Tag: Next Generation 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

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

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 #1: Information vs Data

February 10, 2021

Given that effective records management – executed in good faith – is the sole means of holding our most powerful institutions accountable for their behavior, these same institutions have been waging a brutal war on the records management profession for nearly two decades. And sadly, they are winning, as evidenced by the swirling information chaos … More The Four Lies Destroying Records Management – Lie #1: Information vs Data

“Information Governance” and the Continuing War on Records Management

May 28, 2020

Six years ago this month I published this opinion piece in IQ – The RIM Quarterly Magazine for records management professionals in Australia and Asia (reprinted with permission): Records Management, Information Governance, and the Future of Information Lifecycle Management. Go ahead and read it. I’ll wait. At the time I published that article, my dire … More “Information Governance” and the Continuing War on Records Management