Marcus Evans, Janine Regan, Christoph Ritzer, Andrea D'Ambra, and David Kessler, Norton Rose Fulbright Data Protection Report: Record Retention is a Key Component of Your Privacy and Cyber Compliance Program

Simon Reader, Information Commissioner's Office: Data Protection Impact Assessments and AI

H/T: Eduardo Ustaran

ARMA seeking nominations for the ARMA International Board of Directors

ARMA announced that it has opened nominations for the Board of Directors, who will serve 2- or 3-year terms effective July 1, 2020. Nominations are open for three positions:

• President-elect
• Director
• Treasurer

The deadline to apply is Nov 1, 2019. More details including specifics about responsibilities and qualifications can be found at https://www.arma.org/page/Board_Elections. 

Joe Shepley, CMSWire: No One Cares About Information Governance But You

MER opens call for speakers for MER2020

MER, the Managing Electronic Records conference, has announced its call for speakers for MER2020, scheduled for May 4-6, 2020 in Chicago, IL. The deadline to apply is October 18, 2019. Additional details are available from the speaker prospectus at https://www.merconference.com/page/1436799/call-for-presenters?ct=t(A-10-Join-the-Team-Oct-01).

Carlos Pauling, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/navigating-professional-jungle-gym-carlos-pauling/

H/T: Pam Bartoli

NIST: NIST Releases Preliminary Draft of Privacy Framework

H/T: IAPP

Randolph Kahn, Business Law Today: The Case to Rethink Records Retention in 2018 and Beyond. Just seeing this because Randy just posted it to LinkedIn. Worth a read.

CIO Magazine house editorial: The Dark Side of Robotic Process Automation

H/T: Nintex

Todd Hefner, Law.com: Demystifying Social Media Discovery. Short version, which Todd leads with: " 'Social media information is treated just as any other type of information would be in the discovery process.' Locke v. Swift Transportation Co. of Arizona, LLC, No. 518CV00119T, 2019 WL 430930, (W.D. Ky. Feb. 4, 2019)."

AIIM Opens Call for Proposals for AIIM20

AIIM has opened its call for proposals to speak at AIIM20, scheduled for March 3-5, 2020 in Dallas, TX. Speakers who are selected will receive a free full conference registration; travel and any preconference workshops or conference add-ons are the responsibility of the speaker.

Proposals are due by Friday, September 13; all speakers will be notified in the fall as to whether they were selected or not. Submissions will only be accepted from end users.

For more information or to submit, visit https://aiimconference.com/callforspeakers.

Julia Evans, on her own blog: Get your work recognized: write a brag document. As the article notes, this is a great way to recall everything you did for performance review time; it also helps when it's time to update the resume/CV, submit to speak at an industry event, etc.

H/T: Mary Mack

International Organization for Standards: Tackling privacy information management head on: first International Standard just published. The standard is ISO 27701, which builds on ISO 27001 and ISO 27002.

John Mancini, CMSWire: 8 Hacks to Simplify Content Management for Small Companies

My new post on information management and employee separation is up: https://info.aiim.org/aiim-blog/the-break-up-list-a-checklist-to-avoid-information-management-issues-with-employee-separation

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) of the UK: Data sharing code of practice: Draft code for consultation (link to 105pg PDF)

Cindy Zuvich, Document Strategy Magazine: Selecting the Right Model for Your RIM Program: Centralized vs. Decentralized vs. Hybrid

Arian Ravanbakhsh, NARA Records Express: New OMB/NARA Memorandum on Transition to Electronic Records

Bill Tolson, Database Trends and Applications: The Perils of Ignoring 'Leaver' Data in Regulated Industries

ARMA Seeks CEO

ARMA announced today that it is seeking a Chief Staff Executive to lead the global operations of the organization. Applications are due by July 31, 2019 to ARMAjobs@armaintl.org. Details are available here: https://www.arma.org/news/news.asp?id=461223

Upcoming AIIM Training courses - July - December 2019

Here's my irregular update on upcoming AIIM training courses. We generally offer public courses a few times a year in Washington, DC; Denver, CO; Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Midrand, South Africa.

