De jonge onderzoeker over waardering en selectie

Het belooft een flink debat te worden op de komende KVAN dagen. Hopelijk gaat het niet alleen over bewaren en vernietigen, maar vooral over waarderen en selecteren. Want weggooien kan altijd nog.

Enige gedachten over het onderwerp heb ik hier opgetekend.

Makes you think about 'organic' archives again

'OrgOrgChart - Autodesk Research' bekijken op YouTube

DLM Forum’s triennial conference 2011: Re‐Using Data : Lascaux 2.0: Retaining meaning & purpose for records in collaborative spaces

13 december

Lascaux 2.0: Retaining meaning & purpose for records in collaborative spaces

‐ Tim Callister, Information Management Consultant, UK National Archives (UK)

Tim Callister invited us to join him in an exploration of collaboration spaces. He employed the perspective of the story teller by bringing us back to the Lascaux cave paintings. Since the dawn of time people want to share information. The trouble is however that it is hard to interpret what people want to share: over space and over time.

Collaborative, dare we say 2.0 technology has provided us new ways to share, but has left us with the same challenge: how do we understand what people share?

In the UK Callister explained there are many applications in which sharing takes place: knowledge management, information exchange, transparancy and data re-use is performed with use of Sharepoint, Huddle, Civil Pages, Linkedin and Yammer. Proper interpretation of the data shared through these applications implies knowledge of original use of data. We need to know about the context.


He touched on a subject which has already been experienced in the Netherlands: the need to capture implicit   metadata. Much of the context is only available implicitly: that means that much of information on the who, the what and the why is stuck in people's heads. This means that digitization also calls for formalization. In order to answer the questions needed to perform preservation and interpretation over time metadata should be explicitly stored with the records.

The solutions remained the same according to Callister. One should have good retention schedules, proper FOI/DPA management, Access management and Knowledge management. If you can’t manage these re-use of data seems impossible.

The UK solution is found in centralization of certain tasks and responsibilities within Directgov.
Directgov as an organisation does two different things. It  provides access to online transactional services and it publishes government  information for citizens in one place.

• Directgov 2010 and Beyond: Revolution Not Evolution - Letter from Martha Lane Fox to Francis Maude
• Francis Maude's reply to Martha Lane Fox's letter
• Directgov Strategic Review - Executive Summary

The National Archives (TNA) then provides services for the management of information. It also participates in government ICT strategy. Through these channels standardization and linkage of information is promoted and executed. Furthermore TNA manages the Government Web Archive and in the Secure Web Archiving Project researcher look at archiving intranet en web-based platforms.

Initiatives well worth keeping track of.

His presentation is also found online.

DLM Forum’s triennial conference 2011: Keynote: Preserving Communications for the Future / Common Features of Messages for Interoperability and Long Term Preservation

Keynote: Preserving Communications for the Future / Common Features of Messages for Interoperability and Long Term Preservation

Richard Jeffrey‐Cook, Head of Information & Records Management,

In‐Form Consult (UK)

Jeffrey-Cook focused on the challenge of continuity of information. For him this encompassed all forms of communications transactions: from text to social media communication. Not an uncommon perception for archivists. The challenge can be beaten by finding common ground between communications. Jeffrey-Cook argues that Moreq2010 provides such common ground.


The world of communication and technology changes at an ever increasing speed. The use, purpose and impact   of communication changes as well as do the instruments we use for communication. A case also made by Angelika Menne-Haritz.

All these instruments use different technology, have different functionality, employ different standards, but all potentially produce records.

Jeffrey-Cook points out that we need to search for common characteristics between all these forms of communication and identify which characteristics are important for interpreting and preserving records. In a many ways this confirms the ideas formulated in the Interpares projects. He also stressed the importance of maintaining the threads between communications. Proper interpretation is derived from the relationships between communications.

The biggest challenge will come from communications where little is standardized. The interaction by social media has little or no standardization. The maintenance of threads will be all important. We will also face problems when dealing with communications with interaction which are not intended to produce records. I think the first case study has already arrived.

