Records
Management Network MeetingRecords
Management Network MeetingVictorian Archives Conference Room
99 Shiel Street, North Melbourne, ph 9348 5600
Carparking available via 112 Macaulay Road
12:00 Light Lunch
Network with fellow records management professionals over a light lunch
1:00 Welcome / Apologies
Prov News, Updates
1:15 Archiving the Future—We've Got to Start Now: Mobilising Industry to Build Reliable Digital Archives
Identifying how dramatic, trillion-dollar losses of critical data and legal records will soon occur because of inadequate software infrastructures
Speaker: Rich Lysakowski, president and executive director of the Collaborative Electronic Notebook Systems Association (CENSA)
1:55 Legal Issues in Storing and Producing Electronic Records
Issues faced by Victorian organisations when seeking to rely on electronically stored records for internal, audit or legal dispute purposes and implications forhow records are stored and managed.
Speaker: Mark Sneddon, partner Clayton Utz (with Sven Bluemmel)
2:35 Afternoon Tea
2:50 The Privatisation of Government Bodies and the Ownership of Records
Progress report on the identification of ownership/location of records of Victorian organisations privatised in the period 1993-1999.
Sophie Sturup, Manager, ARAA Project, PROV
3:10 Victorian Electronic Records Strategy Update
Update of the Victorian Electronic Records Strategy focussing on the launch of the VERS Centre of Excellence
Justine Heazlewood, Manager VERS Centre of Excellence, PROV
3:20 Other Business
3:45 Close
RSVP by Friday 4th October 2002 (identify if you are attending lunch please)
sue.mandile@dpc.vic.gov.au ( 9348 5600
Key Speaker Profiles
Rich Lysakowski
Dr. Rich Lysakowski is president and executive director of the Collaborative Electronic Notebook Systems Association (CENSA). His responsibilities include organising and executing CENSA's efforts to develop robust markets and products for advanced automation for R&D, including electronic notebook systems, intelligent project support environments, and their many component technologies. In 1998, he initiated the Global Industry-Interagency Group on Electronic Recordkeeping and Digital Archiving Systems, a collaborative group of regulatory agencies, patent offices, and global industries worldwide with a mission to achieve consensus specifications for creation, management, access, and long-term preservation of electronic records and digital archiving systems. Lysakowski recently coauthored "Titanic 2020," a research report from CENSA pointing out that dramatic, trillion-dollar losses of critical data and legal records will soon occur because of inadequate software infrastructures, which must be fixed. The research report points out deep design flaws in electronic preparedness for the 21st century. Lysakowski has a Ph.D. in physical and analytical chemistry, plus 20 years' professional experience with automation systems in various scientific, software engineering, marketing, and project management roles in the public and private sector.
Mark Sneddon
Mark is one of Australia's leading experts in the legal and regulatory issues in electronic commerce including online service delivery, smart cards, electronic financial services and payment systems and electronic authentication systems (including digital signatures) and all related aspects of IT law, communications law and financial services law. He was a member of the Australian Federal Attorney-General's Expert Group on Electronic Commerce whose report led to the Electronic Transactions legislation and has served as a member of the Minister for Consumer Protections Electronic Commerce Expert Group and of the federal government's Australian Information Economy Advisory Council. Mark has written ground-breaking reports for the federal government on legal liability in electronic authentication systems including public key infrastructure. He was also the drafter of ASIC's revised Electronic Funds Transfer Code of Conduct. Mark is also an expert in privacy law. Mark has worked in financial services for many years including retail banking, secured and quasi-secured lending and trade finance. Mark has written and taught in the fields of electronic transactions law and banking and finance law for 14 years and has degrees in law and computing.
Records Management Network meeting held 9 October 2002 at the Victorian Archives building.
Welcome
Ross Gibbs opened the meeting at 1 PM and welcomed the 100 members present.
He advised that the PROV advice to agencies relating to the Information Privacy Act had not been issued as PROV were still waiting on the advice from the Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office.
He reported that Archives@Victoria was being evaluated after its first six months in operation. Any comments/problems should be emailed to Rachel U’Ren at Rachel.U’Ren@dpc.vic.gov.au
He also asked everyone to fill in an evaluation report regarding the Records Management Network. This meeting had been made open due to the visit of Dr Rich Lysakowski, but opinion was sought on whether the RMN should be open to those not working in government.
Ross also stated that this meeting of the RMN coincided with the week of the VERS launch. He reported that the VERS Centre of Excellence had been funded $8.2 million to build a digital repository and work with other inner-budget agencies in becoming VERS compliant. He thanked Justine Heazlewood, Kathy Sinclair and Rachel U’Ren for their efforts in organising the launch and other VERS events.