North America: 
Sep 24-27, Modern Records Management Master Class, Denver, CO. Details

Oct 22-25, Foundations of Intelligent Information Management, Washington, DC. Details
Nov 12-15, Modern Records Management Master Class, Washington, DC. Details

Europe: 
Oct 1-4, Foundations of Intelligent Information Management, Amsterdam, NL. Details

Nov 26-29, ECM Master Class, Amsterdam, NL. Details

South Africa:
Aug 16-19, ECM Master Class, Midrand, SA. Details
Sep 17-20, Modern Records Management Master Class, Midrand, SA. Details
Oct 22-25, ECM Master Class, Midrand, SA. Details
Nov 19-22, ECM Master Class, Midrand, SA. Details
Dec 3-6, Modern Records Management Master Class, Midrand, SA. Details

The most current course schedule is always available at https://www.aiim.org/Education-Section/Public-Classes/In-Person-List-Page?sorttype=dateasc&page=1.

All of our courses can also be taught as private classes. I wrote more about that option here: https://informata.blogspot.com/2016/10/aiim-private-courses.html

If you have any questions please contact me at jwilkins@aiim.org.

AIIM Accepting Nominations for 2020 Board of Directors

AIIM is currently accepting nominations for candidates to serve on the AIIM Board of Directors for a three-year term beginning January, 2020. The first Board meeting for selected candidates will be as a guest at the December 5, 2019 meeting (virtual and optional for guests).

Candidate qualifications include:
a. knowledge of key industry trends
b. experience in strategic planning, implementation and budgeting
c. demonstrated commitment to AIIM and the industry
d. willingness to attend four Board meetings per year (one is virtual) with one allowed absence
e. AIIM Professional Member in good standing

Nominations may be submitted by the nominee or his/her supporter. The nomination
package includes the following items:
a. nominee’s current resume
b. brief statement from the nominee regarding the role and value he/she believes AIIM should play/bring over the next 2-3 years
c. one-page statement regarding the nominee’s contribution to that process as a member of the Board of Directors
d. two letters of support from individuals that can attest to the strategic acumen and professional integrity of the nominee

Completed nominations and letters of support can be sent to Boshia Smith,
Community/Membership Administrator; questions may also be directed to her at
bsmith@aiim.org. Deadline for nominations is Friday, September 20.

Chad White, Litmus: Presentation Tips: Lessons Learned from Giving 100+ Talks and Webinars

H/T: WBT Systems

Michael Lewis, FCW: Tick tock: NARA's electronic records management deadline is approaching

Kevin Casey, The Enterprisers Project: How to explain Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in plain English

H/T: Dianne Jolly

Get CIP CEUs from reading industry content

I noted in an earlier post that we've upped the renewal requirement for CEUs from 45 to 60. This aligns us to most other industry certifications, and 20 CEUs a year still represents less than 1% of your work hours spent keeping up with changes to the industry, technology, etc. The renewal price remains unchanged, and represents a significant discount to the exam price itself (the other option for renewal).

We've made one other addition to the CEU process. Effective immediately, you can read publications and receive CEU credits for those as well. As with other CEU submissions, AIIM publications certainly count, but you can also submit other publications, white papers, etc. from other associations, vendors, book authors, or any other source.

To qualify for CEUs, a publication needs to meet these requirements:

• It has to be on an information management topic and informational. Vendor-written and -sponsored white papers certainly count for the portion that is educational (even if product-specific); a conference brochure would not. 
• It has to be at least 8 solid pages of content - not counting the title, the sponsor writeups, ads, etc. So no typical short-form blog posts, infographics, etc. By way of example, AIIM's own Industry Watches are all good for 1.0 CEU each; our tip sheets and infographics are too short to receive CEUs. 

CEUs will be awarded at the rate of 1.0 CEU per ten pages, rounded to the nearest ten pages. So if you read the entire 2019 CIP study guide cover to cover you'd get 25 CEUs - 264-page PDF minus 13 pages at the start and 1 at the end = 250 pages or 25 CEUs. 

To submit a publication for CEUs, simply note the information in the CEU submission form. You do not have to attach the publication, though you certainly can. You should retain the publication in the event that your record is selected for random audit.

As always, feel free to ping me with any questions at jwilkins@aiim.org.  

Dr. Mansur Hasib, in SecureWorld: A Political Science Major in a Cybersecurity Classroom... Being Taught by a Political Science Major?

