Research

Public Research Dissemination

This section provides access to publicized research dissemination for the Records in the Cloud project.

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Public Relations

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    Guercio, M.
  • M. Guercio, Digital archiving and preservation: the role of policies for an ethical approach to the research data. In: Digital Memories. Ethical Perspectives. Ispra, 16-17 January 2014
  • Guercio, M. (2013), "Conservare il digitale. Principi, metodi e procedure per la conservazione a lungo termine di documenti digitali". Roma: Laterza 2013, ISBN 9788859300090, e-book ISBN: 9788858107959, (in particular to the project pp. 23-34)
  • Guercio, M. (2013), "La notion d'authenticité en conservation numérique," in Musique et technologie. Préserver - Archiver - Re-produire: musique et technologie, jeux vidéo. Paris: Institut national de l’audiovisuel, 2013 (Portraits Polychromes, Hors-série thématique n. 21), ISBN 9782869382176, pp. 75-92
  • Guercio, M. (2013) CNR Conference organized by Centro CERIS (Rome) on “Information policies in science”: report on “Preserving e-science: problems and opportunities,” September 16, 2013.
  • Guercio, M. (2013) “ADA 2013 Summer School in Policies and Practices in Access to Digital Archives” (Macerata): report on “Digital curation policies: an international state of the art” and round table participation on “Archives and digital information for future users,” September 2, 2013.
  • Guercio, M. (2013) Summer School for Senior Archivists, organized by theEuropean Banking History 'Ready or Not? Enhancing Digital Resources Management' (Venice): reports on: “The role of standards and recommendations for flexible and sustainable ERMS” and “The hybrid archives: current issues, challenges, solutions,” June 24-25, 2013.
  • Guercio, M. (2013) International seminar on “Trust and Digital Preservation” organized by the Royal Irish Academy and APARSEN (Dublin): report on “Authenticity Management in Long-Term Digital Preservation” June 4-5, 2013.
    Hmood, A.K., Fung B.C.M., Iqbal, F.
  • A. K. Hmood, B. C. M. Fung, and F. Iqbal. Privacy-preserving medical reports publishing for cluster analysis. In Proceedings of the 6th IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security (NTMS): Security Track, 8 pages, Dubai, UAE: IEEE Computer Society, March 2014.
    Arafati, M., Dagher, G., Fung, B.C.M., Hung, P.C.K.
  • M. Arafati, G. Dagher, B. C. M. Fung, and P. C. K. Hung. D-Mash: a framework for privacy-preserving data-as-a-service mashups. In Proceedings of the 7th IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing (CLOUD), 8 pages, Anchorage, AK: IEEE Computer Society, June 2014.
    Cabral, B.
  • Cabral, Brenda. “Consideraciones para el manejo de archivos digitales en la nube informática”. Conference. Dissemination Program of IIBI. Mexico City. February 18th, 2014.
    Newell, B., Tennis, J.
  • Newell, B. and Tennis, J. T. (2014). "Me, My Metadata, and the NSA." In Proceedings of the iConference 2014. ACM. pp. 345-365.
    Duranti, L., Anderson, K., Rogers, C.
  • Duranti, L., Anderson, K. and Rogers, C. "ICA Multilingual Archival Terminology", in: ICA's Flash No.27, March 2014, pp.16-17, available at http://www.ica.org/15455/flash-private-resources/flash-march-2014n27.html (ICA member login required).
    Schenkolewski-Kroll, S.
  • Schenkolewski-Kroll, S. "Retention and Disposition Processes: Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs." First International Symposium of InterPARES Trust, (Stockholm, Sweden), May 14, 2014.
  • Silvia Schenkolewski (2014) "El proyecto transnacional InterPARES TRUST – Caso de estudio : El sitio web del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Israel". Lecture given at the Escuela de Archivología, Facultad de Letras y Humanidades , Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina.
  • Silvia Schenkolewski-Kroll (2014) "El proyecto transnacional InterPARES TRUST – Caso de estudio : El sitio web del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Israel". Lecture given at the Asociación de Archiveros de Chile, Colegio de Bibliotecarios de Chile, and Centro de Estudios Judaicos de la Universidad Nacional de Chile.
