Tackling the Legal, Policy, and Archival Issues in SocialGov

1. Tackling Archival Issues in
#SocialGov
Anil Chawla
Founder & CEO, ArchiveSocial
@anilchawla

2. Slide 2
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

4. Slide 4
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…

5. Slide 5
…but it’s not just about Open Records.

7. Slide 7
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

8. What’s in a social media archive?
Historical, searchable dialogue between
you and your citizens. In other words,
the recorded voice of your community.

9. Slide 9
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

10. Slide 10
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

12. Slide 12
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?

13. Slide 13
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

14. Slide 14
How can I help?
(919) 434-3509
anil@archivesocial.com
http://archivesocial.com
Anil Chawla
Founder & CEO, ArchiveSocial
@anilchawla
Sample your own archive at