 Long article but well worth the read. As I noted in retweeting this post, this is exactly how we position the CIP, as the broad or horizontal stroke that complements the narrow, deep-dive knowledge and expertise.

CIP Exam Approved for GI Bill Reimbursement for U.S. Veterans

I wrote a blog post about this on the AIIM blog but wanted to point readers of this blog to it as well.

In a nutshell, if you're a U.S. military veteran with education benefits remaining, you can take the CIP exam and get the exam cost reimbursed. The GI Bill doesn't cover training courses, just the exam - but it does cover retakes if required. For all the details, visit https://info.aiim.org/aiim-blog/cip-exam-approved-for-reimbursement-under-the-gi-bill.

The Updated CIP Exam is Now Live!

I've been a bit remiss in posting this here because I've been busy posting it to the official AIIM blog. But I want to make it official here as well:

The 2019 update to the Certified Information Professional (CIP) exam is now live! 

Major changes to the exam include:

• Significant refocus on business issues and outcomes, rather than getting so far into the weeds of different processes and technologies
• Slight reduction in the coverage of taxonomies, information governance, and records management, for the same reason
• Slight increase in the coverage of case management and analytics & AI
• Significant increase in the coverage of privacy and data protection
• Added robotic process automation

Major changes to the program itself weren't many, but there were a couple: 

• We increased the number of CEUs required from 45 to 60 over 3 years, bringing us into alignment with every other major industry certification. 
• We increased the price of the exam to $349 for AIIM Professional members and $385 for non-members. The renewal fee, however, remained $135 / $150 respectively. 
• Reinstatement no longer has a 1-year time limit. If you ever passed the CIP exam, you can reinstate. However, you still need to submit CEUs and pay the reinstatement fee. 

As part of the exam update, we also completely rewrote the CIP study guide, which remains FREE for AIIM Professional members and $60 for non-members. And we updated the CIP Prep course and rebranded it "Foundations of Intelligent Information Management." I'll explain what that means in a separate blog post. 

We also upped the free sample exam from 25 questions to 100, so candidates should have a more accurate picture of where they are in relation to the official exam. 

What does this mean to existing CIPs?

In the short term, nothing. If you're a CIP in good standing, 

• You do not have to retake the updated exam (though you're welcome to!). As long as you maintain your CIP status, you're good. 
• Your current renewal cycle will still require 45 CEUs; you don't need to satisfy the 60 CEU requirement until your next renewal cycle. 

But it does demonstrate AIIM's continued commitment to ensuring the CIP remains relevant and valuable to the industry and the community of information professionals. 

For more information about the updates or the program, visit https://www.aiim.org/cip or send me an email at jwilkins@aiim.org. 

Setting the CIP v2019 Passing Score

How time flies! As I noted just about three years ago, one of the final steps in the development of any certification is setting the passing score. There is a widespread misconception that the passing score "should be" a certain score such as 70% - 75%. This is akin to setting the retention for some or all of your records at 7 years: Nobody really knows how they got there, and it's not defensible, but everyone else is doing it so it must be OK.

In order for a passing score to be defensible, it needs to be criterion-based. This is typically done through some sort of standard-setting study. There are a number of ways to do this; a common way used for certification exams is modified Angoff scoring. This is the approach we've always used to set the CIP passing score. 

The way Angoff scoring works is that subject matter experts, who themselves are representative of the target audience, take the exam in an unproctored, untimed, and unscored setting. As they go through the exam, they rate the likelihood of a candidate like them getting that question correct. The harder the question is perceived to be, the lower that percentage will be. So for example, a super-easy question might be given a 95% rating (because people still pick B accidentally instead of A), while the lowest grade, 25%, represents a pure guess on a question with 4 possible answers.

Once the SMEs finished their ratings, we had a call to discuss them. Each item had a range of ratings and we discussed the individual ratings of those items with large ranges. We looked at the complexity of the individual item, how the beta testers answered, and how well those questions discriminated - in other words, did good scorers tend to get them right, while poor scorers tend to get them wrong? SMEs were allowed to change their ratings after discussion and many did on many items. This ended up with each item having a difficulty rating and a statistical validity associated with that rating. 