  • Schenkolewski-Kroll, Silvia (2016) "Advances in the Israeli research for InterPARES Trust in the last year." Eva/Minerva Conference on the Digitization of Culture Heritage in Jerusalem. November 9.
  • Silvia Schenkolewski-Kroll (2016) "Presenting the Google Analytics as a tool as study for users behaviour as parameter to archival appraisal of the different sections of the site." The Eva/Minerva 2016, XII Annual International Conference for Professionals in Cultural Heritage, Van Leer Institute , Jerusalem, November, 9th.
    Briguglio, L., Salza, S., Guercio, M.
  • Briguglio, L., Salza, S., Guercio, M. (2013). Preserving Authenticity Evidence to Assess Provenance and Integrity of Digital Resources Information Technologies for Performing Arts, Media Access, and Entertainment. In: P. Nesi, R. Santucci (eds). Information Technologies for Performing Arts, Media Access, and Entertainment. LECTURE NOTES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, vol. 7990, p. 66-77, Berlin Heidelbereg:Springer-Verlag, ISBN: 9783642400490, ISSN: 0302-9743, doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-40050-6_7.
    Nathan, L., Shaffer, E.
  • Nathan, L., Shaffer, E. (2014) "Plurality and Policy: Investigating the role of policy in facilitating trust relationships between communities in the digital age," CAIS 2014, Memories, Identities, and Communities, (Dundee, Scotland), April 24, 2014.
    Brzica, H., Herceg, B., Stancic, H.
  • Brzica, H., Herceg, B., Stancic, H. (2013) "Long-term Preservation of Validity of Electronically Signed Records," InFuture 2013, (Zagreb, Croatia), November 7, 2013.
    Rogers, C., Bushey, J., Shaffer, E.
  • "Digital Records in the Cloud: Challenges to Authenticity, Policy, and Law," Individual papers delivered by the participants at ICA-SUV (Barbados), June 2013.
    Shaffer, E.
  • Shaffer, E. (2013) "Social Media Records: Management, Policy and Preservation Challenges," 4th International Symposium on Information Management in a Changing World, (Limerick, Republic of Ireland), September 4-6, 2013.
  • "Social Media and Digital Records," Barbados, West Indies, International Council of Archives Section on University and Research Institutions Archives Annual Conference 2013
    Léveillé, V., Timms, K.
  • Léveillé, Valerie, and Timms, Katherine. (2015). Through a Records Management Lens: Creating a Framework for Trust in Open Government and Open Government Information. Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, Vol. 39(2), 154-190. DOI: 10.1353/ils.2015.0010.
    Demoulin, M.
  • Demoulin, M. (2014) Cloud Service Contracts: An Issue of Trust, Second International Symposium of InterPARES Trust, Victoria, B.C. October 17, 2014.
  • Marie Demoulin. “Les contrats de l’infonuagique face aux besoins des archivistes”. Conference at the 44th Congress of the Association des Archivistes du Québec, Tadoussac (Qc), May 28, 2015.
  • Marie Demoulin. 2015. “Deux questions juridiques autour des archives numériques: La preuve et la numérisation et les contrats de l’infonuagique”. Lecture given at the invitation of the Réseau des services d’archives du Québec. Longueil (Qc), October 27.
  • Marie Demoulin. Integrated management of the Electronic Statement of Offence at the City of Quebec, “Towards cyberjustice” conference organized by the Centre de recherche en droit public, Université de Montréal, Montreal (Qc), October 15, 2015.
  • Marie Demoulin. Le constat d’infraction électronique : entre gestion documentaire et cyberjustice, Lecture given at the invitation of the Centre international de criminologie comparée, Université de Montréal, Montreal (Qc), December 1, 2015.
    Sheppard, A.
  • "Building a legal framework to facilitate long-term preservation of digital heritage," UNESCO Conference: The memory of the World in the Digital Age: Digitization and Digital Preservation. Vancouver, B.C.
    Alva, A., Endicott-Popovsky, B., David, S.
  • "Forensic Barriers: Legal Implications of Storing Information in the Cloud," UNESCO Conference: The memory of the World in the Digital Age: Digitization and Digital Preservation. Vancouver, B.C.
