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| Newsletter | 20020925 |
| Sprache | deutsch |
| Version | 1.0 |
| Veröffentlicht von | NEWSLETTER\administrator |
| Veröffentlichungsdatum | 02.05.2007 09:12:36 |
| · | Kilometers of paper documents The huge amount of paper documents alone, in some archives reaching kilometres of shelves, millions of documents and billions of pages, creates a barrier for digitisation. | |
| · | Fragile, fading consistence Especially in historic archives the consistence of paper, not only from historical periods but as well the late modern paper, demands for urgent initiatives for preserving the records physically. | |
| · | Capture Both, the huge amounts of documents and their fading consistence create problems for digital capture with cameras or scanners. Providing documents electronically can be part of a strategy to enable access without endangering the fragile original documents. | |
| · | Ordering systems and indexing Indexing is the access key to documents. The depth and structure defines if a document can be easily retrieved or not. Different needs from archive specialists and future non-specialist users create difficulties in organizing electronic archives. | |
| · | Quality Capturing paper documents electronically, especially using high resolution and colour, create huge volumes of storage. Selecting appropriate formats for long-term archival and preservation is a challenge in the rapidly changing information technology market. | |
| · | Access Providing access to specialists on-site in a local archive system environment is the easy part. Allowing access to other archivists at other locations, to third parties and to the citizen is both a challenge for user rights administration and high performance delivery of requested information. | |
| · | Funds Politicians proclaimed open access to public archives. The necessary funds for installing and running systems, capturing and indexing the information, and managing the content are mostly not sufficient. Claim and reality may differ extremely. | |
| · | Awareness about the value of information One of the largest tasks is to communicate the value of the content stored in archives. If the stored information is not used and the value is not recognized, the work of transferring all archives into electronically accessible records management solutions is not worth the effort. |
| · | Exponentially growing volumes of digital information The increase of digital information can be no longer measured. Industry analysts assume that per year today more information is created than in all the years since Gutenbergs invention. Software makes it easy to edit, copy, alter, store, distribute and print information. So not only the digital flood flows higher but as well the output of paper swells. | |
| · | Digital “only” information with no physical representation There is an increasing amount of electronic information generated which is no longer designed to have a physical representation in paper. XML documents with separated content, structure and layout elements, which are generated dynamically when viewing them; digital video, multi-dimensional construction and simulation objects, electronically signed documents where the electronic signature can be only approved in a software system. The list of these electronic objects grows and creates problems for long-term availability in changing software and hardware infrastructures. | |
| · | The “information gap” We already face today a widening information gap. Once existing information is no longer available. From simple websites disappearing from the internet to valuable information of space expeditions on no longer readable tapes, the spectrum and the value of lost information cannot even be estimated. We have to start immediately with the creation of electronic archives for the preservation of the earlier periods of the of the information age. | |
| · | The “information divide” On the other hand we recognize a growing divide in those who can easily access any needed information and those who strive for pure survival without any connection to the virtual information world. We face today simultaneously an “information overflow” and an “information divide”. Both create risks for the information society. | |
| · | Information redundancy One of the big problems of the digital flood is that most of the information are copies, slightly altered documents, and reformatted content. The new tasks for information and records managers include to discover, what was the original document, what was its context, and to select information, which may be valuable for future generations. Storing everything without selection and detention cannot be the strategy. | |
| · | Commercialisation In the early days of information technology digital information was private and only accessible in closed communities like company or administrations. The age of free information on the web is getting to an end. Valuable information has to be paid. Digital rights management, privacy, media asset management and other E-business software requirements add to the technological challenge for public archives. How to protect open public information from commercial re-use? |
| · | Any format from data to digital video or complex virtual containers An electronic document in the 80ies was an easy to manage object: an ASCII-data file, a scanned black/white image as TIFF. Today a document can be anything in a software system: a video stream, a container combining different files, a file containing references on other files in different systems, complex proprietary digital objects, a.s.o. There is no unique format for every type of information available which could be used for long-term digital preservation, thinking in decades and centuries. | |
