Managing the Crowd: Rethinking Records Management for the Web 2.0 World

Citation

Griffiths, E. (2009), "Managing the Crowd: Rethinking Records Management for the Web 2.0 World", Library Management, Vol. 30 No. 3, pp. 210-212. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120910937401

Content and effectiveness for intended audience: thoughtful; thought‐provoking; important; impressive

How many books or articles on the topic of records management have you ever read which leave you with all of those impressions? This book is a unique offering, with the aim of engaging records management professionals in discussion and debate to ensure the relevance of the important goals and objectives of records management into the future.

In his Foreword the author outlines the challenges this book addresses:

The orthodox approach to managing records is rapidly reaching the limits of its effectiveness […] the changes to our organisations, our society and our culture, driven by the new technical paradigm into which we are now moving, threaten to make the way we manage our records obsolete.

In the preface we begin the journey into the radical rethinking proposed:

Imagine an organisation where users are free to describe the content they create as they see fit […] What if we were to use the wisdom of the crowd to manage the crowd?

The book outlines a refreshing, challenging, and ultimately encouraging journey that we are invited to participate in by critically examining founding records management goals and principles in the light of our changing world. Examples are given to demonstrate the issues and challenges that enable us to better understand ways we need to think and work records management differently for our Web 2.0 world. Those examples are powerful and convincing: we may well recognize ourselves struggling with unsustainable records management methodologies no longer fit for purpose. Guidance is offered through the ten Records Management 2.0 defining principles offered and outlined in Chapter 11, then explained in more detail in Chapter 12. The “how to” relies on us engaging in creating answers and even more questions as Records Management 2.0 evolves.

The reader is reminded that Web 2.0 is not organisation‐centric, and in that fact and challenge lies the possibility that users could actually organise their online information themselves. That's the way we work with information using Web 2.0 in our personal lives and increasingly in our professional lives. The tools to help users organise the information they want and need exist in the Web 2.0 world; for example, social book‐marking tools such as Del.icio.us may provide records managers with a useful model for a Records Management 2.0 solution. The challenge laid down is how records managers can enable and empower users – as records managers are certainly unable to manage the overwhelming array of dispersed information being created by the Web 2.0 and Office 2.0 world.

Although the author is a respected records management professional, he nevertheless establishes and retains professional credibility with his audience by working through examples of challenges which are well known to those engaged in the current records management paradigm. Examples such as the gulf between theory and practice; the definition of a record; the challenges of the existing control and command ethos; the generalist nature of records managers; format diversity; appraisal, retention and destruction decisions are all knowledgably presented. From the discussion of issues come challenges to current records management methods, demonstrating the need to shift to a new paradigm to remain relevant.

As intended, this book serves as:

… a springboard for discussion and debate and suggests some specific examples of how Records Management 2.0 could actually be implemented: a radical new theoretical model that removes the existing dependency of records management on the records manager, and instead looks to harness the wisdom of the crowd.

As the author says:

… if at the end of it you have been stirred into thinking of just one other approach that might be worth consideration it will have served its purpose.

It did. It works. And it is an enjoyable read. Now let's get the GoogleApps developers on board!

Structure

The book consists of 12 chapters, presented in three parts, each chapter prefaced by “Questions addressed in this Chapter”. It has been effectively designed to serve the purpose of its creation – to encourage conversations and further questions about the contents. You can use the contents pages to easily find discussion points and the Index ensures that idea threads are accessible. The Preface and Foreword of our copy are also being well‐used, as they succinctly summarise the author's purpose and reason for writing the book.

Who would find it useful?

I would recommend this book to all records management, information and knowledge management practitioners. Engaging people in our organisations by recommending it to them would also assist us in our journey to find answers to the way forwards to Records Management 2.0. And of course students interested in becoming professional records managers will find the book a treat: a text you could enjoy being challenged by as a student. Those engaged in other aspects of Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and Values 2.0 and interested in the evolution of a morphing of the web services paradigm, the possibilities of records‐software‐as‐a‐service and the author's YouManage idea will find much to inform their thinking, discussion and debate in this book.