Report 7 - Access to Information Review Task Force

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND ACCESS TO INFORMATION - A VIEW INTO THE FUTURE

5. Towards Effective Information Management:

The year is 2011. All the initiatives designed to improve the Government information management infrastructure that were started 10 years ago to support its program delivery and business processes, have been successfully implemented. Not only have these initiatives dramatically changed the information management landscape and led to major improvements in program and service delivery, they have also substantially improved access to Government information resources.

The infrastructure of policies, standards, people and systems is in place to clearly assign accountability for the management and provision of access to government information. Information is shared within and between government institutions respecting the various legal and regulatory requirements. Government jurisdictions have built on the lead established by earlier initiatives such as the Canadian Health Network and have collaborated on the joint delivery of services including information services.

The high quality of the information management infrastructure enables the Government to deliver cost effective, relevant, citizen-centric programs and services while continuing to carry out its priorities of transparency and openness.

It also enables the Government to provide access to information in a variety of formats through the Government of Canada web-site, via fax, e-mail or telephone, and through other communication channels.

The program/service delivery and access scenario described above can only be achieved if the fundamental principles of good governance and good government, based on openness, transparency and trust, are in place and supported by a strong information management infrastructure of policies, standards and practices, systems and technologies, and people. The principles of openness and transparency require government to provide access to information that is complete, relevant, authentic, and reliable. And such information can only be provided if it is managed effectively. It is as a result of the points raised above that the following goal for information management and information access is presented.

By 2011 Canada will be a recognized leader in providing Canadians with access to authentic, reliable, complete, and relevant government information based on a culture of openness and transparency which is supported by a high quality, trustworthy information management infrastructure.

Such a goal, set within the context of government program and service delivery, cannot be achieved unless it is supported by the following:

• A reward system which encourages a culture of openness, collaboration and trust;
  
• Policies, procedures and standards which are implemented and updated on a regular basis;
  
• A harmonization across all levels of government of information management policies, standards and practices, including those associated with access to information and privacy legislation;
  
• Government information resources that are clearly identified, documented, and navigable based on standard approaches to the development of directories and/or databases and the use of controlled vocabularies and naming conventions;
  
• An information management infrastructure that ensures that access considerations are built into the Government's business processes and related applications that address both internal and external access requirements;
  
• A technology infrastructure that addresses the diverse access needs of the Canadian public and supports multiple mechanisms to deliver information in response to their requests. E.g. the Internet; fax; telephone, etc.;
  
• A workforce that understands the potential value of information from an 'access' perspective and is trained with the appropriate skills to implement information management practices to manage information throughout its life-cycle, thereby providing better access and,
  
• Specialists who provide coaching and training in information management to government institutions.

Information management, by its very nature, establishes controls to ensure consistency and defines ways in which information is managed across the entire government and the other jurisdictions with which the government partners. By establishing common practices, information resources are more effectively identified and managed, thereby provide a richer resource to the Canadian public.

5.1 The Infrastructure

The landscape described above is based on an infrastructure comprised of policies, standards and practices, systems and technology, and people.

• Policies assign accountability and provide a framework for the standards, practices and systems that support the goal of information management;
  
• Standards and practices ensure consistency in the design and use of the information management infrastructure;
  
• Systems and technology support the processes by which information can be accessed and ensure that information is available and trustworthy throughout its life cycle and,
  
• People include both the specialists who design, develop and maintain the infrastructure and the knowledge workers, who reflect the information management principles in the way they create, use and otherwise manage information.

The infrastructure should not be seen as a distinct entity dedicated strictly to enabling more effective information access. It must be seen as an integral part of the infrastructure established to conduct the overall business of government (i.e. decision-making, the delivery of programs and services, etc.).

Given that information access is an integral component of government business delivery it follows that the information management infrastructure that supports access to government information must form an integral component of the business delivery infrastructure of the Government.

As John McDonald explained in his report to the Chief Information Officer of the Treasury Board Secretariat and the National Archivist of Canada² ;

"By addressing issues within the context of the IM Infrastructure, it follows that any government program or activity, including communications and Access to Information (ATIP), would benefit in terms of their ability to have the information they need to meet their program and accountability requirements. In this respect it is important to emphasize that the rationale for an IM Infrastructure is not driven solely from the need to address ATIP considerations; it is driven from the need to meet the business and accountability requirements of given programs and services and to do so within the context of government-wide laws and policies. By meeting these requirements, it follows that government institutions should also be able to meet their obligations under laws such as Access to Information and Privacy Acts.

The future information management landscape, described in section 5.1, together with its individual components, may seem like an ideal. And yet, given the evolution of governance in Canada, the growing demand from citizens to access government information resources, the opportunities presented by new information technologies, the global trends towards greater citizen engagement with government, and emerging Government priorities (especially Government On-line), the future direction seems clear.

