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What About Trust in the Cloud? Archivists' Views on Trust
Abstract
More and more information is “going to the cloud,” including records and archives. This article focuses on understanding trust-in-cloud solutions from an archivist’s perspective, exploring whether cloud computing has changed the archivist’s role and how archivists respond to cloud-related problems and challenges. Twelve archivists in Sweden were interviewed in Swedish. They describe changes in their role due to cloud computing and services in the domain of archival science. Their role has changed from being reactive to becoming proactive, guarding not only the organization’s needs and assets but also its archival records. Working proactively implies guaranteeing that requirements are updated and that contracts and agreements between the organization and cloud service provider are correct. The research shows that trust consists of several dimensions and cannot be easily achieved with technical solutions. Organizations’ risk-tolerance levels have also changed to take advantage of the benefits and savings that cloud services provide for organizations. © 2015 The Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science.
... Specifically addressing the perspective of information professionals, Borglund (2015) and Oliver and Knight (2015) provide relevant discussions of these professionals' trust in cloud solutions and service providers, respectively. Borglund (2015, p. 116) interviewed Swedish archivists, whilst Oliver and Knight (2015) use the National Library of New Zealand's National Digital Heritage Archive as a case study. ...
... Both studies touch on the financial dimension of using the cloud for archives. Congruent with other research, Borglund (2015) notes that half the archivists interviewed stated that the move to cloud storage was for cost reasons. However, the interviews provided a ''more nuanced picture'' when interviewees indicated that they could be more certain about the costs of their contract with the cloud service provider as opposed to in-house costs, which tended to be unclear (Borglund 2015, p. 123). ...
... However, data from the interviews and survey responses also suggest that current assessments of the cost of moving to the cloud are inadequate. This follows the previous work by Borglund (2015) and Oliver and Knight (2015) which demonstrated that in-house costs of archival storage tended to be unknown and unmeasured. It also suggests the ''leap of faith'' revealed by Oliver and Knight (2015) is more widespread. ...
Organisations cannot avoid working in the cloud and therefore records are being stored in the cloud either by design or by default. This raises important issues of trust in using third-party cloud service providers for storing records and digital archival collections. What factors contribute to trust in the decision-making process? What are the implications that archives and records (ARM) professionals need to understand and assess? This article discusses findings from an international research project that explored issues of trust in the context of the economics of cloud storage services. The most significant issues of trust to emerge were trust in the sustainability and continued economic viability of cloud storage services. Whilst anticipated costs savings (software, hardware, human) was the most frequently cited reason for adopting a cloud storage service, the research revealed that very few organisations or ARM professionals had actually estimated the costs, suggesting decision-making processes are inadequate. A basis for trust in cloud storage solutions might be found in the enhancement of checklists and other guidance documents for ARM professionals to address economic considerations.
... Desde la e-administración pública, la nube favorece la consulta de una creciente ciberciudadanía. Además, tal y como recoge Borglund (2015), la nube aporta una oportunidad de no disponer de tecnologías informáticas reduciendo la inherente tiranía formativa, dada su obsolescencia 8 . Por otro lado, la seguridad, consustancial y regulada en estos sistemas, es atractiva para centros donde su implementación requiere esfuerzo, competencia y experiencia 9 . ...
... competencias sobre estos entornos. Al respecto, Borglund (2015) enfatiza la prioridad de ahondar en competencias sobre tecnologías de la información, -tanto para los entornos Web como para la seguridad de la información-, así como en la preservación a largo plazo. Igualmente, redunda en la necesidad de adquirir la competencia para el diseño de acuerdos de servicios. ...
Es una realidad insoslayable el incremento del uso de servicios de Cloud Computing en las organizaciones debido a las ventajas que conlleva. Los gestores de documentos deben adoptar una posición proactiva, asesora y comprometida ante el empleo de dichos servicios, caracterizados por cierta opacidad, fundamentada en el desconocimiento de su funcionamiento y regulación, hecho que suscita reticencias para su adopción. En el estudio, de naturaleza descriptiva y sustentado en un notable número de fuentes heterogéneas, se sistematizan las amenazas derivadas de la gestión y almacenamiento en dichos servicios, a la par que se establecen estrategias de actuación, tanto ante la concreción de acuerdos como para su contratación. Su finalidad es la de sensibilizar al profesional sobre su potencial labor asesora y de control para asegurar la continuidad digital y la preservación de los recursos documentales en la nube.
