Evolution and Management of Email - ACDA 2010

Riccardo F Ri d Ferrante t Smithsonian Institution Archives ACDA 2010 – Mundelein, IL

1965 – Electronic mail allows users on a single mainframe computer to communicate with each other. MIT’s CTSS and t t i t ith h th MIT’ d SDC’s (System Development Corporation, a spinoff of Rand Corp, that was sold to Unisys in the mid 80’s) Q32 1966 – users of compatible systems can “email” each other: f tibl t “ il” h th BITNET, Unix mail, IBM, DEC 1969 – first electronic mail sent between disparate systems over ARPANET 1971 – “@” address demarcation first used to send email from one DEC system to another DEC system 1982 – Email transmission protocol standard SMTP (RFC 821) and ARPA ITM (RFC 822) published.

1980’s – Email applications developed for PCs and LANs. Proprietary systems include features to “decode” the P i t t i l d f t t “d d ” th mail from competitors’ systems. Cc:Mail, Microsoft Mail, Banyan VINES, Lotus Notes, AppleMail, Groupwise (previously WordPerfect Office) Mid 1990’s – attachments and HTML added as a result of MIME standard (RFC 2045 in 11/1996) – web hosted email services 2001 – Email standard RFC 822 superseded by RFC 2822 Mid 2000’ - E 2000’s Enron emails used as evidence iin liti ti il d id litigation, posted to the Web 2008 – RFC 2822 superseded by RFC 5322

Messages sent within one computer system

Messages sent between systems that are the same

ARPANET DEC IBM BITNET Messages sent between different systems

ARPANET @company.com Person BITNET

1982 -- Standard published for message format – RFC 821, RFC 822 PC and LAN’s support proprietary email apps PC’s & LAN’s

1982 -- Standard published for message format – RFC 821, RFC 822 PC and LAN’s support proprietary email apps Examples: WordPerfect Office Microsoft Mail (later Novell Groupwise) Cc:Mail Lotus Notes Banyan VINES

Email E il Signature Organization Docs

Web-based Web based email services … and others Email Signature Organization Docs

Email data format standard updated 2001 – Email standard RFC 2822 supersedes RFC 822 (1982) 2008 – RFC 5322 supersedes RFC 2822 (2001) Emails used as evidence in litigation posted to litigation, the Web Legislation passed to include electronic records g p in discoverable documents

Email is ubiquitous That means email can be is: Official records Organization records O i ti d Personal papers

Paper-based recordkeeping systems Electronic recordkeeping systems Adequate and reliable? ERMS systems ( y (DoD 5015.2)) http://jitc.fhu.disa.mil/recmgt/register.html Both U.S. GAO reports Information Management: The Challenge of Managing Electronic Records June 17, 2010. Records. 17 2010 Federal Records: Agencies Face Challenges in Managing E- mails. April 23, 2008. None

Acquiring historic correspondence at very high risk. With records management systems in place, still a hit or miss proposition Tension between minimized vulnerabilities and keeping historic records Also applicable, policies calling for destruction of email based on non-content criteria (age, number in account, etc.) Without a companion Record Management System Catch as catch can – which usually means it doesn’t get captured Individual I di id l emails saved t a diskette and t il d to di k tt d tossed iin a f ld d folder Printed and filed Nothing

What we get is what we get g g Proactive acquisition Electronic record management systems Email capture systems EMCAP, EMCAP a joint project of North Carolina and Kentucky System-configured declaration or user-declared

Under the hood Classification Records Disposition Schedules Working with an ERMS implementation

Relationships Email administration Disaster recovery plans Policy

Reducing liabilities without losing history g g Thorough application of records management practices Policy directives supporting acquisition & retention of historical documents Ability to constrain access based on litigation or other legal activities Consistent, documented procedures and policies

What is the archival object? The lifecycle question Message by message, or in groups What about attachments and nested emails (threads)? Obsolescence

Using ERMS’s ERMS s Using XML Individual or consortial systems approach? Projects to consult EMCAP – Email Capture & Preservation CERP – Collaborative Electronic Records Project PEDALS – Persistent Digital Archives & Library Systems HUL – Harvard University Libraries

Ricc Ferrante IT Archivist and Director of Digital Services Smithsonian Institution Archives 202-633-5906 FerranteR@si.edu

Evolution and Management of Email - ACDA 2010

by Riccardo Ferrante

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