is more power than you need for e-discov- ery. But it is the kind of technol- ogy that can replace lawyers. LT: What about cloud computing? Will it help e-discovery? Rogers: Cloud computing, done prop- erly, should make no diff erence to e-discovery. In fact, it might make e-discovery even easier because all your data will be in one place, so you can expand or shrink your e- discovery search without having to go hunting for diff erent servers. LT: What problems does cloud computing present for e-discovery? Rogers: Jurisdiction may become an issue. Th is has already come up. How do I get a search warrant for Belgium when the head offi ce is in Mexico City, for example? It's go- ing to get very complicated. Some types of laws are going to have to be transnational to allow for e-discovery. may 9, 2011 • Law Times Compensation Survey Comp._survey_1/3 5X.indd 1 Canadian Lawyer's much-in-demand compensation survey now includes lawyers in law firms as well as corporate legal depart- ments. If you are a managing partner or the head of a corporate legal department, please take a few minutes to fill it out. The results of this survey are unique in Canada and will give readers a perspective on who's earning what across the coun- try. SURVEY CLOSES MAY 20. To complete the survey visit canadianlawyermag.com/surveys www.lawtimesnews.com 5/4/11 1:54:24 PM

• Cover
• LawPRO Warning
• Final Remarks
• Focus On E-Discovery