First, I would like to thank all of you that provided thoughtful
contributions on when is a document not a document.  I had intended to
summarize the responses but it will be difficult given the wide range of
views.  I will still try.

Here is a new topic for discussion that I heard at the MER conference
earlier this week.  The title line above came from a presentation on Big
Buckets by Carol Brock of the GAO.  It was an outstanding presentation
and Carol introduced a few thought provoking one liners - such as
"everything is a record until it is not".  

The GAO has reduced their records series to one of three big buckets. In
addition, they have created separate document profiles, one per bucket,
and integrated this with their document management system so that when a
new document is created and saved it is automatically saved into one of
the buckets - thus everything is managed as a record.  The records are
editable until the case file or project file is closed.  At that time
the user has 60 days to decide what is really a record, keep it and what
is really not record material, discard it.

This approach may have merit in other government agencies due to FOIA
and Privacy Act requirements.  This approach may also have merit in the
private sector, especially those subject to frequent litigation where
all electronically stored information (ESI) is discoverable.  Is this a
good way to manage all content, whether record material or not?  Your
thoughts are appreciated.

Bill Manago, CRM

Director, Records Management Practice
CA, Information Governance
Tel: +1-954.482.2977
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