A roadshow on preserving information in the digital age took place in York on Friday 26 June. Those who have set up the event should be congratulated. The organisers are the National Archives, the Society of Archivists and the Digital Preservation Centre. Part of the reason for the roadshow is to invite comments on the recently released consultation on Archives for the 21st century, a new draft government policy for publicly funded archives, and although the National Archives is the only one of the three to be based in London, it is good to hear that conversations are taking place all over the country and not just in Whitehall and the National Archives' Kew headquarters. As a London-based writer I know it is very easy to get a London-centric view of life. And when the consultation was first published IWR expressed the worry that the policy had already been decided and that there was a danger too much was going to be decided at the centre rather than leaving decision making over archives to local say.
The commitment to start a national conversation on the issue augurs well. Today's Digital Preservation Roadshow is the second in a series which is aiming to highlight the issues associated with preserving digital information as well as offering expert advice and cost effective practical solutions to the archives sector. Delegates were due to be told how a phased approach to digital preservation may be more manageable, particularly in a time of shrinking budgets, and identify what information needs to be kept and the main risks to it. All sounds good stuff.

Posted by P. Williams | June 26, 2009 Arts, Humanities & Social Science, Electronic Document & Records Management | Permalink  | Comments (0)  

Peter Williams reports from the Library Show in Birmingham
Speaking at the Library Show, British Library chief executive Dame Lynne Brindley said there was never a better time to be a librarian. But she also said that the current period was also a little daunting, especially as librarians had to commit to a culture of continuous operational change. She advised the profession to take control of its own destiny. Speaking to an audience at the seminar programme, Brindley presented a series of paradoxes for the information profession. The paradoxes include love Google or hate Google and the issue that the Google generation students are technologically savvy but not digitally literate.
Earlier Roy Clare, the chief executive of the Museums, Libraries & Archives Council warned that some librarians still regarded marketing as a dirty word that was done by someone else and he said MLA was working hard to ensure engagement with the local community.

Posted by P. Williams | June 10, 2009 | Permalink  | Comments (1)  

It is well worth repeating the cliché - internet has transformed our lives. Information, news, file-sharing, catch up television, blogs, entertainment and social networking. Layer upon layer, it is a world unto itself.

While this virtual world exposes us to new challenges and conflicts, it also dangerously divides our real world into separate sects.

A YouGov survey of almost 2000 adults have revealed varying attitude towards social media. While many welcomed its adoption in business, 71% respondents said teaching social media technologies such as Twitter in schools is "inappropriate".

Meanwhile, the old school of thought is still prevalent- 50% of the UK workforce are banned from using social media in the workplace- presumably for productivity reasons. Contrarily, 20% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that a corporate Facebook would be better for sharing information and collaborating on projects.

As I have always argued, the majority of respondents who were inclined towards social media in the workplace were Generation Y-ers. This reflects how the young have changed the way they communicate.

Traditional organisations must provide social media platform to its employees for sharing ideas and views and to collaborate in a medium of their choice. Social media sites are not just a means to connect or not just used to advertise the positive aspect of one's life. Today, they are beyond a mere public relations weapon of every individual.

Several Tweeters have a fan-following for their valuable information, some human resource departments vet people by tracking their social media activity. Ambitious companies have extended their online presence with the use of these tools and even promoted products and services through them.

Business social media site LinkedIn boasts of 40 million plus members. This shows the importance of these applications and the role they are likely to play in future generations' personal and professional lives. Social networking sites such as Facebook host a multitude of groups fighting for social, economic and environmental causes. And that is why, it is important to allow children familiarise themselves with these technologies which they have a great aptitude and appetite for.

What is also shocking about the survey is that 6% have admitted that they'd go as far as not taking a job if social media tools were not made available to them. Although nominal, it reflects the division in ideologies. Besides, a survey of even younger sample could provide more alarming insights.

It must be about a happy marriage- making social media technologies a tool to achieve traditional objectives- than slipping into a divided society of Tweeters and non-Tweeters.

Posted by P. Williams | June 9, 2009 Legal, Tax, Regulatory & Patent, News & Reference | Permalink  | Comments (0)  

The government has pledged to remove innocent people from the national DNA database by launching a public consultation "Keeping the right people on DNA database" early this month.

It sets out proposals to introduce "more transparent safeguards" for the individual and aims to provide a proportionate balance between protecting communities and protecting the rights of the individual.

There have been numerous debates about the compulsory DNA database with experts arguing that it is discriminatory because it has 40% of black men's DNA profiled as against just 9% of white men; that it is violation of freedom of expression and that it promotes distrust and so on.

But more than the controversial nature of the information the government holds, the fact that it exists with the government is worrying. Recently, there have been innumerable reports about the plunging public confidence in public sectors. The health care services, the councils, the police, libraries, institutions and other government departments are less trusted by the people following series of high profile sensitive data leak that jeopardised our security.