5.2 Getting There From Here

Where are we today? We can compare the current state of information management within the Government of Canada to the 1970's in the technology arena when steps could have been put in place to minimize the Y2K problem, but the specialists were ignored. The approach seemed to be 'If we don't think about it, it will go away'.

We are now facing a similar situation with the Government's information resources. The Government of Canada is the Titanic approaching the iceberg. The dangerously inadequate information management environment lies beneath the surface and is invisible.

Not only do Government institutions need to know where information is to access it, but they also need to ensure that the systems, software and hardware will allow us to access those information resources in both the short-term and long-term.

The importance of developing an information management infrastructure that addresses both the current situation and future needs is critical to the success of both information management and access.

But how can this information management infrastructure be implemented to enable better access to information? The following sections attempt to answer this question by:

• Reviewing the evolution that has already taken place in information management and access in the federal government;
  
• Examining the views of experts in the field, the experiences of other jurisdictions, and the views of senior officials in the federal government;
  
• Identifying the building blocks that are already in place and suggesting other building blocks that may need to be developed and,
  
• Proposing short term, immediate strategies for accelerating the pace to develop the infrastructure.

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6. Information Management and Access: Where Have We Come From?

In 1983 the Access to Information Act was proclaimed to provide Canadians with the right of access to information held under the control of the federal government.

It was proclaimed at a time when word-processing units were common in the workplace, secretaries continued to answer phones, support administrative matters and ensure that records were prepared and managed.

The term "knowledge worker" was only just being introduced. Personal computers were in their infancy and the Internet was used simply to exchange information between computer specialists. Classification and filing were part of a centralized records management function that was recognized and widespread throughout government institutions. Specialists provided the records management services so that knowledge workers could focus on their primary duties. Generally, knowledge workers were never taught records management skills.

Ten years later, in 1993, the knowledge worker was equipped with his or her own personal computer and secretarial support was rapidly disappearing, as were records management specialists. Previously these specialists had ensured a corporate influence over the records generated and received in the organization through the application of records management standards and practices. As operational reviews took place, however, records management functions were reduced or abolished.

The emphasis on 'results driven' program management and the concurrent reduction in resources allocated to what was being perceived as administrative overhead led to a dramatic reduction in the availability of records management specialists.
At the same time, management concepts such as "the empowered employee" and "let-the-manager-manage" helped to erode whatever central power and influence corporate services such as records management could impose. Not surprisingly, each public servant became an information manager without the training or knowledge required to assume these new functions and without being aware of the value of information as a Government asset.

In 1995 the web and the Internet were well on their way to dominating the way in which people and organizations interacted with one another. Over the years, the public sector, similar to the private and academic sectors, pursued the opportunities the Internet was able to offer. With the emergence of the Internet as a dominant means of communication among individuals and organizations it gradually became clear that more and more information was being generated in electronic form and that the volume of this information was growing exponentially. At the same time, and in the absence of any centralized controls, it was becoming increasingly difficult to find information created on a wide variety of media, indexed according to multiple non-standard classification schemes, maintained in numerous locations, and for which no one was responsible.

In Titanic 2020, a 1999 research report released by CENSA, The Collaborative Electronic Notebook Systems Association³ , researcher Dr. Rich Lysakowski reported that within ten years, the total number of electronic records produced on the planet could be doubling every sixty minutes. Determining what information is of value and how to access it will be more and more challenging. At the same time it will be more critical to ensure that the information can be accessed to support not only the business objectives of organizations but also their ability to meet various legislative requirements such as those associated with the Access to Information Act.

In 2001 the world of business consists of document management, information management, knowledge management, content management, customer relationship management and a host of other information-based concepts. What about the future? No matter what terminology and technology are used, it will be critical to create an information management culture and supporting technology infrastructure to effectively manage government information. Given that the ability to access government information depends heavily on knowing what information exists and where it is, any new IM initiatives which support business and operational requirements will, by extension, both support and enhance access to information.

Managing the content and information resources within modern day information management systems requires a much broader perspective than in the past where the focus was on getting the technology in place and assuming that the content would take care of itself.

As we move towards 2011 and more and more technology becomes available, citizens will make assumptions about its use in Government. They will assume that the information they are accessing is authentic and reliable and that mechanisms are in place to maintain the information content and its associated context and structure.

They will also assume that those mechanisms extend beyond the technological capabilities of the systems that are enabling them to gain access to information. As was stated in the McDonald report, such mechanisms or infrastructures must be inclusive of all the components (policies, standards and practices, systems, and people) that work together to create, manage and disseminate government information.

Is Canada unique in identifying these issues? The next two sections illustrate the extent to which these issues are being both experienced and addressed by others at the international level.

