How files as an abstraction set records up to fail in the electronic and digital age.

20 years ago, records took a file at the end of its life - or a point at which it became dormant for a significant period - and kept it.

Practice was oriented around making sure that the file could be found and retrieved when it was needed.

This was a really valuable service.

The challenge, is that a body of practice built up around that value, and when it stopped being valuable, the practice didn't change.

How did this happen?

People tend to work at useful levels of abstraction.

A file is an abstraction.

Any time we focus on an abstraction, we lose detail.

This can be enormously advantageous.

It makes much more sense to manage files than to manage pages.

It makes much more sense to make assumptions when working at scale - because detail has a cost associated with it.

The problem is that now, is that people don't need help with files anymore.

Ever since we gave people computers, and made the work electronic, they've stopped needing help with files.

I think we could make a good case that the way we think about files has actually hindered their work.

This is why EDRMS are largely unused - in comparison to the volume of usage that they should be seeing.

Focus at the file level, obscures all of the record keeping work that is actually important to people.

The record keeping work that's important to people is the work of getting and staying organised.

The file obscures all of the work that gets managed before the file is put together.

Which is a simple way of saying that it obscures all of the things that people need help with.

People don't tend to think about every detail of their work all the time.

They spend their lives thinking about an abstraction of their work.

Just like files help us organise our work, people think in abstractions that help them organise their work.

The abstraction can be a queue and how many pieces of work are in it for them to work through.

The abstraction can be a set of status information.

It can be a set of folders or a workflow with status - to do, waiting for x, done.

It can also be a sharepoint list, tied to a planner board and reported on using power BI - so that many people have abstracted views of status relevent to them.

The point of this, is that the file level is not a useful level of organisation for people now.

And we keep doing things - like telling them that our file is the important one, and they can't have levels of folders because it doesn't fit in with our ideas about files.

We think that files sprang into existence to help records management.

We've forgotten that the whole reason "files" exist is to help people organise work.

And it's the organisation of the work that's important, not the file.

That's what people need help with.

Because they really do actually do more recordkeeping than they've ever done before.

They just think of it as keeping themselves organised.

And don't make the connection between what we do, and what they do.

Because they’re not organising at the file level of abstraction.

It’s not enough.

They need more detail.

And the only way to have a relevent records practice in the future, is to help them organise themselves at that level of detail.