Next week I'll be attending two west coast conferences: ARMA 2010 in San Francisco, then Enterprise 2.0 in Santa Clara. I couldn't imagine two more different subjects. ARMA digs into the nitty gritty world of basic records management, while Enterprise 2.0 looks at the burgeoning world of collaboration and knowledge sharing. But are they really that different?

ARMA

ARMA stands for the Association of Records Managers and Administrators. It dates back to 1955, long before companies were considering electronic records, document management and eDiscovery. According to their About page, they boast 11,000 members including records managers, archivists, corporate librarians, imaging specialists, legal professionals, IT managers, consultants and educators.

The ARMA Conference provides a place for education and knowledge sharing about records management issues facing records managers today. There are sessions on SharePoint 2010 records management, dealing with social networking in the enterprise, and yes, even Enterprise 2.0 issues, but there are also in-depth looks at the legal and technical challenges facing records managers in 2010.

The ARMA Conference and Expo deals with the very roots of this concept we call content management--the file cabinets, boxes and warehouses of old, alongside the computers and ECM systems of today.

Enterprise 2.0

E20 is down the road in Santa Clara and a world away from the problems facing document and records management professionals. Instead of a pedigree that goes back 55 years, Enterprise 2.0 only emerged as a term coined by Andrew McAfee in 2006, just four years ago. You'll find little talk of Sarbanes-Oxley audits, metadata and taxonomies in this conference.  

Instead, you'll hear about community building, social engagement, knowledge sharing and finding business value, but you'll also find concern about control and governance of such systems, ideas that the ARMA attendees could wrap their arms around.

The idea of the social enterprise is still new. Many companies have yet to even explore this idea, something that can easily get lost among those of us who cover it closely. Unlike records management, an idea that any enterprise can get behind, Enterprise 2.0 takes some selling to understand.

It's all about content management

Regardless whether it's old school document management or new school collaboration technologies, it's still all about content and content management. Records management professionals might not be dealing with the sexiest side of the business, but it's a crucial part, one that requires care and attention inside every organization regardless of its size or mission.

Enterprise 2.0 is about finding ways to share, collaborate and understand what others are doing inside your organization. It involves building communities and using social tools to move more efficiently, more quickly and with more agility.

When it comes down to it, both are content management issues, pure and simple. It's up to the content management system to help you manage those records, to build retention schedules, to develop taxonomies and help sort things out in a legal discovery situation. It's also content management that helps root out of the constant stream of Enterprise 2.0 data, the nuggets that are meaningful to you at any given time in your work day.

And because these are content management issues, we will be there offering you coverage throughout the week. Watch for our coverage from both venues. - Ron