MANAGING BIG DATA:

WHATS RELEVANT?
By Stephanie Ball

Why librarians have the critical skills to manage Big Data

I consider that a mans brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones. Sherlock Holmes to John H. Watson, MD, from A Study in Scarlet

aw firms are just one of many businesses in todays global economy that are facing the challenges of managing Big Data. These businesses are drowning in a sea of information, but they dont know how to get value out of it because its raw data in an unstructured format. As we keep generating data, it grows and piles up, creating the challenge of determining what information is relevant and requires preservation and what can be discarded. As this potential gold mine of data multiplies, law firms need a game plan to efficiently extract the knowledge that is relevant to their

practice and the business of law. They cant afford to sift through all the data using a traditional process with old tools. There is just too much data with too little known of relevant value. To solve the complex problem of managing Big Data, law firms will need to: Harness Big Data Manage information Analyze relevant information Deliver the right information to the right people. To capitalize on the Big Data opportunity, law firms will need to utilize the information scientists already

in their law firmslibrarians. Librarians have the professional education and critical core skills needed to understand how to transform, analyze, and present information; facilitate knowledge creation; and manage Big Data.

What is Big Data?

Before we can discuss Big Data, we need to clarify what it is. IBM has defined Big Data as information that cant be processed or analyzed using traditional processes or tools such as conventional hardware or software. Big Data is characterized by three Vs: volume, variety, and velocity.

HARNESS BIG DATA

MANAGE INFORMATION

ANALYZE RELEVANT INFORMATION

DELIVER THE RIGHT INFORMATION TO THE RIGHT PEOPLE

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The first V, volume, is just what it sounds like: big. But how big is big? We have all heard the terms kilobyte, megabyte, and gigabyte. These are the measurements that are related to traditional software data sets, and they are terms that most of us are familiar with. But with Big Data, we need the power of terabyte (TB)-sized data sets. A TB is a measure of computer storage capacity that is two to the fortieth power, or approximately 1 trillion bytes (that is, 1,000 gigabytes). The prefix tera is derived from the Greek word for monster. To create a visual picture, a terabyte is 50,000 trees made into paper and printed. The second V, variety, makes large data sets more challenging to organize and analyze. A common use of Big Data processing is to take raw, semistructured, and unstructured data and extract ordered meaning, for consumption either by humans or as a structured input to an application. A successful organization must be able to analyze all types of data and have the ability to draw insights from the various kinds of relevant data important to the goals of the organization. The third V, velocity, is the speed at which data is created and the speed at which the data is flowing. How fast can you create data, and how fast can you move data? More relevant is the speed at which you can act on the knowledge produced by your data. Beating out the competition may require identifying a trend, problem, or opportunity only seconds before the competition does. Managing Big Data effectively requires that you perform analytics against the volume and variety of data while it is still in motion, not just after it is at rest.

to semi-structured and unstructured data from a variety of sources. Knowing what business and research goals your data will support is key to your analytics strategy. Your first step should be to start with the business or research problem youre trying to solve. Big Data isnt a technology initiative; its a business initiative across all departments of your firm.

Why and Where Librarians Manage Big Data

Lets travel back in time more than 40 years to the dawn of electronic legal research, before the birth of the internet and the World Wide Web. Electronic legal research pioneers Dwight Opperman, of Westlaw, and Jerome Rubin and H. Donald Wilson, of LEXIS by Mead Data Central (MDC), revolutionized legal research with the development of electronically assisted legal research. Both Westlaw and LexisNexis started in the 1970s as dial-up services with dedicated terminals. The earliest versions used acoustic couplers or key phones, then smaller terminals with internal modems. Around 1989, both companies started offering programs for personal computers that emulated the terminals, and, when internet access became available, an internet address became an alternative that could be selected within the Communications Setup option in the client program instead of a dial-up number. And who were the first users of electronic legal research more than 40 years ago? You guessed it . . . librarians. In 1982, LEXIS claimed to have electronic research terminals in 99 percent of the nations 150-odd law firms with more than 100 lawyers, in 84 percent of the firms with 40 to 60 lawyers, and in 40 percent of those with 20 to 40 lawyers. And who was teaching those lawyers how to use electronic legal research? Right again . . . librarians. Librarians knew how to use and teach technology-assisted research decades before Big Data became the hot technology buzzword that it is today. Librarians have the critical technical skills to manage Big Data and to teach others how to manage it as well. They were the pioneers in the new frontier of technology-assisted research, and they still are today.

