2.1 Reading

Technology and recordkeeping

This treatment of technology and recordkeeping positions us for a consideration of technology as an issue which has always been fundamental to recordkeeping. The processes of recordkeeping have always borne a fundamental relationship to the capability of available technologies. For example, the manufacture of records on clay tablets bore an integral relationship to the technologies of writing, language and the media available to record it. The great storerooms of the ancient worlds were designed to protect the media on which the records were created and to enable easy accessibility to the materials stored for retrieval. These purposes are little different from our own concerns as contemporary recordkeepers. As technology changes, the reasons we do things do not change. The way we do them changes in relation to the technologies available.

One of many factors for change at present being experienced by recordkeepers in all environments is the re-emerging understanding that technology is a tool for use. The paper world appeared to be stable. In the long period of stability induced by paper based technologies, the means of production of the paper record changed from pen and ink to word processors, but the product remained unchanged: paper records. Does technology affect the Yet did the technology remain unchanged? How does technological uptake occur?

2.2 Activity 1 Part 1: Web Browsing: The Dead Media Project

This activity is about looking at technology and its obsolescence. It aims to provide a sense of what 'dead' or obsolete technology is, and to position our concerns about technology in a much larger time frame.

Dead Media Project:

Access the Dead Media master list and browse through the technologies listed there.

Pick one or two of the Dead Media Working Notes which appeal to you to browse through.

As you browse, reflect upon:

2.3 Activity 1 Part 2: Worksheet: Technology and its characteristics

Print the  

This activity asks you to read an introduction which defines the terms synchronicity, fixity, durability and multiplicity. You are then asked to jot down a few dot points on the worksheet, according to the characteristics of technology listed at the top of the table.

Label your worksheet with your name, your Group and your Group Leader's name

Fax to (03) 9905 2952

Due Date: by Friday 11^th September

 2.4 Email Discussion Part 1: media and technology

Using the readings, your understandings of technology, the results of your browsing and the media activity, consider the following questions:

 Email your Group Discussion List with a comment on these issues.

Due Date: by Friday 11^th September

 The reading in section 1.1 above takes us to the edge of the impact of computer technologies on recordkeeping. It leaves its evolutionary trek through recordkeeping technologies at the verge of the impact of computers on our professional practices as recordkeepers. With the emergence of digital records, a fundamental shift in the nature of the product has occurred. We need to re-think and re-tool ourselves to meet the challenges that this presents us with as a profession.

It is a comforting thought to realise that this same process of re-thinking and re-tooling is occurring within every profession and aspect of society as we all collectively face a huge technological change, the shape and outcome of which is not yet clear to us.

There is little doubt that the computer is radically altering our society and the organisations which constitute our society. The big picture is difficult to see when we ourselves, as individual members of a dynamic society, are caught up in the major changes that are going on.

Before we explore the realities of information technology and systems within organisations, we need to refresh ourselves about the differences between information systems and systems that keep records.

Almost without exception, the information systems in place in organisations are not designed to make or keep records. As David Bearman states, information systems are:

Whereas records systems are:

 As well as being mindful of the distinctions between information systems and records systems, it is vital to understand that records systems are also information systems. They provide particular types of information (records) to organisations who may use them as the basis for further work, for further manipulation and for further processing. What is essential is that the record in the record system remains inviolable and is always retrievable with its associated content, context and structure elements unchanged. Moved out of the records system, the information contained in the record becomes a resource for future use and value-adding by the organisation.

3. The state of technological uptake in organisations

 3.1 Reading

An introduction to the current environment of information systems and technologies.

The reality of information technology in organisations is a hotch potch. Systems have been developed using different methodologies, different languages and different software packages. While software patches and fixes may have been applied and nifty interfaces written between systems which give the illusion of coherence, it is a rare organisation that has its applications in a uniform set of conventions and software.

The emergence of shared systems initiatives which contract particular groups of software for specific common functions across government attempts to address some of these incompatability issues. The impetus for such programs is ostensibly to create better capacity to rationalise spending on software across the government. Some of the spin offs are:

3.2 Activity: Case Studies

Read the 4 Case Studies presented to you. These are descriptions of actual workplaces developed by recordkeeping professionals working within the organisations nominated.

Consider the Commonwealth Government's Industry Policy of late 1997, which commits the government to the delivery of all Commonwealth services electronically via the internet by 2001 and the establishment of electronic commerce as a normal means for Commonwealth payments by the year 2000.

(Investing for Growth, http://www.dist.gov.au/growth/html/infoage.html)

Email your Discussion Group with comments on at least two of these discussion points.

Due Date: by Friday 11^th September

 4. Technology Infrastructure Frameworks

In addressing the issues associated with transforming Australia into a nation capable of holding its own in the emerging information age, there are huge infrastructure issues which need to be established. The Australian Government has not been alone in addressing these issues. A plethora of related government reports exist from every country. Often they reference each other, as each country is aware that the emerging information age enables business and communication across national boundaries. Frameworks introduced into one nation must be compatible with the frameworks of other nations.

 The evolution of the Australian Government's thinking and action on issues of technology infrastructure are available through the web.

 4.1 Reading

Department of Communications and the Arts, 'Summary of Recent Documents Relevant to Online Services'. Prepared for the Information Policy Advisory Council, October 1996

http://www.ipac.gov.au/docs/hist_00.htm

Read the summaries of the 15 reports and responses to the reports included on the directory page.

Investing for Growth: The Howard Government's Plan for Australian Industry. Chapter 8, The Information Revolution, 1997

http://www.dist.gov.au/growth/html/infoage.html

Browse the following web sites

Office of Government Information Technology

http://www.ogit.gov.au

National Office of Information Economy

http://www.noie.gov.au

Identify areas which are being currently investigating by these bodies.

 (NB: This is intended to be an orientation to these web sites. You're not expected to master the contents of these extensive sites, but rather to get a feel for the types of material available and the types of issues being investigated. We'll return to these sites in LAR 4001, the Information Continuum).

 4.3 Email Discussion

 Address two of these points in an email to your Group.

Email your response to the Discussion Group.

Due Date: by Friday 11^th September

 Lets take a leap of fantasy from a real case.

 The real case, which forms the basis of this case study, is the political hot water which threatened to engulf Senator Warwick Parer, the Minister for Resources and Energy, in early 1998. Senator Parer was revealed to have a two million dollar shareholding in a coal company through family trust arrangements. This financial involvement in a company and an industry while he is responsible for the policy and frameworks for operations of that industry was the stuff of parliamentary questions. Additionally it appeared that this shareholding rendered him in breach of the Prime Minister's Code on Ministerial Conflict of Interest. It appears that the Secretary of the Deparment of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Max Moore-Wilton had approved the Minister's statement of personal affairs and financial arrangements.

 Lets break with reality here and assume that

 This causes a media feeding frenzy with analysts of all persuasions critiquing the information systems of the Department, with commentators questioning the validity of the information infrastructure supporting electronic business, integrity and accountability of senior public servants, and accusing the participants in the events of willfully manipulating public fears on the trustworthiness of electronic transactions.

 From your reading and browsing above, put your media commentator's hat on and construct a 10 dot point outline of issues which could be raised in relation to the case.

Due Date: by Monday 14th September

 This reading is not required.

 David Bearman, 'Recordkeeping Systems' Electronic Evidence, Archives and Museum Informatics, Pittsburgh, 1994 pp34-70

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