    Duranti, L., Goh, E., Chu, S.
  • "Archival Legislation for Engendering Trust in an Increasingly Networked Digital Environment," International Congress on Archives. Brisbane, Australia.
    Duranti, L., Shaffer, E.
  • "The Potential Challenges of E-Learning Records: Are We Up to the Task of Managing Them?," Vancouver, B.C. -- 9th International Conference on Technology, Knowledge and Society.
  • Luciana Duranti, Elizabeth Shaffer (2013) "E-Learning Records: Are There Any to Manage? If So, How?" in Social Media and the New Academic Environment: Pedagogical Challenges, eds., Bogdan Patrut, Monica Patrut, Camelia Cmeciu, Information Science Reference (an Imprint of IGI Global), (Hershey, Pennsylvania): pp. 273-292.
    Duranti, L., Rogers, C., Bushey, J.
  • "Different Communities, Same Issue: Trust Relationships in a Networked Environment," Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) Annual Conference 2013
    Duranti, L., L
  • "Focusing on Relationships in the Networked Environment: InterPARES Trust," Association of Canadian Archivists Annual Meeting, Winnipeg, MB
    Barloura, G., Pan, W., Rowe, J.
  • Weimei Pan, Joy Rowe, Georgia Barloura (2013) "Records in the Cloud (RiC): Profile of Cloud Computing Users," Proceedings of the Inaugural International Conference on Cloud Security Management (ICCSM-2013), Seattle, WA.
  • Weimei Pan, Joye Rowe, Georgia Barloura (2013) "Records in the Cloud (RiC): Profile of Cloud Computing Users," Poster presentation at Inaugural International Conference on Cloud Security Management (ICCSM-2013), Seattle, WA.
  • "Records in the Cloud (RiC): Profile of Cloud Computing Users," Poster presentation at ARMA International Conference, Las Vegas, NV. October 2013.
    Borglund, E., Bushey, J., Shaffer, E.
  • "Records In the Cloud: A Collaborative Research Project," Panel Session at the Information Management in a Changing World (IMCW) International Symposium, Limerick, Ireland
    Marciano, R.
  • Richard Marciano (2013) "Socializing 'Big Data': Collaborative Opportunities in Computer Science, the Social Sciences, and the Humanities." Duke University Franklin Humanities Institute and Social Science Research Institute.
  • Richard Marciano (2013) "Big Data Curation." Research talk. University of Washington iSchool.
    Léveillé, V., Maklouf Shabou, B.
  • Basma Maklouf-Shabou and Valerie Léveillé (2014) "Records in the Cloud: Résultats préliminaires." 43e Congrès de l\'Association des archivistes du Québec. May 28.
    Rogers, C., Taylor, I.
  • Corinne Rogers and Isabel Taylor (2013) "The Law of Evidence in the Digital Environment," SLAIS Research Day 2013 (poster)
    Anderson, Karen
  • Karen Anderson. (2015). European research in the InterPARES Project: Trust in Digital Records in an Increasingly Networked World. EURBICA, March 2015.
    Tractinsky, A., Schenkolewski-Kroll, S.
  • Assaf Tractinsky and Silvia Schenkolewski-Kroll (2015) "Research of retention and disposition processes in an internet website of the government of Israel: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a case study." The Jerusalem Conference on the Digitization of Cultural Heritage, Eva/ Minerva November 8, 2015.
  • Silvia Schenkolewski-Kroll and Assaf Tractinsky (2015) "A Comparison of Users Data in Retention and Disposition Processes in an Internet Website: The Ministry of Foreign as a Case study". The Future of Information Sciences. e-Institutions – Openness , Accessibility, and Preservation. K. Anderson, L. Duranti, R. Jaworski, H. Stancic, eds. Zagreb, pp. 95 – 108.
    Bushey, J., Demoulin, M., McLelland, R.
  • Jessica Bushey, Marie Demoulin, Robert McLelland. 2015. “Cloud Service Contracts: An Issue of Trust”, Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, 39(2), 128-153.
    Demoulin, M., Gaiffe, C.
  • Marie Demoulin and C. Gaiffe. "La gestion intégrée des documents et des archives dans les services publics québécois : le cas du constat d'infraction électronique", 84th Congress of ACFAS (Association francophone pour le savoir), Montreal (Qc), May 9-13, 2016.
