Email analysis

Kevin,



Your 14 October blog post is now out of date, because of the additional e-mails released on 15 October. I recommend you just delete the 14 October post entirely, and post this new updated version under a later date.



Changes are in bold, underlined orange.



Good news: I ran some tests, and when text-searchable files are properly prepared, an electronic search finishes in several seconds, not several minutes. Yes!



Ned Flaherty


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By 15 October, City officials had re-formatted 11,423 messages (19,388 pages) into new electronic files that prevent text searching. They could have converted those same 11,423 into one text-searchable file in about one hour, but instead spent 16 days printing and scanning to create 212 un-searchable files. Reporters, readers and investigators looking for specific text now will have to spend many weeks manually scouring those 19,388 pages, instead of letting a computer do it in a few seconds.



City officials needlessly consumed paper, ink, electricity, and labor on a print-and-scan approach that has been obsolete for 20 years, solely for the purpose of making formerly search-able e-mail become un-search-able. The Globe and Secretary of State should demand all 11,423 of the recovered messages in a single, text-search-able file.



Of Kineavy’s 15,964 estimated messages from October 2008 through March 2009, he double-deleted 4,981 (31%). Of the 160,000 messages Kineavy created as Policy & Planning Chief over 5 years, 11,423 (7%) were recovered, but 148,577 will never be recovered, so he destroyed 93% of the records we paid him to create. He owes every taxpayer a refund.