Why the White House is Hiring a Social Media Archivist

[Kevin Spidel]

From Mashable: http://mashable.com/2009/09/16/white-house-records/

In the wake of the Watergate scandal, the US Congress passed the Presidential Records Act (PRA) in 1978. This act changed the legal ownership of official records from the Executive Office of the President (EOP) from private to public and mandated that these records be filed with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Although policies and procedures have been in place for years for preserving and archiving paper and electronic traditional documents and records, as White House (and by extension, EOP) communication extends into areas of social media, that presents new challenges in archiving things like blog postings, Twitter (Twitter) messages, YouTube (YouTube) videos and so-on. This content, plus the comments and replies associated with them (think letters to the President) all need to be archived under the PRA.

This isn’t a cut-and-dried process so the White House needs someone who can implement a process to make archiving the EOP social media streams efficient, accessible and most importantly, safe for the future.

[Cha]

1. New Era..new positions

created.

[DrToast]

2. Don't you remember Nixon's missing Tweets?

Can't have a replay of that happening.

[Hangingon]

3. The definition of "records: in the PRA covers ALL media.

[Yavin4]

4. How Will Beck Morph This Into Something Sinister?

He'll find a new controversy about this somehow.