PRO ELECTRONIC RECORDS IN OFFICE SYSTEMS PROGRAMME,
INDUSTRY CHANGE (sub-)PROGRAMME (EROS - ICP)

JOINT BRITISH STANDARDS INSTITUTION AND PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE STANDARD WORKING GROUP IDT/1/4  

by Kenneth Tombs

1. Introduction

Departments have reached the point of almost universal adoption for word processing methods as an infrastructure tool for their business.  Therefore, the management of those subsequent records, their transfer to the PRO and  long term storage becomes critical in importance.  The PRO does not intend to become a museum for word processing packages as used in government, nor can it maintain the wide range of hardware platforms needed to run them.  

The basic requirement of the EROS Programme is to find ways acceptable to both departments and the PRO of transferring electronic records into the PRO, storing them and eventually making them available to the public, electronically rather than on paper. The Industry Change Programme (ICP)  is that part of the EROS approach that focuses on suppliers and the elements of their EDM systems that imnpact upon how EROS meet its objectives.  

To focus the work required with suppliers the Advisory Programme Board has agreed a Strategy for bringing about industry change.  This Strategy is based upon a pragmatic view of standards, supplier influences and their customer communication. This strategy is intended to be ‘alive and dynamic’, which requires this operational document to be ‘live’ and a reflection of the current situation.  

The ICP BSI Working Group forms a major component of the EROS programme to safeguard and facilitate the transfer of electronic records from government departments to the PRO to meet the requirements of the Public Records Act. It is expected that the WG will be transitory and in time be replaced by an exclusively BSi or ISO Committee. In turn, it is expected that this Working Group will spawn and motivate further standardisation, and more elegant solutions to the long term needs of archive community.

2. Principles and Goals 

The expectation is that the WG’s activities will be fast moving, opportunistic and dynamic. In such a context, considerable tolerance must be afforded the WG Chairman to make the most of situations as they arise.  However, constraints must be placed upon those individuals to ensure that the general direction and goals of the WG are pursued. 

Therefore, it is proposed that a series of principles will guide the WG Chairman.  This Charter document details those Principles and the Strategic Goals of the Working Group.

What Constitutes the Working Group

The WG is a major initiative of change to achieve the goal of preserving worthwhile electronic records for future availability.  The essential attributes of the WG are:

1.	it is part of the wider EROS Programme of change management activities which link with EROS covering meta-data, the gaining of executive acceptance, and the review of the established paper selection processes;
	
2.	the persuading of departments and their staff, through a supplier’s own activities, to shift their working attitudes from paper to electronic media;
	
3.	the generation of an independently managed Standard for a ‘records or object Bundle’ which can be moved easily from a departments' application to the DRO or PRO for storage;
	
4.	the use of the ‘Bundle’ as a transit envelope which is independent of its content, and that each Bundle contains enough application software to represent its content on some other general hardware platform;
	
5.	the persuasion of suppliers to adopt the Bundle Standard;
	
6.	the formulation of a standard suppliers' Bundle licensing agreement.

The Goals of this Strategy are:

for EROS,

“to ensure that electronic records of long term value, created across government, are available for future access”

for the Working Group,

“to create an overall standard for ‘Bundles of electronic records’,  their associated software and transfer mechanism, indexes, and resolve the quasi-legal issues of working with Bundles”.

“to make the adoption of new storage, transfer and access mechanisms based on technology as straightforward as possible for departments to adopt, with the maximum benefit to Government”

The Guiding Principles for the Working Group

The first principle is to ensure as far as is reasonable, inperpetuity the  ability to view and extract information from electronic documentary records in a visually fixed  form corresponding to the original, with sufficient context to enable a researcher to navigate and orientate themselves to the documents.
	
The second principle is to create an overall standard for “Bundles of records”,  their associated navigation and display software, index and thesaurus mechanisms, and resolve the quasi-legal issues of working with Bundles.  

The third principle is to formalise the transfer of Bundles of records over a communications network.
The fourth principle is that the Working Group will be open to all, individuals and suppliers alike, UK resident and overseas, and not dominated by any particular individual, supplier or grouping of suppliers;
The fifth principle is that  individuals and suppliers taking part will be able to make limited acknowledgements in their sales materials to their contribution in whatever form that may take.  This is their ‘quid pro quo’ for contributing.