... In broad terms this aligns with the earlier observations on how archivists' perception of their role has broadened (e.g. Kallberg, 2012;Huvila, 2012;Huvila, 2016;Buchanan et al., 2017), shifted towards becoming more proactive (Borglund, 2015) and oriented towards guiding users, rather than acting as experts (cf. Duff and Fox, 2006). ...
Introduction: In spite of the prominence of the notion of participatory archives, there is no consensus of what participation entails in archival contexts and a lack of theory to explain the mechanisms underpinning the diversity of views. Method: Norwegian and Swedish archivists were surveyed as a part of the international ALMPUB research project for their views on user participation and how these views relate to their understanding of the role and the raison d’être of archives and archival institutions. The survey findings were used as a basis for theory development. Analysis: The data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis and descriptive statistics. The results of the factor analysis theorised as subject positions relating to views pertaining to archival participation and the societal role of archival institutions. Results: The analysis shows that the professionals’ perceptions of the rationale and impact of participation and the societal role of archives and archival institutions forms clusters were interpreted as relating to regimes of participation. Conclusions: Drawing on the theorising of Boltanski and Thévenot, the alignments of the perceptions to archives’ raisons d’être and archival participation are explained in terms of four regimes of participation: 1) participation as an intrinsically valuable activity; 2) participation as a complement to professional work in the records continuum; 3) professional work as an auxiliary activity to participation of experts; and 4) participation as a means of producing additional value for archival institutions, i.e., arrangements of framing the justification and value of participation in, with and for archival institutions. It is, however, possible to imagine additional regimes that correspond with the social worlds of Boltanski and Thévenot not represented by them, including the inspired (participation as a source of inspiration) and domestic worlds (domiciliary participation), and the world by project (participatory project). The study suggests that inquiring into the justifications and regimes of worth attached to participation helps to refute simplistic assumptions of what participation entails and recognise the variety of participatory engagements and their diverging implications for different types of archival institutions and their diverse stakeholders.
Within an increasing number of organisations cloud storage is becoming more common as large amounts of data from people and projects are being produced, exchanged and stored (Chang & Wills, 2016: 56). In fact, “technology has evolved and has allowed increasingly large and efficient data storage, which in turn has allowed increasingly sophisticated ways to use it (Staff, 2016: n.p.). Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the perceptions of reliability, efficiency and feasibility of data storage technology. The investigation is done by addressing claims and perceptions of data storage technology within the Faculty of Science at UCT. This study intends to determine if cloud storage is the future of storing, managing and preservation of digital data. The study used a qualitative research method grounded by Management Fashion Theory. Data was collected from three case studies from the Faculty of Science, and also from a desktop internet search on the marketing of cloud storage. Data collection from the case studies was facilitated through semi-structured interviews and from three researchers and academics who are working on cloud storage projects. Main themes that guided the dialogue during data collection originated from reviewed literature. The study concludes that cloud storage is the way forward for storing, sharing and managing research data. Academic researchers find storing data on cloud beneficial; however, it comes with challenges such as costs, security, access, privacy, control and ethics.
Purpose
– All organisations may not have the same motivations for investing in records management. For some organisations the benefits of records management are more important than for others. It can be hypothesised that an organisation with a “natural” motivation for records management controls records processes more thoroughly than an organisation without a similar motivation. However, it is not understood how organisational context affects records management. In this paper the aim is to examine what motivations there are for an organisation to invest in records management especially in a mobile working environment.
Design/methodology/approach
– Aspects explored were ISO standards, and record users in three different organisations. The empirical data were gathered by interviews with 25 respondents and qualitative analysis of the ISO 15489 standard content. Results from the interviews were compared with the ISO standard. For this purpose, quantitative analysis was used to identify and categorise motivations given in the standard.
Findings
– Respondents highlighted information‐based and work‐process related ISO motivations. In general, internal motivations were emphasised and cultural‐societal goals were practically not mentioned at all. For mobile users records management is a tool to manage information and support their own and colleagues' work processes. The organisation's function affects the nature of the records produced, and this has an impact on users' attitude towards and knowledge of records management.
