ECM Briefs

Open Text hosted its annual Canadian Public Sector Days in Gatineau, Quebec September 16-17, 2008, and were pleased to host 600 registrants from not only the Canadian Federal government, but provinces, cities and regional governments as well. University of Waterloo Dean of Arts - Dr. Ken Coates - provided an inspirational and thought-provoking keynote on Tuesday morning, challenging public sector professionals to take up the task to help propel Canada into a leadership position internationally by accelerating our Digital Depth and becoming and information-rich nation.

One of the sessions I delivered has been an area of interest and research for the last year - Information Governance. Inspired by some of the research from www.gartner.com over the last two years, Information Governance challenges information management professionals to think beyond compliance and retention pressures when considering an information management strategy. According to researchers Debra Logan, Toby Bell and Ted Friedman, Information Governance is a "strategic business discipline that better controls data via valuation, policies and process". It "requires cross-disciplinary business and IT strategy ... that better relate people, policies, processes and technology to the information needs of business leadership." (1)

We know that there are emerging challenges to public sector: demographic shifts due to the retirement wave that is pending, the disruptions to content and processes when reorganizations, mergers/spinoffs or elections occur, the rise of the 2.0 culture and the cultural and technology changes it implies, as well as the constant need for vigilance to ensure business continuity and emergency preparedness to ensure delivery of citizen services during periods of crisis. These challenges can only be adequately addressed by creating strategic perspectives and objectives with respect to the management of government information. Striking the right balance between security and open disclosure, aligning retention and storage practices with the value and importance of content types, ensuring meaningful categorization, metadata assignment and access controls on information throughout all key stages of its creation or capture, revision and review, publication and consumption and final storage and disposition.

Canadians can be proud that our federal government is internationally recognized as a leader in defining Information Governance strategies. The most recent articulation of the "Management of Government Information" mandate by the Treasury Board is clear: government must "...achieve efficient and effective information management to support program and service delivery; foster informed decision making; facilitate accountability; transparency and collaboration; and preserve and ensure access to information and records for the benefit of present and future generations".

Open Text is pleased to be a partner with government to help build an Enterprise Content Management framework as part of a strategic approach to information governance. We are committed to providing ongoing education and communication with its Canadian public sector customer base.

(1) Gartner, Inc "Key Issues for Establishing Information Governance Policies, Processes and Organization", February 2008, Toby Bell, Debra Logan, Ted Friedman

If I were asked to define government work, by tradition, I would say that it has been viewed as being a highly-structured, monolithic, top-down approach environment. But I see this view changing as more and more government agencies begin to introduce new ways to collaborate with its citizens.

The use of Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis and social networking is beginning to fundamentally transform business models and change the way organizations think about collaborative relationships. These tools can deliver to the public sector tremendous opportunities to make-over service delivery, make smarter policies, flatten silos and reinvigorate government. They can also help in streamlining internal operations, increasing effectiveness of government information, and attracting the next generation Y'ers that are tech savvy by enabling them to stay in tune with the needs of the next generation.

I think most of us would agree that sound policy making in our government is best when it is done as a collective -- by public policy makers (government) and the public it serves (citizens and stakeholders). It is our hope that with the use of open 2.0 style tools, the development of Government 2.0 will mean that knowledge will no longer flow from institution to the population, but will be co-created with citizens. Government of the people, by the people, for the people...who knew that the World Wide Web would brings us one small step closer to the vision Lincoln outlined so many years ago.

I look forward to exploring and discussing this topic more at the upcoming Canadian Public Sector Days this week. To learn more about the basics of Web 2.0 join me at my breakout session entitled: What the Canadian Public Sector Needs to Know About Web 2.0.

Open Text is proudly supporting the 25th Anniversary conference of the RMAA (Records Management Association of Australasia) here in Sydney this week. With delegates from all over Australia, New Zealand and Asia, as well as sponsors and speakers from Canada, U.S. and Europe, Day 1 proved to be jam-packed with sessions addressing all aspects of electronic and physical records management practices and trends. Presenters did a great job relating their topics and research to the conference theme of "Adopting and Adapting" - a theme reflects well on the changing nature of the records management profession and its need to keep pace with the increasingly electronic work environment in this era of compliance pressures.

The keynote address, by Julie McLeod, Professor of Records Management at Northumbria University in the UK, highlighted some key research areas she and her task force have been looking at this year. Adoption rates of the ISO 15489 Records Management standard in the UK, a review of four key Information and Records Management readiness toolkits, and a survey of the adoption issues records professional face when instituting new programs were the three key areas of discussion. More by Professor McLeod's team here in their research blog: http://acerm.blogspot.com. They are actively looking for survey participants.

The topic of what Records Managers need to know about Web 2.0 and Social Media is clearly the hot topic of the day. My own session as well as a similarly-themed session by KM guru Kim Sbarcea, were both standing room only. An estimated 100 people in each of the sessions heard more about the changing face of the enterprise and where to start thinking about adopting and adapting to new content creation, collaboration and social software tools that are entering the enterprise and helping to harness the collective wisdom of information workers.

The key takeaways? Embrace your peer-to-peer communities, use 2.0 tools to create your voice as an expert, and take the rewards while keeping an eye on the risks of freeing up channels of communication and information exchange.

Earlier this year, Open Text became the first supplier to achieve full compliance with the demanding VERS (Victorian Electronic Records Strategy) records management standards and have just been awarded panel contract status by the New South Wales Government to provide Information Asset Management System (IAMS) to government departments and agencies throughout the state.

If you are at the conference, please be sure to visit Open Text's booth. Sign up to test your talents in our Guitar Hero competition, learn more about our new offerings and have some fun networking with your peers.