Jacoby, Conrad, Jim Vint, and Michael Simon. “Databases Lie! Successfully Managing Structured Data, the Oft-Overlooked ESI.” Richmond Journal of Law & Technology, Vol. 19.3 (2013).
structured data (p. 2): Unlike unstructured data, which typically exists as static and self-contained files that are preserved, collected, processed, reviewed, authenticated, and admitted into evidence as stand alone documents, structured data exists as segments of information inside a larger system, one that is often quite complex and contains many parts. A database record, the closest analog that structured data has to a “document,” may not actually exist until a user performs some action through the database system to assemble a number of separate fields that could reside in many different parts of the system. For this reason, information stored in a database cannot be placed into a standard e-discovery review system that has been optimized to view and categorize unstructured data. (†349)
