Future Proof – Protecting our digital future

In August Cassie, Richard and I attended a Build-a-thon workshop at Mosman Library.  To commemorate the centenary of World War I, Mosman Library is creating a rich online collection of materials about the war experiences of Mosman residents. The Build-a-thon was led by Dr Tim Sherratt, a digital historian, web developer and cultural data hacker […]

At the end of August Janet and I, as well as several other colleagues, attended the excellent International Council on Archives (ICA) 2012 Congress in Brisbane. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, chatting with and learning from 1000 other archivists from 95 countries around the world. (Drink. *) The ICA Congress only runs once every four years […]

In May 2012 we posted a summary of what key digital recordkeeping enquiries we had received from NSW agencies in the month and what responses we gave. We thought that perhaps it might be helpful to others pondering the same issues. A number of people viewed this post, so we have decided to do a similar […]

photo credit: Glenn Waters ぐれんin Japan. I have just finished reading (at lunch time today!) John le Carre’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. It was fantastic! My first le Carre experience and I loved it. My appreciation of the story was enhanced even further because a crucial aspect of the case against […]

We think of metadata as a modern concept, a product of the computer age and the online world. But metadata is actually an ancient tool in the world of information management. There is probably some form hieroglyphic metadata in a museum somewhere but, closer to home, an interesting overview of early Australian metadata practices has […]

Up until last year, the NSW Fire Brigades had a records management system that had been in use for over ten years. photo credit: pqs As a very large organisation with over 4000 staff spread across the State and as an organisation that performs a high risk and critically important role, Fire Brigades had a […]

The Sydney Morning Herald, on page 1 of its December 5-6 2009 edition, ran a story called ‘Climate email mess hits Australia’. The story provides further detail from climate change records hacked from East Anglia University in the UK.

Future Proof blog watchers may have seen today’s Sydney Morning Herald article ‘Fake emails: how easy are they …to spot or make?’ (go to: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/security/fake-emails-how-easy-are-they–to-spot-or-make-20090623-cuzq.html) It is interesting to see the following advice in the article from digital forensics expert Graham Thompson: “The trick in exposing what’s fake or real, Thompson explained, is to obtain an electronic copy of […]