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Lotus Notes, the desktop client for the Lotus
Domino collaboration product suite, is widely
used in organizations for many purposes, primarily
messaging. However, Lotus Notes is an application
environment, too. It provides a platform from
which to build a wide range of business applications
where messaging and collaboration are the necessary
foundation.
Another Notes key feature was customization. According to Tim Halvorsen, early on there was debate over the structure of Notes. He said the developers wondered, "Should we build applications in the product or should we allow it to be flexible and let users do it because we don't know what they will want?" They eventually opted for a flexible product that allowed users to build the applications they needed. Thus, Notes architecture used a building block approach; you could construct group textual applications by piecing together the various services that are available. "This was big in the success of the product," stated Halvorsen. Notes has survived the changes in the industry because it is a flexible product users can customize to fit their changing needs. (1)
Processing Evidence: A Technical Challenge
Processing and producing evidence from a Lotus Notes database is a far different process than a corresponding one in the Microsoft Exchange/Outlook environment. (2) Because Lotus Notes is more than an email and calendar application, the ability to identify what is a message and what is not a message can be complicated, time consuming and a technical challenge.
Traditional Approaches
Prior to the release by Fios of our full Lotus Notes processing capability, the typical approach to producing Lotus Notes email by most providers followed this process:
- Identify records in the Lotus Notes database that use the R6 template. This template is shipped with Lotus Notes and is considered the default email message template.
- Extract records meeting that criterion
- Import those records into a Microsoft Exchange email .PST file
- Process and publish the records to the review system
- Review, categorize and produce
There may be certain flavors of this approach, but the foundation is relying upon the default template to determine what records are email messages.
There may be certain flavors of this approach, but the foundation is relying upon the default template to determine what records are email messages.
Shortcomings and Risks
The approach has several shortcomings. First, the assumption that communication among Lotus Notes users is restricted to what may be called "email." In fact, Lotus Notes deployments are intended to be collaborative and may use the fundamental technology to drive many types of communication that are not a traditional email. For example, a Lotus Notes application for customer support or technical support may use commonly shared forms that contain scripts or code that send information behind the scenes to the database. By completing an "incident report" on a form, the user might click a button to complete the task and multiple messages might be sent like an acknowledgement to the customer, a log note to the database, etc. These messages would not be identified as "email," in the processing described above. However, they may constitute discoverable information in an investigation or litigation.
Additionally, email templates themselves may be modified or created making the search for "email" just as unreliable. Large organizations may have multiple versions of email templates that have been developed separately over many years of Lotus Notes use.
Finally, even R6 templates can carry custom generated text or objects that might be important to reviewers. For example, a modified template could carry scripting that called for the form to insert text that was dependent upon the role of the recipient. If the recipient is an engineer, the text might be different than if the recipient were a salesperson. In either case, the text associated with the message might be missed if the processing relied upon just the contents of the template.
Our experience in processing Lotus Notes from more than 2,000 NSF databases suggests that only 30% of the records that are messages, or are parts of messages, can be identified by the R6 template alone. Therefore, we expose all of the information in the database, publishing the text that is clearly an email message in a familiar template, but also associating the other textual information that may be part of that message.
Alternative Approaches
An alternative in review is to use the Notes client as the review application, or native file review. While this is an expedient approach, it cannot address the challenges of the custom scripting identified above. Moreover, the usual drawbacks exist for review system configuration, inability to tag or categorize items, inability to redact, and user training.
Advantages of the Fios Approach
Fios Lotus Notes processing assures that all objects in the database are exposed. We process the entire database to reveal all the information and make it reviewable in a text format. For example, an email message with associated text not normally found in an R6 template is exposed and published to Prevail or to a desired output like TIFF and load file.
Capturing all text
Fios processing captures all text associated with messaging regardless of what templates are used. The text associated with the R6 template is extracted along with any other text relative to the message(s)
Capturing "folder" views
Lotus Notes allows users to create folders, described as views. These folders do not function as storage sites, but as shortcuts or ways in which to organize messages and other objects. Fios extracts these views and represents them in the same manner as Microsoft Outlook folders. System views like Draft, Sent Items and the like are part of this capture. Custom folders are not captured, but messages identified there are visible in the All Documents view.
Capturing embedded objects
Fios captures and presents objects that users "cut and paste" like Excel or Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets or graphics. These are not attachments and can be overlooked by systems that cannot identify the embedded object.
Output to native format
Lotus Notes production is often requested in native format. One reason that parties request native production is their experience or belief that processing often misses key objects or elements in the database. Fios processing of Lots Notes is comprehensive, but we are still required in many cases to produce the relevant, non-privileged items in a Lotus Notes database for review.
Our approach to production is to use the original "shell" of the database-its structure, "folder" views, etc.—as a repository for the produced material. The key issue here is that we start the process with a blank shell from which all of the original messages and other objects have been completely removed. We then "push" only the relevant, non-privileged items to the shell. The benefit of this approach is that there are no lingering and perhaps readable "deleted" objects in the database creating the potential for inadvertent production of privileged documents.
Lotus Notes processing for electronic discovery presents challenges not present in other electronic messaging environments. Customization and structure of the Lotus Notes environment places special demands on the service provider. Reviewing Lotus Notes in their native format itself has many drawbacks and they apply here. The optimum approach to processing Lotus Notes for electronic discovery is to extract all of the text and objects and make them available in a common format for fast, efficient review. |
