🚀 go-pugleaf

I am at the "Playing for Keeps: Electronic Records Management Conference", 
hosted by Australian Archives, in Canberra.

Below is the HTML version of the slides of the talk, I gave this morning, at 
the conference.

The full proceedings, with papers from noted international speakers, will be 
available on CD-ROM and paper. For details contact the Conference 
secretariat:

	acts@ozemail.com.au


Tom Worthington (tomw@adfa.oz.au)
Senior Policy Advisor, Information Management Strategic Planning
Communications and Information Systems Engineering Branch
Department of Defence
Room APW2-1-06, Anzac Park West, Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
Ph: +61 6 2666605, Fax: +61 6 2666758, Pager: +61 6 2856209
--------------------------------------------------------------
<TITLE>Avoiding litter on the Information Superhighway: Electronic Document 
Management in Australian government agencies</TITLE>
<IMG SRC  = "austral2.gif"; ALT = "Commonwealth Arms, Stylised Version 
No. 2"></IMG></A>
<H1><I>Avoiding litter on the Information Superhighway:</I></H1>
<H2>Electronic Document Management in Australian government agencies</H2>

<I>Playing for Keeps</I> Conference 9 November 1994<P>

<H3>Tom Worthington</H3>
Chair of the IESC EDMSC<BR>
Senior Policy Adviser - Department of Defence<P>
<A HREF = "#IESC">v</A>
<HR>

<A NAME = "IESC"></A>
<H1>About the IESC</H1>

<H2>Information Exchange Steering Committee</H2>
<H3>Advisory body to Commonwealth agencies</H3>
<UL>
<LI>policies
<LI>strategic directions
</UL>
<H3>Covers</H3>
<UL>
<LI>Information Technology
<LI>telecommunications. <P>
</UL>
<A HREF = "#EDMSC">v</A>
<HR>

<A NAME = "EDMSC"></A>
<H1>About the IESC EDMSC</H1>
<H2>Electronic Data Management Subcommittee</H2>
<UL>
<LI>Established at the end of 1993
<LI>subcommittee of the Information Exchange Steering Committee (IESC)
<LI>to prepare guidelines to implement principles already developed
</UL>
<A HREF = "#MEMBERS">v</A>
<HR>

<A NAME = "MEMBERS"></A>
<H1>IESC EDMSC Membership</H1>
<UL>
<LI>Commonwealth agencies (including Australia Archives)
<LI>AIIA
<LI>Records Management bodies
<LI>Chaired by Tom Worthington, Department of Defence.
</UL>
<A HREF = "#introduction">v</A>
<HR>

<A NAME = "introduction"></A>
<H1>Why Worry About E-Doc Management?</H1>

<UL>
<LI>Electronic mail creating need
<LI><I>InfoBahn</I> in popular press
<LI>The Internet is doubling every few months
<LI>World Wide Web, potential Government information distribution
<LI>Uncontrolled networks threaten records management.
</UL>
<A HREF = "#LITTER">v</A>
<HR>

<A NAME = "LITTER"></A>
<H1>Avoiding litter on the Information Superhighway</H1>

<H2>Metaphor of  roadside littering:</H2>
<UL>
<LI>Sensitive documents are occasionally found on roadsides
<LI>Need to avoid this on the InfoBahn
</UL>
<P>

<H2>Avoiding Littering</H2>
<UL>
<LI>E-docs must be cared for
<LI>Recorded
<LI>Protected from loss or damage in transit
</UL>

<A HREF = "#FORMATS">v</A>
<HR>

<A NAME = "FORMATS"></A>
<H1>E-Doc Formats for Government</H1>

<H2>Cautious approach to technology for Government records</H2>
<UL>
<LI>Secure retention is first priority
<LI>Efficiency a lower priority
</UL>
<P>

<H2>Changing document formats</H2>
<UL>
<LI>Format must be readable over document lifetime
<LI>Stable formats are the simplest, oldest and most primitive
</UL>

<A HREF = "#FORMATSSOME">v</A>
<HR>

<A NAME = "FORMATSSOME"></A>
<H1>Some simple formats</H1>
<H2>Formats now in common use</H2>
<UL>
<LI><I>Images:</I> CCITT Group 3 and Group 4 facsimile formats
<LI><I>Text:</I> ISO 646 (plain ASCII)
</UL>

