Cobb will archive online records permanently

Cobb County will archive the county website and social media sites (such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook) to retain complete and accurate records of online activity and to ensure compliance with the Georgia Open Records Act.

The decision was made Dec. 11 by the Cobb County Board of Commissioners to use ArchiveSocial at no more than $7,188 on an annual basis. Funding for this year will come from undesignated contingencies.

“While other vendors provide some form of social media archiving capabilities, our assessment is that ArchiveSocial is the only vendor that comprehensively and directly meets Cobb County requirements for a social media archiving solution,” said Cobb Information Services Director Sharon Stanley, Cobb Support Services Agency Director Eddie Canon and Cobb Communications Director Ross Cavitt in a Dec. 11 memo.

“As social media increasingly serves as a primary communications channel with citizens, information posted to social media by county agencies and elected offices, as well as the comments and replies received on that information, can constitute public records,” they said.

“The ability to retain and produce accurate records of social media content is becoming increasingly important,” they added. “Specifically, records of social media may prove critical in protecting Cobb County during legal proceedings and other risk-oriented circumstances.”

Once implemented, this system will provide comprehensive social media record capture, archive and retrieval for every county social media site.

Specifically, solution will:

■ integrate departmental social media accounts to capture records regardless of howor when content is posted to social networks

■ archive complete electronic records in native format

■ ensure the authenticity of records to meet legal and compliance requirements

■ provide detailed capture of multimedia and other associated information

■ allow advanced search and export capabilities

■ assist with responding to open records requests to quickly produce the records needed, including edited, deleted and hidden content. the ArchiveSocial

It’s hard to say to whom graduation matters more, but it’s safe to say it meant a lot to the 50 or so who graduated Monday from Cobb Horizon High School.

This was the first graduating class for the Cobb County School District facility, which serves students who need help getting on track.

The alternative school opened in August as a combination of Oakwood Digital Academy and the Cobb Performance Learning Center. It uses online schoolwork and is assisted by one-on-one help or small class sizes.

“We are not a traditional high school. All our kids have a story. They have faced trials and adversity of some sort,” principal John Kelly said.

Barry Holland won the school’s first Defying the Odds award for graduates, according to a Cobb school district news release.

“I was a drop-out for two years,” Holland said. “I left my homeschool and did nothing for two years. It wasn’t until I saw my friends walk the stage at their graduation that I was like, ‘I made a mistake.’ I was determined to find a solution to the mistake I made.”

Some students are going to Chattahoochee Technical College, others are going to Kennesaw State University, joining the military or starting careers.

Holland wants a career in welding.

“It is going to be terrifying. There is no doubt about it, but at Cobb Horizon you have a team of people who are going to do everything they can to get you to walk that stage,” he said.