SBOT Computer & Technology Section

This presentation was by Mr. David A. Chaumette (De la Rosa & Chaumette), who is only one of two presenters at this conference who have TWO aerospace engineering degrees. He got his undergrad at Princeton and MS at Stanford. Evidently, he went to law school quickly thereafter because he worked at NASA (Ames) for a short period of time.

After a few technical glitches, the presentation got going.

The presentation is focused on discovering information on social media, but was useful for e-discovery in general. David made a point of how Charlie Sheen “has really lit the fire of social media” and was put forward as someone who has really capitalized on this relatively new form of media.

If you were fortunate enough to sign up for this course, you would have received in the printed materials a long and well-written article on this topic that can be a good first-resource. You may (I suspect) be able to find this article on the Internet at a later date (not now) so don’t feel too left out.

After a lengthy introduction to some of the ins-and-outs of social media, Mr. Chaumette put up a list of 10 myths of the Internet/social media system — and then systematically dispelled (“torpedoed”) each myth. It was an effective presentation technique. The list is not in the materials, and is an example of presentation *adding* to the total package.

One good (reminder) tip on the authentication of electronic evidence is Texas RCP 193.7, which establishes a presumption of authenticity for a document that is produced in the course of discovery. If you don’t get that, then there is the old-fashioned form of authentication — with a witness.