<snip>The whole concept of scheduling records based on the manner in which
they
are conveyed (electronic mail) or by the "container" rather than the
"Content:" goes completely against the grain of what Records Management
Practices and Appraisal of Content has taught RM Professionals for over 6
decades.

Why all of the sudden is there such a "rush" to change practices, simply
based on the volume of records being generated?</snip>

There's a lot to unpack from that word "simply". When the volume was simply
2-10x what the volume of paper, interoffice-type memoranda were, it was
easier to defend those practices. Now that the volume is anywhere from
100-300x or more depending on how much the "Reply to All" button is abused,
many organizations have come to the realization that it is simply
impractical to expect users to classify messages on their own. Similarly,
organizations that use social media in an official or public way are coming
to the same realization.

There are other reasons, such as the fragmentary and granular nature of
many conversations in email/social; how to address attachments which may or
may not themselves be separate records; the propensity of many users to
address multiple topics (and therefore potentially multiple records series)
in a single message or conversation WHILE leaving the same subject line
intact, and others.

In other words, I don't think email is as simple a problem as most other
forms of records, whether paper or electronic. I know some of the largest,
most complex corporations in the world rely on a Capstone-like approach for
at least part of their information management program. Is it records
management in the 6-decades-of-practice traditional sense? Probably not. Is
it defensible? I believe so, and so does NARA's legal counsel, and so do
many gigantic corporations' counsel. Is it better than what we do today,
which in far too many organizations is to ignore the problem or solve it,
badly, with inbox size and age quotas? I believe it is.

I'm not going to address the nuances of the GRSs because I am not a Federal
records manager, though I may investigate them sooner than later because
reasons.

-- 
Regards,

Jesse Wilkins, CIP, CRM, IGP
[log in to unmask]
blog: http://informata.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jessewilkins

List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
To unsubscribe from this list, click the below link. If not already present, place UNSUBSCRIBE RECMGMT-L or UNSUB RECMGMT-L in the body of the message.
mailto:[log in to unmask]