Originality/value
– Analysis of motivations in the ISO 15489‐1 standard gives a new perspective to organisational records management. The motivations complement the picture given by studies of records usage in organisations.
Traditional premises in archival theory and practice hold that archival records are authentic as to procedure and impartial
as to creation because they are created as a means for, and as a by-product of, action, and not for the sake of posterity.
Such Positivist assumptions about the nature of records have come under sustained scrutiny in the archival literature over
the past decade. The post-Positivist view of records embraces the record as a socially constructed and maintained entity.
This paper situates itself within this new paradigm in an exploration of the beginning of the life of the record. It is therefore
concerned with the creator (or recorder) and the social construction of the record. In expanding beyond a purely administrative-
and juridical-based theory of records, this paper draws upon research from other disciplines, such as sociology, in order
to place records and record keeping within a framework that allows for an understanding of their social nature. In particular,
the goal is to determine the underlying social factors that directly influence and shape the creation and keeping of records
and to begin to understand how these factors manifest themselves in the construction of the record.
The notion of trust has been virtually absent from most work on how people assess and choose their information sources. Based on two empirical cases this study shows that software engineers and users of e-commerce websites devote a lot of attention to considerations about the trustworthiness of their sources, which include people, documents, and virtual agents. In the project-based software engineering environment trust tends to be a collaborative issue and the studied software engineers normally know their sources first-hand or have them recommended by colleagues. Outside this network people are cautious and alert to even feeble cues about source trustworthiness. For example, users of e-commerce websites—generally perceived as single-user environments—react rather strongly to the visual appearance of virtual agents, though this is clearly a surface attribute. Across the two cases people need access to their sources in ways that enable them to assess source trustworthiness, access alone is not enough.
The amounts of digital information are growing in size and complexity. With the emergence of distributed services over internet
and the booming of electronic exchanges, the need to identify information origins and its lifecycle history becomes essential.
Essential because it’s the only factor ensuring information integrity and probative value. That’s why in different areas like
government, commerce, medicine and science, tracking data origins is essential and can serve for informational, quality, forensics,
regulatory compliance, rights protection and intellectual property purposes. Managing information provenance is a complex
task and it has been extensively treated in databases, file system and scientific workflows. However, provenance in the cloud
is a more challenging task due to specific problems related to the cloud added to the traditional ones.
This article looks for creative ways of addressing archiving and record- keeping processes within the continuum of recorded information being formed in our online cultures. It is concerned with looking beyond the complexities of the social spaces and communal actions that form archives, seeking patterns that can help us reorder the relationship between communities and the way they record and store information about their transactions. The infinitely expanding, and (given the multiplicity of points of observation of that expansion) the indefinitely divisible continuum of recorded information that is the larger web sphere is a new zone of practice involving changes in the delivery of recorded information. To evolve with modern information ecologies, however, we need new forms of consciousness, new ways of viewing our functions and new tactics, structures, and strategies. This article will explore this new zone using theoretical perspectives and case studies, examining the challenge to traditional forms of archival access posed by continuum theory, WikiLeaks, and the formation of archives in Indigenous communities.
This paper was originally published in Archivaria, the journal of the Association of Canadian Archivists, 43 (Spring 97), and is published here with the kind permission of the author, who is the sole copyright holder. Résumé Cet essaie analyse l'histoire de la pensée archivistique depuis la publication du Manuel hollandais il y a un siècle. Il suggère qu'un nouveau paradigme émerge au sein de la profession sur la base de ce passé inspirant. Les idées des principaux penseurs des traditions archivistiques d'Europe, d'Amérique du Nord ou d'Australie sont considérées dans le contexte de leur époque respective que leurs contributions aient été de premier plan ou symboliques. L'accent est mis sur ces théoriciens qui ont su reconnaître et articuler les changements radicaux affectant la nature des archives, les créateurs d'archives, les systèmes de gestion des documents, l'utilisation des archives, ainsi que les mutations de société à survenir dans les domaines culturel, juridique, technologique, social et philosophique qui ont eu une influence sur la théorie et la pratique archivistiques. Tout cela s'imbrique aujourd'hui dans les différents types de discours qui sous-tendent la pratique professionnelle. Des lors, on voit cinq thèmes émerger de l'évolution de l'archivistique au cours des cent dernières années. Les tendances actuelles suggèrent qu'il faut revoir les bases conceptuelles des principes archivistiques traditionnels pour mettre davantage l'accent sur le processus plutôt que sur le produit en vue de mieux protéger la mémoire des nations et des personnes.
