As the Arches Project gears up for 2019, we are first looking back at the many activities, opportunities and milestones in 2018 that shaped and advanced Arches as an internationally recognized cultural heritage data management platform. The Arches team has gathered a variety of information and resources below to share with you. Please join us in taking a look back at Arches in 2018.
Highlights of Arches in 2018
It’s been a busy year and, with the release of v4 at the end of 2017, Arches is now being considered by many heritage organizations the world over, and has already been implemented by some. We’re happy to share the following implementation highlights with you, and if you know of other implementations, do let us know; since Arches is freely downloadable, we are only aware of those activities that have been brought to our attention!
In 2018, the first Arches system deployed by a public agency in the United Kingdom debuted in the City of Lincoln. Known as ARCADE, it serves as Lincoln’s official Historic Environment Record (HER). For a modern city with an ancient past, the information in ARCADE is vital for planners and developers to assess potential impact to heritage sites and prepare contingency plans. Read ARCADE launch information here.
In the United States, the Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN) launched a crowdsourced Arches implementation. With help from the Heritage Monitor Scouts (FPAN’s public engagement program), over 4000 resources are currently inventoried in their Arches system. Evidence of climate change and the rising sea level are driving efforts to document heritage resources in Florida. Read FPAN launch information here.
Planned Implementations Announced in 2018
In 2018, multiple planned Arches implementations have been officially announced. From Yemen to the Caribbean, word is out that Arches will be the preferred system to manage national heritage inventories. For more details, follow the links to the announcements:
Jamaica Developing National Register of Cultural Places and Object
Barbados – MOU Signed to Assist with Heritage Economy
And more . . .
We are also aware of numerous new efforts that started in 2018 to either evaluate or implement Arches v4 in various regions of the world-for example, in Central Asia, China (Gansu province); Israel; the Isle of Man; New Zealand; Gibraltar; the Maldives; Soqotra, Yemen; South Georgia Island; and a new Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA Maritime) project was established to record maritime heritage in the 20-country Middle East and North Africa region.
Historic England is finalizing an implementation of Arches to manage their catalog of over 270,000 oblique aerial images spanning almost 100 years of the historic environment of England, and also plans to use the Arches platform for several other purposes: to replace England’s National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE); to manage England’s National Marine Heritage Dataset; and to use the Arches Reference Data Manager module to manage the official vocabularies used in Historic England’s numerous thesauri.
Community Participation at Events in 2018
Throughout the year, the Arches team and members of the community participated in conferences and events to spread the word of Arches capabilities and about Arches implementations, advance functional and technical knowledge through targeted workshops and training courses, and participate in panels to discuss important topics in the heritage field.
We want to thank the many organizations who hosted us this year:
- CIDOC (ICOM’S International Committee for Documentation)
- Digital Heritage International Congress & Expo
- The Israel Heritage Inventory Initiative
- The National Alliance of Preservation Commissions
- National Trust of Canada
- The National Trust for Historic Preservation
- The University of Pennsylvania, School of Design
- World Monuments Fund
As well as the community members who gave presentations about Arches:
- Stuart Cakebread and Alastair MacIntosh at the England Historic Environment Record (HER) Forum Summer Meeting in Bristol
- Phil Carlisle (Historic England) at CAA-UK
- Janet Hansen (City of Los Angeles) at the National Trust of Canada Conference
- Richard Jennings (Liverpool John Moore University) at the New Zealand Archaeological Association Conference and at ISTAR, University of Lisbon
Inaugural Arches Web Developer Training
Additionally, our first international technical training course for web developers was held in Swindon, England, in November. Participants from the UK, the Philippines, Nepal, Canada and the US attended the 4-day course. The goal was to give web developers the knowledge and skills to customize and extend the functionality of Arches Version 4. We thank the participants and instructors (Rob Gaston, Cyrus Hiatt, and Adam Cox) for taking part in this inaugural Arches training course for developers.
For more information regarding the Arches events in 2018, visit our Events Archive Page.
Arches News and Journal Articles in 2018
From news announcements to technical papers and academic studies, there are a growing number of noteworthy articles published on Arches. See below for a selection, they’re worth a read!
- Arches – Building an Open-Source Community to Protect Heritage around the Globe
- The Arches Heritage Inventory and Management System for the Protection of Cultural Resources
- Using modern technology to protect and plan for heritage places
- Application of Open-Source Software in Community Heritage Resources Management
- Developing a Heritage Database for the Middle East and North Africa
- L.A.’s historic assets get a groundbreaking boost
New Arches Project Team Member
In September 2018, the Arches Project welcomed a new team member.
Alina Myklebust joined as a Project Specialist and she will work with the team to expand initiatives related to communications, education, events and community programs. As the Arches community continues to grow, her role is to provide the community with the resources and tools needed to succeed in their Arches-related work.
Looking Forward to 2019
The Arches team looks forward to a full year of exciting work in 2019. Development on the Arches mobile data-collection app is within weeks of completion and the Workflow Application is due to be completed later in the year. Arches is also continuing to expand beyond heritage inventory, and development work on the Arches platform for heritage conservation science is now in full swing. For more information on upcoming technology advancements, check out our Arches Roadmap here.
Looking ahead, we hope to have more interactions and create more connections with the Arches community. Whether it’s at an event, workshop or on social media, we plan on creating new possibilities to engage with you and hear about your interest in or evaluation of Arches for your heritage management needs.
Please send us a message if you have ideas you want to share or let us know about a planned Arches implementation (contact@archesproject.com).
