History of The London Charter
February 2006, A Symposium on "Making 3D Visual Research Outcomes Transparent" was convened at The British Academy, London, 23-24 February.
Presentations on various aspects of the issue of intellectual transparency were given by Drew Baker, Richard Beacham, Kate Devlin, Maurizio Forte, Sorin Hermon, Franco Niccolucci, Sofia Pescarin, Donald Sanders, Martin Turner, while Willard McCarty Chaired an interdisciplinary panel. Hugh Denard summed up each day's proceedings and proposed that the community might draw up a Charter setting out the principles that should underlie the use of three-dimensional visualisation technologies in heritage research and dissemination. Delegates discussed what the core principles of such a charter should be.
The Symposium was hosted by AHRC "Making Space" Project, King's Visualisation Lab, and co-sponsored and organised by the AHRC ICT Methods Network and VAST-Lab, PIN, Prato, Italy in the framework of the EPOCH Network of Excellence Standards activity.
On 25 February, an Expert Seminar chaired by Franco Niccolucci, also on "Making 3D Visual Research Outcomes Transparent", was convened at King's College London, during which the main principles of "The London Charter for the Use of Three-dimensional Visualisation in the Research and Communication of Cultural Heritage", Draft 1, were established.
Richard Beacham and Franco Niccolucci were nominated Joint Chairs of the London Charter initiative, and Hugh Denard and Sorin Hermon Joint Coordinators. The JISC 3D Visualisation in the Arts Network, King's College London, was appointed Secretariat.
The Expert Seminar was hosted by AHRC "Making Space" Project, King's Visualisation Lab, and co-sponsored and organised by the AHRC ICT Methods Network and VAST-Lab, PIN, Prato, Italy in the framework of the EPOCH Network of Excellence Standards activity. Those present were: Drew Baker, Chris Baugh, Richard Beacham, Marti Blazeby, Andrea D'Andrea, Hugh Denard, Kate Devlin, Graeme Earl, Achille Felicetti, Cat Fergusson, Sorin Hermon, Michael Takeo Magruder, Franco Niccolucci, Daniel Pletinckx, Donald Sanders, and Go Sugimoto.
March 2006, Draft 1 [doc / pdf] of "The London Charter for the Use of 3D Visualisation in the Research and Communication of Cultural Heritage" was produced and circulated by Hugh Denard. This draft encompassed the core principles agreed at the Symposium and Workshop, and added new principles, for discussion, on Sustainability and Access.
May 2005, EPOCH: European Network of Excellence in Open Cultural Heritage supports the London Charter as a means of "pushing forward the definition of an international charter on the credibility of virtual reconstructions." Draft 1 of the London Charter is published on the EPOCH website. Franco Niccolucci, EPOCH Director for Dissemination and Standards and Joint Chair of The London Charter Initiative, writes:
EPOCH considers the London Charter to be one of its most important achievements. The Network believes that this document and the related activity is a much needed milestone as far as the use of 3D visualization in archaeological interpretation, presentation and reconstruction is concerned. After several years of theoretical debate on this issue, the Charter finally proposes robust and authoritative guidelines for this important interdisciplinary subject. Not only has the large EPOCH partnership (90 research, higher education and cultural institutions across Europe) fully accepted and is supporting and implementing the Charter, but also the project reviewers nominated by the European Commission confirmed the validity and usefulness of the policies that the Charter dictates. The Charter has received great attention in EPOCH's Research Agenda Report. Acceptance and support of the London Charter is now spreading beyond the borders of EPOCH.
June 2006, Draft 1.1 [doc / pdf] of "The London Charter for the Use of 3D Visualisation in the Research and Communication of Cultural Heritage", containing minor revisions, was circulated and was adopted as the first official draft of The London Charter.
August 2006, The London Charter website, www.londoncharter.org, created by Julie Tolmie, JISC 3D Visualisation in the Arts Network, King's College London, is launched.
September 2006, The London Charter is indexed by Intute.
