The Ohio Electronic Records Committee (OhioERC) has published a new tip sheet: Tips for Text Messaging Retention! These tips highlight the potential records management concerns public offices and officials should consider when using text messaging for government business. The tip sheet includes questions that can help determine if the text is a public record, the risks and liabilities involved with texting, best practices for government offices to implement, and the pros and cons of allowing employees to text on their personal devices versus providing them with government-issued devices. If your government office uses text messaging then you should check this out!
New Social Media Training Now Available!
The Ohio Electronic Records Committee (OhioERC) is proud to announce the release of its first interactive, online training module! The module, Social Media: The Records Management Challenge, delves into topics such as:
- Government use of social media – through both public and personal accounts
- Capture, management and disposition factors of records created on social media
- Citizen interaction with government through social media
This free training is geared toward governments that have social media accounts as well as elected officials and public employees who may find themselves balancing a personal social media presence with their public roles.
The training registration can be found at http://go.osu.edu/ohioerc-socialmedia. After registering, you will be taken to BuckeyeLearn to access the training. The training will take approximately 30 to 45 minutes. Upon completion of the training, you will be able to print a certificate of completion from BuckeyeLearn.
Grant funding from the Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board (OHRAB), through the National Historical Publication and Records Commission (NHPRC), has provided for up to 2000 unique registrations. Since the number is limited, act fast to take this online training!
Please share this exciting opportunity with others that you feel would benefit from the training.
New OhioERC Guideline: Blockchain Basics
As a technology, blockchain, or distributed ledgers, have been around for over a decade, but it is only recently that blockchain uses beyond cryptocurrencies have been contemplated. Now, however, Ohio state and local governments are taking an interest in blockchain and how the technology might be leveraged within the public sector. Legislators are proposing changes to the law to allow for the use of blockchain, and technology companies are rapidly getting into the game. In this fast-paced move toward the adoption of blockchain technology, records managers and archivists cannot afford to not be a part of the crucial conversations because they don’t understand the technology.
The OhioERC Blockchain subcommittee is working toward a number of guidelines to demystify blockchain technology. We are happy to release our first document, Blockchain Basics! It is intended to be a high-level description of the most common blockchain concepts and terminology. The guideline does not attempt to argue for or against the use of blockchain, as there are many variables that come into play.
Stay tuned over the next year as the subcommittee releases additional guides that:
- Provide basic level of understanding of blockchain to records managers
- Outline the advantages, disadvantages, and how those change with public versus private blockchains
- Outline the role records managers and archivists should play in blockchain projects
- Who should be at the table during blockchain projects and what should their role(s) entail
- Use cases for types of records that could benefit from blockchain and types that might be better suited in a different format
- Identify potential legal implications
Sincerely,
Pari Swift, OhioERC Blockchain Subcommittee Chair