Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: Greg Buckles. Published: 2015-06-14 20:00:00Format, images and links may no longer function correctly.
Not sure if you heard about all the rain and flooding down here in Houston, but that is just one reason for my recent hiatus from blogging. Once life takes you away from your routine, it is hard to get back in the saddle, but press releases like this one from OLP give me all the incentive I need to write. Now you know that I hate to pick on any one vendor when my real concern is a broader trend that I want to call your attention to. In this case, it is the way that some for-profit providers effectively cloak their true nature and revenue source by presenting themselves as ‘organizations’, ‘associations’, ‘reference models’, ‘institutes’ or other labels intended to convey academic authority. eDiscovery is such a young and cross-functional discipline that many new practitioners indiscriminately consume ‘best practices’, certificates and purchasing guidance without understanding how the source of that self-proclaimed authority makes money. I happily include myself in that ‘self-proclaimed’ group, because in my opinion there were and are no classic non-profit or academic standards bodies out there to grant anyone eDiscovery authority. Others can and will disagree with me, but all I am asking you is to ask the question, “Show me the money!” before you allocate educational time or budget.
The Organization of Legal Professionals is now offering forensic collection and incident response services. That makes them a service provider in my eyes. I am not commenting on or disparaging their training or certifications because I have no direct experience with either, only second hand accounts. The Electronic Discovery Reference Model, which I actively participated in for years, seems to be very careful not to define the organization in their FAQs. I was disappointed that the EDRM was not converted to an actual non-profit late last year, but that attempt did at least inspire a group of the early EDRM participants to launch the Legal Technology Professionals Institute. Will the LTPI be different from ACEDES, OLP or similar groups? They are founded as an actual registered non-profit, which is a good start. The key will be understanding where their funding comes from and who is driving the content, the practitioners or the marketers. There is also an ongoing ISO Committee (ISO/IEC CD 27050-1) that is looking at eDiscovery from the security perspective. I will step off my soapbox now and get back to my backlog of projects.
Greg Buckles wants your feedback, questions or project inquiries at Greg@eDJGroupInc.com. His active research topics include analytics, mobile device discovery, the discovery impact of the cloud, Microsoft’s 2013 eDiscovery Center and multi-matter discovery. Recent consulting engagements include managing preservation during enterprise migrations, legacy tape eliminations, retention enablement and many more.
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