Partnering for Success.

It seems so straightforward: information and information technology are inseparable. Pens and paper together must record ideas; otherwise, they're useless and blank. Microfilm cameras and optical scanning devices must have something of value to replicate; otherwise, they gather dust. Yet as simple and direct as this concept appears, there continues to be an uneasy relationship between information technology (IT) and other information disciplines (e.g., records and information management, archives management). Some of the most knowledgeable practitioners in the field -- including those whose work appears in this issue -- have become effective boundary-spanners, harnessing the best of all the disciplines.

There may be many reasons for IT angst. A content-oriented view asserts that IT is like plumbing and content is like water; what good is the former without the latter? There are those who criticize information technologists for confusing means with ends, tools with tasks. The Law of the Instrument suggests: "Give a small boy a hammer, and everything he sees needs to be nailed down."

Others find that IT specialists have one point of view and set of values while the other practitioners have different views and values. There's some truth there: at an open meeting some years ago at a university, an IT specialist in charge of laying the campus Ethernet backbone was explaining the process. A faculty member rose to ask, "But what will go through the network?" The IT specialist, seemingly astonished at such a question, replied, "What difference does that make?" The solution-oriented information technologist is interested in "making it work." Those left to use the technology have a different agenda. Yet the two are essentially one.

IT's dominance of the information scene in the workplace may be shrinking a bit. This shift is due in part because the rise of PCs and server-client systems has rent the veil of IT mystery. Once we were forced to lay requests before the high priest of the mainframe, who often said "that can't be done" or "it will be six months before I can even look at your job." Today, we know it can be done and that we can probably do it ourselves. All the more reason that our need to understand, embrace, and apply the technologies to content continues unabated.

The Forbes Group of Fairfax, Virginia, has undertaken strategic research that may help make sense of our relationship with IT and assist us in charting a successful heading for the future. In their efforts, they interviewed people who employ information managers, corporate marketing directors, academics, IT specialists, and association executives. Of particular value for readers of this issue of the Journal are the following findings:

* There is a movement away from technology-driven business solutions and toward business-driven technology solutions.

* Like it or not, change -- redefining oneself and one's field for survival -- is not optional.

* Building alliances with other professions, including information technologists, is a key to strategic success.

* Seizing a new role in the 21st Century corporation can prove an excellent strategic decision for those in information and records management.

As some of us have begun to realize, senior executives are increasingly weary -- and wary -- of costly and unsuccessful initiatives in technology. Despite remarkable advances in IT in recent years, part of the problem is that business has often had to change the successful way that it does business in order to accommodate technology that didn't fit prevailing business models. Ironically, instead of the promised increases in efficiency and productivity, there were losses in those areas. Dramatic turnovers in the position of chief information officer (CIO) are due in part to a lack of business process understanding on the part of information technologists and a lack of technology savvy among those with successful backgrounds in business. Clearly, both -- not one -- are fundamentally necessary.

Evident in the contributions in this issue is the authors' realization of the value of creating partnerships rather than undertaking low-level warfare with presumed antagonists. Developing a greater -- and proactively acquired -- share in the information process -- rather than focusing merely on the information product -- will be critical to success. Among our roles here are: evaluating the quality of information produced by systems, validating the information collection process, identifying users and non-users, selecting storage media for differing purposes (e.g., permanent information vs. that with short-term value), and evaluating organizational use of information from external sources.

What will follow the emergence of information management, IT management, and now knowledge management? Wisdom management? Perhaps, but more likely it will be values management in which organizational wisdom becomes a part. Globalization of the economy, dealing with trusting trading partners at great distances, and ensuring that information is properly used and has agreed-upon qualities and limits. These needs may create new information professionals who both oversee the flow of information and design information products to meet new values criteria. Management decisions must be made as to

* what information will be shared

* what quality controls will be in place to assure others of its validity

* who will have access to information, in what forms, and at what levels of access

* how and when information will be destroyed and verification of that act announced

Shifting from a curatorial or custodial model of information acquisition and oversight to one where considerable emphasis is on how information is created, acquired, distributed, and used need not be an unattainable leap for successful records and information managers. Clearly, content and enabling technology are fast becoming a singularity. Those able to fuse them will go to the head of the line. Isn't it time for us to step up to an exciting information management future?