Looking at electronic documents from the front is to evaluate their progress, and the progress of electronic documents can be reflected from the technology itself.
The emergence of electronic documents is the application of computer technology and communication technology in office and management. The scientific and technological progress of electronic documents is reflected in two aspects: on the one hand, digital survival, on the other hand, network transmission.
First of all, the digitization of electronic documents has fundamentally changed the way documents are recorded. On the one hand, it has changed the information bearing media and accelerated the transfer of physical media, including paper, film, video tape and other media, such as computer storage forms of these media, such as magnetic disks and optical disks. In this sense, the result of digitization of electronic documents can gradually realize paperless office and improve the office environment. On the other hand, digitalization has greatly improved the quality and speed of information processing, and realized the two wings Qi Fei of production and management efficiency.
Second, electronic documents can be retrieved at high speed. The most remarkable advantages of computer are its high-speed operation ability and strong logical judgment ability. With this advantage, in the computer-supported information system, the required information can be retrieved quickly and in many directions.
Third, electronic file information can be transmitted and exchanged over a long distance by means of communication networks. Since the 1990s, the development of communication network has changed with each passing day, especially since the international commercialization of1995 Internet, a brand-new world network world has been formed, and the obstacles and barriers of electronic information transmission and communication have been almost completely removed. Electronic archives play an incomparable advantage and role compared with traditional archives and manual labor.
Fourth, it is more conducive to giving full play to the information resources of electronic documents. The advantage of information resources over material and energy resources is that they can be enjoyed without destroying their integrity. However, the information content must be attached to a certain carrier and transmitted and utilized. The information content of electronic files can be downloaded from it, released from the original carrier, displayed and output in various forms according to the needs of users, and combined with other forms of carriers, so as to give full play to the advantages enjoyed by information resources.
Fifth, electronic documents can integrate diverse information. In the machine-readable system, multimedia technology can be used to display electronic documents in three dimensions, truly reproduce the activities at that time, and can be converted from one medium to another at will.
Sixth, it helps to establish a national comprehensive information system. An important indicator to measure the development of a country's information industry is the completeness and comprehensiveness of the information system established in this country. The idea of establishing a national comprehensive information system originated from the idea of "national information system" put forward by UNESCO in 1950. A perfect national information system also depends on the establishment and perfection of archival information system. The development of modern science and technology, especially the wide application and comprehensive application of computer and network communication technology, makes it possible to establish, perfect and integrate the national information system.
Looking at electronic documents from the opposite side
Look at the electronic document from the opposite side and judge its challenge. This challenge stems from the inherent shortcomings of high-tech electronic documents. Specific performance in the following aspects:
On the one hand, the originality and authenticity of electronic documents are difficult to confirm. There are two criteria to determine the originality and authenticity of traditional documents. On the one hand, it is confirmed by the combination of content and original carrier; On the other hand, it is confirmed by the fixed structure and format of the file. In electronic documents, these two aspects have lost their meaning. First of all, the combination form of electronic file content and carrier often changes, but the copied copy is exactly the same as the original; In addition, with the upgrading of computer software and hardware system, the original file must be converted into format in the new software to ensure its readability. Therefore, the concept of "primitive" becomes difficult to define. Secondly, from the perspective of the material structure of electronic documents, it is not clear at a glance, and usually users can't fully understand it. Therefore, the material structure of electronic documents obviously cannot be an important criterion for the originality and authenticity of documents like traditional documents. As far as its function is concerned, electronic documents are more suitable for establishing logical structures.
Secondly, it is difficult for electronic documents to reflect their formation process like paper documents. Due to the close combination of content and carrier, the process of making and forming paper documents can be completely reflected by preserving the carrier. However, the production process of electronic documents is no longer a fixed materialized form. Unless the same document uses a different file name, when we edit the document, as long as we confirm that the new document "overwrites" the old document, it means that all traces of the electronic document production process, including drafts or modifications, have been eliminated. Once this process is eliminated, there is no possibility of recovery. Therefore, the dynamic formation process of a certain idea, viewpoint, policy, plan and bill can be easily and clearly reflected in the traditional document state, but it is difficult and easy to be ignored in the electronic document state. Thirdly, the information of electronic documents is easily distorted, and the degree of distortion is difficult to check because there is no "original" or "original" cannot be read. There are several reasons why electronic documents are distorted or even destroyed: first, because
The instability of electronic document carrier and reading and writing technology causes information distortion. Generally speaking, the service life of disks is 3-5 years, while that of optical disks is only about 30 years. Due to the oxidative deterioration of carrier materials, the influence of magnetic field and the mechanical wear during reading and writing (especially the disk), the information stored in electronic files is easily destroyed or even erased. In addition, the upgrading of the reading and writing machine system requires people to constantly transfer electronic files to new storage media, such as the change of disks from 8 inches to 5.25 inches to 3.5 inches, and the development of single-sided single density, double-sided single density and double-sided double density to high density. The media are divided into magnetic drums, magnetic tapes, magnetic disks and optical disks. The aging and transfer of storage media, the reading and writing formats of electronic files from old to new, etc. The loss, distortion and variation of information caused by various reasons are inevitable.
