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Madison commission approves ArchiveSocial to archive city social-media records
Summary
The City of Madison approved purchase of ArchiveSocial, an automated social-media and website archiving service, citing public-records compliance and a recurring annual cost of $7,001.88 (first-year cost $6,391). Staff named Jen and Savannah as implementation leads.
The City of Madison Commission on July 15 voted to purchase ArchiveSocial, a CivicPlus module that automatically archives posts and website content for open-records purposes.
James, a city staff member presenting the item, told the commission the product would capture postings from the city’s multiple departmental websites and eight active social-media pages and make them searchable for requests. “All social media records are public records,” he said, noting the city’s need to respond to open-records requests without extensive manual scrolling or risk of missing historical material. He gave the annual price as “about $7,000 annually, $7,001.88 to be exact,” and said the first year’s fee would be lower — “6,391.”
Commissioners asked whether the service is automated and whether adding accounts would increase cost. James said the system is automated after initial account linking and that additional sites could involve extra cost; he added that setup would require modest staff time and identified Jen and Savannah as the staff leads who had worked with the vendor on demonstrations.
Advocates of the purchase told the commission that archiving preserves records even if social platforms delete or change posts and helps mitigate risks from compromised user accounts. A motion to approve the purchase was made, seconded and carried.
The commission did not record additional implementation details at the meeting; staff said they would proceed with contracting and implementation steps following the vote.
