By moving critical records such as registers, ledgers and contracts to the blockchain,
these transactions and records are being rewritten and redefined. Key rights and
entitlements are tied to these transformations. Much is enabled through this
transition, but recordkeepers need to ensure that nothing is lost in this new model
for recordkeeping where records are decentralised and where trust is maintained
through programmatic rules and shared information retention and access.
Recordkeepers therefore need to overcome the limitation that they are still perceived
as document managers or the custodians of superseded data, and take an active role
in the design and management of the code and metadata-based records that exist in
blockchain technology. To do this, it is necessary to communicate that the
knowledge of transactional recordkeeping, processes and accountability built by the
recordkeeping profession over thousands of years still has critical relevance.
Proactive appraisal can define the records of the blockchain and resolve many of the
recordkeeping-related issues that blockchain technologies are already grappling
with. For example, with its distributed models, storage limitations and very long
chains of replicated data, the blockchain needs appraisal-like approaches to
programmatically assign and deploy retention and destruction rules. Already,
'scalability is an on-going problem with blockchain systems.. .The current database is
best described as "huge" and becoming "stupendous" and eventually "impractical"
'.18 Proactive appraisal can also enable a prioritisation of recordkeeping activities in
blockchains based on risk assessment and legal and community requirements. The
permanence of blockchain records is fundamental however to trust, transparency
and accountability in the chain, as are the distribution and accessibility of
blockchain records.19 Therefore appraisal needs to consider these fundamental
requirements while balancing the need to mitigate the increasingly impractical size
of the chain.
Interestingly, schisms are currently occurring within the blockchain community
over recordkeeping issues. A hacking episode in July 2016 led to the theft of up to
$US150 million from the ethereum blockchain. One group wants the affected
community to vote to edit the blockchain in order to remove and delete the
transactions that enabled the hack, an action that will allow stolen funds to be
returned to their original owners. Other groups argue that the immutability of the
blockchain ledger is critical and must not be threatened. They argue that ongoing
confidence in all transactions in the ledger is more important than this specific
loss.20
Recordkeeping issues are therefore critical to the evolution and maintenance of this
transformative form of business infrastructure. Recordkeeping will be fundamental
to any new form of transactional technology, and so recordkeeping professionals
need to determine ways to engage with and contribute to these developing
infrastructures and evolving forms of records.
4. Challenges of personal information and recordkeeping
Proactive appraisal is a fundamental tool for placing personal, community and long
term accessibility rights at the heart of system design. The potential of transforming
information management out of traditional paper-based environments and into
new operating frameworks is demonstrated by ChildStory, a system recently
commissioned by the New South Wales Department of Family and Community
Services.
Like many care agencies, the Department had ongoing problems with maintaining
comprehensive records about children who had been removed from their families
and placed in state care or other institutions. As adults, these people found it
difficult to retrieve the records the state had made of their placement in a foster
family or in institutional care. Records of the placements, of the child's parents and
of other relatives were in many cases poorly maintained, often in multiple
incomplete files and these files were difficult to locate and retrieve. After the NSW
privacy legislation came into force, access to records which were able to be retrieved
was often restricted because the records contained information about 'third parties',
that is, the child's parents and siblings.
The government agencies which had responsibility for children's welfare and the
decisions about removal and subsequent placement had also been subject to many
administrative changes over the past 40 years. Tracking the records of
administration of the function of child welfare was further complicated by the
involvement of non-government agencies (often religious institutions) and by the
scandalous ill-treatment of many children in care which led to cover-ups and
sometimes unauthorised information destruction. Post factum appraisal could
literally only pick up the pieces in these distressing cases.
The NSW Department of Family and Community Services decided to address these
issues with quite a radical overhaul of its approach. A proactive appraisal of the
requirements had to identify what records needed to be created and how they could
be designed, to ensure the right of the child to access to information about herself.
The solution, called ChildStory, uses web and cloud-based technology to connect a
network of family, carers, caseworkers and service providers to enable early
intervention and coordinated case planning for children. This system's first
intention is to break down traditional silos of information which may put children
at risk and prevent timely intervention. Parties from different organisations are
authorised to have quick access to key information about the child's case from all or
any source. What is radical compared to past practice is that in this solution the
child is firmly at the centre of this network. It is an instance of how a thorough
appraisal of the needs of the interested parties, and of the complex access
permissions and authorisations, was necessary to define how the recordkeeping
should be done and the system designed.
In ChildStory, children have their own digital repository where they and their carers
can collect photos, videos, documents, school reports in a 'digital suitcase', giving
the child an archive and a story that was often lost in a series of fostering
arrangements. Children are also able to see what is being recorded in the system,
giving them more control over information about themselves and therefore over the
care they are being given and the decisions that are being made on their behalf. For
decision makers it connects decisions directly to an individual child and to their
story, adding a human dimension and accountability to all decisions. ChildStory
shows what can be achieved by proactively defining information requirements as a
core component of systems and processes.21
65
selectie ii
64
kate cumming en anne picot appraisal in 2016: Australian perspectives on
digital drivers and directions
18 Ibidem.
19 A. Juels and I. Eyal, 'Blockchains: Focusing on bitcoin misses the real revolution in digital trust',
The Conversation (18 July 2016) https://theconversation.com/blockchains-focusing-on-bitcoin-misses-the-
real-revolution-in-digital-trust-58125 (accessed 25 July 2016).
20 A. Hertig, 'The Plot Thickens as DAO Attacker Trades Stolen Funds for Bitcoin', CoinDesk (27 October 2016),
http://www.coindesk.com/dao-attack-hacker-trades-funds-bitcoin/ (accessed 30 October 2016).
21 W. D. Eggers, 'Delivering on Digital: The Innovators and Technologies That Are Transforming Government',
Stanford Social Innovation Review (13 June 2016), http://ssir.org/articles/entry/delivering_on_digital_
innovators_and_technologies_transforming_government (accessed 18 June 2016).