  • Marie Demoulin and C. Gaiffe. Participation in the Round table on Informatisation de la justice au Québec, 45th Congress of the Association des Archivistes du Québec, Québec (Qc), June 14, 2016.
    Ngoepe, M., Saurombe, A.
  • Mpho Ngoepe and Amos Saurombe (2015) " Provisions for managing and preserving records created in networked environments in archival legislative framework of selected member states of the Southern African Development Countries" Archives and Manuscripts.
    Xie, S., Han, J.
  • Sherry L. Xie, Julia Han, and Jack Liu (2014)"China-US case study." 6th International Conference on Digital Records Management. November 18-19. Beijing, China.
    Xie, S.
  • Sherry L. Xie (2014) "Big data and digital records management ." Central Government Officials Training Program, April 26, Beijing, China.
  • Sherry L. Xie (2015) "Big data and digital records management." Central Government Officials Training Program, April 26, Beijing, China.
  • Sherry L. Xie (2015) "The study of digital records management in China." Archives and Records Association (UK and Ireland) Annual Conference. 25-28 August. Dublin, Ireland.
  • Sherry L. Xie (2015) "Advancing digital records management in collaborating with information system design." 7th International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing. 12-14 November. Lisbon, Portugal.
    Wang, J., Zhou, W.
  • Jian (Jenny) Wang, Wenhong Zhou (2015) "Progress of Records Accessing in China towards Social Justice." SAE Symposium on Archival Education. July 12. Maryland.
    Wang, J.
  • Jian（Jenny）Wang (2015) "Digital records management." State Archives Administration of China Training Program. August 7. Beijing, China.
  • Jian（Jenny）Wang (2015) "Digital Ark."22nd ICHS. August 25. Qingdao, China.
    Xie, S., Li, J., Jia, X., Qi, T.
  • Sherry L. Xie, Jun Li, Xiaoshuang Jia, and Tianjiao Qi (2015) "China-Australia case study." 31st Australian Society of Archivist Annual Meeting – Archives on the Edge. 18-21 August. Hobart, Australia.
    Zhoa, C., Yi, B.
  • Christina Zhao and Betty Yi (2015) "China-US case study." 79th Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archivists. August 16-22, 2015. Cleveland, OH, US.
    Wang, J., Zhou, W., Qi, T., Feng, X., Zhou, Y., Pan, L., Ding, J.
  • Jian（Jenny）Wang, Wenhong Zhou,Tianjiao Qi, Qiqin Wang,Xiaojia Feng, Yu Zhao, pan Liang and Jiayi Ding (2015) "Social media records management." Digital Memory Forum. October 24-25.Beijing, China.
    Zhou, W., Yi, B., Ma, L., Zhao, C., Li, S., Liu, X.
  • Wenhong Zhou, Linqing Ma, Christina Zhao, Betty Yi, Siyi Li, and Xueya Liu (2015) Presentations to the expert meeting of the Records in the Digitally Networked World project. 19 November. Beijing, China.
    Moss, M., Endicott-Popovsky, B.
  • Moss, M and Endicott-Popovsky, B. with Dupuis, M. (2015) Is Digital Different?: How information creation, capture, preservation and discovery are being transformed. Facet Publishing: London: UK.
    Ivanjko, T., Lončarić, K.
  • File Formats for Long-Term Preservation. Accepted for presentation at the Annual Conference of the Croatian Society of Archivists, and for publication October 2016.
  • File Formats for Long-Term Preservation. Annual Conference of the Croatian Society of Archivists, 26-28 October, 2016.
    Barnard, A., Voutssas-M., J., Delgado, A.
  • Barnard,A., Delgado, A., Voutssás, J. (2014): Los Archivos Digitales. Una visión integradora. Tomo I. Ed. Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla/Archivo Histórico Universitario. Puebla, 239 p.
    Barnard, A., Delgado, A.
  • Barnard,A., Delgado,A. (2015): Los Archivos Digitales. Una Visión Integradora. Tomo II. Ed. Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla-Archivo Histórico Universitario. Puebla. 178p
    Tractinsky, A.
  • Tractinsky, Assaf (2016) "Research Issues in InterPARES Trsut." Eva/Minerva Conference on the Digitization of Culture Heritage in Jerusalem. November 9.
    Zhao, C., Yi, B.
  • Christina Zhao and Betty Yi (2015) "A Comparative Study of the Concepts of Record and Archives in the United States and China." 79th Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archivists. Cleveland, OH. August 16-22.
