Given The Nature of this book, I think it wise to spend a little time at the outset explaining what this book is not. This may seem a rather odd way to commence, perhaps even a touch negative, but I believe it to be important in terms of establishing the context for this work and maybe for managing readers’ expectations.

This book is not a handbook, a manual or even a guide to Web 2.0 and records management. As a consequence, those who are seeking any form of indispensible ‘How to’ book which provides clear step-by-step instruction on how to manage Web 2.0 information within their organization may well be disappointed; though, in my defence, I would argue that anyone claiming to have produced such a work at this point in time is almost certainly guilty of exaggeration, with its readers destined to be left sorely disappointed. This, then, is the truth that lies at the heart of this book and which is largely responsible for the path it has taken: not only do we not currently know the answers, we are only just beginning to understand the questions.

Nor, I'm afraid, can much of this book be described as ‘optimistic’. In many respects, much of what follows is an explanation of the unprecedented size and scale of the challenge that faces us, of how records management currently falls short in terms of a response, and of the likely consequences of our unpreparedness. This may not always be comfortable to read (nor for me to write) but is, I believe, perhaps the single most important job this book has to do, for without first convincing the reader of the very real and immediate challenges ahead, and the severe limitations of the professional tools we have at our disposal, we lack the incentive to change. After all, if the status quo is rosy, why bother to think (or indeed read) beyond it? The danger is, of course, that repeated proclamations of the imminent coming of the apocalypse can understandably breed an air of fatalistic resignation that helps nobody. Thankfully for us, the very force that is responsible for hurling this maelstrom towards us also brings with it the exact same tools we need to tame it and to manage it – but that is for a later chapter …