Jeffrey-Cook concluded with the following remarks:

• Distinguish  the message and it’s metadata from the technology
• Identify the characteristics common to all communications
• Separate the client application - the user interface into an extension module

His presentation can be found here.

DLM Forum’s triennial conference 2011: Interoperability – Applied interoperability: Experiences with reusing records management metadata

Applied interoperability: Experiences with reusing records management
metadata
Kuldar Aas, Deputy Chief, Digital Preservation Department, National Archives
of Estonia (Estonia)

Since the National Archives of Estonia also use the Tessella Safety Deposit Box I am always eager to learn from their experience, challenges and solutions.

I had the honor to give a presentation last November at the Estonian Digital Deposit Event in Tallinn, so was already a bit acquainted with the Estonian approach.

Kuldar Aas started by stating that (manual) pre-ingest and ingest procedures are not sustainable when dealing with digital records. Human intervention can’t cope with the data volume. This means that processes need to be automated and that we should reuse records management metadata as much as possible for archival purposes.

Aas offered a two folded solution: 1) focus on the originating ERMS: define strict protocols for transfer and ingest, Submission Information Package (SIP) standards and quality requirements, 2) choose a centralized solution.

The centralized solutions entails tooling for record creators during the pre-ingest and transfer process: the Universal Archiving Module 

Taken from the presentation by Kuldar Aas

A similar debate is present at the National Archives of the Netherlands: what should we automate and how do we go about doing this? Similar to the National Archives of Estonia tools have been developed to aid both archivist and records creator in creating SIP for ingest in the e-Depot and the de facto SIP standard MeDusA is propagated, but there are many issues that cannot be solved by this.

Aas recognizes this by stating that most work will have to be done at the moment of creation. In his conclusions he stated that quality of descriptions cannot be achieved if it is not already available in records management. He also stated that it might be wiser to  not demand to replace the current records management metadata but add something to it instead. Again a similar position.

There were also some practical conclusions:

• start small: mandatory metadata set in UAM is currently rather limited
• many agencies and ERMS vendors do not like the idea of prescriptive metadata schemas

Furthermore we should look ahead and at new ideas. The European Interoperability Framework provides new opportunities to develop solutions. Also there is a real need for clever semantic mapping engines, since by and large, semantic operability remains the larger issue in records and archival management. As was proven by the CRKM Metadata Broker (Clever Recordkeeping Metadataproject).

Aas expressed the hope MoReq2010 extensions could explore this venue of semantic interoperability.

DLM Forum’s triennial conference 2011: Interoperability – Metadata for interoperability: practical issues and advice Marc Fresko, Director, Inforesight (UK)

Metadata for interoperability: practical issues and advice

Marc Fresko, Director, Inforesight (UK)

Marc Fresko treated the audience with a view on metadata: why there are of use and which ones you need.

He also compared the different standards and guidelines on metadata and concluded that they couldn’t be mixed. He even doubted the value of some standards.

I tended to disagree on most of his comparisons, but he did have some valuable remarks on practical issues surrounding metadata:

• Before you can develop your metadata elements, you need to understand the entities you want to describe;
• start with an entity model
• be prepared to let it evolve

• One also needs
• controlled vocabularies
• governance regime

• The metadata for one organization should
• relate closely to specific software
• resist the temptation to develop a metadata model without specific software in mind

• Use a tabular representation
• express the schema in XML
• use software to relate the tables to the XML

• Only include metadata you truly need
• don’t include metadata just because you can
• do include metadata that helps you manage

All very good and very practical points. 

What I really disagreed on however was the notion that all engineering should be done by the records managers. Nowhere the business owners or content owners were mentioned. I tend to think that metadata is not only about records management, but also and very much so on use.

In any event: it was a session that made me think. 

DLM Forum’s triennial conference 2011: Interoperability – Promoting good governance through records management

Promoting good governance through records management

Mikko Eräkaski, Project Manager & Armi Helenius, Senior Research Officer,
National Archives of Finland (Finland)

Mikko Eräkaski and Armi Helenius gave an excellent insight in the Finnish approach towards records management and interoperability.

