Information Management Journal articles from May 2007

Information Management Journal archives from May 2007

Ready ... or not?(IN FOCUS: A Message from the Editors)(Editorial)
May 1, 2007... With its recent announcement that it had lost e-mail records pertinent to an ongoing investigation and that staffers were using e-mail accounts outside its control, the U.S. White House was added to a long and rapidly growing list of...

Gartner warns firms of 'dirty data'.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)
May 1, 2007... According to Gartner Inc., more than 25 percent of critical data in Fortune 1000 companies is flawed. Speaking at the research and advisory firm's Business Intelligence and Information Management Summit held in Australia in February,...

That's a lot of e-mails ...(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Analyst firm Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) recently estimated that global organizations will collectively store 7,000 petabytes (slightly more than 7 billion gigabytes) of e-mail over the next four years. Why? Perhaps because, according to...

SOX spending remains steady.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Sarbanes-Oxley Act )(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... AMR Research's annual report found that companies will spend $6 billion on Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance in 2007--the same amount that firms spent in 2006 and 2005. The report also revealed that companies will spend almost $30 billion on...

Records requests misused.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... According to a U.S. Justice Department investigation, the FBI has improperly--and perhaps even illegally--used subpoena powers granted under the USA PATRIOT Act to obtain personal information about Americans without prior judicial approval....

Implementing successful e-mail storage solutions.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)
May 1, 2007... The overwhelming use of e-mail and e-mail attachments in the workplace, along with requirements to retain electronic communications for regulatory compliance and legal discovery, have created a demand for e-mail storage solutions. ...

The digital data explosion.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... According to a new IDC study, the world generated 161 billion gigabytes--161 exabytes--of digital data last year. While storage space is plentiful and continues to get cheaper, that's still a whole lot of data to manage and store. It's so...

Is Europe shifting its privacy stance?(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)
May 1, 2007... In 2009, the European Union's (EU) Data Retention Directive will go into effect. But a few EU nations are already announcing their interpretations of the mandate, which requires phone and Internet companies to retain the names and addresses of...

ABA: lawyers can search metadata.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(American Bar Association )
May 1, 2007... For records departments already worried about complying with government regulations and potential litigation, here's another thing to lose sleep over: the American Bar Association (ABA) recently decided that lawyers who receive electronic...

E-discovery expectations.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... For those companies that are not adequately prepared for e-discovery, here are some sobering statistics from The National Law Journal: * Sixty to 70 percent of all corporate data reside in or are attached to e-mail. * Ninety-nine...

Library of Congress to digitize brittle books.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)
May 1, 2007... The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded the Library of Congress a $2 million grant to digitize thousands of public-domain works, focusing on at-risk "brittle books" and U.S. history volumes. The project, "Digitizing American Imprints at...

WWI British Army records online.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... The service and pension records of 2.5 million soldiers who fought in the British army in World War I are now available online for the first time, thanks to an agreement between Ancestry.co.uk and the British National Archives. The...

States say no to REAL ID.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)
May 1, 2007... A growing number of U.S. states are rejecting the REAL ID Act, a federal law passed in 2005 that mandates the creation of standardized driver's licenses nationwide in an attempt to thwart terrorism and ID theft. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

U.S. paper use shrinks, a bit.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Electronic document technologies--such as e-mail, PDF, and instant messaging--may be causing businesses' paper use in the United States to decline. According to InfoTrends/ CAP Ventures, a consulting firm for the digital imaging industry, 2007...

Iraq library struggles to survive.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Sa'ad Eskander, director of Iraq's National Library in Baghdad, braves bullets and bombs to do his job each day. The National Library--located on Haifa Street, one of the most dangerous in Baghdad--housed a valuable collection of ancient...

Texas AG issues records mandate.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)
May 1, 2007... In Texas, it is now a crime for government officials to release public records containing Social Security numbers. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] According to a recent legal opinion issued by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, county clerks...

Canada passes new terrorism law.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart now has new oversight responsibilities under the recently enacted Proceeds of Crime and Terrorist Financing Act (Bill C-25). Under the new law, the commissioner's office is now required to...

NARA opens first e-records vault in Texas.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(National Archives and Records Administration )(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) opened the doors to the first federal electronic records vault March 2 in Fort Worth, Texas. The new Southwest Region Federal Records Center is a 205,000-square-foot building with a...

Protecting information from insiders: although organizations are making strides in protecting their sensitive information from outside threats, reports show they often are failing to protect it from the much greater threats posed by their own employees.(ON THE EDGE: The Use & Misuse of Information)
May 1, 2007... In recent months, insider data theft stories have been grabbing headlines from tales of stolen laptops. Despite the growing risk, however, many businesses--even the biggest and most well known--are not properly protecting their sensitive...

RU ready for IM? To take advantage of instant messaging's benefits and overcome its challenges, organizations must implement processes and technologies to manage it effectively.
May 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Instant messaging, or "IM," is considered a dirty word in many organizations--when it is considered at all--and for good reason. As IM usage continues to grow, IM clients provide yet another vector through which...

Cost/benefit analysis for implementing ECM, BPM systems: determining the ROI for a significant investment, such as adopting an ECM or BPM system, is no easy task.(enterprise content management and business process management)
May 1, 2007... The adoption of enterprise content management (ECM) and business process management (BPM) systems is often spurred by regulatory and compliance concerns. As Thomas Hogan, Vignette president and chief executive officer, told Computerworld, the...

Evolving the records management culture: from ad hoc to adherence implementing an enterprise-wide records management program requires executive-level support, communication, training, incentives, and an action plan that will motivate employees to give up their ad hoc methods and adhere to program policies and procedures.
May 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Prior to implementing a records management program, an organization is dependent on its staff members to manage records through ad hoc and person-dependent methods. They may be using technologies that are not...

Freedom of information in the U.K., U.S., and Canada: freedom of information (FOI) laws are becoming more prevalent throughout the world. But they are only as effective as the systems that support them.(GovernmentInsight)
May 1, 2007... The following article is based on a research report written for the ARMA International Educational Foundation in 2006. The complete report may be downloaded free at www.armaedfoundation.org. Over the past two decades, the number of freedom...

Protecting personal privacy in the global business environment: in the electronic world, protecting personally identifiable information is a critical challenge for all companies and governments.(GlobalOutlook)
May 1, 2007... Because records of individual customers or potential customers often have high market value, personally identifiable information has been described as the world's new currency. With the global reach of the Internet, which makes sending personal...

Book review: viewing records as business objects.(Domesticating Information: Managing Documents Inside the Organization)(Book review)
May 1, 2007... TITLE: Domesticating Information: Managing Documents Inside the Organization AUTHOR: Carol E.B. Choksy PUBLISHER: The Scarecrow Press Inc. PUBLICATION DATE: 2006 LENGTH: 250 pages PRICE: $40 SOURCE:...

Are you up to the challenge?(Special Section)
May 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In today's competitive marketplace, being good isn't enough. You have to be better. Better business demands better records and information management. The heat is on as organizations are bombarded with new and...

City by the sea: Baltimore.(Special Section)(Geographic overview)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Boasting almost 300 years of history, Baltimore is the birthplace of ice cream, cyberspace, and the "Star Spangled Banner." But today, it's so much more than just the United States' fifth-largest port. Baltimore...

ARMA '07 Expo: Sunday, October 7--Tuesday, October 9 Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, Maryland: showcasing cutting-edge technology & products.(Special Section)
May 1, 2007... Expo Hours Sunday, October 7 11:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Monday, October 8 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 9 9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Discover what's new in records and information management technology, products, and...