Information Management Journal articles from November 2004

Information Management Journal archives from November 2004

Intelligence is essential.(A Message from the Editors)
November 1, 2004... Many books, analysts, and experts have declared that the business world is moving from the Information Age to the Age of Intelligence. In other words, the focus is shifting to how the information is used. There have been numerous...

Patriot Act provision ruled unconstitutional.(News, Trends & Analysis)
November 1, 2004... A federal judge recently struck down a key surveillance provision of the USA PATRIOT Act, ruling that it broadly violated the U.S. Constitution by giving federal authorities unchecked powers to obtain private information. The decision by...

Compliance costs rising.(News, Trends & Analysis)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... According to AMR Research, companies will spend $5.5 billion in 2004 to meet Sarbanes-Oxley requirements mandated by the federal government for public companies--specifically, requirements related to Section 404, which directs public companies...

EU data storage plan sparks debate.(News, Trends & Analysis)
November 1, 2004... A European Union plan that would require telecommunications companies to store their customers' e-mail, text messages, and wireless and landline telephone data for an extended period of time is causing heated debate among EU member countries....

IBM, Mayo Clinic to mine medical data.(News, Trends & Analysis)
November 1, 2004... The Mayo Clinic and IBM are cooperating on an ambitious program to eventually use computers and electronic records to design individualized patient treatments. According to The Wall Street Journal, the multi-year collaboration involves one...

Records hoax targets veterans.(News, Trends & Analysis)(National Personnel Records Center )
November 1, 2004... If you receive an e-mail warning that the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) plans to destroy all paper military records, hit the delete key. The official-looking message circulating via e-mail and on veterans-related Web sites is a...

Government failing at information, computer security.(News, Trends & Analysis)
November 1, 2004... A Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit of 24 of the largest U.S. agencies found that only seven are in compliance with a law requiring them to certify and accredit their information systems' security. Among the 24 agencies reviewed...

Iraq, Italy enter e-gov agreement.(News, Trends & Analysis)
November 1, 2004... The new government of Iraq has entered into an agreement with Italy's Ministry of Innovation and Technologies to provide funding and expertise for the development of an e-government strategy. The agreement states that the Italian government...

Activists push for FOI laws in Malaysia.(News, Trends & Analysis)(Freedom of Information )(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Fifty nations have passed Freedom of Information (FOI) laws. Citing a proven correlation between less press freedom and higher levels of government corruption, legal experts, non-government organizations, journalists, and FOI specialists have...

E-mails waste businesses' archive space.(News, Trends & Analysis)(Orchestria)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Between one-third and one-half of all electronic communications kept in company storage systems are irrelevant and do not need to be there, says e-mail, Web, and instant messaging solutions provider Orchestria. According to Orchestria, the...

U.S. tests new flyer screening program.(News, Trends & Analysis)
November 1, 2004... The 9/11 Commission has recommended expanding the no-fly list airlines now check to keep suspected terrorists off planes, which would require consolidating as many as 12 secret lists maintained by different intelligence agencies. It also urged...

PCAOB seeks complaints.(News, Trends & Analysis)(Public Company Accounting Oversight Board )(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has made it easier to submit enforcement tips and complaints via a new online form (www.pcaobus.org/tips), e-mail (tips@pcaobus.org), or toll-free number (800.741.3158). The new system...

U.S. airports debut document scanners.(News, Trends & Analysis)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... A new device that scans documents for traces of explosives is now being used to screen selected passengers at four of the busiest U.S. airports. According to USA Today, federal security screeners have begun testing the equipment at...

NARA digital archives update.(News, Trends & Analysis)(The National Archives and Records Administration,)(Electronic Records Archive (ERA))(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... After five years of research and evaluation, The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has selected Harris Corp. and Lockheed Martin to compete for the chance to design its digital archives. The project is estimated to cost $500...

Records management portal proposed.(News, Trends & Analysis)(The Electronic Records Policy Working Group (ERPWG), Project TOOLKIT)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The Electronic Records Policy Working Group (ERPWG), the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) committee charged with designing a federal electronic records management policy, has announced plans for the creation of a...

Amazon's new offering manages searches.(News, Trends & Analysis)
November 1, 2004... With its new startup, A9.com, Amazon.corn has stepped into the search engine wars. A9's free search service features advanced technology it says will take searches beyond mere retrieval of Web pages to let users more fully manage the...

HIPAA fact sheets available online.(News, Trends & Analysis)(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released new consumer fact sheets on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. "Privacy and Your Health Information...

Businesses improve cyber security.(News, Trends & Analysis)
November 1, 2004... According to the Global State of Information Security 2004 study conducted by CIO and CSO magazines and PricewaterhouseCoopers, companies' security practices improved overall in 2004, though their security resources did not significantly...

Scientists want open access to research.(News, Trends & Analysis)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Twenty-five Nobel Prize-winning scientists have called for the U.S. government to make all taxpayer-funded research papers freely available to the public. In a letter to Congress and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), they wrote: "As...