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7. Government Information and Access - An External Perspective

With the global move towards e-government and the public interest in access and privacy, a number of the major consulting firms are studying the success of e-government initiatives.

A recent study, E-Government: What Are Citizens Really Looking For ⁴ undertaken by the Gartner Group in Europe examined what citizens are expecting from e-government. It found that people are looking at government on-line as a means of getting information more than for transacting business. Of particular interest is the observation that they are more interested in searching for a particular issue rather than by organizational unit. The survey also anticipated an increase in privacy concerns as technology changes the way in which the information is used. Despite the attraction of technology, the study reported that almost 73 percent of the respondents want to be able to access government services through a variety of access channels.

Deloitte Consulting and Deloitte and Touche undertook a public sector study on e-government and produced their report At The Dawn of E-Government: The Citizen as Customer⁵ in which they identified three key elements which must be in balance to achieve a successful implementation of government on-line: advanced technology, streamlined management structures and an empowered workforce.

All elements of the business processes have to be supported by the right technology and new approaches to human resources.

In its recent report, Governments Closing Gap Between Political Rhetoric and eGovernment Reality ⁶ Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting), presented the results of a study which evaluated the online service delivery practices of 22 national governments. Canada ranked first among 22 countries. The study found that many of the governments have recognized that citizens are looking for easy to use services.

To create these easy to use services, many of the governments are working within their current structures and providing guidance, setting targets and deliverables and creating accountability measures to ensure implementation. A key factor in the findings, which has an impact on any information management initiatives, is that citizens and business are looking for a single point of access.

This single point of access requires an information management infrastructure, which crosses the entire Government. In addition, the study suggested that governments must partner with the private sector to successfully implement these infrastructures.

The reports from both the Gartner Group and Deloitte and Touche touch on a range of issues and trends, including the growing sensitivity of citizens, the opportunities and threats that on-line public sector services can present, and the need for 'back-end' infrastructures to enable the new access environment.

The Accenture Report underlines the fact that governments cannot embark on the provision of on-line services and the enhancement of citizen access to information on their own. Partnerships and collaboration are required especially with other governments delivering like services.

The fundamental shape of government program delivery will need to be re-examined as will the shape of the citizen-government relationship. This re-examination will also need to extend to the status of the information governments generate in the course of carrying out their program responsibilities.

Within Canada, Government institutions beyond those already mandated to provide public access to information (e.g. Statistics Canada) are beginning to recognize that the information they produce to support their immediate operational requirements may have value to others including the general public. In the past, the dissemination of this information was often difficult and costly and, above all, considered to be beyond the mandate of the institution. In the rapidly emerging web-enabled environment, however, government information that was typically considered to be restricted to the purview of the program activity can, with little extra effort, be made more widely available in a cost-effective and timely manner.

Questions that are emerging, however, are whether or not such information should be provided for a fee, whether or not there is a role for the private sector in undertaking this role, and whether or not certain kinds of information should or should not be made available beyond a given government program.

At a recent conference of The Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) speakers discussed the challenge and the seemingly impossible task of predicting how technology will change the way in which public and private sector business will be delivered in the future. One speaker proposed that IT professionals should not try to keep track of the technology. Rather they should step back from the technology and analyze more carefully both the business processes and the organizational culture in order to determine how technology can be positioned both to be more relevant in an environment dominated by the internet as well as the pull exerted by the growing demand to share information.

Paul Tsaparis, President and CEO of Hewlett Packard, Canada explained that organizations are looking to a future in which the "business infrastructure must be able to get information to people wherever they are when they want it". His comments echoed those of others in stressing that organizational culture and behavior have to change to succeed in this new era of information access and availability.

But why is organizational culture an issue today? Modern organizations, including governments, are recognizing that if they are to be successful they need to move from an environment where information is power and not sharing it provides some level of job security to one in which collaboration, information sharing and learning from each other are success indicators. More and more there is an expectation that people will be required to share information and apply what has been learned from earlier experiences and practices in order to improve access and the delivery of services. An organizational culture in which information management is seen as a priority will enhance program delivery and information access.

The papers by Tsaparis and those delivered by others at the CIPS conference (not to mention a host of other conferences) echo points raised by others in this field. While technologies are advancing and changing rapidly (some would say explosively) they are not the sole drivers of change. Other factors such as the transformation in the nature of business processes and the impact of organizational culture are much more fundamental in shaping the nature of information access channels being designed and supported in modern organizations.

But how is the public sector responding to these trends and challenges? How are governments positioning themselves to respond to the growing pressure by citizens to access information and the growing potential of information technologies to transform the way government's both deliver and provide access to information? The following section explores how Australia, the European Commission, and the United Kingdom have addressed these questions. The results of this exploration will set the stage for a closer examination of the Canadian scene.

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