Forget about e-records mgmt - we need automated RM
Many had that dream already.
There is an interesting article in the Records Mgmt Journal (Nr.2/August 2009) from Steve Bailey.
The idea is to exploit the experience and methods of big providers like Google or Amazon who
have analyzed their customer data and profiles in order to automatically process information
based on its characteristics and use.
"... Imagine if instead of “customers who bought this item also bought” that it said “users who
viewed/edited this information also viewed/edited these sources of information”. What
then starts to emerge is a picture of information in its true organisational context.
Hitherto unknown patterns of behaviour come to light based not on how we think
people might work but on how they actually work. This is not the clear cut world of
process-review workshops and simple UML diagrams which bear little resemblance to
reality. This is the real world where processes inter-mingle, users waste time going
down cul-de-sacs and operations are repeated. A far more complex world for sure, but
also a far richer one in terms of the information it provides the records manager with.
For now we can see exactly where a particular document fits into a particular process
(or processes); exactly who uses it and to what information it relates. All a long way
away from the blunt instrument divorced from reality that represents most
classification schemes and file plans. And best of all, it is scalable as Amazon have
already shown us."
Shortcomings in my opinion:
- decentral data must be collected and indexed (federation of all silos without distinguishing between records and non-records)
- The data processing is always based on retrospective activities; prospective actions (e.g. new employees) need intellectual control (at least initially)
- How to manage hybrid envirionments ? paper is not yet dead
- exception handling for special applications
-What about automatic records declaration and capturing ?
- The approach is rather a win for the retrieval side but less for capturing and filing
to be discussed
Jürg
There is an interesting article in the Records Mgmt Journal (Nr.2/August 2009) from Steve Bailey.
The idea is to exploit the experience and methods of big providers like Google or Amazon who
have analyzed their customer data and profiles in order to automatically process information
based on its characteristics and use.
"... Imagine if instead of “customers who bought this item also bought” that it said “users who
viewed/edited this information also viewed/edited these sources of information”. What
then starts to emerge is a picture of information in its true organisational context.
Hitherto unknown patterns of behaviour come to light based not on how we think
people might work but on how they actually work. This is not the clear cut world of
process-review workshops and simple UML diagrams which bear little resemblance to
reality. This is the real world where processes inter-mingle, users waste time going
down cul-de-sacs and operations are repeated. A far more complex world for sure, but
also a far richer one in terms of the information it provides the records manager with.
For now we can see exactly where a particular document fits into a particular process
(or processes); exactly who uses it and to what information it relates. All a long way
away from the blunt instrument divorced from reality that represents most
classification schemes and file plans. And best of all, it is scalable as Amazon have
already shown us."
Shortcomings in my opinion:
- decentral data must be collected and indexed (federation of all silos without distinguishing between records and non-records)
- The data processing is always based on retrospective activities; prospective actions (e.g. new employees) need intellectual control (at least initially)
- How to manage hybrid envirionments ? paper is not yet dead
- exception handling for special applications
-What about automatic records declaration and capturing ?
- The approach is rather a win for the retrieval side but less for capturing and filing
to be discussed
Jürg
jhagmann - 11. Aug, 07:59
