Electronic Document, Records and Social Networking

In defining skills for an Electronic Document and Records Management course at the ANU, I previously looked at using the UK Government Knowledge and Information Management Professional Skills Framework, SFIA, and the ASA/RMAA Statement of Knowledge for Recordkeeping Professionals. Then I talked to people from National Archives of Australia and RMAA. Last of all I talked to people who enquired about doing a course. The last group is most important, being the potential students, but before I could talk to them I need to have something to offer them.

What potential students seemed to want was:

1. Reassurance they could do a university course: Many in the records management area have a qualification gained years ago from a TAFE. They are not sure if they would be accepted by a university, particularly by the ANU, Australia's leading university. What I have to do is reassure them that if they have experience at working in an organisation, writing documents, they will be able to do the course.
2. Guide as to what to do: The course I am designing is only six weeks long. This provides a useful introduction to further studies, but does not provide a complete qualification. The ANU doesn't offer a complete program in records management, but does have Graduate Studies Select , where students can pick subjects from across the university and from University of Southern Queensland (USQ) and Charles Darwin University (CDU) as well.
3. Integration of records management with content management systems: A common question asked was about the integration of a records management system (mostly Trim or RecordPoint) with a content management system (mostly SharePoint).
4. Social Networking: The typical comment is that e-mail is integrated with the records management system, but that is about all. So only about 5% of the electronic documents of the organisation are in the corporate records system. What to do with Twitter and the like has not even been thought about.

Previously I identified 8 Skills in SFIA relevant to the course (plus Procurement and the Quality management skills). There is not room in six weeks for all of that. So cutting it down further, I have:

1. Strategy & architecture
   • Information strategy
     • Information management
     • Information policy formation
     • Information content publishing
2. Business change
   • Business change management
     • Business analysis
3. Solution development and implementation
   • Systems development
     • Data analysis
     • Database/repository design
   • Human factors
     • Usability evaluation

This is getting close to something usable.

Somewhere in here I need to discuss:

1. Records Management
2. Metadata
3. Information Structures
4. Electronic Document Formats
5. Social Networking/Web 2.0/Gov 2.0
6. Implementation in Business