Why Managing Big Data is a Big Deal

The methods with which law firms capture, create, and use data are changing how the practice of law and the business of law are evolving in a competitive business environment. We are on the threshold of an analytics revolution. Businesses have more data to use and analyze than ever before, at a volume that has never before been experienced in human history. Businesses, including law firms, are leading the analytics revolution and are already making data and analytics a source of competitive intelligence. The focus of Big Data management is the ability of your law firm to capture, organize, store, and deliver the right information to the firms decision makers. To this extent, management strategies for Big Data should be applied not only to raw structured data, but also
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eDiscovery
Without a doubt, the hottest topic in litigation today is eDiscovery. Legal eDiscovery is now an essential part of the litigation landscape in preparing for trial and settling cases between
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parties. The proliferation of electronic information and the responses of courts and legislatures, including the December 2006 federal rules changes, have changed the scope and manner of discovery. The revisions make it clear that counsel must consider electronically stored information (ESI) at the earliest stages of litigation. ESI must be disclosed in the mandatory initial disclosures under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure under Rule 26, and it is subject to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure under Rule 34. The centerpiece of the revisions is a requirement that counsel meet and confer about ESI early and often. A simple misunderstanding can be disastrous. Big Data is the engine that is driving the freight train in the adoption of legal eDiscovery. Technology-assisted review (TAR) and predictive coding have transformed the eDiscovery process of litigation. Victor F. Panieczko of The Legal Intelligencer defines the new frontier of predictive coding as a form of technology-assisted review, which is at the forefront of legal technology. It is a computer program that assists in document review through the use of an algorithm. The program learns how to review for responsiveness based on a legal professionals (such as a librarians) review of a sample set of documents. The predictive coding software then reviews the sample set of documents and applies what it has learned from this set to the entire document collection. The review team continues to refine the results through the predictive-coding software system until the software identifies likely relevant and responsive documents. The programs ability to increase accuracy and reduce the time spent on human review and the cost associated with the review process is considerable. In todays Big Data environment, the technologies used for reviewing ESI can have a substantial effect on how efficiently lawyers conduct eDiscovery and how relevant their research findings are. It can be the pivotal point between winning and losing a case. But TAR, computer-assisted review, or predictive coding technologies will not replace human review. TAR still relies on legal specialists, such as librarians, to train a predictive coding system for optimum success. Predictive coding provides an intelligent process that requires human reviewers to train the system to identify and prioritize information that is relevant to the case and to apply random sampling to verify the results. Librarians are the experts that know how to use predictive analytics to identify which documents need to be reviewed and coded. Librarians use the same critical

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skills to code documents as they did 40 years ago when constructing electronic legal research queries including keywords, natural language, and Boolean (terms and connectors) to produce relevant results. Cracking the code of Big Data and creating a relevant and reasonable document review process requires human intervention and innovative technologies that can identify and prioritize ESI and apply quality control throughout the document review. The process requires human review to train the system for success. You need to have the critical skills of an information scientist, the librarian.

analyze and classify the information for relevance and importance and deliver on-point information to a firms decision makers, based on what they need to know. But once again, designing searches that bring back relevant data and analyzing the data into actionable intelligence must have human intervention. Because law firm librarians interact and communicate with all departments across their firm, they have the critical skills in information management and knowledge management. This provides librarians with the ability to monitor social media listening platforms and deliver relevant knowledge to the firms stakeholders.