| · | Different renditions Information today is provided in different renditions, the same content in different file and object formats. Decisions have to be made, what is the original, and which rendition should be stored. Due to the fact that electronic originals are often created with software with a short-term lifecycle, renditions of stable representation formats may be more suitable for long-term preservation. | |
| · | Separation into content, metadata and structure information Especially in enterprise content, media asset and web content management solutions with the use of HTML and XML we recognize a separation of the content information from context, structure and layout. The same information is used for different purposes and representations. This leads to the challenge, which form of a representation to store and archive if the original software environment is not available. | |
| · | Digital signature and time stamps Todays electronic signature solutions provide both, a solution and a problem. The solution is that the author of a document can be authenticated and that the unchanged content of the document is proven. On the other hand personal electronic signatures “live” only for a certain period and can be only verified in a given software environment. Time stamps, nowadays available as well as certified electronic signature, can be used in addition to personal electronic signatures. By this combination of the authenticity of a document and its originator, together with the certified time when it was generated, a legally valid electronic record can be created. | |
| · | Digital Rights Management Today digital rights management regulations and solutions add to the complexity of archiving electronic documents. They are on one hand a solution to protect copyrights and authorship rights, to trade assets and to prove original content. On the other hand, the management of digital rights of different origin and different technical implementation create challenges for providing open access to electronic archives. |
| · | Political mission The political directive is clear – open public archives to provide transparency. Initiatives on the European level like eEurope 2002 or on the national level like Bund Online 2005 are to provide digital services to the citizen. Most of these initiatives focus on E-government. To allow open access to archives is often only a sub-topic. | |
| · | Democratic user access The mission, to allow every citizen access to public archives via electronic means, ignores one important question: is there a demand, a need or an interest of “the” citizen to access information in public archives ? And if yes, to what kind of information ? | |
| · | Professional users and private users In the past archives were administered and used by records and information specialists only. Written demands, personal visits were the way to access information by third parties. In the future archives have to be able to serve different needs. Those of the specialists and historians as well those of journalists, companies and citizens. | |
| · | Rights protection These new user groups lead to the necessity to install systems which allow open access but on the other hand protect information if it is classified, personal rights are involved or time of publication restrictions apply. In the past the archivist or records manager could handle this individually, in the future intelligent software has to have the same ability. | |
| · | Easy use Most of the records and document management software was designed for use by professionals in private or public administrations. User interfaces, navigation, and retrieval functions require deep knowledge about the functionality and organisation of the system. To allow access for the citizen easy-to-use interfaces have to be developed, not only for web access but in the future possibly as well for home television systems, mobile devices, and other technologies. And it makes no sense if every public archive develops its own propriety interface! | |
| · | Availability The success of any open public archive will depend on the availability of information. Nice interfaces and comfortable navigation will lead to nothing, if the content is not prepared in a way that untrained users will find what they are looking for. And to launch an electronic archive with only a few documents already available is a “good way” to make every potential user never use it again. | |
| · | Cultural dimensions When discussing open access to public archives on an European level, we have to take into consideration the different information cultures in the member states. A general approach, which information should be provided by which technologies, seems not to be successful. The use of information technologies, especially in regard to the new applicant states, is very different in Europe. | |
| · | Language barriers Europe is a community of many languages. Language is a barrier in regard to information access. In regard to cross-language access to information, thesauri and automated translation technologies still have to be developed further. The goal to allow access to information independently from the language in which it was generated is still a vision and a major challenge. The European Commission and the European community have to face this challenge and have to provide suitable solutions. | |
| · | Time and budgets Given all these challenges and unsolved problems, all claims and programmes fall short today, both in regard to published time frames as well in regard to provided funds. Funding lots of different initiatives and single projects do not lead forward. |
| · | CLM Content Lifecycle Management ? | |
| · | DLM Document Lifecycle Management ? | |
| · | DM Document Management ? | |
| · | DRT Document Related Technologies ? | |
| · | ECM Enterprise Content Management ? | |
| · | EDM Electronic Document Management ? | |
| · | EIP Enterprise Information Portals ? | |
| · | Electronic Archival ? | |
| · | KM Knowledge Management ? | |
| · | MAM Media Asset Management ? | |
| · | RM Records Management ? | |
| · | xyz next year ? |