Arches Timeline

2012
Getty Conservation Institute & World Monuments Fund hold first Arches community meeting in Los Angeles
Getty Conservation Institute & World Monuments Fund hold first Arches community meeting in Los Angeles

Participants, including English Heritage, Flanders Heritage Agency, Farallon Geographics, & Open Tech Strategies, provide input on advancing Arches as an open source project.

2013
Website launched, community forum made public, & source code released publicly

Arches is established online in the form of a website, forum, & accessible repository.

Arches project shares early development approach and receives feedback
Arches project shares early development approach and receives feedback

Two days of workshops in Hertfordshire, U.K. provide necessary feedback from institutions around Europe on an early Arches development approach.

Arches Version 1 released
Arches Version 1 released

The first version of Arches follows a standards-based approach, including incorporation of the Core Data Standard for Archaeological and Architectural Heritage & CIDOC-CRM.

2014
Arches accepted into Google Summer of Code

In this open-source software coding program, students were given the opportunity to contribute code for Arches (thanks to support from Google).

Arches Version 2 released

New features in this version include: updates to Arches package management & streamlined database schema.

2015
City of Los Angeles launches HistoricPlacesLA
City of Los Angeles launches HistoricPlacesLA

Strategic partnership between GCI and City of Los Angeles serves as vehicle for development of new features in Arches v3.

Arches Version 3 released

New features in this version include: a new Reference Data Manager, graph view of related resources, improved installation process, node level security & numerous other new features & updates.

2016
Work on Arches for Science platform begins
Work on Arches for Science platform begins

Informed by a baseline study funded by the Seaver Institute, this system extends the Arches platform to manage and visualize science data and includes tools to help organize lab tasks for professionals involved in heritage science.

Historic England and City of Lincoln join strategic partnership with GCI for Arches in UK

Partnership formed to support Arches implementations for the City of Lincoln & Greater London as well as Arches for HERs software package.

2017
Arches Version 4 released
Arches Version 4 released

New features in this version include: the Arches Designer to facilitate data modelling & customized UI forms, enhanced graph visualization & advanced search.

2018
Arches Resource Model (ARM) working group first convenes

This group focuses on establishing standard modeling patterns in Arches & peer reviewing community contributions to the Arches package library.

Arches technical training held in Swindon, UK

This event, with attendees from UK, the Philippines, Nepal, Canada & the US, guided developers in customizing and extending the core functionality of Arches Version 4.

2019
First Arches regional User Group convenes in the U.K

User group in the UK becomes space for those implementing Arches to share experiences, expertise, & combine efforts.

 

Arches Collector released

This mobile data collection companion app for Arches facilitates data collection and editing in the field, including images.

 

2020
Arches Version 5 released
Arches Version 5 released

New features introduced in this version: Arches Workflows, a flexible tool to manage numerous routine tasks for heritage management and conservation science.

First Arches Developer virtual meetup is hosted by Farallon Geographics

Attendees discussed software development & code review for developers who want to be part of the Arches open-source software contribution process.

2021
Arches/Esri integration
Arches/Esri integration

Release of Esri ArcGIS add-in that allows Esri users to directly access, edit & synchronize Arches data.

Work begins on a new Arches Reference Data Manager (RDM)
Work begins on a new Arches Reference Data Manager (RDM)

All new, robust, stand-alone Arches RDM is under development. 

Arches Version 6 released

New features in this version include: a IIIF image service manager & improvements to Arches Workflows.

2022
Governance Initiative launched
Governance Initiative launched

The GCI Arches team and external stakeholders meet to discuss planning for sustainability & community-driven governance for the Arches project, identifying key goals and next steps.

Last updated: January 2024