We then took all the individual items and assembled the final passing score range of 56% - 64%. We then set the passing score right in the middle of that mathematically determined, defensible, range. So the final passing score for the updated CIP exam remains at 60.00%. 

But a passing score of 60% seems quite low, right? It's exactly the opposite: a 60% passing score reflects that the exam is actually pretty challenging. Had we put the passing score at, say, 70%, only about half the beta candidates would have passed, many of whom are superior candidates compared to the 5+ year candidate that the updated CIP exam is targeting. 

I hope this information underscores my, and AIIM's, continuing commitment to doing the CIP the right way, not simply throwing together a bunch of questions and setting an arbitrary passing score. Questions or comments? Ping me at jwilkins@aiim.org. 

Dani Deahl, TheVerge: Metadata is the biggest little problem plaguing the music industry

Greg Milliken, M-Files: The 3 Waves of Innovation in Information Management (and How Context is Everything)

Updated CIP Exam to Go Live June 1, 2019

Short version: If you're a CIP, you do NOT need to retake the exam (though you are welcome to!). If you are a candidate, the new exam goes live on June 1.

I'm pleased to announce that we're just about to complete the CIP exam update process and the new exam is scheduled to go live on June 1, 2019. I'll write more about the changes to the exam in another post later this week. In the meantime, what does this mean to you?

If you're a CIP. The update doesn't directly impact you. You're still a CIP as long as you renew your status. You can, of course, renew by taking the exam, either the current one or the updated one when it goes live; most CIPs maintain their status with CEUs, and the exam update doesn't directly impact that.

The CEU program is being updated slightly. As I wrote in January, we are increasing the CEU requirements from 45 over 3 years to 60. This brings the CIP in line with nearly every other information management-related certification at 20 hours per year. This is not an onerous amount, representing less than 1% of a full-time work year. As industry professionals, we've found that most CIPs complete significantly more than 20 hours a year in continuing education - you have to in order to keep up with everything!

All current CIPs will be able to complete their current renewal cycle under the current program. Subsequent renewals, and any new CIPs, will need to comply with the updated program requirements.

If you want to become a CIP. When the updated exam goes live, the current exam will be retired. That means that you have until the end of the day on May 31, 2019 to take the current exam. Any exams currently scheduled for June 1, 2019 or later will be delivered using the new exam.

We're updating the study guide and training materials right now, and plan to have them go live at the same time as the new exam. Candidates who have already purchased the current training course can send an email to certification@aiim.org and receive access to the new course materials and study guide as soon as they are available.

The current materials are still valid for 75-80% of the updated exam; metadata is still metadata, workflow is still workflow, etc. But we did add information on robotic process automation, analytics and AI, and privacy and data protection. The intent is still to cover those topics, like all topics on the exam, at the strategy/business issue/business outcome level. Candidates who don't want to wait for the updated AIIM materials can use other references to prepare including AIIM research and white papers, resources from other groups like IAPP, etc.

The AIIM website will be updated with all of the updated resources, exam blueprint, etc. when the new exam goes live on June 1. In the meantime, please direct any questions directly to me at jwilkins@aiim.org.

AIIM Extends CIP Beta Exam through April 30, 2019

We've gotten great uptake on the CIP beta exam, but we're still looking for more people to take the exam in order to ensure we've got really good statistics to work from.

To that end, we are extending the CIP beta exam through April 30, 2019. This means you must register for AND complete the beta exam by the end of the day on Tuesday, April 30. At 11:30 pm that evening the beta will shut down so we can do the analysis required to set the passing score.

Why should you take the beta exam?

• Be among the first to test against the updated CIP body of knowledge
• Help shape the CIP exam for future candidates
• Help ensure the CIP exam remains relevant and valuable moving forward 
• Demonstrate that you know your information management stuff!
• Save up to $200 off the current exam fee - the beta exam is only $149

The current study guide has NOT been updated, but it is still relevant for about 75% of the exam; candidates will need to supplement with additional information in these areas:

• Robotic process automation
• Analytics and artificial intelligence as they apply to information management
• Privacy and data protection

We have a number of resources on these topics on the AIIM website, and all of them are free to AIIM Professional members. The study guide is also free to AIIM Professional members, but any beta candidates can request and receive the current study guide for free - just contact me at jwilkins@aiim.org. 

