Category: War on Records Management

An Open Letter to Wendy McLain, President, ARMA International on the Eve of InfoCon 2022

October 11, 2022

Dear Ms. McLain, During the latter half of 2010 it became clear to me that ARMA International had become intent on turning its back on its longtime members and joining the Big Tech community’s war on the records management discipline. As a dedicated career records management professional who recognized how vitally important our fiduciary relationship … More An Open Letter to Wendy McLain, President, ARMA International on the Eve of InfoCon 2022

An Update on My Open Letter to ARMA President Michael Haley

June 1, 2022

It has now been more than a month and a half since I published this open letter to ARMA President Michael Haley…and yet he still hasn’t responded. Please understand, this is far more important than most of you know. I was right nine years ago when I publicly declared that applications built in compliance with … More An Update on My Open Letter to ARMA President Michael Haley

NARA Drops the DoD 5015.2; ‘Information Governance’ is Now ‘Data Lifecycle Management’; and ARMA Continues Its Support of the War on Records Management

May 3, 2022

There’s been a whirlwind of important activity in records management over the last couple of weeks. I can’t possibly discuss each new development in individual articles, so I am going to try to address everything briefly in this one post. Here goes. NARA DoD 5105.2 Endorsement Revoked First the good news. After a quarter of … More NARA Drops the DoD 5015.2; ‘Information Governance’ is Now ‘Data Lifecycle Management’; and ARMA Continues Its Support of the War on Records Management

A Records Management Professional Submits a FOIA Request

April 11, 2022

As a long-time Federal records management consultant, I have supported Freedom of Information Act request processing for many years. In all my time dealing with FOIA, I have never come across a request that I thought was written in a way that would prevent the government from interrupting it in a manner that would allow … More A Records Management Professional Submits a FOIA Request

The Fifth Lie

March 30, 2022

Last year I published a widely-read series of articles I called “The Four Lies Destroying Records Management.” In this post, I will discuss the fifth – and most destructive – lie, “Information Governance.”   ___________________ For thousands of years, records management professionals have provided their customers with the same vitally important service: we efficiently manage … More The Fifth Lie

Posey Letter to Oversight on NAPA Record Management Study

We Are Losing the Global War on Records Management…This is What You Can Do to Change That

May 20, 2021

My Fellow Records Management Professionals, Eight years ago next week, I published an article on AIIM’s industry blog site entitled “On Why I No Longer Support the DoD 5015.2 Standard”. At the time I believed what I knew about the DoD 5015.2 Records Management Application Standard – and the failures of records management solutions certified … More We Are Losing the Global War on Records Management…This is What You Can Do to Change That

The Four Lies Destroying Records Management – Lie #4: Records vs Non-Records

April 10, 2021

Years ago, when I was still somewhat new to records management and I was struggling to form my own understanding of the information lifecycle, I was working as a consultant and technical sales rep for a small software vendor that created and sold an ‘enterprise records management application’. The bulk of our customer base were … More The Four Lies Destroying Records Management – Lie #4: Records vs Non-Records

The Four Lies Destroying Records Management – Lie #3: Security vs Access

March 15, 2021

A few weeks after the discovery of the Sunburst data breach the BBC interviewed Brian Lord, the former deputy director of cyber-operations at the UK intelligence agency GCHQ. Mr. Lord agreed that the cyber-attack that compromised multiple US Federal agencies, including the Departments of Treasury, State, Homeland Security, and Energy, was a devastating loss of government information. However, … More The Four Lies Destroying Records Management – Lie #3: Security vs Access

The Four Lies Destroying Records Management – Lie #2: Storage vs Preservation

February 18, 2021

Lie #2: ‘Storage’ and ‘Preservation’ are the same thing. In the months following the Presidential election several prominent media outlets, including PBS and New Yorker Magazine, ran opinion pieces forcefully reminding the Trump administration of their obligations under the Presidential Records Act to “take all such steps as may be necessary to assure that the … More The Four Lies Destroying Records Management – Lie #2: Storage vs Preservation