Information Revolution
Every fortnight Karl, Judi and Michael get together to discuss topics in information management practice that are relevant for today and the future. We’ll bring in other industry insiders to talk about what they’re doing, and how their practice is changing. Information management in government is in the midst of a long term transition. To be successful now and in the future, we have to be active participants in the day-to-day business of our organisations and in the design of the information resources that our organisations use. If we get this right, the next big gains in productivity and public good will come from us. It’s a revolution in information management – and we want everyone to be part of it. Hosted by Karl Melrose, Judi Vernau (Metataxis NZ) and Michael Upton (Metataxis NZ).
Listen on:
Video, if you prefer
You can check out the Information Revolution YouTube channel, if you're into talking heads. (No, not Talking Heads.)
Same content as the podcast, just with video.
Episodes
Saturday Jul 27, 2024
Saturday Jul 27, 2024
In the era of paper, records management hinged on a custodial model: get the things of value, describe them in order to take care of them, and help people to access them if they ask. How much is this still our practice in 2024? And what does it mean?
Karl mentions Edgar Schein's definition of organisational culture, here's an open access PDF of Schein's Coming to a New Awareness of Organizational Culture.
With your hosts:
Karl Melrose
Judi Vernau
Michael Upton
Friday Jul 12, 2024
Friday Jul 12, 2024
Judi and Michael talk more about auto-classifying records with Judi describing her experiences and the two of them exploring the value of NOT using where something has been filed as the basis for deciding how long it should be retained for. Michael opens with a wee addendum to last episode - there is a data catalogue, by name, in Microsoft Purview!
With your hosts:
Judi Vernau
Michael Upton
Karl Melrose was an apology for this ep, but hasn't disappeared!
Friday Jun 28, 2024
Friday Jun 28, 2024
Michael takes us through how you can group information in Microsoft 365 and then trigger actions on it, looking at Microsoft Purview (f.k.a. the Compliance Center) and SharePoint Premium (f.k.a. Syntex).
With your hosts:
Karl Melrose
Judi Vernau
Michael Upton
Friday Jun 14, 2024
Friday Jun 14, 2024
If domain models and information asset registers are two ways of modelling your organisation's information, how about ontologies? Judi leads the conversation on what they're all about.
A few notes:
A snapshot of the Australian Series System as implemented by Archives New Zealand in their system Archway https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/webarchive/20190705140941/http://archway.archives.govt.nz/ArchivalSystem.do
The article 'All Communication Is Miscommunication' https://harishsnotebook.wordpress.com/2024/04/14/all-communication-is-miscommunication/
The Records In Contexts ontology https://www.ica.org/resource/records-in-contexts-ontology
An All-of-Government Ontology options paper https://www.archives.govt.nz/about-us/publications/all-of-government-ontology-options-paper
With your hosts:
Karl Melrose
Judi Vernau
Michael Upton
Friday May 17, 2024
Friday May 17, 2024
Why does Michael get a sinking feeling when people talk about information asset registers?
What are they for?
What's worse, boiling the ocean or having to retrofit the information you didn't collect?
Could tools help us?
And how many times can we fit the word "catalytic" into one episode?
With your hosts:
Karl Melrose
Judi Vernau
Michael Upton
A few notes:
Treesize gets a mention: it's a piece of software for analysing the content of drives based on file properties.
The episode with Doug Laney: https://youtu.be/0RzX4Dbz2_Y
Harradine reports: https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/about-us/accountability-and-reporting/harradine-reports
Friday May 03, 2024
Friday May 03, 2024
Why limit yourself to functional classification?
How could you think describe the whole domain of what your organisation cares about?
... and why would you do that?
Judi mentions some work on an all-of-government ontology, link here: All-of-government ontology options paper – Archives New Zealand
With your hosts:
Karl Melrose
Judi Vernau
Michael Upton
Friday Apr 19, 2024
Friday Apr 19, 2024
In this episode we reflect on the goodies we've gleaned since last November, when we first brought valuing information into focus. If you haven't gone back through the previous episodes, we've had great guests with a lot of insights! Today we pull out some highlights and ruminate on integrating lessons into practice.
With your hosts:
Karl Melrose
Judi Vernau
Michael Upton
Saturday Mar 30, 2024
Saturday Mar 30, 2024
We were thrilled to have Chicago-based innovation fellow, data management enthusiast, and author Doug Laney on the Information Revolution podcast. He touches on the concepts of his books, Infonomics and Data Juice, and drops all kinds of good oil (refined or otherwise) on how to value and make more from the data, information, knowledge and wisdom your organisation holds (a little in-joke there).
With your hosts:
Karl Melrose
Judi Vernau
Michael Upton
Doug rounds out a series of guests we've had on now thinking about valuation, if you're interested look back on previous episodes with James Price and Matt Moore.
Learn more about Doug at his site: https://www.douglasblaney.com/
Friday Mar 15, 2024
Friday Mar 15, 2024
Today's episode continues a conversation with Liz Wilson about data, documents, and the need for changes of practice to avoid data management cutting records management's lunch. Oh, and the nature of memory!
With your hosts:
Karl Melrose
Judi Vernau
Michael Upton
Friday Mar 01, 2024
Friday Mar 01, 2024
Our first episode of 2024! We're back after a bit of a break, with the first part of a conversation with Liz Wilson about data, documents, (not) managing the container and some ruminating on how financial institutions work with information.
With your hosts:
Karl Melrose
Judi Vernau
Michael Upton