Mobile work challenges organizational records management. This paper reports the results of a study in three case organizations on how the organizations’ records management meets and adapts to the increasing role of mobile work. Data was collected by interviewing mobile workers and record management professionals. Documentary materials were used to analyse official records management policies. The findings revealed that documented organizational policies do not take into account mobile work, and cannot effectively support personal or corporate records management in mobile work. Records management professionals were poorly informed of the extent of mobile work in the organization, and of the special problems related to managing records in mobile work. The overall conclusion is that organizations should pay more attention to the new requirements for records management caused by mobile work.
Records are more and more important as instruments of trust, for instance to ascertain accountability. However, they are also objects to be trusted upon themselves. Rather rigorous requirements are established to guarantee the trustworthiness of records; requirements are more elaborated in the digital environment than those that have previously been attributed to analogue records. The purpose of this study is to discuss the conceptualization of trust and trustworthiness in relation to records, and to analyze the relation between the increasing reliance on formal documentation in contemporary organizations and the requirements on records and recordkeeping systems that has been advanced recent years. It can be argued that the effort to enhance trustworthiness actually is a manifestation of diminishing trust.
Trust has been defined in many ways, but at its core it involves acting without the knowledge needed to act. Trust in records depends on four types of knowledge about the creator or custodian of the records: reputation, past performance, competence, and the assurance of confidence in future performance. For over half a century society has been developing and adopting new computer technologies for business and communications in both the public and private realm. Frameworks for establishing trust have developed as technology has progressed. Today, individuals and organizations are increasingly saving and accessing records in cloud computing infrastructures, where we cannot assess our trust in records solely on the four types of knowledge used in the past. Drawing on research conducted at the University of British Columbia into the nature of digital records and their trustworthiness, this article presents the conceptual archival and digital forensic frameworks of trust in records and data, and explores the common law legal framework within which questions of trust in documentary evidence are being tested. Issues and challenges specific to cloud computing are introduced.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to describe the current environment of, and challenges for, managing and storing records and information in “the cloud”.
Design/methodology/approach
– The approach was based on the authors' experience of the challenges facing records management gained through the authors' interaction with public and private organisations. Observations of the way the web has changed the conduct of business and what using “the cloud” to store information means for records management. Included is some practical advice on how records managers can cope with the risk associated from using “the cloud”.
Findings
– The key findings highlight that as organisations are changing the way they conduct business by including “web 2.0” and “the cloud” into their way of working, records management needs to be aware of the risks. The incorporation of “the cloud” into the way organisations conduct business, should not be based on a technological decision, but should be based on a decision examining risk to an organisation's information.
Originality/value
– This paper is beneficial in raising awareness of the potential risks and benefits associated with managing and storing information online, specifically in “the cloud”. However, this paper aims to not dissaude organisations in their use of web technologies, but to emphasise the involvement needed by records managers in the formation of policies, education and risk analysis for any system or space designed to manage or store information and records.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics of managing records in a cloud computing environment and compare these with existing archiving models, exemplified by the open archival information system (OAIS) reference model.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors compare the functional entities in OAIS with a layered model of cloud computing, in which services are abstracted and shared between layers.
Findings
It is concluded that there are a number of areas where OAIS does not integrate well with cloud computing systems. Based on the findings, a new layered model for a cloud archiving system is defined using the concepts and information types from the OAIS reference model. The proposed model allows the sharing of functionality and information objects by making them available as services to higher layers. The model covers the entire document lifecycle, making archive functionality such as preservation planning possible at an early stage and helping to simplify records transfer.
Research limitations/implications
The model provides a simple, OAIS compatible approach to representing how digital objects and necessary metadata can be transferred from content creation systems to archives systems.
Originality/value
Whereas a lot of research has been done on the technical aspects of cloud storage, there is a lack of focus on how to comprehensively integrate records transfer and preservation in cloud systems. This paper fills in some of the gaps.
