We are at the starting point of a NZ Government Information R/evolution. The Digital Continuity Strategy represents a paradigm shift in the way that the NZ government thinks about storing and retrieving digital information.
5.2.4 Investigate shared service for storage and retrieval of digital information.
This will involve taking a whole-of-government approach to the storage of information. This activity would encompass active records not considered to have archival value, as well as those which may be ultimately transferred to archival custody. This shared service approach would make the best possible use of the limited capability to deal with medium- and long-term digital preservation, and therefore significantly reduce the burden on individual agencies to resource this work. The model of service provision could be either centralised or decentralised, and could involve partnerships with the commercial sector. The overall risk to government of digital information not being accessible in the future would be substantially reduced.
What does this simple paragraph mean?
- It recognises the power of the network, to store information, and then make it available when needed. Unlike paper records, physical possession is not needed for access, only guaranteed access and response times.
- Information need only be stored in one place, and then access granted to authorised parties. For transactions, it halves the storage costs to the taxpayer (currently government and citizen keep copies of the record). It shows in the future, we could have a URL pointing to a digital record, that we could share with our accountant, our bank manager. Unlike paper records, they would only need to copy the URL, not the record.
- No assumption is made that the record must be stored within the government department creating the record. It must be stored in a trusted repository, by someone who can manage the record well. Most people would find this attractive (when was the last time you backed up your accounts on our PC?). Assuming the information is managed to Archives requirements, then your information is highly likely to be accessible in the future.
In 20 years time, people are going to ask, were you there, at the start of the Information R/evolution? Did you have a part in it? There’s still time — feedback closes on 14 November.
