Bill Hamilton has launched a new listserv group to promote eDiscovery education called the E-discovery Educators Network!

The University of Florida E-Discovery Conference co-founder raised the idea of starting up a listserv on LinkedIn a couple of months ago when he said this:

“Years ago, I managed a listserv for those of us teaching e-discovery at law schools and colleges. I’ve received a number of requests recently to restart the listserv. Please let me know If you would be interested in joining.”

Nearly 100 people responded expressing interest, including me.

This morning, Bill notified me that “the E-discovery Educators Network has been created.”

The Google Group, available here, “is designed to be a collaborative space where we can share teaching resources, discuss pedagogical approaches, exchange syllabi and case studies, and support each other in developing effective e-discovery curricula.”

As Bill added in the introduction, “Whether you’re designing your first e-discovery course or refining years of teaching experience, we’re here to learn from one another. Feel free to introduce yourself with your institution, courses you teach, and any particular areas of e-discovery education you’re most passionate about.”

Also in Bill’s initial message to the group is a set of Community Guidelines, which discusses posting guidelines, expectations for professional courtesy, a note that posts “may be moderated to ensure they align with our educational mission” and this note about commercial content:

“Educational vs. Commercial Content: We welcome discussions about software tools in an educational context (classroom implementation, student exercises, teaching effectiveness). However, promotional content, sales pitches, and marketing materials are not appropriate for this academic forum.”

You can subscribe to the group via the link above. However, if you want to join the group and participate in the discussions, you’ll need to ask to join the group. You can ask to do so via the button at the top of the About page for the group.

As one who remembers the old lit support listserv on Yahoo Groups years ago, I remember it was a terrific resources for a lot of great technical tips and discussions. You get those in selected LinkedIn posts when people get into a discussion (such as a couple that I started related to hyperlinked files), but that’s not the same as a single resource where we can find useful tips, teaching materials and more. I’m hoping that the E-discovery Educators Network becomes popular as that single community resource we need. Thanks, Bill!

So, what do you think? Are you going to join the E-discovery Educators Network? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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