Blogs as e-records

Blogs are now fashionable. According to recent statistics from Technorati, there are over 70 million blogs, with about 120,000 new ones being set up every day http://technorati.com/weblog/2007/04/328.html. Many of these are personal blogs - maybe the electronic ‘Pepys’ diary of the future is among them. Blogs are also being set up by organisations and individuals to cover work and professional issues. This raises the challenge of how to manage this new form of electronic record. An article by Dearstyne states that “most blogs are records, so sound records and information management principles must be applied”. He notes there are four main records and information management (RIM) implications:

(i) Education - about how organisations can use them to advantage
(ii) Policies - for running organisational blogs and guidelines for employees about content and language
(iii) RIM - decisions about whether an organisational blog is an official record. If it is then it needs to be managed as such “providing workable access, indexing tools, authenticity, preservation, appraisal, scheduling, storage, and access for as long as needed for administrative, legal, research, and other purposes. These issues need to be addressed before blogging begins.”
(iv) RIM applications - what purposes and functions could blogs support

Dearstyne concludes: “Blogging is a new force on the information stage; it is fluid and needs shaping. RIM managers must decide how to address it to ensure that blogs are managed as the records they are.” This article was written in late 2005. How are we meeting this challenge?

Article:
Dearstyne BW (2005). Blogs: the new information revolution? RIM professionals have an opportunity to provide leadership and guidance in the development of policies to ensure that blogs are managed as records. Information Management Journal, 39(5):38-44

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