Bill,
We are in the middle of the same migration.
To answer your question, not necessarily for three reasons.
First, from an IT execution perspective: It is unlikely that the Groupwise emails are being directly overwritten. During the migration the IT staff must keep the Groupwise emails around so that they can quickly switch back to Groupwise if there are problems moving to Exchange. Also, a good IT group will have a disaster recovery process which will include daily backups over the past several months, plus monthly backups which are likely retained for much longer. The end result - the Groupwise files, at a minimum, will be available until those backups are destroyed.
Second, from a digital preservation perspective - the data format will obsolesce over time. Because it is proprietary, the data format will probably obsolesce faster than the media or the technical environment. This will force an organization to make an archival/record management choice: does one preserve the bitstream until access is requested, possibly decades down the road; does one preserve the whole technical environment along with the original data format; or does one migrate from one data format to another so long as its authentic characteristics are maintained? The answer will be driven in large part by the digital preservation strategy and principles your organization has.
Third, though I'm not qualified to respond from this perspective, software system replacement is a fact of life for large organizations today. The courts don't seem to consider email that's been migrated from one system to the next as corrupted or no longer authentic. Those migrated emails are still viewed to be discoverable and authentic. Now if the migration modified the content of those records or failed to migrate all of the records, whether by accident or deliberately, that would be a different story.
Best regards,
Ricc Ferrante
BTW, I had been led to believe that the system your company sells was designed by an experienced and practicing lawyer from the ground up. He may be able to help you answer some of these questions.
______________________________________________________________
Riccardo Ferrante -- Information Technology Archivist Smithsonian Institution Archives Capital Gallery Building MRC 507 600 Maryland Avenue SW Washington, DC 20024
Email: [log in to unmask] -- Telephone: 202.633.5906 -- Fax: 202.633.5928
-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Manago, William M
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2007 3:59 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Converting emails
Good afternoon,
A client stores GroupWise e-mails in their records management system.
They are now migrating to Exchange and plan to convert the GroupWise
emails into an Exchange version.
Question - will they violate a records principle if they write over the
original GroupWise file with the converted exchange message thus
replacing the original record?
Bill Manago, CRM
Technology Strategist
CA MDY
Phone: + 1.954.358.2900
Fax: + 1.954.358.2905
Cell: + 1.201.519.4249
Email: [log in to unmask]
List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
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