[SIGCIS-Members] expertise on the “state of the internet in about 2004” needed for court case

[Jonathan Coopersmith]

Of possible interest?  If so, please contact him directly.

   Jonathan

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Walsh, John <John.Walsh at coloradodefenders.us>
Date: Mon, Jun 23, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Subject:
To: j-coopersmith at tamu.edu <j-coopersmith at tamu.edu>


     *This Message is From an External Sender*
This message came from outside your organization



Dr. Coopersmith,



I apologize for reaching out out of the blue, but I’m having a really
difficult time finding anyone who might be able to help.



My name is John Walsh, and I coordinate the forensic litigation for the
Colorado State Public Defender’s Office. In simpler terms, I help people
find hard-to-find experts. I’m hoping that’s where you may be able to help.



There is a criminal case in Colorado where one of the relevant issues is,
for lack of a better term, the “state of the internet in about 2004.” In
particular, the issues revolve around a person who potentially met another
person on an online message board involving BDSM-like activities. There are
lots of questions we’d need answered, for example, how prevalent internet
meet-ups were, how such meet-ups would have been organized without things
like Tinder, how sophisticated/regulated such things would be, etc.



Basically, we’re looking for someone who would be able to inform a jury
about the relative state of the internet nearly 20 years ago.



I am hoping, based on some of your publicly-available work, that you may
have some of this knowledge. In the alternative, I hope you may be able to
point me to another person who might.



So you know, I can provide any number of details about the case, but
suffice it to say whoever testifies would be there to educate the jury only
and would not be opining about the guilt or innocence of the accused.



Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to provide, and, again, I
do apologize for reaching out in this way.   I can be reached most easily
at my work email (this one), or also my work cell 720.654.5963.



Respectfully,



John Walsh (he/him)

Director of Forensic Litigation

Office of the Colorado State Public Defender
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/attachments/20250623/ddc0d453/attachment.htm>