The government launched the national DNA database in 1995 with an aim to allow police store DNA profiles to help resolve crimes. And today, the UK leads the world in developing a national DNA database (profiling over four million people).

According to the government, the database has played a key role in solving criminal cases such as Sally Ann Bowman murder, convicting Steve Wright in 2008 for the murder of five prostitutes and also for proving innocence such as clearing Sean Hodgson of the death of a young woman nearly 30 years after he was wrongly imprisoned.

While we do not undermine the role of such information to help the police solve criminal cases and would like to do every bit to cooperate, we are worried about the loss of that information to a wrong set of people likely to misuse it, tamper with it and manipulate it. When in the recent past public authorities have failed to observe basis principles of security such as encrypting a disk with employee information or safeguarding anti-terrorism documents.

The issue is not so much about an invasion on right to privacy or human rights, it is in fact about data protection. We now know that privacy is long dead in this digital age. Our fear comes out of our falling confidence in the public sector organisations.

Posted by P. Williams | May 15, 2009 | Permalink  | Comments (0)  

A shake-up of the primary curriculum to reflect the modern times is a refreshing move writes Archana Venkatraman. But should we make information technology a material of education than a medium of education?

According to The Guardian (that has seen the "draft plans for the detailed content of learning areas" Sir Jim Rose, former director of inspection at Ofsted, is proposing for pupils), children may well have to learn blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter and spreadsheets.

Rose, in an interim report published in December last year, called for a greater inclusion of information technology in primary education.

The proposal of adding the digital media by making a host of compelling subjects within history optional is baffling.

Technology is just an enabler, it is a medium of learning and teaching rather than being an object of education itself. A detailed study of technological communications is a discipline that students opt for at a higher degree of education after comprehending their interests and preferences.

If the aim is to introduce children to the emerging technologies, then it could be done by employing technology for teaching and by encouraging its use as a tool to search, communicate, share, write and present. It is understandable that launching technology in the curriculum is long overdue but it is no more important than other aspects of education.

Children love the dynamic new media. They are technologically agile by themselves without much effort because Twitter, Google and Wikipedia invariably form a part of their day-to-day activities even more than their parents'. Wasn't there a recent report about parents being unaware of their children's browsing habits?

Information technology must be carefully introduced and woven into the curriculum without burdening the children instead of knocking another important subject off the syllabus.

Children need to know the implications of the Second World War just as much as they need the skill to blog. And let's not underestimate that they cannot hold a web-based discussion on Victorian history.

Posted by P. Williams | March 27, 2009 Arts, Humanities & Social Science, General | Permalink  | Comments (0)  

Information professionals with an interest in privacy issues will be following the data trials and tribulations of social networking phenomena with some interest. The story so far goes something like this. A couple of weeks ago the company released an updated terms of service but then on February 18 decided to revert to the previous version. Why? Because Facebook has apparently received complaints from some users that revised terms appeared to imply that the company would keep personal data even if the account had been deleted. So the old terms were out back while a redrafting process took place.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg used his blog to explain what was going on. This issue has clearly caused some soul searching. Now Facebook says it is "reaching out to respected organizations to get their input" and Zuckerberg reckons that much of the language is "overly formal and protective so we don't plan to leave it there for long".
With Facebook such a dominant force in the social networking space the outcome of this episode is bound to leave its mark.
Zuckerberg wrote: "Our terms aren't just a document that protects our rights; it's the governing document for how the service is used by everyone across the world. Given its importance, we need to make sure the terms reflect the principles and values of the people using the service."
It would be interesting to know where information professionals on Facebook agree with Zuckerberg. Would privacy issues cause them to stop using Facebook or use it in a different way? Or is this just part of the price you are prepared to pay for using the tool?

Posted by P. Williams | February 18, 2009 Electronic Document & Records Management, Information Management, Legal, Tax, Regulatory & Patent | Permalink  | Comments (0)  

So it finally happened. Speculaors have been predicting the acquisition of Interwoven and Vignette in the ECM space for years now, and last week, UK success story and erstwhile enterprise search firm Autonomy announced it was to snap up the former in a $775 million deal. So is it a good move for the firm, and what does it say about the industry in general?

Well, it certainly makes sense for Autonomy to have plumped for Interwoven as opposed to Vignette. Interwoven's newly released fourth quarter earnings were very impressive; $69.8, or an increase of 11 per cent from total revenues of $62.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2007. And for the year ended December 31, 2008, the firm's total revenues were $260.3 million, up 15 per cent from 2007.

So financially Autonomy chose the stronger company, and if you believe chief exec Mike Lynch, the two firms' product sets and management teams are well known to each other, the vendors having shared both "customers and partnerships over the years".

