Directing the Course of an Investigation With Database Discovery Tactics
Let’s start with the definitions of “structured data” and
Julian Ackert, managing director at iDiscovery
Solutions, discusses the differences between structured and unstructured data and how database discovery can allow a legal team to conserve resources and get the best outcome for their client.
“unstructured data.” Unstructured data is the content of emails or documents or other individual files, as I was just describing, and structured data is what comes out of a transactional system. Generally, when we’re looking at discovery and fact-finding, we look at the unstructured data, because that’s the easiest for us to digest and under-
CCBJ: Databases have been a source of electronically stored information (ESI) for some time, and discovery of structured database content is not new. So, what is database discovery? Julian Ackert: Traditional discovery looks at and identifies information that resides in individual files – like wordprocessing documents, spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations – as well as free-form communications such as emails. But database discovery also considers data points that exist in transactional database systems that can identify the behavior of individuals and help with other kinds of analyses. What that means, for example, is that if a case revolves around where somebody was when they did something, you can look at the content of unstructured data to understand what was written about the question at hand, but you can also look at the context of structured data, which is essentially a record of their data footprints – where they were at a certain date and time, geolocation coordinates, anything related to that type of information. Content, such
stand. Structured data, on the other hand, is millions of rows inside a database, and it’s not an easy exercise to understand what that data represents. One thing to note: all data is structured in some way, shape or form. So the difference between structured and unstructured data is a bit of a misnomer, but unstructured data generally has more free-flowing content that requires the eyes of an individual in order to understand its meaning. For example, when someone writes an email, they’re using natural language – and the words in that email are unstructured data. The natural language needs to be evaluated by someone to understand what is being said. Whereas if you’re dealing with a product management system that is tracking a product from its source to its destination, each point that is recorded is stored in a structured data system, and the path that the product takes from point A to point B is structured data that’s recorded in a structured database system – also known as a transactional system. How would you combine both structured data and unstructured data when performing a database discovery?
as what is written in the body of an email, is something
First, let me say that we’ve come a long way in the discovery
that you would typically have a human being review, but
process, and this question highlights that fact. When I
the context can help you go beyond that. Database discovery
initially got involved with discovery, and really electronic
is looking at both content and context together.
discovery (although, from my experience, you can drop the word “electronic,” because it’s all discovery. Data,
What is the difference between structured data and
information and facts just happen to be recorded electroni-
unstructured data?
cally in today’s world). When I started in this world of CORPORATE COUNSEL BUSINESS JOURNAL
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