Maine considering plan to save emails for history
The degree of state business that's transacted through e-mail is large and growing. If you're a historian, a lawyer, a student, an activist or a plain old citizen doing research who wants to know how a decision was made, then you have the right -- through the state's Freedom of Access Act, if necessary -- to see almost all the documents, including e-mails, that relate to that decision's evolution.
But what happens if someone in possession of those e-mails hits the delete button?
History gets erased.
That's why an ad-hoc group of state officials has been meeting for the last year. They want to devise a system to select, store and maintain e-mails. It's a massive undertaking that will require the services of an outside information management company; the group has sent out a request for proposals for the project and about 50 companies have attended a bidders' conference on the request.
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But what happens if someone in possession of those e-mails hits the delete button?
History gets erased.
That's why an ad-hoc group of state officials has been meeting for the last year. They want to devise a system to select, store and maintain e-mails. It's a massive undertaking that will require the services of an outside information management company; the group has sent out a request for proposals for the project and about 50 companies have attended a bidders' conference on the request.