I wrote more about the beta exam and the process here. Please feel free to contact me with any questions at jwilkins@aiim.org. 

The Sedona Conference has announced final publication of The Sedona Conference Commentary on Information Governance, 2nd Edition. Registration may be required but the document itself is free.

https://thesedonaconference.org/publication/Commentary_on_Information_Governance

James Lappin: The SharePoint records retention model in Office 365

H/T: Sheila Taylor

The CIP v2019 Beta is LIVE!

I am pleased to announce that the beta exam is live for the CIP v2019 update! So what's that mean?

As with previous versions of the CIP exam, we run the new exam through a beta process in order to set a defensible passing score. We need 60+ candidates for each of the two beta forms (120+ total - the more the merrier, but see below!). Once we have those exam results we can analyze the individual items to ensure they meet our standards; we will also set the passing score using the modified Angoff scoring mechanism.

The beta is the same as the "regular" CIP and those who pass the beta will be full CIPs. The primary differences are:

• The price, as shown below
• There are 150 exam questions on the beta. This ensures that we have enough questions that, if some of them are not up to par, we can remove them and still have enough for the two exam forms to go live. 
• Because it's longer, the exam is 3 hours, rather than 2, to give candidates time to provide comments on each question if so desired
• You will have to wait until the beta is over to get your score. The plan is for all beta exam takers to receive their scores by May 31, 2019. 

Ideal beta candidates are the same as the ideal CIP candidates: 

• 5 or more years of hands-on experience in at least one of the domains on the exam.
• Sales/marketing/support folks will do better to have a bit more experience in the industry - 7-10+. Ditto business users for whom information management is not their primary job function. 
• Self-motivated. As part of the update, we're updating the CIP training materials and study guide, but those will NOT be ready until the exam goes live in June. The current training materials and study guide are still relevant - metadata is metadata, after all - but there will be areas on the beta exam that are not covered by the current materials, such as RPA, AI, and privacy. 

How can you register? Simply go to http://www.webassessor.com/aiim/index.html, create an account, and follow the registration process. You can take the exam at any Kryterion test center worldwide, or by using the Online Proctored option. I wrote more about that option here and here. The cost of the beta is $149. 

This link is to the final CIP v2019 outline: https://myaiim.box.com/s/4hhcpv3xw2rgchun9awepzg6mxy87p9d

Please note that the beta will only be available until April 19, 2019 April 30, 2019. You must register for, and take, the exam by that date in order to participate in the beta exam. 

Please feel free to contact me directly with any questions at jwilkins@aiim.org.

Jason Baron, Ethical Boardroom: A looming challenge for corporate governance. In this article Jason discusses ephemeral and self-destructing messaging apps and how to address them from the RM and IG perspectives.

Archives Express: NARA releases Blockchain white paper. My take: It raises a number of questions and misses some important ones like the 51% hack and smart contract issues. I think a lot more work needs to be done before IM professionals jump on the blockchain bandwagon.

H/T: Kurt Thies

George Parapadakis, GCN: Overcoming information governance inertia

ARMA Awards Nominations Open

Posting this because I never see the announcements about this until right at, and sometimes after, the deadline. ARMA's awards nominations are open for a number of awards, with the following deadlines:

May 15: Company of Fellows; Distinguished Service Award; and Christine Zanotti Award for Excellence in Non-Serial Publications

June 30: ARMA Award of Excellence for an Organization Award (presented by the Department of Redundancy Department); Chapter Luminary Award; Member of the Year; Regions Luminary Award; and Standing Ovation Award.

A brief overview of each award can be found at https://www.arma.org/page/Awards. Links to criteria and nominating forms for each award can be found at https://arma.secure-platform.com/a/.

Mike Orcutt, MIT Technology Review: Once hailed as unhackable, blockchains are now getting hacked The spooky thing to me is not the 51% attacks, but rather the smart contract issues.

Frequently Asked Questions about CIP 2019

We just received a couple of questions about the CIP 2019 update, and thought it might be helpful to answer them here. Eventually I suspect this will turn into an FAQ, so if you have questions about CIP 2019, please send them to me and I'll answer them here!

Does this version replace the previous version? Yes, when the 2019 update goes live, the old exam will be retired. Some of the questions will be the same, many of the questions will be tweaked, and there will be many new questions to reflect the new topics added to the exam.

