Jana,
First, it was great seeing you in San Antonio at AIIM18! Also, thank you for attending our <g class="gr_ gr_98 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="98" data-gr-id="98">FEDSIG</g> interest meeting there. You have been one of my information heroes for many years and I'm very glad to have you in this online community.
Here are my thoughts...really just one thought spread out into too many words.
Regarding all of the options you discuss, there is a common thread. Whether you are a RIM specialist, IT, or some related discipline, you have to get out of your silo, move around in the organization and meet the other stakeholders -- all of them. Build relationships with them. Take them to coffee. Learn about what makes them tick, what keeps them up at night, and the organizational pressures they face every day. Then, once there is
trust, share your ideas. Win them over. Build an alliance. Start a revolution -- together. Have fun with it even.
This will take some time, but whatever option is best given an organization's resources, the chances for success are far less likely unless great attention is paid to the "people" part of the "people, process, tech, info" stack. We big picture thinkers, we information professionals (whether certified or not) must teach, explain, tell stories, and cajole. This is the art, the grease, the social fabric of our profession. I don't like the term "soft skill." Rather I prefer this human skill set as a critical attribute of our profession.
Honestly, I have to look in the mirror when I say these things. The folks who do what we do are not generally gregarious types, to our own detriment, and the detriment of the information for which we are the stewards. We must become that extrovert as a part of our professional development, for GS types, I'd say as a part of our "service." How's that?
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Mark Patrick, CIP, CDR USN (Ret.)
Chairman, Board of Directors
AIIM International
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-24-2018 18:21
From: Jana Gallatin
Subject: DoD Records and Information Management Challenges
In the DoD space, I see RIM related or affecting "automation" coming from a few places and would like to explore what that means to better managing the information flowing through the digital pipes.
1) Homegrown - buried in some generic support contract or generic IT support. There is no specific funded requirement for RIM, but there may be some purchases (not acquisitions) of RIM supportive stuff like data bases, office tools, archives. And there may be internal developments going on. We have these at JITC and I've seen them at DHA and other places. Here the people providing the solutions may not even be IT in the traditional sense. It may be a special projects group. And Records and Information Management gurus won't be invited into the table because even if someone thinks about it "they just make things harder." How do we reach these areas?
2) Part of another IT-related acquisition - This is what OMB-A130 targets. Build in RIM, don't bolt it on. These are funded programs and should have some sort of Information Support Plan that includes RIM aspects. Primarily the focus has been interoperability, at least from my test-centric perspective.
3) Purpose built/acquired - These are specific content management solutions that can be configured to support RIM. Many COTS fit here and are generally included as basis or components for the acquisitions mentioned in 2). Or they may be a stand-alone purchase to just do RM or CM or DM or ?
4) RIM Services/micro services - This may be emerging related to content content services. Because of the fundamental nature of services, I want to say that this perspective will help guide us to architected, engineered, integrated, interoperable and curated information ecosystems. But, because of what I've experienced with DISA's implementation of services, the integration, interoperability, and curation happen at the desktop via the bio-component. Certainly not acceptable.
Thoughts? Ideas? Observations?
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Jana Gallatin
test officer
DoD 5015.02
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