Archiving the Future – We’ve Got to Start Now: Mobilising Industry to Build Reliable Digital Archives
Dr Rich Lysakowski, president and executive director of the Collaborative Electronic Notebook Systems Association (CENSA)
Dr Rich began his presentation by outlining the current crisis relating to record creation. This involves the increasing acceleration in records being produced and that the productivity tools we all use, computers and their associated software, are not designed for permanence.
Software doesn’t address major recordkeeping design issues such as
Another problem in relying on technology is that it is market-driven and this affects perspective. While a government may think of the long-term as several decades to centuries, IT companies think of long-term as six months to three years. So in relation to vendors, buyers of software need to ask themselves "What will these companies look like in 25 years?" considering that the records they create may be needed for hundreds of years. For these reasons, it is up to record managers and custodians (such as archivists) to fill in the gaps that technology cannot.
Dr Rich stated that the reasons for the establishment of the Collaborative Electronic Notebook Systems Association (CENSA) was the need for better recordkeeping, better collaboration through research and development and better access to data. Members benefit because they choose the right product, the first time.
CENSA includes the following programs:
Dr Rich believes the VERS standard is revolutionary in that it has not waited for the US to solve the problems of long-term preservation of electronic records and has already done the hardest work. It is also leaps ahead of industry in its support of XML and PDF. It is also important to industry in that it uses available technology, has been around long enough to be trusted and has made the necessary investments in research and development.
Dr Rich’s presentation is available on the RMN website: http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/events/rmn/RMNpapers.htm
Legal Issues in Storing and Producing Electronic Records
Sven Bluemell, Senior Associate and Mark Sneddon, Partner - Clayton Utz
Sven began the presentation by speaking about the evidentiary issues related to document retention requirements. This included taking into consideration the admissibility and weight of evidence in the case of a dispute.
He said an Electronic Transactions Act had been enacted in most State and Territories. These Acts allow electronic communications to be used where a person has been required to provide information in writing.
He stated that as these Acts differ in all states, there could be inconsistent decisions made.
Mark stated that with the Electronic Transactions Acts allowing businesses to do their business electronically, the downside is they have to conduct their own risk management analysis. The former legal barriers to e-business have been removed. This creates problems in that when trying to prove the creation of a document, for example, the strength of the evidence is dependent on the technology that is used.
Mark spoke about the development in Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and reported that the Federal Government has developed the Gatekeeper standard PKI. The Health Insurance Commission, the Department of Defence, Customs and the Department of Small Business and Workplace Relations have introduced this standard. In Victoria, the Transport Accident Commission is investigating it.
Sven and Mark’s presentation is available on the RMN website: http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/events/rmn/RMNpapers.htm
The Privatisation of Government and the Ownership of Records
Sophie Sturup, ARAA Project, PROV
Sophie spoke of her work on the All Records, All Activities (ARAA) Project which is investigating the Victorian privatisations between 1993 and 1999. Part of the project includes the recovery of public records that are in the hands of privatised businesses.
In order to do this, she has had to establish the dates when the records of the companies would have stopped being public records. She also had to establish the legal process used to transfer records or ownership of records to clarify whether she could apply section 2B(b) of the Public Records Act.
Section 2B(b) states that if a body corporate or unincorporate that is a public office ceases, on a particular day to be a public office then, despite that cessation-
(a) the records of the body that were in existence prior to that day continue to be public records; and
(b) the Keeper of Public Records may make arrangements with the body to enable those records of the body to be dealt with in Accordance with this Act in the same manner as if the body had not ceased to be a public office.
The process of retrieving these records is proving to be a long one as PROV have not been able to use Section 2B(b) thus far. Rather they are negotiating with those who currently hold the records, in order to transfer them when they are no longer in use. Some records have also been difficult to trace. Sophie asked members for any assistance in locating records of former public offices, that may now be in private hands.
Victorian Electronic Records Strategy Update
Justine Heazlewood, Manager, VERS Centre of Excellence
Justine reported that the VERS Centre of Excellence now has its full complement of staff.
The role of the Centre of Excellence is to provide advice and support to make agencies VERS compliant. This involves assessing the inner-budget departments’ current electronic recordkeeping to see if they are VERS ready.
It also involves a large-scale training program. This includes 20 training sessions in the first half of 2003, which will be of interest not just to those working with records in the departments.
There is also a revision of the VERS standard, as three years down the track and after implementing the process, it would be good to reflect the new knowledge that has been gathered and the changing technology. The new VERS standard will be backwards compatible.
The development of an electronic records repository and a review of the records transfer process are also ongoing projects.
David Brown (Manager Regulation and Compliance)
David reported that eight people have been employed by PROV to participate in the Community Jobs Program. At the end of the six-month program, the participants will have a Level 3 Certificate in Business Systems and a wide breath of experience in records management. He stated that it would be beneficial to keep these people working in the records management community and he can be contacted for further details.
Next meeting
The proposed date of the next RMN meeting is 26 February 2003.
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