Recordkeeping Through the Ages

Recordkeeping Throughout History

• Early records of human life date back to drawings on cave walls, such as the depiction of three warty pigs hunted for food at least 45,500 years ago in the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
• By 4000 BCE, tokens were used as an accounting method to record animals, followed by the development of the cuneiform writing system by the Sumerians.
• By 3200 BCE, hieroglyphics were developed in Egypt for commercial and religious purposes, documenting land holdings, crop yields, and taxes.

Recordkeeping in Ancient Civilizations

• The Royal Archives of Ebla (modern Tell Mardikh, Syria) contained an estimated 20,000 clay tablets written in Sumerian script, dating from approximately 2250 BCE.
• In Egypt, scrolls made of papyrus plant were used as a recording medium from approximately 3000 BCE.
• Papyrus became a standard in Greece and Rome until circa 170 BCE when Egypt cut off its supply to Pergamum, leading to the production of parchment from sheepskin or goatskin.

Recordkeeping Development

• In the second century CE, a papermaking process was developed in China, replacing papyrus in Europe by the ninth century.
• The Gutenberg Bible, printed in 1456, revolutionized mass communication.
• In the fourteenth century, the Lord Clerk Register was appointed in Scotland to assume responsibility for keeping the national archives.
• In 1462, the Town Clerk of the City of London was appointed to assume responsibility for the safekeeping of the city corporation's records.

Recordkeeping in the Twentieth Century

• In 1934, Congress established the National Archives to centralize federal recordkeeping in the United States.
• In 1935, Emmett Leahy joined the National Archives and developed a records lifecycle model to control the creation, use, and disposition of records.
• The Federal Records Act of 1950 codified records management policies and practices within the federal government.
• In 1955, the first Guide to Records Retention Requirements was published.

Recordkeeping in the Information Age

• In the 1960s, computers began to be used for data processing, with the first computer, ENIAC, developed in 1943.
• The term "digital" was first used in 1938 to describe a computer that operates on data in the form of digits.
• Electronic typewriters and word processing equipment emerged in the 1960s, increasing typing speeds and accelerating the growth of paper documents.
• The evolution of computers and word processing led to the development of electronic records management and digital information storage.

Records Management and Information Technology

• In 1987, the "PROFS case" resulted in courts finding that electronic versions of email records contained metadata not captured in paper records.
• In 1994, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) issued electronic mail regulations applicable to all Executive branch agencies.
• In 1995, White House email was archived in electronic form.
• Today, records management policies and procedures continue to evolve with emerging technology and increasing volumes of digital information.### Development of Data Storage
• 1971: IBM introduced the 8” floppy disk, a portable and reusable alternative to magnetic tape, with a storage capacity of 80 KB (about 40 pages of text).
• In the 1970s, word processing systems used floppy disks that could store 80 to 100 pages of text and programs, marking the beginning of the convergence of word and data processing functions.

Electronic Records Management

• 1976: Ethernet was developed to provide distributed packet switching for local area networks (LANs), enabling organizations to encourage employees to file documents and spreadsheets electronically.
• 1980s: Electronic document management systems (EDMS) were introduced to store and manage information, but they had limitations such as inability to access information remotely.
• 1990s: The Internet and World Wide Web enabled external connectivity and made EDMS more accessible, leading to the development of wide area networks (WANs) and virtual private networks (VPNs).
• 1994: Jeff Bezos wrote a business plan for Amazon.com, introducing a new business model that relied on electronic records created through online transactions.

Communication Technologies

• 1965: A method was developed for facilitating communication, producing new records that needed to be identified, captured, and managed.
• 1971: Ray Tomlinson invented Internet-based email, introducing the @ symbol to specify user and computer names.
• 1974: Hundreds of military users began using email, and by the end of the 1970s, 75% of ARPANET traffic was email.
• 1997: AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) was launched, allowing direct peer-to-peer connections and text-based messaging.
• 2025: The total number of worldwide instant messaging (IM) accounts is expected to reach over 9.5 billion.

Online Chats and Chat Rooms

• 1990s: Online chat rooms enabled synchronous and asynchronous conversations, still used today by gamers, individuals seeking help, and businesses for customer support.
• 2000s: Live chat tools became popular for enhancing customer experience, and chatbots were introduced to generate leads, create help tickets, and chat across channels.

Web 2.0, Social Media, and Society

• 2004: Facebook was founded, followed by YouTube in 2005, marking the beginning of democratic, collaborative, and interactive online communication.
• 2007: The term "bring your own device" (BYOD) emerged, describing business acceptance of personal devices for work.
• Web 2.0 tools include email, instant messaging, chat rooms, RSS, text messaging, audio and video messaging, blogs, microblogs, wikis, and mashups.

Records Management Challenges

• Records managers faced challenges due to social media, cloud storage, and personal devices, making it essential to be aware of data privacy, data permanence, and data security concerns.
• Ephemeral messages, such as those on Snapchat, raise questions about data retention and permanence.### Google My Business
• Hosts can add property information, photos, and guest reviews to Google search results using Google My Business feature

Business Mashups

• Combine organization's resources, applications, and data with external web services to improve customer service
• Example: order management system with logistics information from UPS or FedEx for immediate access to order status and package tracking

Data Mashups

• Combine similar media and information from disparate data sources to create reports or dashboards
• Example: InetSoft's BI platform allows users to create and define their own data mashups with machine learning engine

Records Management

• New records may be created through business mashups and data mashups, and must be stored and managed accordingly

Social Networking

• Social networks allow users to share content, interact, and develop communities of interest
• Examples: Facebook (3.049 million monthly active users), LinkedIn (990 million users in over 200 countries)
• Leaders with personal profiles on social media appear approachable, accessible, honest, and trustworthy

Virtual Worlds

• Characteristics: 3-D graphics, web-based access, simultaneous interaction among users, and representation of a persistent virtual world
• Examples: Second Life (70 million registered accounts), The Sandbox (Ethereum-based virtual world)
• Investment in virtual worlds creates new records that must be managed, such as accounting records and documentation of events

Tagging and Social Bookmarking

• Social tagging and folksonomies allow users to create metadata for content
• Example: hashtags on social media sites, word clouds (visual representations of terms found in selected text)

Crowdsourcing

• Practice of obtaining needed knowledge, goods, or services from a body of people
• Example: Smithsonian Institution's use of digital volunteers for transcription and review of historical documents

Web Services

• Technical requirements allow different software applications to interoperate
• Examples: augmented reality, videoconferencing, virtual office applications, cloud computing, video sharing, business process modeling

Augmented Reality

• Technology that blurs the lines between the real world and the virtual world
• Examples: Ikea Place app, Apple Vision Pro spatial audio system

Video Hosting

• Services allow users to host and share videos
• Examples: YouTube (2.70 billion active users), Vimeo, Wistia, Dailymotion
• Considerations: target audience, analytics, and integration with marketing automation software

Videoconferencing Services

• Allow people to meet in real-time from different geographic areas
• Examples: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, GoToMeeting, WebEx
• Features: recording meetings, AI features for summarizing meetings and creating action items

Virtual Office Applications

• Allow employees to remotely access information and collaborate
• Examples: Microsoft 365 (345 million paid users), Google Workspace (over 8 million paying business customers)
• Features: document creation, file storage, team collaboration, and records management and compliance

Cloud Computing

• Delivering hosted services over the internet as an alternative to local hardware and infrastructure
• Definition by NIST: model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources

Explore the evolution of recordkeeping practices from prehistoric times to the present day, highlighting the importance of documentation in human civilization.