In Finland there is legislation in place that forces public bodies to consider interoperability. This legal statute states that:

• Public sector bodies must each plan and specify their own Enterprise Architecture.
• Business systems must meet interoperability requirements.
• Public sector bodies are obliged to use common services and information systems.

To support the act the National Archives have been working on the concept of the Lifecycle Management Plan (LCMP). LCMP’s define management requirements for the whole life-cycle of all records created or received in all business processes of an organization and the metadata required by SÄHKE2 (=national requirements for records management systems and processes).

The most interesting aspect of the LCMP approach in my opinion is the use of functional classification schemas as linking elements between the LCMP’s and business systems. Function class is a mandatory element in SÃKE2 and can be compared with the PIVOT approach in the Netherlands.

Taken from the presentation found on the DLM website 

The benefits of this approach is that if you are able to implement such schemes less effort needs to be put in cataloging and describing records: you could even gain real time information on transactions. The downside however is that it takes enormous efforts to manage such schemas. And thus issues on scalability and flexibility arise as well.

More on the LCMP and SÃKE2.

DLM Forum’s triennial conference 2011: Interoperability - EAD and METS: a coherent set of metadata for digital data preservation

EAD and METS: a coherent set of metadata for digital data preservation
Lardinois Yves, Analyst, Archives Générales du Royaume (Belgium)



The session of Lardinois Yves was rather disappointing to me since it did not touch on something new or exciting. It was however a good introduction on both the EAD and METS standard.

He explained why metadata should be applied when dealing with digital records and that in his opinion there is no prevailing practical metadata standard that covers both  technical and archival needs.

By using EAD and METS as complementary sets a full metadata format is available. EAD providing metadata for archival management of structure, relations and description and METS providing for the necessary technical metadata.

With this combination one could tackle the three dimensions of interoperability:

• temporal: interpretation of information over time for instance by using standardized description methods
• software: reuse of data between applications
• data: reuse of content by for instance using unique identifiers

More information on the mentioned sets of metadata for digital data preservation:

• METS and PREMIS
• EAD

And of course our very own set (not a standard): MeDuSa (NL)

DLM Forum’s triennial conference 2011: day 2 - Making Intelligent Information Control a Reality in Europe

13 December 2011
Making Intelligent Information Control a Reality in Europe
Rory Staunton, Managing Director, Strategy Partners (UK)

Rory Staunton did not waste time on niceties, but bluntly announced that the time had come for traditional archivists. Old records management seemed outdated to him. We now live in a time of coincidence. A coincidence of forces such as recession, new technology (at new prices) and increasing compliance.

Traditional records management seemed to fight these forces, but according to Staunton, we should be clever and use these forces. Secret records management: providing records management without people noticing you are doing it. A stark contrast to the popular image that we should bring records management to the (end)users.

Staunton set about how to use these forces.

Why does one need intelligent control? A question every archivist should be able to answer in my opinion. But Staunton provided us with some answers drawn from his own experience. Intelligent information control is needed because of the ever increasing and en enduring scrutiny we need to work under. Transparency comes at a price. Next to scrutiny there is operational safety for which we need intelligent control. Humans are humans and we make mistakes. Human disfunctioning needs technical checks: it needs intelligent information control. But despite our own shortcomings, people distrust technical solutions. One will trust the paper files stored in the cabinet behind them (it’s there isn’t it?), but will distrust digital files. Adding insult to injury: digital information management in some minds leads to too much transparency. We can record everything.

So a paradox seems to emerge: the compliance industry is growing, but the number of implemented records management systems is not. One feels to lose control over content. But in any event archives are still expected to serve compliance needs, but see little resources allocated to them to actually fore fill these needs.

But according to Staunton successful compliance is not so much about technic as it is cultural. One has to change the organization and the prevailing culture: fighting the three way chasm: records management altruism, IT departments are de facto run by IT vendors, Business is run by stockholders.