Cloud computing as a new delivery model is proving challenging for recordkeeping professionals. The ARA/Aberystwyth University research project, ‘Storing Information in the Cloud’ aimed to investigate the management, operational and technical issues surrounding the storage of information in the cloud. It also set out to develop a toolkit that could assist information professionals in assessing the risks and benefits of outsourcing information storage and processing. Based on the information gathered through a literature review, questionnaire, an unconference, as well as interviews with cloud providers and customers, the outcomes included the Cloud Computing Toolkit, a list of cloud computer resources relevant to the records and information community and specific recommendations. These include further research into the implications of cloud computing for record-keeping principles and practice and the development of cloud-specific guidance and policies and a pool of resources relating to cloud computing and information management. The extension of the research to consider its implication for the long-term preservation of digital material was also a recommendation and the development of a more active role for professional bodies in bringing together information professionals and in forming interest/working groups on specific related to cloud computing. New technologies or new models continue to challenge the profession's ability to maintain information governance and assurance and on-going research is required to ensure that we address the practical and strategic issues of the fluid information ecology.
This study reviews empirical research on inter-organizational trust. Since the early 1990s, researchers on inter-organizational relationships have consistently argued that mutual trust is an essential factor of relationship quality and performance. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the advancements and setbacks in current empirical research in terms of measuring inter-organizational trust. This paper analyzes the theoretical approach, the conceptualization and operationalization, and the measurement issues covered in studies on inter-organizational trust conducted from 1990 to 2003. Although trust has emerged as an important factor in inter-organizational relationships, there are still major conceptual and methodological challenges to be met in studying this complex concept. The results show major inconsistencies in conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement of trust. The paper concludes with suggestions for further empirical research.
The purpose of this article is to analyse how the concept of trust is approached and defined in various disciplines, in order to reach a generally acceptable definition that could be used in business research. An interdisciplinary approach is chosen because the concept seems to be used somewhat differently, depending on the context and the disciplinary eyeglass of the author in question. Also, much of the business research on trust has its roots in social psychology, economics or philosophy. It is hoped that an analysis of the various levels and dimensions of trust as well as an enumeration and differentiation of the related constructs will advance the study of this significant but complex phenomenon, and that a more accurate usage and a better understanding of the various dimensions and levels of the concept can be accomplished. Empirical documentation of the factors generating trust lies outside the scope of this article. Nor is a universal definition of trust constructed, since such a thing is deemed impossible, but a working definition for business contexts∗ is proposed.
Clients of storage-as-a-service systems such as Amazon's S3 want to be sure that the files they have entrusted to the cloud are available now and will be available in the future.
Using protocols from previous work on proofs of retriev-ability and on provable data possession, clients can verify that their files are available now. But these protocols do not guarantee that the files are replicated onto multiple drives or multiple datacenters. Such tests are crucial if cloud storage is to provide resilience to natural disasters and power outages as well as improving the network latency to different parts of the world.
In this paper, we study the problem of verifying that a cloud storage provider replicates the data in diverse geolocations. We provide a theoretical framework for verifying this property. Our model accurately determines which Amazon CloudFront location serves content for Planetlab nodes across the continental US.
Our work is complementary to the recent paper of Bowers et al., which uses different techniques to verify that files are replicated across multiple drives in a single datacenter.
In this paper, we define some of the characteristics of archiving in a cloud computing environment. Based on these, we describe a model for a cloud archiving system using concepts and information types from the OAIS reference model. The proposed model allows the sharing of functionality and information objects by making these available as services to above layers. The model covers the entire document lifecycle, making archive functionality such as preservation planning possible at an early stage in the document lifecycle, helping to simplify records transfer. Finally, we use our model in a case study, using the records transfer process from Japanese government agencies to the National Archives of Japan as an example.
Trust in information is developing into a vitally important topic as the Internet becomes increasingly ubiquitous within society. Although many discussions of trust in this environment focus on issues like security, technical reliability, or e-commerce, few address the problem of trust in the information obtained from the Internet. The authors assert that there is a strong need for theoretical and empirical research on trust within the field of information science. As an initial step, the present study develops a model of trust in digital information by integrating the research on trust from the behavioral and social sciences with the research on information quality and human– computer interaction. The model positions trust as a key mediating variable between information quality and information usage, with important consequences for both the producers and consumers of digital information. The authors close by outlining important directions for future research on trust in information science and technology. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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