    Hohmann, P., Vanderfluit, J., How, E.
  • Paige Hohmann, Jennifer Vanderfluit, and Elissa How (2016) "Legal Instruments in Motion: Understanding Trust in the Digital Environment." ACA 2016 Futur proche: Archives & Innovation, June 3. Montreal, QC.
    Bushey, J., Shaffer, E., Borglund, E.
  • Jessica Bushey, Erik Borglund, Elizabeth Shaffer (2013) “Records in the Cloud: A Collaborative Research Project.” Information Management in a Changing World (IMCW) International Symposium. September 4-6. Limerick, Ireland
    Endicott-Popovsky, B.
  • Barbara Endicott-Popovsky, ed. (2013) The Proceedings of the International Conference on Cloud Security Management ICCSM-2013 . Seattle, USA: Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited. 17-18 October 2013.
    Dupuis, M., Endicott-Popovsky, B., Crossler, R.
  • Marc Dupuis, Barbara Endicott-Popovsky, and Robert Crossler (2013) "An Analysis of the Use of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk for Survey Research in the Cloud." In Proceedings of the International Conference on Cloud Security Management: ICCSM 2013 , Barbara Endicott-Popovsky ed. October 17-18. Seattle, USA: Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited. pp.10-18.
    Rudolph, C., Kuntze, N., Endicott-Popovsky, B.
  • Carsten Rudolph, Nicolai Kuntze, and Barbara Endicott-Popovsky. (2013). “Forensic Readiness for Cloud-Based Distributed Workflows.” In Proceedings of the International Conference on Cloud Security Management: ICCSM 2013 , Barbara Endicott-Popovsky ed. October 17-18. Seattle, USA: Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited. pp. 59–67.
    Pan, W., Guo, W., Fang, Y., Li, D.
  • Wei Guo, Yun Fang, Weimei Pan, Dekun Li, (2016) "Archives as a trusted third party in maintaining and preserving digital records in the cloud environment" Records Management Journal , Vol. 26 Iss: 2, pp.170 - 184.
    Schweiger, M., Chung, S., Endicott-Popovsky, B.
  • Michael Schweiger, Sam Chung, and Barbara Endicott-Popovsky. (2013). "Malware Analysis on the Cloud: Increased Performance, Reliability, and Flexibilty.” In Proceedings of the International Conference on Cloud Security Management: ICCSM 2013 , Barbara Endicott-Popovsky ed. October 17-18. Seattle, USA: Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited. pp. 127-135.
    Ngoepe, M., Katuu, S.
  • Mpho Ngoepe and Shadrack Katuu (2017) "Training of archivists and records managers in Africa." ACARM Newsletter
    Lemieux, Victoria
  • Lemieux, Victoria L., ed. Building trust in information: Perspectives on the frontiers of provenance. Springer, 2016.
    Evans, L., Franks, P.
  • Lois Evans, Patricia Franks, and Hsuanwei Michelle Chen (2018) “Voices in the cloud: social media and trust in Canadian and US local governments,” Records Management Journal, Vol. 28, No. 1, February, pp. 18-46.
    Maklouf Shabou, B., Lemaire, F., Grange, D.
  • Françoise Lemaire, Basma Makhlouf Shabou et Didier Grange (2016) Le Portail International Archivistique Francophone (PIAF): un projet, un outil, une communauté. CIA, Seoul, 8 septembre 2016.
    Duranti, L., Thibodeau, K.
  • Luciana Duranti, Adam Jansen, Giovanni Michetti, Courtney Mumma, Daryll Prescott, Corinne Rogers, Kenneth Thibodeau, “Preservation as a Service for Trust (PaaST),” in John Vacca ed., Security in the Private Cloud (London, UK: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, 2016), pp. 47-72.
    Anderson, K., Duranti, L., Becker, I.
  • Karen Anderson, Irmgard Christa Becker, and Luciana Duranti eds. (2018) Born Digital in the Cloud: Challenges and Solutions, a special issue of the Marburg Archivshule Book Series, vol. 65.
    Anderson, K., Duranti, L., Stancic, H., Jaworski, R.
  • Karen Anderson, Luciana Duranti, Rafal Jaworski, Hrvoje Stancic, eds., The Future of Information Sciences. INFuture 2015. Information Governance. Department of Information and Communication Sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia, 2015
    Duranti, L., Franks, P.
  • Duranti, L. and Franks, P., eds. (2015) Encyclopedia of Archival Science. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