Records management is done more for the benefit of others (you can certainly find your own records), so records management is hardly done at all. MoReq2010 is considered a game changer by Staunton and Strategy Partners for business managers, consumers and government. ­MoReq2010 does not ‘fit’ in IT, because it does not consider IT as an strategy, but as a list of technologies. It’s about information compliance and as such is driven by business. Business considers costs and substitution of technology is costly. MoReq2010 supplies interoperability which renders substitution less costly. Combining cost reduction with records management MoReq2010 uses a horizontal instead of vertical approach to records management. So I think what Staunton says is that MoReq2010 frees records management of pure altruism.

IT departments are part of the problem since due to outsourcing they are de facto run by IT vendors. IT vendors by definition propagate technology solutions instead of human or customer solutions: the service level agreements you agree on do not concern control. You are very much not in control, since instead of service delivery they are about service performance. But this goes beyond new SLA´s. It´s about thinking about new organizational formats where legacy thinking is ousted and duty of care is welcomed: it should be about delivery of results.

By using financial arguments one can push MoReq2010 and records management. Under a recession stockholders and business owners are eager for financial opportunities. The theme of substitution should not be about technology choices. It’s a lifestyle choice. Substitution should have a Return On Investment (ROI): MoReq2010 can be used to gain compliance and enables a ROI when substituting technology. MoReq2010 saves money.

Recession and stockholders are never a good combination, but for records managers there are opportunities.

More information on Strategy Partners and Moreq2010.

DLM Forum’s triennial conference 2011: day 1 - Moreq2010

12 December 2011

Apples and oranges: An in‐depth comparison of MoReq2010 to other

international records management standards

Jon Garde, Author of MoReq2010 & Director of Journal IT (UK) 

Although some might frown upon the fact that conference attendees received a paper version of the MoReq2010 standard, Jon Garde revealed that this edition was in fact the 1.1 version of the standard. A version nowhere to be found online. Not even on the MoReq website.

Firstly he touched on some specific tools that accompanied the new standard:

• The MoReq2010 export XML schema that describes how entities are exported, in what order, and the structure of the resulting XML data
• The MoReq2010 Test Framework for Accreditation, Certification & Testing 

This however would not be the end. In the (near) future extension modules and translations would be developed.

After these announcements he set out to compare the MoReq2010 standard to other records management standards. This comparison should eventually lead to a contrast document.

Important differences according to John Garde are:

• Requirements
• Coverage: incomplete coverage of the standard is diverted by allowing extensions
• Cardinality: level of specification per requirement.
• Process: MoReq2010 relates to parts of the records management process, thus recognizing that some work is already done.
• Vocabulary & concepts: be using a extended glossary the MoReq2010 can be made interoperable. By contrast ISO standards such as 23081 and 15489 are not interchangeable on this point.

Garde then made a distinction between so called ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ standards. Hard standards are standards that have a testing regime and which are interoperable via technical and semantic requirements: if you do not follow the rules exactly (comply), then it does not work. MoReq2010 is such a standard. Soft standards do not have a testing regime and compliancy is a value.

I do not know about the hardness of MoReq2010 and am tempted to say that I foremost would like to see that some (instead of no) rules are applied. We’ll work from there.

His presentation can be downloaded from the DLM website.

DLM Forum’s triennial conference 2011: day 1

12 December 2011

Setting the Scene: DLM Forum 2011 in Context

•  Professor Julie McLeod, Head of Research, Northumbria University and DLM

Julie McLeod described the context of this DLM Conference by presenting the audience various views on the meaning of intelligent information control. It being the subtitle of the DLM Forum Conference on Interoperability & MoReq2010.

She did so by asking within the  Northumbria University what meaning intelligent information control should mean. Replies were plentiful and colourful: control, by some respondent, should actually mean access, thus touching on the delicate issue of privacy when talking about  interoperability. By another intelligent information control should be about providing for individual needs: information when I want and however I want. Someone else felt that it is about efficiency and cost reduction, while a different party thought it was a meaningless set of words. Intelligent information control could thus be considered meaningless, but at the same time be defined as an utopian concept. This definitely set the scene for the conference.

