Notes:
These are some of the hopeful activities underway. As most of you probably know, FIRM is the Federal Information and Records Managers Council. The FIRM E-records Standards Committee is striving to specify a standard set of metadata by which all records series should be classified, Governmentwide. The CIO Council's Interoperability Committee has tentatively agreed to look into how best XML might be employed, e.g., to assist with implementation of a record series classification metadata standard. Meanwhile, 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. However, 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. Finally, Australia has proposed an international standard. And it is worthy of note that OMB Circular A-119 charges U.S. federal agencies not only with using but also helping to develop voluntary consensus standards, including international standards.
