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usnationalarchives / opengovplan

NARA's Open Government Plan 2016-2018
https://usnationalarchives.github.io/opengovplan/
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Archiving Playbook #2

Open jalbertbowden opened 6 years ago

jalbertbowden commented 6 years ago

I created this as an issue on GSA's version of this: https://github.com/GSA/participate-nap4/issues/54. Not sure if everyone is on the same page, so apologies for the double posting.

Essentially, NARA should come up with a playbook for how dotgov domains archive their sites; not just after an administration change/other common reason, but in real time. As in, when something is published on a dotgov domain, it automagically is archived.

Ideally, all archives will be on an archive subdomain across dotgovs, but that's not really a choice for an outsider to make.

Below is the text from the issue logged with GSA:

Topline Description

I highly recommend that the US Government's 2017 Open Government Partnership National Action Plan includes a commitment to archiving government domains by default.

Key Objective(s)

Archiving government domains empowers users to find the data they seek, reduces open records requests workloads, supports open by default, and encourages a culture of digital literacy within the government.

Paragraph Description

Implementing an archiving system across dotgov domains would provide a plethora of benefits for all stakeholders, like these: Archiving government domains reinforces/supports open by default, a position already supported by the federal government. Archiving government domains helps to prevent linkrot, enabling users to find what they want. Archiving government domains helps to fill open records requests by preserving documents proactively. Archived government domains provide publically accessible documents that help reduce open records resquests response and wait times. Archiving government domains provides a legacy for the organization(s) behind the domain; "institutional knowledge", if you will, that tells stories backed by historical evidence, combined with intimate details of the people/groups involved. Archiving government domains helps encourage a culture of digital literacy in the government, through its implementations directly, and amongst those interested indirectly (organically).

Measurable Metrics

Create an archiving playbook documentating exactly how domains should go about archiving themselves. Provide the tools for archiving domains as open source so there are zero (software) cost barriers to entry for archiving, as well as allowing the future archivers opportunities to tailor/update/collaborate on them. Include plain english explanations regarding what is/isn't a public record; include further plain english instructions regarding how to publish/archive public records simultaneously. Post publishing, set a date for all government domains to have an archiving solution in place; get them to prove compliance by submitting examples set up in production on the domain.

mereastew commented 6 years ago

@jalbertbowden - Thank you for your suggestion and comments. We will share this internally within the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).