"After WikiLeaks, is it all over for The Archives? WikiLeaks and the future of recordkeeping in a connected world"
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In this panel discussion and Q&A session, speakers will explore questions of trust, authenticity, secrecy, access and uses of records/archives in a Web 3.0, post WikiLeaks world.
WikiLeaks’ tsunami of diplomatic cables has swamped the timid release of government information trialled by a number of Western governments over the past decade.
These succinct, nearly contemporary and (in the case of CableGate) gossipy documents have made access to government records sexy. The outrage of the US Administration has ensured that the cables remain front page news.
WikiLeaks’ frontman, Julian Assange, refers to them as an archive, a direct challenge to the archival profession’s claim to the domain of preserving and providing access to government records.
And in this context it is hard to get excited about the release of 30 year old Commonwealth Cabinet records, the one annual event in Australia guaranteed to get the word “archives” into the press.
Where does that leave the recordkeepers and archivists? What has WikiLeaks done to the public notion of what is an archive?
World-wide there is a demand for more responsive and accountable government, for better governance, public and corporate, not just in the Middle East. People want reliable and useable information documenting what governments and corporations do so they can form their own judgements and act to rectify problems. Records as evidence should be the scaffold on which such political analysis and reform are built.
Yet we remain anchored to the paper world – the world of siloed file registries, blanket closures lasting decades and gatekeeper models of providing access. After WikiLeaks it really won’t do.
So what can the archives/records profession learn from WikiLeaks and from the connected world more generally? And what are our users’ expectations now and in the future? Indeed, who are our users? How do we translate our theories and models into this new environment? What can we contribute?
What is the future for ‘The Archives’ in a post WikiLeaks, connected world?
Speakers include: Anne Picot (Chair), Stephen Gillies, Linda Tucker, Barbara Reed & Cassie Findlay.
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