Craig Carpenter is CEO of X1, a software company specialising in collecting and searching data from social networks and the internet. I interviewed him recently about X1, about social media and internet discovery, about X1’s work with Relativity, and about the effect of the pandemic on discovery, especially collections.

Craig Carpenter said there was enormous of social media evidence in court anyway even before the pandemic. We all use it, even those of us who are older, and use continues to grow.

Social media catches real-time conversation, states of mind, activities and location at a particular time. This has a huge impact, Craig Carpenter said, on litigation and investigations. X1’s bookings grew by 69% in three-quarters of a year, and the courts have been closed for much of that time.

The pandemic has changed collections. That used to be a forensic-heavy imaging job. Now no one wants their laptop taken away from them or even touched, and people working at home do not want people turning up at their doorsteps.

X1 Social Discovery sits in Relativity and RelativityOne so all data is kept in one place. It is important to be able to collect metadata and then reconstitute the data in a way which looks native. X1 achieves this by working with Relativity, collecting the data in native form and displaying it as it looked when it was posted.

X1 has a strong channel globally, but there are many customers who do not work with a legal services provider or with law firms. For them, X1 has built a consulting group which pushes what it can to its channel, but it can support users outside the channel.

In addition, X1 has an on-premise solution, for corporations who want to deal with their own preservation and collection in house. They can collect data with X1 or within Relativity or RelativityOne.

Self-collection brings its own dangers, Craig Carpenter said. Custodians do not necessarily understand the legal and technical ramifications, and it is too disruptive as well as dangerous for them to do it for themselves. It is better to do a remote collection via a litigation service provider or a law firm.

Craig Carpenter expects X1’s business to grow in the next six months in step with growing social media and web content. X1’s focus, he said, will be on usability.

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