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Project Description

The research focuses on the benefits and risks of keeping records in the cloud. The term "cloud" is a metaphor for the Internet, where it is possible to create a virtual computing infrastructure replacing in whole or in part that internal to an organization. Hence, "cloud computing." Five essential characteristics make the cloud what it is:

  1. on-demand self-service, that allows users to access as many computing capabilities as they need;
  2. broad network access, so that a user can access the cloud from any machine that has a connection to the Internet;
  3. resource pooling, which makes of the cloud a multi-tenant model, supporting multiple users at the same time;
  4. rapid elasticity, in that users can change the amount of computing resources they need at any time, and the cloud will instantly expand to support their needs; and
  5. measured service, in that how much a user utilizes is precisely measured in terms of storage, processing, bandwidth, etc., and these resources can be monitored, controlled and reported to the users, who are only charged for what they need, using a pay-as-you-go model, in most cases reducing costs.

The most attractive aspect of the cloud is low cost. But how high is the price that organizations which keep records in the cloud pay in terms of control on their records or, as is the case with archives, on the records entrusted to them? The proposed research seeks to address that question in the context of the Canadian legal, administrative, and value system by investigating the following more specific research questions:

  1. How can confidentiality of organizational records and data privacy be protected in the cloud?
  2. How can forensic readiness of an organization be maintained, compliance ensured, and e-discovery requests fully met in the cloud?
  3. How can an organization's records accuracy, reliability, and authenticity (i.e., identity and integrity) be guaranteed and verifiable in the cloud?
  4. How can an organization's records and information security be enforced in the cloud?
  5. How can an organization maintain governance upon the records entrusted to the cloud?

This research is urgent and critical, addressing a demand as yet unmet. A fast growing number of public and private organizations, in an effort to save resources, is joining the cloud and entrusting the control of its records to external service providers without a full understanding of the risks involved with regard to legal jurisdiction on the records, security, privacy, processing, compliance, forensic readiness, and last, but not least, the ability to prove the records accuracy, reliability and authenticity. To these issues one has to add those related to the potential loss of access to the records due to law enforcement investigations of records of co-tenants, to the closing down of the CSP, or to the breaking down of retrieval systems. And how is an organization to know whether the records that were scheduled for destruction still exist when most, if not all CSPs, do not allow audit? The questions are many, but there are no answers based on facts ascertained through research. The dearth of academic literature, the inconsistency of legal opinions, and the sensationalism of media stories that fuel uncertainty and fear all support the urgency of this research. This project aims to enable small and medium-sized organizations which cannot afford a full-fledged digital recordkeeping and/or records preservation system to decide what is the best way to ensure that their records, or the records of others entrusted to them, will be safe, accessible, trustworthy, and under their control by developing the knowledge supporting such decision.

