Proprietary data formats, undisclosed specifications, partial standardisation, lack of adequate open formats, and the fast obsolescence of hardware, supporting operative systems and software are the major issues undermining both the data survival and reuse. Over-reliance on proprietary solutions, inadequate enrichment of assets with metadata, informal retention policies, idiosyncratic archival and management of data files are also important causes of information loss that occur just at the assets creation stage and that in some cases, such as in the AEC (Architecture Engineering Construction) sector determine economical damages even in the short term.

The curation of these assets is a topic debated and actively practiced across a variety of domains, including Research Institutions, Museums, Archives, Libraries and Governance bodies. Both the definition and the solutions proposed in this contexts tend to interpret disciplinary interests, institutional missions, and contextual problems and procedures; though, the objective of managing the long-term accessibility of authoritative data appears to be shared across all the stakeholders communities involved by these digital assets. Technologies, infrastructures and applications are increasingly being shared too by all these communities often urging to rethink database structures, file formats and metadata sets originally conceived for specific procedural contexts.

The cultural impact of data curation in these practices is a new phenomenon that reshapes established contextual procedures, legal requirements and professional definitions, such as for example the legal management of Intellectual Property Rights attached to digital information, the open-source initiatives in design and academic research, the Design coding and the object oriented databasing.

This DEDICATE seminar gathers together speakers from different institutions and background to demonstrate a variety of initiatives addressing the management of Built Environment related data that converge towards investigative methods, cultural approaches to data production and management and digital techniques. In this event we aim at exploring the possibility of finding solutions at the intersection between different contexts.

This meeting would be of interest to:

• Architects, Engineers and Consultants in the AEC sector
• Archaeologists
• Records managers and information officers
• Regulators
• Risk managers, executives and chief information officers seeking to minimise information risk or maximise information potential
• Collections managers, librarians, curators and archivists in all institutions
• Tools developers and policy makers in digital preservation
• Innovators and researchers in information technology, especially with vector graphics and documentation
• Vendors and providers of services for preservation, records management and forensics
• Innovators, vendors and commentators on digital preservation and cognate fields
• Analysts seeking to develop tools and approaches for longer term information management

How to register

This event is open and free but a booking through Eventbrite is necessary to secure a place. You can find the event booking form at http://dedicate.eventbrite.co.uk/

Outline programme

• 10:00 Registration and Coffee
• 10:25 Welcome and Introductions
• 10:30 DURAARK - Michelle Lindlar, German National Library of Science and Technology
• 11:00 Preserving CAD, the DPC report – Alex Ball, University of Bath
• 11:30 Coffee break
• 11:45 BIM centre - Graham Hayne, Glasgow Caledonian University
• 12:15 the RIBA Enterprises BIM programme – John McKechnie, RIBA Enterprises
• 12:45 Lunch
• 13:45 CyArk Europe - Adam Frost, CyArk Europe
• 14:15 Curating the RCAHMS collections- Emily Nimmo, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland
• 14:45 Beyond Built Heritage Documentation: digital applications needs for research and conservation - Cristina Gonzalez-Longo, University of Strathclyde
• 15:15 Coffee break
• 15:30 round table
• 16:30 Thanks and close