Creation, Capture & Control - catch up

Just a reminder that there is a scheduled catch up for Tuesday 30 April.  Please note the change of time is now 1:30pm - 4:00pm.  I sent a meeting request to all students, so please respond.

See you on 30/4 Lower Ground Meeting room at 1:30pm.

Regards,
Melisa  

C.C.C. Chapter 3

Hi team,

Hope that you all enjoyed the Easter break.  I had a lovely time with my family & as usual over indulged in too many chocolate eggs . . .  and home made choc chip hot cross buns!

This week I will be out of the office delivering RM Awareness training to SAPOL (South Australia Police), so please be patient if I don't respond to your enquiries promptly.  If you want some more info about what awareness training we can deliver to you & your colleagues, please let me know.

Chapter 3

This is quite an interesting chapter.  After reading this chapter, I think that you may look at the metadata captured for your records in a different light.  

Fig 1 The importance of metadata

To kick off this chapter have a look at the picture above.  They are tins of food minus their labels (no this isn't Masterchef or MKR!).  I want you to guess the contents of the packages.  Not as easy as you might think.  What this activity demonstrates is that the labels (metadata) contain important information to help us make informed decisions.  If metadata isn’t captured, or recorded accurately, there can be unfortunate consequences EG labels not containing info about nuts = food allergies.

This is only one example of how metadata surrounds us in our everyday lives.  There are a number of other examples for you to consider.  Think of your swipe card that you use to gain access to the building, our IPod, the FlyBuys or loyalty shopping cards, digital radio, digital cameras and the list goes on and on and on!  Amazing how it surrounds us and we haven't even gone looking for it!  There is also a movie ("Enemy of the State" with Wil Smith, Gene Hackman & John Voight, check out the "review" on Wikipedia ) that touched on the collection of metadata and how it can be used.  See metadata is everywhere!  

 

For an entertaining take on Metadata have a look at the YouTube clip posted above, it’s quite informative & explains metadata easily!

On Page 47 we look at the relationship of the three entities (fig 3.2 in your workbook) and how they are all inter-related.  These entities form the basis of SARKMS.  In short SARKMS relates to the minimum metadata requirement that your recordkeeping system must capture.  Remember that an approved EDRMS needs to be compliant with SARKMS, VERS and EDRMS functional spec.  Check out the SRSA website for the full version of the current standard.    On pgs 10 -15 of the standard is a table that details the minimum metadata requirements for each entity.  If you are fortunate enough to have a compliant EDRMS then you don’t have to worry too much about the standard.  However if you are planning to upgrade or change your EDRMS you do need to ensure that your EDRMS meets these minimum requirements.  By having a compliant EDRMS, with all the functions operational, means that you have an electronic system that will capture the metadata for you.  

At State Records we have an automated system to collect metadata.  We use templates to capture metadata.  Some of the metadata is inputted by the author of the document when the record is created while other metadata is automatically generated.  Metadata is captured to ensure that when we do move over to an EDRMS that the information will easily flow over.  Figs 3.3, 3.4 & 3.5 in your workbook  show what metadata is captured in the template.

Unfortunately there are some agencies who have no electronic or automated system which means that they capture the metadata manually.  Yep that means that the metadata is usually maintained separately to the record, either by “index card” or the metadata entered onto a spreadsheet.    

Based upon the above examples what other examples of capturing metadata do you have?

Article of the week

I came across this interesting article about data collection on the Internet.  What are your thoughts on the possibility of "deleting" the information?  What will the consequences be, if any, if this was to happen?  Will the metadata exist even if teh information is deleted?  Please share your thoughts below.
  
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/the-internet-never-forgets-20130322-2gle7.html  

I encourage you to share any newsworthy articles with your fellow students.  

Have a great week.

Ciao,
Melisa

P.S. For those of you who tried to guess the contents of the wrapped food items, here they are

Fig 2 Ta da!

1.Beetroot
2.Coconut milk
3.Super crunchy peanut butter
4.Pineapple fruit juice
5.Kidney beans
6.Corn kernels
7.Savory biscuits
8.Cous cous
9.Tin of biscuits

So how many did you get right?