I second Bill comments.

Well I guess somebody has to :)

An essential paradigm shift that is occuring in IT is a realization that
not
all information is valuable and over time: a greater and greater segment
of
information will become a liability rather than a corporate asset as
time
passes.  Part of the IT realization is driven by the high costs of legal
discovery and Bernadette's hypothesis removes that.

More likely it is Auditors and judges (case law) driving the change in
IT perspective. Keep in mind that these are the folks we are running to
catch up to. I have noticed over the last few years a tightening of the
gap. Nature abhors a vacuum and we are all falling into the same pit.
What some IT folks are realizing is that to climb back out they are
going to have to integrate audit, records, forms, archives standards
into their practices. Our dilemma is are we a rung on the ladder for IT
to climb out or are we going out together?

Another way to think of the information store and the information
segments
is to ask an investment question: Do I expect to be able to make money
with
this in the future?  And the corrollary, Is it possible that I will lose
money with this in the future?

Storing information is one thing and storing records is another.



This may always seem short-sighted because information will have
different
values later and what is worthless now may be valuable later.  Or
litigation
threats may fade.  But, presumably, we're all comfortable with the
concept
of "the best decision at the time".

That would depend on the level of knowledge. The least of us sleeps
sound, comforted by the strong belief that they are right. The rest of
us strive to learn as much as possible to make the best informed
decisions and go without the REM.
As an Archivist I am a strong proponent of reappraisal. Just because the
decision was sound today does not mean it is always born out over time.

Chris Flynn

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