We are excited to announce our status as an Arches Governance member organisation, and our participation on the Technical Advisory Committee.
Earlier this year, the Getty Conservation Institute was proud to announce the official formation of the Arches Project Governance Framework after years of meticulous planning. The governance aims to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Arches open-source platform and create a formal structure for accepting community feedback, technological direction and stakeholder input. The Governance Framework is composed of three separate but interlinked bodies that collectively provide the GCI with information to determine priorities and direction. These bodies are as follows:
- Project Steering Committee – works to provide recommendations on the strategic and operational requirements and priorities of the Arches Project.
- Technical Advisory Committee – advises the Project Steering Committee on the Arches Platform software roadmap and related technical work; and
- Community Advisory Committee – advises the Project Steering Committee and Technical Advisory Committee by serving as a source of community-based insights, particularly from entities implementing Arches, for Arches Platform software development as well as other community infrastructure and operational needs.
As a member of the Arches community since our earliest involvement back in 2017, we were honoured to receive an invitation to join the governance, and were more than inclined to accept the Arches Project Mission statement, this being:
The Arches Project supports the long-term sustainability of the open-source Arches software platform—its use and effective data management—to serve cultural heritage around the world and for other purposes that benefit the Arches Platform and its community.
Our acceptance of the mission, the Arches community code of conduct, and the terms of the Arches open-source software licence, in addition to our significant contributions over the last 8 years (and counting) made us eligible to be invited to participate as governance members.
In addition to becoming a governance organisation, Knowledge Integration’s Head of Arches, Samuel Scandrett, was invited to become a member of the Technical Advisory Committee. The committee’s first meeting was held virtually in May, and immediately initiated some interesting discussions, some of which continued conversations raised at the recent Arches developer conference in Belfast.
In November, the first in-person meeting will be held at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. This event will bring together the three governance committees and provide opportunities for discussing governance goals, processes, and allow members to build relationships for future collaboration.
The full list of Arches Project Governance organisations, and respective individuals from each of the committees can be found on the Arches website.
We once again thank the Getty Conservation Institute for their hard work in planning, organisation and allowing the governance to become a reality. You can find more information on Arches governance on the dedicated page on the Arches website, or by reading the official Arches Governance Charter.