Theoretical Framework

Our approach to the development of knowledge about digital records and systems has consistently and successfully relied upon the theoretical constructs of archival science and diplomatics, centuries-old disciplines that study, respectively, the nature, structure, context, use and management of records aggregations, and the genesis, formal characteristics, transmission, and legal nature and consequences of individual records (Duranti, 1996, 1998). This project will continue to use the archival/diplomatics theoretical framework because it requires an understanding of digital records in complex systems, their authenticity and means of authentication, the conditions of their access and use, and the means of their long-term preservation. The concepts developed by the InterPARES (www.interpares.org) and the Digital Records Forensics (www.digitalrecordsforensics.org) projects constitute the necessary foundation for the research, which is also grounded on the principles governing risk management and information governance and assurance, as well as forensic readiness in the context of legal theory, especially as it regards the law of evidence.

Objectives

  1. To identify and examine in depth the management, operational, legal, and technical issues surrounding the storage and management of records in the cloud
  2. To determine what formal policies and procedures a CSP should have in place for fully implementing the records/archives management regime of the organization outsourcing the records, and for responding promptly to its needs
  3. To determine what formal policies and procedures a CSP should have in place for detecting, identifying, analyzing and responding to incidents
  4. To develop a methodology and an instrument for assessing the risks and benefits of outsourcing records/archives storage and processing to a CSP
  5. To develop guidelines for contractual agreements between organizations and CSPs, and for certifications and attestations by CSP
  6. To develop policy and procedural models for the integration of outsourcing to the cloud with an organization's records management and information governance programs, or archival preservation program

Methodology

A key part of the methodology will be gathering feedback from the two types of stakeholders, CSPs and users, not only in the structured way provided by the focus groups in third year of the research, but also informally though the delivery of workshops, continuing education opportunities, and papers at conferences.

View our Research and Privacy Statement

Year 1: Data Collection

We will collect and analyze data iteratively. We will first identify on the basis of the writings mentioned in the literature review above and of CSPs' websites various types of providers, and categorize them in terms not only of size and services (including the technology delivering them), but also of targeted clients. Then the team will select a small number of providers from each category to interview, in order to gather a clear understanding of their services and the conditions under which they are offered. In preparation for the interviews the team will collect from these providers samples or models of contracts and any other documentation, such as list of actual clients, if available and public. At the same time, the team will search for relevant legislation, regulations, case law and standards to identify the requirements that CSPs must satisfy and, on the basis of the accumulated information, prepare the interview questions. After interviewing the CSPs, the team will create a web survey directed to Canadian small and medium-sized public and private organizations - the most interested potential adopters of cloud computing - in order to assess how many use cloud services for recordkeeping and preservation and their level of satisfaction with the services received, and how many are thinking of using such services and why. Responses to the questionnaire will be coded and analyzed with NVivo Qualitative Research Software, and follow up interviews will be conducted with selected survey respondents who will have identified themselves as interested in participating in the research. We wish to interview a cross-section of those who are presently using cloud services (across types of services) and of those who are thinking of doing so.

Year 2: Analyze Data

The interview transcripts will also be analyzed using NVivo. Triangulation of data from the questionnaire and interviews, collected examples of CSPs' and clients' policies, sample contracts, etc., will be sought through document analysis conducted on a) legal and regulatory texts and case law, and b) reviewed literature, websites and documentation. On the basis of our findings, the team will draft the model policies and procedures, model contracts, strategies, and guidelines described among the objectives.

Year 3: Consult, Review, Test

The team will assemble focus groups of stakeholder's representatives among participating CSPs and potential clients to discuss, criticize and make suggestions about the draft material. The stakeholders will be sent the materials well in advance of a one day long face-to-face meeting in Vancouver, during which the two parties, CSPs and potential clients, will express their point of view and make recommendations, first separately and then jointly. The research team will write the proceedings compiling all the recommendations and will send them to both groups of stakeholders for review. Based on this feedback, the team will edit the material and ask the two groups of stakeholders' representatives to take it to their respective organizations to assess whether it is implementable and, if applicable, with what adjustments.

Year 4: Collect Tests' Results, Finalize Products, Write Research Findings

On the basis of the second feedback, the team will write the final version of model policies, procedures, contracts, strategies, and guidelines. The team will conclude the project by writing several scholarly articles discussing the findings of the research project from the point of view of each of the areas of knowledge involved, including archival science, diplomatics, records and information management and governance, information technology security, risk management, digital forensics, information assurance and forensic readiness, and the law of evidence.