Background of the Trustworthy Information Systems Project

The Ohio Trustworthy Information Systems (TIS) Handbook is based on the Minnesota Historical Society's Trustworthy Information Systems (TIS) project. A working group of the Ohio Electronic Records Committee (ERC) reviewed and made appropriate changes to the Minnesota TIS during July 2000 through July 2001. The Ohio ERC reviewed and approved the Ohio TIS in its meeting on 13 November 2001. The Ohio Historical Society's State Archives Department will keep the Ohio TIS up to date and submit substantial revisions to the Ohio ERC for their review and approval.

The Trustworthy Information Systems (TIS) project grew out of a grant to the Minnesota State Archives from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to establish an electronic records program. The funding was used, in part, to hire an additional staff person, and work got underway in March 1998.

The first two phases of the project involved developing the criteria set and testing it for practicality against actual government information systems (refer to Appendix F). Minnesota State Archives staff promoted the TIS project and sought collaborators by giving talks to government entities and by offering an informational brochure. By October 1999, the Minnesota State Archives had worked with the following agencies: the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency; the Minnesota Department of Finance; the Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning; the Minnesota Department of Transportation; and the City of Minneapolis.

Phases three and four of the project are implementation and education. Implementation centers around web-enabled delivery of TIS products. Early on, a general discussion of trustworthy information systems, the criteria set, and the bibliography were made available on the Minnesota State Archives' World Wide Web site. With sponsorship from the IPC and in consultation with Signorelli & Associates, Inc., a Saint Paul-based technical writing firm, these items were enhanced and re-worked into the present handbook for wide distribution to government agencies.

Trustworthy Information Systems Project Methodology