Threats of the data-flood. An accountability perspective in the era of ubiquitous computing.1 charles jeurgens Overview In this essay, I argue that ubiquitous computing and the closely related increase in data requires a fundamental reorientation of the recordkeeping community. I explore the effects of data-driven phenomena like big data and smart applications on records and recordkeeping practices from the perspective of its contribution to informational accountability and transparency. I contend that a traditional view of appraisal of recorded data is no longer sufficient to contribute to accountability and transparency. Instead, the focus should be shifted to understanding and managing the assemblages between data and the processing mechanisms (for instance algorithms) in situated practices. Introduction In the mid 1970s, the Italian writer Italo Calvino masterfully depicts the ritual of emptying the trash. In his tale, La poubelle agréée he demonstrates the struggle between retaining and discarding. The way people treat their waste reflects the essence of being human, or as Calvino states: "[a]las the unhappy retentive (or the miser) who, fearing to lose something of his own, is unable to separate himself from anything, hoards his faeces and ends up identifying with his own detritus and losing himself in it' (Calvino, 1993, p. 58). Calvino's main character is in a persistent quandary about how to distinguish between the essential and the residue, the meaningful and the meaningless, the relevant and the extraneous. But the perception of what is waste and what is valuable has changed fundamentally in the last few decades. One of the largest European sanitation companies now advertises with the slogan 'waste doesn't exist', since everything can be recycled and reused in the circular economy. This changing perspective bears strong resemblance with one of the core functions the recordkeeping profession is traditionally engaged with: managing abundance by identifying records to be curated and preserved and what There would indeed be no archive desire without the radical finitude, without the possibility of forgetfulness which does not limit itself to repression. Jacques Derrida 1 I would like to thank Geert-Jan van Bussel, Annet Dekker and Eric Ketelaar for their comments on an earlier version of this article. 197

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Jaarboeken Stichting Archiefpublicaties | 2017 | | pagina 100