Future Proof – Protecting our digital future

Conclusion of our exploratory adventure Just over 12 months ago the Digital State Archives team here at NSW State Archives was challenged to explore the application of machine learning to records management with a specific focus on digital disposal. We began by publishing a preliminary research blog which assessed the ‘state of art’ of the […]

Last week the Digital Implementers Group enjoyed a presentation by one of the members of the Group on auto-classification. Following the end of a service provider’s contract, a government agency received the property service records that the provider had been creating and managing for ten years. These records consisted of over 400,000 electronic documents contained […]

Motivation In 2017 State Archives NSW’s Digital Archives team began investigating the application of machine learning to records management. The first deliverable of this project was a research paper published on the FutureProof blog that explored the state of art (what the technology is capable of) and state of play (how it is being used […]

Systems migration is a frequently occurring activity for any organisation that conducts its business digitally. And the ‘digital on the inside’ priority of the NSW Government Digital Strategy may be a driver for migration as agencies streamline their business processes and consolidate their legacy systems. The general retention and disposal authority for source records that […]

Executive Summary This paper details preliminary research into the application of machine learning technologies to records management in a digital environment. Machine learning has the potential to automate processes such as classification and disposal. Indeed there are already commercial records management products available that use machine learning, such as auto-classification to improve search. Blockers to […]

In light of recent media coverage of possible inappropriate deletion of Ministerial emails in Queensland, we would like to remind NSW public offices that email messages sent and received in the course of official business are State records under the State Records Act 1998 (the Act). This includes messages sent and received by Ministers in […]

Earlier this month a small contingent from State Archives and Records NSW enjoyed a day travelling to Canberra to discuss appraisal, sentencing and all things machine learning with our colleagues from the National Archives of Australia (NAA). Glenn Humphries from our Digital State Archives team is undertaking research into machine learning which will be published […]

Call for any research or any occurrence of machine learning technologies being used in records management within the State of New South Wales or beyond. This could be in the area of digital classification, appraisal or disposal from either an “off the shelf product” or any “in house development” being used. Machine learning is the […]

Last October when it emerged that the Prime Minister and Cabinet were using the social messaging tool WhatsApp to communicate with each other[1], the Australian Signals Directorate advised that although the app was not on the approved list for sensitive and classified communications, they had no concerns about the use of it for ‘routine communications’[2].

We revisited digital disposal at our recent Digital Implementers Group meeting. We were interested in how things had progressed since the topic was last discussed. Were the main drivers for digital disposal still compelling? Were the main blockers still impassable? After an energetic discussion, we knew we faced familiar challenges, but also included are some […]