After her introduction McLeod talked about two UK initiatives that involved intelligent information control. First the NHS attempt to build a top down cooperation portal was described. This initiative which in many ways seems to be similar to the Dutch Electronic Patient Dossier however was deemed to be too complex and is now being dismantled into modular components. Sounded familiar as well.

Secondly she discussed the JISC digital infrastructure for higher education aimed to share information between researchers. Here again I found that similar projects could be found in the Netherlands such as DANS and the NCDD.

As it turns out projects that aim to achieve interoperability are only so within a certain context. I guess this is only natural, but widespread implementation of the concepts of MoReq2010 could change this or at least facilitate such a transnational interoperability.


Her presentation can be downloaded from the DLM website.

DLM Forum’s triennial conference 2011

Via this blog I would like to share my experiences during the DLM Forum’s triennial conference 2011 in Brussels.

Depending on my notes the posts will be longer or shorter, business like or informal. I just hope that anybody who reads this gets some valuable information out of it. In any event: it's my first entry in English and an easy and fun way to write a report on the DLM Conference.

If you are just interested in the presentations I very much recommend the DLM Forum website.

First of we start with the keynotes that fired off the conference.

12 December 2011

Keynote 1: DIGIT

·        Francisco García Morán, Director General of the European Commission’s Informatics Directorate‐General (DG DIGIT)

The mission of DIGIT is to enable the Commission to make effective and efficient use of Information and Communication Technologies in order to achieve its organisational and political objectives… According to the website. 

García Morán looked at the future of Europe and identified that ICT has a potential for growth. By using ICT smart growth is possible. He saw some barriers:

•  interoperability
• trust in digital services
• fragmented digital markets
• insufficient R&D
• the slow implementation of e-government

DIGIT therefore aims to adopt an European interoperability strategy and framework. Implementation of this framework encompasses notions such as semantic interoperability, cataloguing of services, architecture and legislation.

DIGIT is working on an ERMS under the name of eDomec and Hermes Ares Nomcom.


The presentation can be downloaded from the DLM website.

Keynote 2: FEDICT

·         Jan Deprest, Chairman, Federal Agency for ICT Belgium (FEDICT)

FEDICT aims to achieve semantic interoperability and technical interoperability within the Belgium federation.

It develops and implements standards to achieve this goal.

·      

Foto's van een ver land

Mozambique Publiek, a set on Flickr.

Mozambique, het lijkt al weer jaren geleden...

Shoot me

Plaatjes schieten, dat moet natuurlijk. Wie gelooft je anders? Hierbij een voorproefje. Ze geloofde er niets van ;)

Nie-Blankes

Voor mij was Johannesburg vooral indrukwekkend vanwege het hoge misdaadcijfer dat de stad altijd kreeg. Nu ik een paar dagen heb mogen rondlopen, ben ik vooral onder de indruk van de weerbaarheid en positiviteit van de stad.

Een aanrader is het Apartheidsmuseum dat je vanaf de ingang kennis laat maken met het systeem van segregatie. Het is een wonder dat het land zo goed uit Apartheid is gekomen.

Alles is relatief natuurlijk. Een dag eerder zijn we op de fiets (en met begeleiding van locals) door delen van Soweto gegaan. Dan zie dat de omwenteling voor veel mensen alleen op papier heeft plaatsgevonden. Veel huizen hebben nog tijd geen stromend water en het riool is nog van het type 'open'. Het oude huis van Mandela is inmiddels een museum.

Het andere uiterste vind je op de daken in de binnenstad. Stinkend rijk en hip (nou, ja: goed verzorgd) Johannesburg flaneert dan op een van de zondagsmarkten. Je bent dan mijlenver van De township.

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BVN

Tijd voor luxe. Na de ongerepte natuur van Mozambique en de bijbehorende sanitaire voorzieningen was Johannesburg precies wat we nodig hebben. Na dit weekend moet ik toegeven dat ik wat bevooroordeeld ben geweest ten opzichte van de stad. Het was een vakantie in een vakantie.