Social Media Monitoring

Business Development

One of the most important elements of Organizations need to look outside managing Big Data is an organizations the box and beyond their own walls to ability to look past internal data to the stay ahead of the competitive landscape. value of external unstructured data. When you understand your clients Gartner Inc. is one of the worlds leading businesses and have the ability to information technology research and monitor client development and trends advisory companies. According to within their particular industries, Gartner, 80 percent of the data that you will earn their trust. You gain the you need to analyze is outside your competitive edge by identifying new organization. And its contained in social business opportunities that may lead media pools like Twitter, Facebook, to a new engagement with a current Yelp, and other unstructured social client or a prospective client. Law firms, media sources. like other businesses, need to develop In his book ZMOT: Winning the business plans and backgrounds. Zero Moment Of Truth, Jim Lecinski, Librarians have the research skills and vice president of U.S. Sales & Services, business acumen to build a dossier of Google Inc., says that ZMOT is the little current information about a client, moment thats changing the marketing prospect, practice, or industry to gain rule book. Its a new decision-making a full understanding of its potential. moment that takes place 100 times a day Knowledge gleaned from the on mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and information that is analyzed and wired devices of all kinds. Its a moment filtered by the librarian can easily be in which marketing happens and where built into a business or practice plan. consumers make choices that affect the Because law firm librarians have success and failure of nearly every brand developed relationships with all in the world. departments within the firm, So how can a law firm mine they are able to unify all of this social media websites to unstructured external data discover what their clients are with the structured saying about them and internal data in a format Data! Data! Data! their competition? that benefits all members I cant make bricks The conversations are of the firm. Armed with without clay. going on 24/7. People are this knowledge, the Sherlock Holmes in The talking about you, your decision makers of the Copper Beeches by Sir Arthur product, your service, your firm will understand more Conan Doyle competition, your industry, about their clients. They your reputation, your will learn how they should be employees, your fees, right now, at this evolving to be able to deal with the moment. Brett Hurt, vice chairman market challenges, how the markets and co-founder of Bazaarvoice, brings themselves are evolving, and how they the voice of customers to the center of need to fit within these markets to excel. business strategy. As Hurt puts it, Word of mouth online has got to become part Building the Bricks of the central nervous system for every Relevant data is the clay that builds the company. bricks of actionable knowledge, as Web-based listening platforms Sherlock Holmes opined to Watson. automatically scour the web for Without relevant data, there is no clay information based on a users personal to build the bricks that will provide profile. These listening platforms then

the knowledge to answer the questions that we need to answer. Relevant and managed data are necessary for data analytics to succeed. Otherwise, the adage garbage in, garbage out applies. The MIT Sloan Management Review published in spring of 2013 boils down data management and data analytics to three characteristics: A widely shared belief that managed data is a core asset that can be used to enhance operations, customer/client satisfaction, marketing, and strategy More effective use of Big Data for faster results Support for analytics by senior management who embrace new ideas and are willing to shift power and resources to those who make data-driven decisions. These are the main characteristics of companies that are leading todays Big Data analytics revolution. Law firms should be grateful that librarians are Big Data experts. According to McKinsey and Company, an international consulting firm, the United States alone faces a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with analytical expertise and a shortage of 1.5 million data managers and analysts with the skills to understand and make decisions based on the analysis of Big Data.

Elementary, My Dear Watson

As Christopher and Barbara Roden, lifetime Sherlockians, have written in their introduction to The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Despite the fact that it appears nowhere in the original tales of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Elementary, my dear Watson has entered the language as an aphorism that suggests what is baffling to others is readily apparent to the speaker. In 1895, Sherlock Holmes mastered The Science of Deduction by analyzing the clues contained in the data. Today, the law firm librarian is the modern day sleuth who has the critical skills necessary to analyze Big Data and transform it into actionable knowledge to benefit all members of the modern, innovative law firm in todays global economy. I
Stephanie Ball (SBall@bhfs.com), Firm-Wide Manager of Continuing Legal Education, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP, Santa Barbara, California

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