<H2>Potential replacements</H2>
<UL>
<LI><I>Images:</I> JPEG allows for colour images and compression.
<LI><I>Text:</I>Unicode encoding of the written form of the languages 
(scripts) of the world.
</UL>

<A HREF = "#FORMATSCOMPLEX">v</A>
<HR>

<A NAME = "FORMATSCOMPLEX"></A>
<H1>More complex formats</H1>
<H2>Formatted text</H2>
<UL>
<LI><I>Formatted documents:</I> bold, italics and paragraph breaks
<LI><I>Compound documents:</I> hyper text links to other documents, including 
images and sound
</UL>

No standard in common use for formatted or compound documents.<P>

Some promising Defacto and Dejour standards are available<P>

<A HREF = "#RTF">v</A>
<HR>

<A NAME = "RTF"></A>
<H1>RTF</H1>
<H2>Microsoft Rich Text Format</H2>
<UL>
<LI>Defacto standard for Word Processing document interchange
<LI>Complex
<LI>Works better if style sheets are used
</UL>

<A HREF = "#SGML">v</A>
<HR>

<A NAME = "SGML"></A>
<H1>SGML</H1>
<H2>Standard Generalised Markup Language (ISO 8879)</H2>
<UL>
<LI>Dejour standard from ISO, but limited use
<LI>May emerge as a long term format over the next year.
<LI>Encodes formatting and hyper text links as ASCII text
<LI>Provides an upgrade path from unformatted text
</UL>

<A HREF = "#HTML">v</A>
<HR>

<A NAME = "HTML"></A>
<H1>HTML</H1>
<H2>Hyper-Text Markup Language</H2>

<UL>
<LI>Defacto implementation of SGML
<LI>from the academic and research community
</UL>
<H3>For electronic publishing on the Internet:</H3>
<UL>
<LI>tags for indicating titles, headings, ordered and unordered lists
<LI>hyper-text document cross references
<LI>any multi-media format (images, sound, motion pictures)
</UL>

<A HREF = "#HTMLPROBS">v</A>
<HR>

<A NAME = "HTMLPROBS"></A>
<H1>HTML Problems</H1>

<H2>May not be suitable for Agency record keeping:</H2>

<UL>
<LI>HTML is a simplified version of SGML
<LI>Lacks many SGML features
<LI>many loose implementations
</UL>

<H3>But we may drift into HTML use by mid 1995.</H3>

<A HREF = "#FURTHER">v</A>
<HR>

<A NAME = "FURTHER"></A>
<H1>For further details</H1>
<H2>Available via the Internet:</H2>

<UL>
<LI><B>"Pocket Guide to the Management of Electronic Documents in the 
Australian Public Service"</B>:
<A HREF = "ftp://archie.au/ACS/edocgd.html">
URL: ftp://archie.au/ACS/edocgd.html</A>

<LI>Draft of <B>"Implementing Effective Procedures for the Management of 
Electronic Documents in the Australian Public Service"</B> available on 
the Internet for comment: 
<A HREF = "ftp://archie.au/ACS/implguid.html">
URL: ftp://archie.au/ACS/implguid.html</A>
</UL>

<A HREF = "#ONPAPER">v</A>
<HR>

<A NAME = "ONPAPER"></A>
<H2>On paper:</H2>
<UL>
<LI><B>Management of Electronic Documents in the Australian Public 
Service,</B> Commonwealth Government's Information Exchange Steering 
Committee 1993

<LI>ISO 8879:1986, <B>Information Processing Text and Office Systems -- 
Standard Generalised Markup Language (SGML)</B>

<LI><B>IESC IT News</B> IESC Secretariat, Department of Finance, Fax 
(06)2632276, Internet: Max.McGregor@Finance.Ausgovfinance.Telememo.Au
</UL>

<A HREF = "#SPEAKER">v</A>
<HR>

<A NAME = "SPEAKER"></A>
<H1>Tom Worthington</H1><BR>
<H2>Department of Defence</H2><BR>
<H3>Fax: +61 6 2653601<BR>
Internet: tomw@adfa.oz.au</H3>

<HR>