Information Management in a
Web 2.0 world
Steve Dale
19 May 2009

Let’s look at some trends…

281 Exabytes
of digital data created, captured, or
replicated in 2007

What is an Exabyte?
1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes
or
10*18

Or ….one Exabyte = approximately
50,000 hours of DVD film.

48 million people routinely
logged onto the Internet in
1996.
Source: IDC

Last year, there were
1.5billion users on the
Internet.
Source: IDC

Another 500 million users
will come online by 2010.
Source: IDC

From 1998 to 2006, the number of e-
mail mailboxes grew from 253 million
to nearly 1.6 billion.
During the same period, the number of
e-mails sent grew three times faster
than the number of people e-mailing.

There are about 540,000 words
In the English language….

About 5 x as many as
during Shakespear’s time

It is estimated that a
week’s worth of The Times…

…contains more information
than a person was likely to come across
in a lifetime in the 18th century.

Information
Knowledge in people’s heads

Data, data everywhere!
Ø Higher definition video and images (e.g. bluRay)
Ø Move to more videoconferencing
Ø Growing network of digital surveillance
Ø P2P file sharing
Ø RFID tags and other sensors
Ø …etc.
All of this data collected,
stored, analysed,
transmitted

New business models are
emerging
Vs.
Source: www.futuregovconsultancy.com

….or disappearing!

More users are turning to Web 2.0
solutions where in-house
(Enterprise) solutions are not
meeting their needs

What does this mean for traditional
Information Management
disciplines?

The traditional models of information
management are becoming
increasingly ignored or
circumvented
Published content
e
rna of
Public
nc
go gour
Info Area
ve
i
ati ing r
Corporate Managed content
memory area
on
orm as
inf ncre
Team working area Unmanaged content
I
Personal working area Private content

Information Classification
000 Computer science, information
100 Philosophy and psychology
200 Religion
300 Social sciences
400 Languages
500 Science
600 Technology & applied science
700 Arts and recreation
800 Literature
900 History, geography & biography

We are less reliant on taxonomies
and classification to find information

I don’t worry about email limits
You are currently using 765Mb (10%) of your 7295MB.
© Google – Terms – Privacy Policy – Google Home

Structured
Freedom

Structured
Freedom

Enterprise vs. External Data
Enterprise External
Data Data
TRENND
Enterprise External Data
Data

2 Terabytes of
data.
(1 Terabyte =
1024 GBytes)

2 TB – enough storage to capture
everything you say or do in your
lifetime

The scale is tipping towards
the Cloud and Software as a
Service (SaaS)
Security
Control
Easy
Collaboration
Reliability Compliance
More user
Risk Lower Admin
control
Management Costs
Platform Easier
Neutral Integration
Cloud/
SaaS

What’s in the
cloud?

What are the opportunities?
Ø Massive, abstracted infrastructure
l Components decided for you
Ø Dynamic allocation, scaling, movement of
applications
Ø Pay per use
Ø No long-term commitments
Ø OS, application architecture independent
Ø No hardware or software to install
Source: Forrester Research Inc 2007

…what are the threats?
Ø Where is the actual data?
Ø Security?
Ø Privacy?
Ø Control?
Ø Compliance?
Ø Trust?

…and what about records
management?

Create/capture
Index & Classify
Store/manage
Retrieve/publish
Process
Policies and Standards
Archive
Destroy
The information life cycle

Retention Schedules?
Document
Management
Focus
Document Value
(Short-Term) Records
Management
Focus
(Long-Term)
1 1 5 25
Month Year Years Years
Time

Forget about record retention
schedules…
Web 2.0 records are perpetual.

Facebook Terms of Service
You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual , non-exclusive,
transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a)
use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display,
transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt,
create derivative works and distribute ……..
The following sections will survive any termination of your
use of the Facebook Service: Prohibited Conduct, User Content, Your
Privacy Practices, Gift Credits, Ownership; Proprietary Rights, Licenses,
Submissions, User Disputes; Complaints, Indemnity, General Disclaimers,
Limitation on Liability, Termination and Changes to the Facebook Service,
Arbitration, Governing Law; Venue and Jurisdiction and Other.

What defines a record?
A record is a collection of information, not a single document
Documents
E-mails
Physical objects
All of the information, managed in
context, that makes up an event
or a business transaction
Meetings
Tasks
Websites and intranet sites
Instant message conversations
Records need to demonstrate authenticity, reliability,
integrity and usability.

More and more information is being
created outside the corporate
firewall

The Information
Management Challenge
Everything is becoming a business record
• Not just e-mail, office docs and
SharePoint – but wikis/blogs, video,
user content on PCs, mobiles, Google
Docs etc.
Information resides everywhere
• Multiple copies, multiple
repositories, multiple formats
• Paper, structured, unstructured, rich
media etc

Traditional IM and Web 2.0 models
are diverging

True or False?
Ø The FOI Act makes no distinction on whether
information is part of a record or not.
Ø EDRM systems cannot resolve FOI requests
Ø The destruction of electronic information and
records is tantamount to vandalism.
Ø Enterprises don’t know what information is being
created, stored and used outside the corporate
firewall.
Ø Records managers and information
professionals are applying 20th Century policies
and procedures to 21st Century ways of working.
The two are incompatible.

Strategic Information
Management
“It is the people and the processes, not the
technology, that really influences Strategic
Information Management; leadership,
governance and accountability aspects are
critical.”
SOLACE Strategic Information Management Conference, 18 July
2008

Points for discussion
Ø Is Web 2.0 an opportunity or a threat for
effective information governance?
Ø Is the cloud the beginning of a seismic
shift in the way that data/information is
stored, used and managed?
Ø Will the role and responsibilities of
information/records managers become
increasingly irrelevant in a Web 2.0 world?
Ø Are EDRM systems past their sell-by
date?

Steve Dale
Independent Consultant
Semantix (UK) Ltd
Email: steve.dale@semantix.co.uk
Website: www.semantix.co.uk
Blog: http://steve-dale.net
Skype id: stephendale
Twitter: www.twitter.com/stephendale

Credits
Trends based on a slideshow by Karl Fisch (http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com)