The monistic diversity of continuum informatics. A method for analysing the relationships between recordkeeping informatics, ethics and information governance
| Date | 11 March 2019 |
| Published date | 11 March 2019 |
| Pages | 258-271 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/RMJ-09-2018-0028 |
| Author | Frank Upward |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance |
The monistic diversity of
continuum informatics
A method for analysing the relationships
between recordkeeping informatics, ethics and
information governance
Frank Upward
Centre for Organisational and Social Informatics, Monash University,
Melbourne, Australia
Abstract
Purpose –The Information Age during the transition from the paper era to the digital one saw the
fracturing and fragmenting of theinformation-based specialisations. More recently, professional norms for
governance have been swept aside within new business models based on information based business
applications. This paper aims to support an advance towards networked cohesion based on informatics,
regeneratingprofessionalism for the complex networkedage.
Design/methodology/approach –New regulatory approacheswill have to manage monistic diversity,
connecting thedeeper logic of continuum thinking in which information governanceexists as part of a simple
whole (the monistic component)with a recognition that the parts of information governance are much more
complex than the whole (the expanding diversity). A continuum approach of this type involves studying
things in motionas part of evolutionary processes.
Findings –The production of informationis galloping ahead of its authoritative management, and this is at
the heart of manyof the failings of the post-truth informationera. Informatics with its emphasis upon the joint
operation of technologies,social processes and knowledge forming and its ability to be an umbrella term for
many specialisationscan be a cohering force.
Practical implications –The alignment of thought, action and ethical information governance across
inter-connected practicesfor individuals, groups and organisationscan be supported by the deeper logic and
groundedexperience of continuum thinking.
Originality/value –This paper will look to expand the array of sympathisers who wish to get more in
touch with studyingthings in motion, including those trying to cope withthe need to develop more adequate
ways for managingnanosecond archiving processes.
Keywords Records management, Archiving, Informatics, Continuum thinking
Paper type Conceptual paper
Nanosecond archiving and monistic diversity
A century ago, the spacetime multiversewas a major topic of innovative studies and had its
creative disrupter in Einstein’sdiscovery that E = MC
2
, a discovery that went out of control
and resulted in weapons of mass destruction that have needed regulation. Today, the
expanding continuum of recorded information, the archival multiverse, is undergoing
creative disruption of the like that has never been seen before in the way societies form
knowledge or create, manage and use evidence. Indeed, the expansion in the continuum of
recorded information is giving us a new form of mass destruction, cyber-warfare. The
critiques of informationgovernance have also been growing exponentially, includingwithin
the Internet Plus businessenvironment that is the concern of this article.
RMJ
29,1/2
258
Received23 September 2018
Revised26 December 2018
3 January2019
Accepted3 January 2019
RecordsManagement Journal
Vol.29 No. 1/2, 2019
pp. 258-271
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0956-5698
DOI 10.1108/RMJ-09-2018-0028
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0956-5698.htm
To continue reading
Request your trial