The Concept of Record in Interactive, experiental and dynamic environments: the view of InterPARES

This article presents the concept of electronic record as articulated by the first phase of the InterPARES (International research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems) Project (1999-2001) and discusses it in light of the findings of the second phase of the Project (2002-2006). While InterPARES 1 focused on records produced and/or maintained in databases and document management systems, InterPARES 2 examined records produced and/or maintained in interactive, experiential and dynamic environments. The authors describe the characteristics of these environments and of the entities found in them in the course of case studies conducted on systems used for carrying out artistic, scientific and e-government activities, and propose the new concept of record that InterPARES 2 is eleborating, which expands on that formulated by InterPARES 1.