Welcome to the list Lorie!  The key factor in determining the retention
for any information (including IM) is the value of the content - not the
media or format of the information.  So, a blanket 90 days for IM
messages, for instance, would not address the value to the organization
of the content of the messages.  This is also one of the primary issues
RIM practitioners struggle with for e-mail.  It is far easier and
efficient from an IT perspective to apply retention to a format of
information (e-mail, IM, CD, whole database, etc.) than to spend a great
deal of time dealing with the complexities of determining how, when, and
what will be used to deal with individual content.  While records
management provides concepts and methodologies for dealing with content
(it is the basis of our profession), some electronic formats do not lend
themselves to ease of application.  Many organizations have established
e-mail retention policies based on setting values for the e-mail content
- but, necessarily, placing the burden of determining the value (and
thus the retention) on the user/recipient, not on the system.  IM
messages should be approached the same way.  E-mail and, soon, IM
messages, are grist for the litigation mill and must be considered as
important as any other record with similar content within the
organization.  No easy answers I'm afraid.


Ginny Jones
(Virginia A. Jones, CRM)
Records Manager
Information Technology Division
Newport News Dept. of Public Utilities
Newport News, VA
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-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Lorie Mcaleb
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2005 11:53 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Legal importance of instant messaging

Hi,
I am new to the list serve and Records Management. I have been an IS
person for many years and have recently moved over to Records to assist
with our electronic retention policies. The first big project I am
tackling is communication. This involves all facets of communication
from email, instant messaging to paging and PDA data.
Our company is implementing controls for instant messaging by selecting
an instant messaging program starting this month. The preliminaries are
the information will be collected in logs which, at this point, will be
retained for 90 days as per our Legal department. The retention period
is not set in stone. Our retention process on the IS side is such that
the management class that retains the data can be changed if we
determine the 90 days is not sufficient. We hope to come to a conclusion
before the 90 days are up. The list serve has been very helpful in my
introduction to Records Management and I have gathered that most
companies are currently addressing these areas.

Thank you,
Lori McCaleb
Records IS Project Lead
Micron Technology, Inc.

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