It seems to me that with the volume and variety of information we (Records Managers) are slowly losing the battle of manually processing and classifying the information. Auto classification may be just the thing that could help us to bring some degree of control to the Big Data. We definitely need to find a solution for this as the amount of unstructured data is growing by the minute.
I reckon the constituent parts of the solution are already out there, and in some places being used. It just needs the combined skills of IRM and IT and their collaboration with the business to make it happen – see http://bit.ly/1bHBw6i
The issue is not technology but the culture of the organisation. If they do not have a culture that requires filing or organising emails, who will? If the organisation sets out clearly what it expects, trains staff to do that, and then follows up to confirm that they are, then it will be done. Otherwise, it will just drift. As a result of a failure to invest in training and managing staff, organisations turn to technology as a panacea. Technology only makes the organisation better at what it is already doing.
The cartoon is probably on the wall at HP/Autonomy. 🙂
Thinking Records 
And the next panel shows both thinking “Oh! Iknow, “Miscellaneous”. …
under “Admin”…
And the next panel shows Mr Core Worker, Ms IT, Mr RM and Ms Process Improvement in a group hug saying “job done”.
And the last panel says : what metadata should be added
…. although much of the metadata requirement will be captured automatically based on pre-defined rules
It seems to me that with the volume and variety of information we (Records Managers) are slowly losing the battle of manually processing and classifying the information. Auto classification may be just the thing that could help us to bring some degree of control to the Big Data. We definitely need to find a solution for this as the amount of unstructured data is growing by the minute.
I reckon the constituent parts of the solution are already out there, and in some places being used. It just needs the combined skills of IRM and IT and their collaboration with the business to make it happen – see http://bit.ly/1bHBw6i
Thanks for linking, Heather.
Absolutely brilliant, James. And sadly accurate.
Hopefully somewhere you search engine can find it!
The issue is that organisations no longer train their staff to be filers. Instead they rely upon them to be better searchers. Paper created filers, internet creates searchers.
http://thoughtmanagement.org/2012/09/15/are-you-a-filer-or-a-searcher-did-your-organisations-teach-you-to-file/
The issue is not technology but the culture of the organisation. If they do not have a culture that requires filing or organising emails, who will? If the organisation sets out clearly what it expects, trains staff to do that, and then follows up to confirm that they are, then it will be done. Otherwise, it will just drift. As a result of a failure to invest in training and managing staff, organisations turn to technology as a panacea. Technology only makes the organisation better at what it is already doing.
The cartoon is probably on the wall at HP/Autonomy. 🙂