Tackling Archival Issues in #SocialGov

Anil ChawlaFounder & CEO, ArchiveSocial

@anilchawla

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About ArchiveSocial

We are in the business of enabling government to safely embrace and

succeed with social media.

Headquarters: Durham, North Carolina

Customers include: San Francisco (CA), State of North Carolina, Missouri Dept. of Conservation, Palm Beach County (FL), City of Spokane (WA), US National Archives

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Nebraska’s Public Records Law (84-712.01)

…public records shall include all records and documents, regardless of physical form, of or belonging to this state, any county, city, village, political subdivision, or tax-supported district in this state…

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…but it’s not just about Open Records.

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The benefits of social media

Engage in direct, two-way conversations

Transform your public perception

Ensure transparency & accountability

Save costs by leveraging free technology

Improve crime & emergency response

Be where your citizens are

What’s in a social media archive?

Historical, searchable dialogue betweenyou and your citizens. In other words,the recorded voice of your community.

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Why is archiving social media hard?

• Social media is dynamic and happens in real-time

• There are no standardized formats

• The communications exist outside your control

• Access to social media is not centralized

• It can be virtually impossible to search the history

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Archiving: What’s not working?

• Treating social networks like long-term archives

• Assuming social media never creates “original” records

• Disabling two-way communication (e.g. comments)

• Taking manual screen shots or using copy & paste

• Using web crawling technology

• Relying on personal social media backup tools

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The 4 most important archiving factors

Frequency: How quickly can you capture new content before it is lost or deleted?

Comprehensiveness: Do you have all of the records you need? Are the records complete? What about metadata?

Authenticity: How is the data stored? Can you prove that it is an accurate record? Will it hold up in court?

Context: How easily can you locate the relevant records? Can you actually make sense of them when needed?

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Open Government in practice

250K+ Social Media Records

ArchiveSocial and North Carolina launched the world’s first interactive social media archive for citizens to

search & download public records of government social media activity.

http://nc.gov.archivesocial.com

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How can I help?

(919) 434-3509

anil@archivesocial.com

http://archivesocial.com

Anil ChawlaFounder & CEO, ArchiveSocial

@anilchawla

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