Hi all,

Some light food for thought and request for your thoughts and comments, and
with apologies for cross-posting.

How do we determine the "recordness" of an email message? My straw man:
An email message is a record if its contents or attachments meet the
definition of a record as determined in the records policy. This may include
content that the organization has legal, operational, or regulatory
obligations to preserve.
Questions:
If the subject line is changed but the content remains in the same thread,
are there ramifications?
If the content changes but the subject line remains the same, are there
ramifications (RE: and FW: notwithstanding)
What is the effect of replying and keeping the previous content (as is the
default for many email clients) a) unchanged; b) excerpted; c) completely
removed (such that each email contains only what the current sender typed
and no remnants from previous senders)?
What is the effect of changing the format, e.g. from text to HTML to RTF to
text?
What is the ramification of forwarding an email with attachments (which may
or may not have been changed prior to forwarding) vs. replying to an email
with attachments (which reply, at least in Microsoft Outlook, does NOT
include the attachment)?

More questions as I think of them based on your responses. What I am driving
at is as close as I can get to the definitive understanding of all the
questions that need to be asked, and therefore accounted for, when
determining whether to declare a message as a record.

Regards,

Jesse Wilkins
CDIA+, LIT, EDP, ICP
IMERGE Consulting
(303) 574-1455 office
(303) 484-4142 fax
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http://www.imergeconsult.com
Yahoo!:  jessewilkins8511
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