Some document management advice for the White House

USA Today reports that in at least 5 instances, copies of Executive Orders published at whitehouse.gov do not match the official versions published in the Federal Register. This is a practical use case where the White House staff should invest in two IT staples — document management software and digital signature software.

Document management software allows for tracking history of changes and approvals to content such as Executive Orders. Microsoft’s widely deployed Sharepoint is just one solution that can be used for document management. Digital signatures are a feature of Public Key Infrastructure and document signing certificates are widely available. Microsoft Word and Libre Office both support document signing.

Mr. President, your Chief Information Officer should be able to quickly help you manage this mess. If he cannot, please find one who can.

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