Notes:
As you know, ARMA is pursuing enhancements to the 5015.2 standard. DoD and the CIA are also deliberating enhancements. What NARA is doing remains a bit of a mystery. In particular, NARA's draft strategic plan update was very weak in terms of performance objectives and measures. However, NARA's Electronic Records Archive (ERA) project is very encouraging. Moreover, in commenting on the refusal of the Supreme Court to hear the appeal of the GRS-20 litigation, the National Archivist said that NARA has already moved beyond what would have been required if the district court's decision had been upheld. So let's take him at his word and act accordingly.
Australia has proposed an international standard and ISO has issued it as a draft, on which voting ends in January. OMB Circular A-119 charges U.S. federal agencies not only with using but also helping to develop voluntary consensus standards, including international standards.
At the request of Chairman McCain of the Senate Government Affairs Committee, NCLIS is conducting a study of agency information sharing and dissemination requirements. I am serving on one of four study panels and have recommended that agencies be required to specify the indices (metadata terms) by which their records may be searched. NARA would include those indices in the Federal Register for public comment prior to approving agency records disposition schedules.
The CIO Council's Interoperability Committee has chartered the XML Working Group, which I co-chair with Marion Royal of GSA. With the assistance of NIST, I am very hopeful that we will be able to establish a registry for Govenment-related XML data elements and schemas ... and that among them may be those required to specify what "freedom of information" truly means to the average citizen.