The world moves toward freedom of information: an increasing number of governments have enacted freedom of information legislation in a move toward more transparency, while others are making it harder to gain access.(The Use & Misuse of Information)
November 1, 2004... On January 1, 2005, the United Kingdom's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)--which Parliament passed in 2001--will go into effect. The United Kingdom is one of more than 50 countries around the world that have adopted freedom of information acts...

Veritas purchases KVault.(KVault Software )(VERITAS Software Corp)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Veritas Software has purchased e-mail backup company KVault Software (KVS) for $225 million in cash. KVault's software allows users to create an index that helps locate specific e-mail messages quickly. According to research firm Gartner, the...

LizardTech unveils Document Express 5.0.(New Products & Industry Announcements)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... LizardTech Inc.'s Document Express 5.0 enables users to reduce file storage and maximize ease of distribution for documents. Document Express combines compression technology, automatic document conversion, customizable workflows, and an...

DocuWare 4.6a released.(New Products & Industry Announcements)(DocuWare 4.6a)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The latest version of DocuWare AG's document management system--DocuWare 4.6a--provides for greater control over retention schedules along with enhanced audit trails for document access. The system can create a virtual folder containing all...

Data-mining toolkit available.(New Products & Industry Announcements)(Data Mining and Cleaning Components Version 2.0)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) released version 2.0 of its Data Mining and Cleaning Components (DMC 2.0) application, the first commercially available data-mining application development toolkit. Designed to be incorporated into the...

Cuadra offers STAR/Archives 2.0.(New Products & Industry Announcements)(Cuadra Associates Inc)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Cuadra Associates' new version of STAR/Archives, its archives collections management system, features both browser-based retrieval across collections and dynamic generation of finding aids from within the public access catalog. STAR/Archives...

Rusco InfoRMS streamlines records processes.(New Products & Industry Announcements)(Records Management Solution )(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The Rusco InfoRMS Records Management Solution enables users to expeditiously handle, archive, and retrieve massive amounts of physical records, documents, and other information. Using the OmniRIM Solutions software package, the system provides...

DocuLex announces Desktop Search 6.3.(New Products & Industry Announcements)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Version 63 of Desktop Search from DocuLex enhances electronic document search and retrieval capabilities. Users can instantly locate electronic document files among gigabytes of data, through both full-text and fielded data searching. The...

Vasont 9.0 now available.(New Products & Industry Announcements)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Vasont 9.0, the latest version of Vasont Systems' content management system that enables organizations to store multilingual content once for delivery to print, PDF, CD-ROM, and Web formats, is now available. Version 9.0 features faster...

Web sites as recordkeeping & recordmaking systems: Web sites are important sources of organizational records; not properly capturing such records in trustworthy recordkeeping systems is risky.
November 1, 2004... On March 2, 2004, the Washington Post broke a story concerning lead contamination in the District of Columbia's drinking water. Neighboring Arlington County, Virginia shares the same source, and the article noted discrepancies in the county's...

The information shortcomings of 9/11: one of the most important lessons of September 11, 2001, may be that informational--not organizational--solutions are necessary as organizations and governments evolve from the Information Age to the Intelligence Age.
November 1, 2004... On July 22, 2004, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission) released its revealing report on the al Qa'ida assault on the homeland. Among other things, it documents the shortcomings in American...

Turning cost and liability into enterprise value.(Advertisement)
November 1, 2004... Successful leaders know that without quality information, quality decisions are practically impossible. They acknowledge that there are costs to properly managing their documents and data, but also admit they're wary of the potential price they...

Why records cooperatives? For participants, records cooperatives provide local governments with worthwhile benefits including efficiency, economy, and performance.
November 1, 2004... When Benjamin Franklin said, "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately;' he did not have in mind reinventing local government. However, Franklin espoused a concept that has found subsequent application in towns,...

A framework for EDMS/ERMS integration: integrating electronic document management systems (EDMS) and electronic records management systems (ERMS) ensures records are designated as such and receive the special treatment and protection they deserve.(Setting Standards)
November 1, 2004... Assume that an organization has decided it must have electronic records management systems (ERMS) capability. Records managers, information technology (IT) managers, attorneys, and executives have examined the costs and benefits of continuing...

Professional certification: does it matter? What are the benefits of professional certification, and why should records managers pursue it?(Career Path)
November 1, 2004... In today's rapidly changing and increasingly competitive workplace, distinguishing yourself from the competition can be challenging, to say the least. How can you illustrate your professionalism, your advanced level of skill, experience, and...

Seven keys to effective information and compliance strategies.(Book Review)
November 1, 2004... In the wake of recent, well-publicized failures in information disclosure, organizations are now reconsidering the importance of effective information management. The court rulings and regulations directly resulting from these failures have...

Two effective approaches to compliance efforts.(Book Review)
November 1, 2004... Compliance with new mandates is a high priority for all publicly traded companies, and firms in industry sectors such as health care, financial services, and banking must deal with additional regulations governing their specific operations. ...