Speakers
Presented By John Cox
As a RIMPA Global Ambassador and Business Development Manager at DatacomIT, John Cox has built his career at the intersection of information governance, digital preservation, and emerging technology. Drawing on decades of industry experience, John brings a uniquely practical and future‑focused perspective on how rigorous records management underpins trustworthy, enduring information systems.
In this presentation for Information Awareness Week 2026, John will explore why long‑term thinking must guide Australia’s approach to artificial intelligence. Building on the “maintenance mindset” championed by the likes of the ‘Long Now Foundation’, he argues that AI will only serve as reliable national infrastructure if the records and data beneath it are carefully stewarded over time. Innovation may set AI in motion, but it is disciplined maintenance, metadata quality, context, authenticity, and preservation that keeps it on course.
John will challenge the sector to see records management as nothing less than the maintenance engine of the AI era. By treating information as a 100‑year asset rather than a short‑term resource, records professionals can shape AI systems that remain accurate, ethical, and resilient for generations. This session is a call to action for Australia’s custodians of information: the future of AI depends on the care you take today.
John has worked in business development for 24 years providing outsourced services, including digitisation, information and records management, multichannel communications, business process automation and operational managed services.
His work with government included supplying secure end to end digitisation services, ballot scanning for election events and preservation digitisation of heritage materials from paper files, books, and maps to micro fiche for the likes of the National Library and National Archives of Australia.