Second, due to the influence of the virus. Most computer viruses are destructive, such as the famous DIR2 virus, which modifies files in the root directory and subdirectories of com and exe files. Moreover, its appearance completely broke the "belief" of anti-virus card companies and shattered the dream that all users want to rely on anti-virus cards to ensure system security. At present, every time the computer software and hardware are updated, the virus is also updated. Therefore, the influence of viruses on computers and their electronic files can be said to be like maggots attached to bones, which is a haze that computer users can never get rid of.
The third point is caused by man-made destruction. There are two ways to destroy the information of electronic documents: internal and external. The internal way is to set a "logic bomb" in the editing software, which leads to the change of system parameters and the accuracy of information. The external way is that "hackers" attack computer systems, modify or even destroy information, resulting in distortion of electronic files.
Fourth, the evidence of electronic documents is difficult to guarantee. Judging from the current attitudes of countries towards electronic documents, the same is true. For example, the court is willing to accept documents produced by traditional information processing methods and technologies, such as writing, printing, photographic reproduction and microfilm, while documents produced and reproduced by new technologies (such as digital image technology and electronic document exchange) will need to be subject to more examination if they want to become evidence, because of the lack of such standards and effective use of such technologies. In order to solve this problem, countries generally adopt a "double copy system" for electronic documents with evidential value or intrinsic value (referring to the value that can be brought by certain material characteristics unique to the original documents), that is, while retaining the electronic documents, the electronic documents are output in hard copy form to form paper documents. For example, in the United States, although electronic documents have been incorporated into the federal archives law and become "official archives", the federal district court still stipulates that only printed electronic documents have evidential value, otherwise they cannot be confirmed. The same problem has been encountered in Britain. According to the survey of British public archives, in order to ensure the legal problems of documents, 85% of government departments still require that all or part of documents be copied on paper.
Fifth, documents with virtual structure and form are often ignored and cannot reflect the content of the document. A few years ago, when talking about electronic files, some archivists in China thought that "electronic files have brought us into an era of' virtual files' and' virtual files'". It should be said that this view is somewhat exaggerated. Electronic files are not equal to virtual files. Virtual files exist, but they are mainly relational database files or hypertext files, tables and multimedia systems. The "virtual" nature of electronic files is actually determined by two factors: one is the logical expression of the composite file, and the other is the "dynamic" data unit. For example, database files are often called data units stored in a dynamic database, which are combined in a logical relationship. For example, in a file made in a distributed database with users in different regions, tables and books can be extracted from the database in location A, texts can be extracted from the database in location B, and graphics can be extracted from the database in location C; An enterprise employee roster file from the same database can be made by different operation commands, that is, it can be sorted by pinyin letters of surnames or by age, salary and title. The reason why database files are "dynamic" is mainly because the data units of the database are often replaced by new data, such as stocks, bonds, futures, trade, weather forecast, transportation, finance and other databases, which are all dynamic. The preservation of electronic documents formed in these variable value or value-added business activities naturally becomes a problem that must be solved, and it is also a really difficult problem. Of course, there are ways to solve the problem: first, you can record every change and save all possible combinations; Second, through the establishment of metadata, the establishment and improvement of fault-tolerant and error-correcting auxiliary systems and operation record systems.
conclusion
Lao Tzu said more than 2,000 years ago that "misfortune and happiness depend on each other, and misfortune lurks in it", which can completely summarize the positive and negative effects associated with electronic documents. We now evaluate electronic documents, forgetting its positive effects or its negative effects, which may lead to emotional abnormalities. In a word, electronic documents and their intelligent machine systems far exceed traditional documents and manual systems, so people are committed to developing and perfecting them. In some cases, they will greatly benefit mankind, and in some cases, they will be harmful to mankind; In some cases, it can be beneficial to some fields and some people, but not to others, depending on the level of understanding, skill operation and values of the subject who created and used it. Therefore, while vigorously developing high technology and promoting technological revolution, we cannot ignore the changes in our own concepts and methods. Only in this way can we make the technological revolution benefit mankind as much as possible.