Friday, November 16, 2012

November 2012

November started with some nice events. I had to go to the Court of Appeal in The Hague and testify in a case on image comparison. It is always nice to answer the questions, and verify if the report that has been written is understood in a correct way by all parties.

In the second week we had a very well organized conference at the Carabinieri in Rome of the ENFSI Forensic IT working group meeting, where I was re-elected as chairman. Many new developments in digital evidence, and now also the discussion on error rate in digital evidence is more visible, as is also discussed at the Scientific Working group of Digital Evidence , where we have an excellent liaison with. Furthermore, three proficiency tests where carried out in the field, so that was very good. Also the ISO-standards on digital evidence are developing rapidly.

Also busy with some proposal on big data for the FP7 cyber security call. And I received the message from the American Academy of Forensic Science that the workshop that we proposed (which I am chairing) on (W17) Image Analysis - 3D Imaging and Virtopsies: Developments, Methods, and Reasoning is accepted.

Currently we are sending out a proficiency test on camera identification  So enough work to do. And next week I am chairing the organisation of our conference for the digital investigators of the Dutch Police, where we have 350 people that will participate. Six parallel workshops and many nice developments, the second day is with companies and universities.

Also we have to cope with some budget cuts, so keeping the work more efficient and finding new ways of doing the forensic work is a challenge, and of course applications of funding, working with R&D and new developments remain important. And finally, I had to give an live interview (in Dutch) on Anne Frank and some photograph comparison for the radio in the Netherlands, which was also interesting to do.