So how does it fit with Autonomy's strategic vision? Pretty well, actually. The firm has been moving gradually beyond its core competence in enterprise search to become an infrastructure software provider for some time now. Its portfolio now includes video and audio analysis tools, call centre monitoring and analytics software, business process management, the hugely profitable e-discovery and archiving area, and records management. According to Ben Richmond, founder of ECM consultancy The Content Group, this latest in a long line of acquisitions is all about Autonomy becoming a mainstream ECM vendor, and with records management and BPM already under its belt, it's easy to see why.

Search and content management have always had a pretty close relationship; organisations ultimately need to be able to find the content that they have created, stored and managed, so search tools are essential to a holistic ECM platform. Now Autonomy is bringing them under one roof. It will be interesting if we see more big names getting serious about providing the other parts of the ECM stack that they have so far neglected.

But a final word of warning from Richmond: end users must "look beyond the badge" when investing in new ECM products, because if vendor 'A' buys vendor 'B', it could be years before it is able to offer truly integrated products. Microsoft and Fast, Open Text and RedDot - these are just two examples to be mindful of. Happy shopping.

Posted by Phil Muncaster | January 26, 2009 | Permalink  | Comments (0)  

Guess what? An effective, enterprise-wide content management strategy can make your organisation more agile, efficient and save you significant energy costs. Yes, you might already be aware of this fact, as it's fairly obvious that ditching paper, printers and copiers in favour of digital content is going to generate significant benefits for the company. But a new Gartner report seeks to shed a little more light on the specific processes you'll need to identify, which can then be improved to increase efficiency and reduce greenhouse emissions.

Now the green debate has been rumbling along for some time now, and it's probably not exactly at the top of your agenda, in fact it's unlikely it'll ever move out of the 'nice-to-have' category. But it will have to be taken seriously eventually, especially if various stakeholders start to demand to see your green credentials.

That said though, especially in these trying economic times, the biggest benefits of reviewing your content management strategy and going fully digital are the economic and efficiency gains. So what does Enterprise Content Management Strategies for Green IT actually recommend? Well, put simply it is to examine all areas of the business that currently require paper, ranging from the hardware such as printers and copiers, and the business processes which are paper-intensive.

What you should do next, according to report author Mark Gilbert, is look at how paper could be reduced in these areas, rank each project in order of how much impact they're likely to have on the business, then prioritise the most achievable and set a timeline. Simple.

Well, probably not very simple actually, but by looking for example at electronic storage of documents, this could save on the energy associated with paper manufacture and distribution, and that required to air condition large paper-storage environments. Then there are the efficiency gains to be had by, for example, switching to e-forms for the capture of electronic data.

I guess firms should be thinking of these projects not just as moving from one format to another - paper to digital - but of transitioning their processes. As Gilbert tod me, data has little value unless it's part of a process, and I would add that when this data is managed electronically it can be much more versatile, it can be used in a much nimbler way than if residing on a piece of paper. As he said: "We want to keep the people on the [digital] highway; not accomodating off-ramps to other mediums."

Posted by Phil Muncaster | January 19, 2009 | Permalink  | Comments (0)  

After the publicity avalanche of data breaches in 2008, you could be forgiven for thinking that public and private sector organisations have already begun to take data protection more seriously. Unfortunately, new research seems to suggest the opposite.

Now, with research-based stories, the canny journalist should always be a little sceptical. Does the surveying organisation in question have an agenda? How representative is the sample size? And what questions were they asked? These are just some of factors that could affect the degree to which we can learn from various studies. But when the source is PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the survey is of over 660 global financial institutions, it's probably worth taking notice of.

The figures, part of PwC's sixth annual Global State of Information Security study, point to a disturbingly lax approach to data security among firms which should know better. Over half said they had "no accurate inventory of where personal data for employees and customers is collected, transmitted or stored".

Given the importance of encryption to a holistic data protection strategy, it was also disappointing to see the figures from this part of the survey. Forty-one per cent said they do not encrypt data stored in databases, 52 percent do not encrypt file shares, 43 percent do not encrypt backup tapes, and 33 percent do not deploy laptop encryption. The latter is especially worrying given the growing likelihood of laptops and other digital devices to go missing from time to time, and the increasingly mobile nature of today's workforce.

But it was the attitude to third party service providers that was probably most disturbing. Fifty-one per cent of respondents said they don't require third party providers to abide by their own privacy policies, while only 45 per cent said they perform due diligence on third party companies which handle the personal data of customers and employees.

Now the risk of data going missing because of mishandling or poor controls by partners and third party suppliers is well-known now; there have been enough high profile incidents to make that clear. What is most worrying is that financial services firms are usually some of the most advanced in terms of their data security policies. Let's hope this picture isn't repeated across the board.

Posted by Phil Muncaster | January 12, 2009 | Permalink  | Comments (0)  

Any subscribers wondering where their first issue of '09 is will have to wait a bit longer I'm afraid. The decision has been made to combine the January and February issues (similar to what we usually do with the July/August edition).

Thanks for your patience with this matter

If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me at daniel.griffin@incisivemedia.com

Posted by dgriffin | January 7, 2009 | Permalink  | Comments (0)