March 2007, Franco Niccolucci, EPOCH Director for Dissemination and Standards and Joint Chair of The London Charter Initiative, attended a meeting in Brussels organized by the VIOE, the Flemish National Office for Heritage. It was attended, among others, by Mr. Erwin Meylemans, Koen Vandaele and Dr. Dirk Callebaut of VIOE; Dr. Marinos Ioannides, head of the newly-formed Agency for Heritage Documentation of the Republic of Cyprus; delegates from CIMEC, the Romanian National Office for Heritage; and Dr. Mathias Wilbertz of ADAB, the Office of the Land Nieder-Sachsen (DE) for Heritage. All of these people expressed their appreciation for the Charter and their willingness to co-operate with its implementation at a Europe-wide level.
On 24 March 2007, Niccolucci presented the London Charter to Dr. Antonia Pasqua Recchia, Director General for Innovation at the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities. She was impressed by the Charter's clarity and incisiveness. An officer of the Ministry (Dr. Anne Conticello) has been appointed to develop immediately two case-studies of application of the Charter in view of its generalized implementation as a guideline adopted by the Ministry for all the presentations of Italian archaeological sites. For this, the Charter has been translated into Italian, and other languages are forthcoming.
April 2007, Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities commissions the Italian language version of Draft 1.1 of the London Charter.
May 2007, The Spring/Summer 2007 Newsletter of the UK's Arts and Humanities Data Service publishes a feature on the London Charter by Hugh Denard.
November 2007, The Italian language version of Draft 1.1 of the London Charter [doc / pdf] is published on www.londoncharter.org. Translator: Stephanie Williams. Editors: Franco Niccolucci and Sorin Hermon.
November 2007, The Japanese language version of Draft 1.1 of the London Charter [doc / pdf] is published on www.londoncharter.org. Translators: Go Sugimoto and Rieko Kadobayashi.
November 2007, The London Charter Advisory Board meets in Grand Parade Building, University of Brighton on 26 November, to discuss revisions to the text of the Charter and plans for disseminating the Charter internationally.
February 2008, Draft 2 of The Charter, renamed "The London Charter for the Computer-based Visualisation of Cultural Heritage", [doc / pdf] is circulated to the Advisory Board for discussion . Changes from Draft 1.1 are recorded: [doc / pdf]
May 2008, Recommendation 2.7 of the EPOCH Research Agenda for the Applications of ICT to Cultural Heritage is "Promote adherence to the principles of the London Charter for the Use of 3D Visualization in the Research and Communication of Cultural Heritage." The Full Report by David Arnold and Guntram Geser is available online in pdf format.
November 2008, The Spanish language version of Draft 1.1 of the London Charter [doc / pdf] is published on www.londoncharter.org. Translator: Serio Tejero. Editors: Alfredo Grande León and Víctor Manuel López-Menchero.
January 2009, Martin Blazeby of King's Visualisation Lab and Beatrice Rapisarda of the University of Pisa's Informatica Umanistica programme are Principal Investigators of a 9-month, collaborative project on "Implementing The London Charter in Second Life: tools and tutorials for the digitisation of cultural heritage in Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs)", funded by The British Council and the Italian Minestero dell'Universita e della Reicerca under the Cultural Heritage Conservation theme of the 2008-9 British-Italian partnership programme for young researchers.
February 2009, Draft 2.1 of The London Charter for the Computer-based Visualisation of Cultural Heritage [doc / pdf] becomes the official version, and is published on www.londoncharter.org. Changes from Draft 2 are recorded: [doc / pdf]
The Spanish language translation of version 2.1 of the London Charter [doc / pdf] is published on www.londoncharter.org. Editors and translators: Alfredo Grande León and Víctor Manuel López-Menchero.
April 2009, The German language version of version 2.1 of the London Charter [doc / pdf] is published on www.londoncharter.org. Translator: Susanne Krömker
A new website for the London Charter, and new logos for the Charter and for Charter compliancy, are created by Francesco Orsi, student of Informatica Umanistica, University of Pisa, during an internship at King's Visualisation Lab.
The Charter Executive agrees that, from version 2.1.1, the word "Draft" will be removed from the Charter's title: the London Charter will be referred to by its version number, e.g. "The London Charter for the Computer-based Visualisation of Cultural Heritage (2.1.1)"
November 2009, The Italian language version of version 2.1 of the London Charter [doc / pdf] is published on www.londoncharter.org. Editor: Enrica Salvatori.