That said, current CIPs will not need to retest to maintain their status. CIPs who have been keeping up with their CEUs and renewal fees will continue to remain active CIPs in good standing. The renewal and reinstatement processes will change somewhat - I wrote about that here: http://informata.blogspot.com/2019/01/cip-2019-quick-update-on-renewals-and.html

Will the exam be different? Yes...and no. Metadata is still metadata, business processes are still business processes. The reason for updating CIP, or any certification, is to reflect changes in the industry and how things are done. To that end, we'll be reducing or removing coverage of topics we don't feel are relevant, and adding and widening coverage of topics that have emerged to take their place in the toolkit of the information professional.

The bottom line is that the coverage of the exam will be mostly the same - right now my best guess is around 70%. Once we finalize the exam blueprint we'll share that here and in other sites and services, and we'll also put together a mapping that shows what's been dropped, what's been changed, and what's been added.

We will still be using Kryterion as our exam delivery partner. The exam itself may become slightly longer to reflect the broadening of industry processes and developments we think CIPs should know, but it will still be a single exam.

Are there more/different courses that should be considered to prepare? Again, yes and no. All of the current AIIM courses will continue to align to the updated CIP; many of them go into much greater depth than the relevant section of the CIP, so they remain of value on their own as well as for preparing for the exam.

However, the CIP Study Guide and CIP Prep course will also be updated to reflect the changes on the exam, so candidates will continue to have that option to prepare for the exam as well. And we're planning for some big changes in how we deliver that prep course that we think everyone will appreciate!

Again, if you have any other questions, please send them to me at jwilkins@aiim.org and I will answer them and post the answers here as well.

Joe Shepley, in CMSWire: What if You Just Ignored the GDPR?

Interesting and realistic take on the real cost of compliance vs. the abstract cost of non-compliance. As I teach in our training courses, ultimately every compliance decision is a risk management, and therefore business, decision. As Joe notes, it makes zero sense financially to spend millions of dollars to avoid the possibility of tens of thousands of dollars in fines.

That's not to say that compliance might not be important for other reasons - public sentiment, trust and reputation, etc. And our Modern Records Management class makes the argument that you do things to improve the business of the business and get better compliance as an additional benefit. But every organization needs to look at GDPR, and CaCPA, and any new regulation/compliance requirement through the filter of what's the best choice for the business.

Jedidiah Bracy, for IAPP: CNIL publishes blockchain guidance for GDPR compliance. Links to the report and an article about it are available within this post.

CIP 2019 update: The job task analysis and exam blueprint

The first major phase in the development or updating of a certification exam is the job task analysis (JTA). As the name suggests, this is an in-depth analysis of the tasks expected for a particular role. The results of the JTA are then translated into the things a candidate needs to know to perform those tasks - the exam blueprint - which then forms the basis for the actual exam questions.

The role definition is important, because the purpose of any exam is to determine whether a particular candidate is minimally or sufficiently competent to function in that role. This is a specific term of art in the certification industry that we'll talk about at some length on our call.

In a nutshell, we have defined the minimally competent CIP as one that:

• Has 5+ years of practical, hands-on work experience in information management processes and disciplines (updated to reflect 5+ years)
• Does not have to have a relevant college degree
• Has not attended any formal training courses
• Is prepared to faciliate, translate, and liaison between different information management processes, the business, IT, etc. Jack of all trades is a good description; internal consultant or "generalist" is probably another. 
• Is more focused on business outcomes than specific technologies or in-depth specialized processes

This is not a thought leader/rock star consultant with 25+ years of experience - because how many of those are there? Rather, to use an academic analogy, this is the C- student. Yes, they have a passing mark. Barely. As they get trained, and get more and broader experience, they will eventually become rock stars - but they aren't there yet.

The JTA, and how important you think a given task is, should therefore be thought of in terms of that C- student, not the rock star.

Tomorrow, February 5, we will be sending out a JTA survey to all CIPs and all AIIM professional members. That survey is based on the existing CIP, which gives respondents an opportunity to tell us how they feel about it, and adds some new tasks and activities to reflect changes in the industry since the last CIP update in 2016.

