The Cabinet Office’s digital knowledge and information management (DKIM) team has won an award for its algorithm to reduce the ‘digital heap’ of data in government.
It has been given the accolade by the Information and Records Management Society at its annual conference.
The algorithm, reported by UKAuthority in May, can identify data that has no perceived value and could be deleted.
It has been developed in response to the exponential increases in the volume of data held by government bodies.
Digital fatbergs
Head of the DKIM team David Canning said: “Where the growth of digital information goes unchecked and control is lost, that is where so called ‘digital heaps’ form. These operate rather like digital versions of the fatbergs that sometimes block our drains, cost us significant sums of money to maintain and need to be broken up as they present security, operational and legal risks to the entire system.”
He added: “The approach we have taken is not just a first for the UK Government. We can’t find a comparator in any other sector, or anywhere else in the world.”
The team is now sharing the algorithm with other government organisations.
