Using communities of practice to develop and promote records management
There is a growing understanding that records management is central to the well being and effective functioning of organisations. That without good records management there are legal dangers and unnecessary risks and costs. However, records managers may be isolated within the organisation and from their contemporaries and peers. They are often trying to manage an information environment that is constantly shifting and changing.
As soon as complex internal systems are understood, they face competition from utility service computing. Just as the problems of web 2.0 are managed, web 3.0 appears. How to keep up? How to learn and assimilate new ideas and implement best practice? How to bounce ideas around and develop professional knowledge?
The development and sharing of knowledge and experience are critical not just to the individual, but to the organisations themselves. How is the knowledge about records management itself captured and stored and shared? Communities of practice can take a variety of forms and play different functions. They can create a space where ideas can be developed; they enable a range of practitioners to come together to learn.
Communities of practice can be supported by a range of technologies and help to raise awareness and the profile of records management. This will help it become embedded within the organisation and gain the attention of the top table. That will enable records managers not just to weather the ongoing storms of compliance, archiving, storage and disposal, but of successfully meeting the challenges of the ongoing development of the digital age.
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Danny Budzak, Being DigitalDanny has been working with technologies for over 20 years. He began during the pre-history of the internet when he built community databases in libraries using videotext. He was one of the first local authority web editors and won a... more...
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