We ask you on the survey to rate each task on a scale of 1, not at all important, to 5, essential. Tasks that are 1s are probably not within the scope of most CIPs' roles; tasks that are 5s are within the scope of just about every CIP's role.

If you get the survey, we'd very much like you to take the 15-20 minutes required to complete it. We are particularly interested in your identifying:

• Which tasks are outdated, niched, or of such little importance that they should be removed altogether? For example, in the original CIP we made the decision that microfilm was niched enough that it wasn't directly relevant to the day-to-day life of the CIP. 
• Which tasks need to be added to ensure that a CIP stays current? For example, there's been a lot of work done recently around process automation, in particular in the areas of robotic process automation and decision management. If those should be added, what are the tasks we expect a CIP to need to do? 

The survey is only open through Sunday, February 10, 2019. Once the survey closes we'll use the data to develop the final exam blueprint for the exam.

If you have any questions about the survey or the update process - or you're a CIP and want to participate as a subject matter expert yourself - please contact me directly at jwilkins@aiim.org.

Nominations open for AIIM Awards

From the AIIM Awards page: Nominations for the AIIM Leadership Awards, Company of Fellows, and Award of Merit should be sent to Jessica Lombardo at jlombardo@aiim.org no later than Friday, February 1, 2019. Questions? Please email Jessica at jlombardo@aiim.org.

All nominations must be of AIIM Professional members and made by Professional members. Nominations to the Company of Fellows must be made by a Fellow and the nominated person must have been a Professional member of AIIM for the preceding five years or served as the Chair of the Board of Directors. Nominations for the Award of Merit, AIIM's highest honor, must have been a member of the Company of Fellows for the preceding five years.

Additional details about each category of award are available at https://www.aiim.org/awards.

Asif Rehmani, CMSWire: Why You Should Launch Your SharePoint Deployment & Adoption Plan Concurrently

ARMA Canada Opens Call for Speakers

ARMA Canada has announced its call for speakers for ARMA Canada 2019, scheduled for June 3-5, 2019 in Montreal, Quebec. Presentations must be submitted by Feb 11, 2019. Additional details are available at http://armacanada.org/index.php/become-a-speaker/.

ARMA opens CFP for ARMA 2019

ARMA has opened its call for speakers to participate in ARMA Live! 2019, scheduled for Oct 21-23, 2019 in Nashville, TN. Submissions are due no later than February 15, 2019. Additional details and the form can be found at https://www.arma.org/page/2019-call-for-proposals.

IGGuru.net: CGOC Releases Information Governance Infographic

Library and Archives Canada: Governance and Recordkeeping Around the World, Jan 2019. Tons of interesting articles - as always.

We Need a Few Good...Subject Matter Experts for the CIP!

Earlier today we sent out a call for subject matter experts (SMEs) for the 2019 update to the Certified Information Professional (CIP) exam. A couple of potential SMEs indicated that they wanted to participate, but weren't sure they had the time. So here's what I sent to one of them, and wanted to share with other potential SMEs.

The exam development process needs highly qualified SMEs for these four primary tasks:

1. Develop the exam blueprint
2. Develop exam questions
3. Review exam questions
4. Set the passing or cut score

1. Develop the exam blueprint. We are drafting a job task survey (JTA) now as well as a very rough exam blueprint. We'll be sending out the JTA survey to the CIP community and some broader target audiences as well.

Once we get the survey back, we'll use that to revise the exam blueprint and send that out to the subject matter experts. We'll then schedule a web conference session to review and finalize it. We'll be looking to have the final draft of the blueprint done the first week of February and the final approved blueprint the second week of February.

2. Develop exam questions for CIP 2019. This begins with a 2-hour web conference, and then item writers will have around 10 days to write 15 questions each. This is the one we need the most number of SMEs for, because SMEs are generally only able to write 15 questions each before they start either repeating or burning out. I tell people that writing a really good, accurate, proper exam question takes about 20-30 min, so the commitment here is likely around 8 hours over a 10-day period. This is late Feb to mid-March.

3. Review others’ exam questions for CIP 2019. Same training, and then wait for items to start coming in, so it's a bit back-loaded. I'd argue that reviewing is less taxing but you have to be very detail-oriented to make sure that the question really is correct, concise, and accurate. Late Feb to mid-March.