The sixth principle is that the WG’s activities will be solely goal orientated, pragmatic, and non bureaucratic in nature. It will report solely to the EROS Advisory Programme Board.
	
The seventh principle is to support the achievement of global reductions in paper consumption in government.

The eighth principle is that the WG will nurture a shift in supplier attitudes away from paper, to provide all that is necessary for  fully electronic archives, across government.

The ninth principle is that the WG will seek a wider audience and support for its work, with a view to making its work internationally available, and self supporting.

3. Working Group Milestones

It is intended to develop a comprehensive plan of activities once the WG is formally constituted. In this version of the Charter document the traditional BSi working group stages have been outlined, with target dates for their completion.

These milestones overlay with the individual activities to be undertaken by the WG’s members.

Working Group Stage	Content	Elapsed Time 	
Develop Working Group	Identify interested parties,
prove conceptual & technical viability, and produce an internal  draft.	12 weeks 	
Refine drafts	Internal reviews by specialist contributors	15 weeks 	
Circulate for public comment and incorporate comments	BSi formal Discussion Draft (DD#) process.	12 weeks	
Put final draft through BSi formal procedures.	Brings the draft documents to a fully accredited status.	24 weeks 	
Completion of formation of Working Group to full BSi procedures and hand over to a new Chairman to carry on with the implementation of the Standard.	Migration of the Working Group form strictly goal orientated methods, to a fully democratic BSi or ISO structure.	By Quarter four 
of 1999	

4. Structure of the Working Group

The Working Group will function as a variable set of members or specialists. Members will in effect become Activity Leaders for the creation of the Standard. 

5. Deliverables and Outcomes

The deliverables will be provided in two formats, paper, and electronic.  It is expected that considerable use will be made of Internet mechanisms for the distribution of the documents and the receipt of feedback and comment.

The deliverables will be:

•	a formally approved Standard document which will contain the conceptual models, technical constraints, and legal operators for the Bundler and the transfer mechanisms. This deliverable MUST conform with BSi drafting guidelines.

•	a series of tactical documents that will plan and support the change of attitudes of suppliers and other key influence groups such as consultants. These will take the form of a communications plan, a standard presentation, press releases, workshops, and joint presentations and briefings.

6. Activities and Personnel

This listing of example activities is the first step in the definition of the work necessary to achieve the Goals of both the ICP and the Working group.  Progress on these activity listings will be presented to the Advisory Board at each meeting. This listing  should not therefore be considered definitive.

Ref.	Activity	Reason	Activity Leader	Target Date	
001	JEU Programme Notice	Widest formal publicity to government departments and supplies	WGC	March 1997	
002	BSi Working Group Team forms	To initiate activity	WG Chairman (WGC)	March 1997	
003	Press session	Widest formal publicity	WGC & Programme Manager	March 1997	
004	First public Briefings	Widest formal publicity	WGC & Programme Manager	April 1997	
	Agreement of pilots	Large Scale Technical Proving	Working Group	June 1997	
	Materials for departments		Widest departmental publicity	WGC & Programme Manager	April 1997	
	First draft of Bundle Standard	Board Review	WGC	TBA	
	2nd draft of Standard		Specialist review	WGC	TBA	
	Discussion Draft (DD) version			TBA	
	1st Bundler accreditation			TBA	
	Departmental pilots 				TBA	
	Board review of 2nd Stage Strategy			TBA	
	Adoption revised dept. policies commences		Advisory Board	TBA	
	First non pilot Bundles received		PRO	TBA	
	First Disclosures		PRO	2005	

7. Commercial Supporters and Sponsorship

The philosophy of the ICP and its Working Group is to involve suppliers and non governmental organisations, in the production of a low cost and viable approach to the long term preservation of electronic documents.

It is expected that suppliers will contribute not just staff and management resources, but technical and customer based facilities as well. To ensure that there are no conflicts of interest between the WG, suppliers or their customers, a formal record will be kept.  It will detail who the supplier is, the scope of their contribution, any constraints they place upon the Working Group in making their contribution, and who is responsible within the Working Group for managing that contribution.

This information will be tabled in a form similar to that shown below, at each Advisory Board, updated as required.

Ref	Organisation	Contribution	Scope	Constraints	Manager	
001	ABC Ltd.	200 hours of technical input on networking	limited to common carrier aspects of WG	No on site activity	Activity Leader for Common Carrier proving	
002	etc….					
003						

February 1997