1. Recordkeeping Open Government
as a basis for
Open Government
Ivar Fonnes

2. for high quality services to society and citizens
Archives management
for high quality services to society and citizens
Open government
is one of the key factors in building high quality governmental services to society an citizens
is to a very large extent based on governmental records.
Professional recordkeeping
throughout the records’ life-cycle
is thus a crucially important contribution to open government and thereby to high quality services.

3. Open government – aspects
Open data: Actively publishing and making available for the public the data (records and other information) which are managed by an agency.
Freedom of information (FOI): Transparency, access to records documenting the activities, business processes and decisions of an agency.
My interpretation
Open data: means actively making available the information and records you want the public to see.
FOI – the Nordic model: means that the public has the right to look into your records, even those that you don’t want them to see.

4. Selected information published Actively transparent
Yes
Selected information published
Actively transparent
Open data
OEP
Norway No
Access
prohibited
Passively transparent No
Yes
Transparency

5. OEP: Offentlig elektronisk postjournal
 Public electronic correspondence registry
Web-site:
Covers all central governmental agencies and many others
Updated every day
Anybody can send a request for access to the records listed in the OEP.
  

7. The bases of the OEP Transparency is obtained through
the publishing of records metadata on the Internet (the OEP), and
everybody’s right to access to the records identified in the OEP.
What are the bases of these tools?
The legal basis: The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Archives Act (AA)
The technical basis: Standardized records management systems (The Noark standard)
The administrative basis: Professional records management functions and routines.
Transparent administration is not possible without professional records management functions.

8. The legal basis: The FOIA
Basic principle
Everyone (any person) has the right to access to public records (records from state and municipal administration) and records metadata (registries).
Definitions
Public records: Documents received by or submitted to a public agency or produced by the agency in its capacity of a governmental or municipal body. Examples: Letters, s, memos, minutes from meetings etc.
Registries: Registered metadata on each record, keeping track of work processes (for accountability) and containing contextual information related to content and the creation environment.

9. The legal basis: The FOIA
Further on principles
Time: The right to access is valid from day one – i.e. when the record has been created (when a document is received by or is finalized by the agency)
Identification: In order to get access you will have to identify a record or a group of records (e.g. a file or a specific type of records).
Request for access: A request for access can be oral or in writing ( , sms, letter etc.)
Exceptions from access: A record or specific information contained in a record can be excepted from the right to access. All types of exceptions must be authorized by provisions in the FOIA itself or another act. If access is refused, the agency must specify the legal authorization by paragraph. The most common reason for exceptions is privacy related to personal information and internal business processes.

10. The legal basis: The FOIA and the AA
Registries (records metadata)
Public agencies are obligated to register their records according to principles defined in the Archives Act:
All external correspondence has to be registered
Internal correspondence and other documents should be included according to the agency’s needs
A specified minimum of contextual metadata is mandatory.
Electronic registries must meet the requirements of the Noark Standard (a National Records Management Standard, administered by the National Archives).

11. The legal basis: The FOIA
Registries on the Internet (the OEP)
Central government bodies are obliged to publish their registries (records metadata) on the Internet (the OEP).
Purpose
Present inventory lists of governmental records to the public.
Give the public a tool for identifying records of interest.
Restrictions
Sensitive personal information should not be published.
Names of persons shall not be searchable for more than one year.

12. The technical basis: The Noark standard
The standard
Noark was introduced in 1984 as a standard for electronic registries as an alternative to the manual registries used by the governmental agencies.
Vendors of electronic systems for public administration were invited to develop systems based on the standard.
Further developed for the same purposes through the next decade.
In 1998 extended to a standard for electronic records management and recordkeeping, integrated with and work-flow systems.
Further developed in 2006 as a more open standard for defining metadata related to electronic records management. Also related to Moreq.

13. The technical basis: The Noark standard
Implementation and use
Noark established itself as a de facto standard both in governmental and municipal administration through the 1990-ies.
In 1999 the Archives Act made it mandatory for electronic registry systems in public administration.
Implications of Noark
All public agencies have registry systems based on the Noark standard.
The OEP therefore could be based on a standardized records metadata structure.

14. The administrative basis: RM functions
Building professional records management (over the last 25 years)
Long tradition of systematic records management in the ministries and the central governmental agencies (for accountability, transparency, the rule of law and internal memory of public administration). A more varying situation in local government and municipalities.
The Noark standard: Aims to combine the best of traditional practices with new options in a digital environment – both for systems and routines.
Legislation: Aims to raise the quality level of the records management and archival functions in public administration (the Archives Act).
Education and training: Professional programs at a university college level were introduced in the early 1990-ies.
Result: Records management in the public administration is in general carried out at a professional level.

15. Transparency benefits
“The recordkeeping office is the heart of the organisation.”
” is my most important tool for getting information about activities in governmental administration.”
”Norwegian governmental sector is at the top of the world – even the Swedes envy us! A Norwegian democratic tool at top international level.”
PAJ: 3000 requests for access every year.
Per Anders Johansen
journalist

16. Transparency costs – daily routines Prepare data for the OEP
Identify information elements from the last day’s registrations which should not be published on the OEP – for privacy reasons, internal information etc.
Mark those elements in the records management system in order to filter them out when publishing.
Handle requests for access
Read through the records requested in order to identify elements excepted from access.
Logistics – request in, work flow, answer out.
Totally requests for access in 2012.

17. Open Government Partnership
Initiated
by the US Government
Number of members
Initially: 8 (Norway one of them)
By 2013, the London Summit: 61
Agenda
National action plans (evaluated by others)
International work groups
Conferences, summits etc.
Benefits
That a lot of countries around the world “confess” to Open Government as an objective (my personal view).