All of this leads us to a beta CIP exam that we expect to run from mid-March to mid-April. We need at least 125 people to participate in this, but those should NOT be subject matter experts. Rather, we want people with 3-5 years experience in information management (IM) and with exposure to multiple aspects of IM or multiple IM-related processes. I'll post a more specific invitation for that once we get there.

4. Develop the passing score for CIP 2019, based on the beta exam results. This is a process called modified Angoff scoring. It's a couple of 2-hour web conference sessions where we go over every single question from the beta exam and rate each question based on importance and difficulty. This would most likely be early May.

Once we complete the Angoff scoring, we can let the beta test takers know whether they passed or not, publish the official passing score, and formally launch the exam.

But I'm not a CIP...yet.
You can still help.

• Once the job task analysis survey is live, I'll be posting it to social media and we have some other non-CIP audiences we'd like to hear from. So please feel free to complete that survey. 
• We need at least 125 non-CIPs to participate in the beta exam. I don't have details to share yet, but the cost of the beta exam will be significantly lower than the cost of the live exam, and candidates who pass the beta will be CIPs in every respect. The most significant difference with the beta is that you'll probably need to wait 4-6 weeks to get your results back.
• We may have some specific requirements for SMEs, especially for item writing and reviewing, that are not represented in the CIP community. If you're interested and have the requisite experience and expertise, feel free to submit the form below. I can't promise you we'll need you, but I can promise a response one way or the other. 

Great - where do I sign?
We have a call for participation form live at https://gzclelland.wufoo.com/forms/mp82rki1pj387u/. Fill out the form completely and attach a resume or CV. We also have a link to an NDA at the top. Once we get the form and the NDA, we'll review your status and let you know within the next couple of weeks whether we can use you. Our needs may change over the course of the update, so I will keep every potential SME's information and NDA on file until the exam goes live (and then we'll get rid of it because data protection!).

For more information, or if you have any questions, please contact me directly at jwilkins@aiim.org.

Andrew Pery, writing for AIIM: The Tension between GDPR and Blockchain: Are they Polar Opposites or Can they Co-exist?

CIP 2019 - Quick Update on Renewals and Reinstatement

If you're a CIP, you know or should know that you have to renew it every three years, either by retaking the then-current exam (and paying the then-current exam fee!), or by submitting 45 continuing education credits and paying a renewal fee. I wrote about that process at some length at https://informata.blogspot.com/2016/07/maintaining-your-cip-certification.html.

When we launch the revised CIP exam later this year, we're going to increase the CEU requirement from 45 over 3 years to 60 over 3 years, or 20/year. This will bring us into alignment with nearly every other industry certification.

Most CIPs are already doing well in excess of 20 hours of continuing education a year - which is not surprising, given the rate of change and the imperative to keep up with it all. And 20 hours a year equates to less than 1% of a work year, so we think it's reasonable to expect a professional to spend 1% of their time keeping up with trends and changes.

Updated 6/3/2019: The renewal fees will stay the same, $135 for AIIM professional members and $150 for non-members.

Reinstatement
We're going to increase the reinstatement fee to $249. This fee only applies to CIPs who let their status lapse and who need to renew after the 3-year renewal period. However, we are also giving serious thought to removing the current 1-year limit, so that a lapsed CIP would be able to renew at any time by submitting CEUs earned within the previous 3 years and paying the renewal fee. We believe that anyone who has passed the CIP exam at least once has demonstrated their "CIP-ness" and should be eligible to reinstate their status, provided they submit the required CEUs and pay the reinstatement fee.

How will this affect current CIPs?
We're targeting the exam to go live this summer, and we'll give more specific dates as we get closer. All changes to the program, as well as the exam itself, will all go live at the same time, and all new CIPs and all renewal cycles that start after that date will be subject to the new requirements. So if you're a CIP now and good through, say, June 5, 2020, you'd have to meet the new requirements starting June 5, 2020 for your renewal cycle ending June 5, 2023. (JW: Updated to reflect change in thinking based on comments below)

We'll be communicating this often - via email, via social media, at the AIIM community, etc.

I welcome your thoughts and comments here or at jwilkins@aiim.org.

Joanne C Klein: Modern vs. Classic In Place Records Management in SharePoint