On the Mark

By Mark Reichenbach - October 23, 2007 

The EDRM today announced the release of a standard XML format to be used in the exchange of electronic data between applications. The industry has long needed this standard and it’s a good thing. Let me tell you why.

You could look at this as a “Universal Load File” — a very useful thing for corporations with disparate systems and service providers who must support them.  I’d look for this XML format to be helpful to opposing parties who must “meet and confer” under the FRCP for their 26(f) conferences as far as agreeing on a particular data load file format.

“The XML standard addresses a major pain point within E-Discovery - moving and formatting the different types of data across all of these disparate systems - and is an important step toward streamlining the process,” says George Socha, co-founder of EDRM and president of Socha Consulting LLC. “By adopting this standard, MetaLINCS is taking a leadership position in creating greater efficiencies within the e-discovery process.”

It is interesting to note that ALL the participating organizations had representatives involved in the creation of this standard. Zantaz, Summation, Concordance and MetaLINCS all contributed to the effort. Many others involved in EDRM have committed to supporting the XML standard by February’s LegalTech. 

Make no mistake, this XML format is now cued up to become the industry standard as we march ahead. Yet as important as this initiative is to the industry I’m surprised at some of the organizations that did NOT participate in EDRM, at all.

“The XML interchange is a natural fit with how we architected the MetaLINCS e-discovery software platform. From its earliest inception, MetaLINCS’s goal has been to empower companies to perform on-premise E-Discovery with an open, scalable platform that would easily integrate with their existing products and services,” says Chuck Williams, chief technology officer at MetaLINCS. “Unlike point products, the MetaLINCS Enterprise E-Discovery Suite is a completely integrated application that addresses all the core processes of E-Discovery and enables data exchange through an open set of APIs. The EDRM XML standard makes this data interchange more reliable and flexible, increasing accuracy and efficiency and reducing costs for our customers.”

As an old Litigation Support guy from way back, I can recall countless hours of massaging data load files, writing scripts and reading more “import failed” messages, so much so it hurt, all in an effort to get data out of one system and into another. If only this had come along back then!

Fritz Mueller, Senior Director of Product Management for MetaLINCS said

“Now that version 1.0 of the XML standard has been ratified it will be relatively easy to make enhancements to the standard that the whole industry can agree on.  It creates a framework that can be enhanced to exchange more sophisticated types of data.”

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What Fritz does’t mention is the sheer effort and dedication those who participated showed in developing version 1.0 because that’s the hard part! Hat’s off to all those who helped develop a standard that brings real help to a community that can use it.

Now we’re talking (in the same language)!

About EDRM

The Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) Project was launched in 2005 to address the lack of standards and guidelines in the electronic discovery market. The completed reference model provides a common, flexible and extensible framework for the development, selection, evaluation and use of electronic discovery products and services. Information about EDRM is available at http://www.edrm.net.  

View EDRM’s press release here.

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