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LBSC 708X/INFM 718X - Seminar on E-Discovery
Spring 2009 - Section 0101
Course Description
Official Catalog Description
Information retrieval concepts in the applied context of litigation,
investigations and review of electronically stored information for
public release. Discussion of legal requirements, professional
standards, best practices, technical capabilities for automated
support, evaluation, and risk management. Intended for students
interested in legal, corporate or institutional settings involving
provision of responsive controlled access to large collections of
electronic records.
Goals
- Understand the legal frameworks by which access to sensitive
information is managed in civil discovery, regulatory and
legislative investigations, and FOIA requests in the USA and in
comparable settings in some other parts of the world.
- Develop an analytical framework for e-discovery and related
problems that integrates organizational, technical, legal, and
procedural perspectives.
- Explore current issues in e-discovery.
Approach
E-discovery (along with related issues such as E-FOIA) is a remarkably
broad topic. We will use a seminar format in order to give every
student a broad and rich exposure to the major issues, while giving
each student an opportunity to choose additional topics that they wish
to master in additional depth. Our breadth objectives will generally
be achieved through readings (for background), through discussion (and
occasionally other activities) in class (to help build a mental
framework into which the myriad of details can be placed, and through
three structured assignments that all students will complete. Our
depth objective will be met through preparation by each student to
serve as a "discussant" (reacting to a presentation by one of the
faculty or by a guest speaker), through additional reading and/or
interaction with experts at each student's initiative, and through
completion of a term project or term paper by each student (working
individually or in teams, at each student's option).
Instructional Staff
We will meet once a week on Monday evenings from 6:00 PM to 8:45 PM in
HBK 0109, which is straight ahead as you leave the elevators on the
ground floor of the classroom section of Hornbake. A syllabus that
summarizes what we will cover each week and gives a preview of the
homework assignments and a reading list showing the reading for each
week can be found on the class
Web page. You may bring food and drinks to this room, but please
keep the room clean so that we don't lose that privilege.
We are always happy to meet with students before or after class, or at
any other mutually convenient time by appointment. If meeting in
person is inconvenient for you, we can also set up a time to talk by
phone. Email by far is the best way to reach us to set up an
appointment or a phone call, and it is also a good way to get a quick
answer to a simple question.
Course Materials
The course Web site at http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~oard/teaching/708x/spring09/
contains the most recent copies of all material produced for this
course. This course description, the syllabus, slides and other
resources used in class, and (eventually) a range of other materials
can be found there.
There is no required textbook, but some useful books will be placed on
(physical) reserve at McKeldin library. Most required readings (and
some recommended readings) will be available online. For readings
that are not freely distributable you will need to log into ELMS. Our goal, however, is to place
as much of the course materials on the open Web as possible..
All students registered as of January 15, 2009 have been automatically
signed up for the course mailing list using the email address that is
on record for them with the university. If you do not receive email
on that list by January 17, please contact Doug Oard to confirm that
your email address on the mailing list is correct. Students are
encouraged to post to the list (you'll get the address the first time
you receive an email) when you have something that you believe that
your classmates might wish to see. Questions sent to either professor
by email may be answered using the mailing list when the answers might
be of general interest (unless you specifically request otherwise).
Grading
Course grades will be computed as follows:
| Component | Percentage
|
| Term project/paper | 60%
|
| Other assignments | 15%
|
| Thought leadership | 25%
|
You will need a TerpConnect account in order to post materials to the
Web (this will be the normal way of submitting assignments).
Assignments are due before the start of class on the date
indicated in the syllabus (or by midnight for dates on which we do not
have class). Late assignments will receive reduced credit.
Thought leadership includes contributions during class, material and
commentary that you post to the email discussion list, contributions
of blog posts or other Internet resources, and service as a discussant
(which each student will do once during the semester). Each student
is expected to enrich the course in several of these ways.
For the term project or paper, students will be expected to choose
from one of the following options by the date indicated in the
syllabus:
- A publishable term paper that adds substantially to the
present body of knowledge on some aspect of e-discovery. Students may
work individually or (for papers of very substantial scope) as a team
of two; for team papers the contributions of each co-author must be
clearly delineated. Term paper topics require prior approval from
one faculty member.
- An experimental investigation of some research question. This
might be a user study, development of a novel system or component, or
evaluation of one or more existing components. A written report is
expected, but (depending on the scope of the experimental
investigation and the nature of the results) it need not be in a
publishable form. Students may work in teams of any size, but the
contributions of each team member must be clearly delineated. The
research question, research method, and team composition require prior
approval from one faculty member.
- A structured evaluation exercise, modeled on the interactive
track of the TREC Legal Track. The scope of this exercise requires
that it be completed in a team in which students adopt specialized
roles. A description of each role will be posted by the second week
of the semester.
Each student (or team of students) will give a presentation on their
term paper or term project during the last class of the semester.
Students may also work together on the assignments other than the term
project/paper, but all of the material that is turned in for grading
must be produced individually. For example, students may form study
groups and work out solutions together on a whiteboard, but it would
not be permissible for one student to create a computer file
containing the answers and then for other students to copy that file
and submit it as their own work. The goal of this policy is to
encourage the use of homework as a learning aid.
The University of Maryland has a nationally recognized Code of
Academic Integrity, administered by the Student Honor Council. This
Code sets standards for academic integrity at Maryland for all
undergraduate and graduate students. As a student, you are
responsible for upholding these standards. More information is
available at http://www.shc.umd.edu/code.html.
Students wishing to discuss accommodations for unusual circumstances
should meet with one of the professors, and should do so no later than
the third week of classes.
Doug
Oard and
Jason Baron
Last modified: Jan 15 2009