De wijk Melville ter hoogte van 7th street was onze uitvalsbasis. The Melville Turret Guesthouse: een klein paradijs. Werkende douche, een toilet mèt wcbril en om de hoek een trits restaurants en barretjes zonder gefrituurd eten. Ik kan er niet omheen: we zijn stadsmensen.

We waren ook hopeloos 'out of place'. De drie kernwaarden van Johannesburg, 'jong', 'hip' en 'fris', zijn na drie weken met een rugzak tillen niet meer van toepassing. Maar als je de dertig gepasseerd bent, zal je dat worst wezen. Zeker wanneer je een stevig stuk Springbok wordt voorgezet en je voldaan bij terugkomst in je kamer ontdekt dat je precies op tijd bent voor de samenvattingen van de Eredivisie op BVN. Het einde van de vakantie nadert, op aangename wijze.

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Snor

Pas op wereld. Na een kleine maand is het dan eindelijk gelukt: ik heb een snor.

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I love it when a plan comes together

Naast het concept 'Afrikaanse tijd' (een enigszins losse houding ten opzichte van de tijdsbeleving) is de meest waardevolle les tot nu toe: 'you need to make a plan.'

Veel gaat zoals het gaat in Mozambique. Daar moet je ook niet moeilijk over doen. Ik deed dat de eerste dagen wel, maar daar is het veel te heet voor. Bovendien levert het niet zoveel op: wat is een uurtje meer of minder?

Het is slimmer om op de tijden dat je verlangt naar zaken zoals spoorboekjes, regels en een memorie van toelichting een plan te maken. Een plan met de mensen om je heen, het beschikbare materiaal en zo nodig de ruilmiddelen die je hebt (van pennen tot schoenen en slippers).

Met een plan kom je ver, onderhandel je over dieselprijzen, zit je in een tuktuk of achter op een pickup en fungeert jouw backpack als iemands tijdelijke bed. En natuurlijk let jij dan even op de kinderen.


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Vasco da Gama

Een knappe 500 jaar geleden zette Vasco da Gama voet op wat nu heet Ilha de Mozambique. Ik weet niet wat hij er van vond, maar het is hier prachtig. Ook hier lijkt het alsof men 300 jaar geleden dacht: het is wel prima zo.

Ik heb begrepen dat de meeste stenen gebouwen hier al sinds de 18e eeuw staan (het gros van de oorspronkelijke bebouwing, origineel en Portugees is door de Nederlanders in de 17e afgebrand) en je waant je dus in andere tijden.

Het is hier heerlijk rustig en er is nog weinig tourisme. Blijkbaar ook weinig tot geen Chinezen, want de plaatselijke jeugd kon er niet over uit dat er een kwart Chinees op hun eiland zat. Ik ben inmiddels een kleine beroemdheid, want overal wordt ik nu nagewezen terwijl men fluistert dan wel schreeuwt: 'ti's een Chinees!'


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Nunca

Nampula-Ilha de Mozambique was weer origineel met de chapa. Aanvankelijk zag het er slecht uit want de motor wilde maar niet aan slaan. Een hamer bracht gelukkig uitkomst. Er is altijd een oplossing.

Het eiland is verbonden met het vasteland via een brug. Een brug smaller dan de bus waar wij in zaten. Gelukkig stond er een pick-up klaar, waar gek genoeg heel de bus op bleek te kunnen. Inclusief bagage.

Het gestapel leidde op het eiland, toen twee gezette dames op bestemming waren aangekomen, tot een kleine ruzie, waarbij ik getergd: 'Mira nunca' begon te schreeuwen. Het maakte weinig indruk. Zelfs mijn snor (miracleus verschenen na drie weken zorgvuldig niet scheren) hielp niet. Ze bleven er van overtuigd dat ik een zak rijst had verstopt onder mijn tas. Het was dat ik net een sms over de 1-0 van Matavs had ontvangen...

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