After some discussion with the ica.org webmaster at the ICA Congress in Kuala Lumpur we have decided to move the ICA-AtoM project discussion list to GoogleGroups as we are not able to get all the functionality we require to facilitate the beta launch and testing in the near term with the current ica.org discussion list.

All subscribers to this list should receive an invite to join the GoogleGroup list in the next couple of days (as soon as Google approves my bulk subscription). Once you have accepted the invite you are able to post messages.

During the first week of May, the ICA-AtoM project held its first Steering Committee meeting at the Dutch Archiefschool in Amsterdam. In attendance were:

• David Leitch, (incoming) ICA Secretary-General
• Perrine Cannavagio, ICA Deputy Secretary-General
• George MacKenzie, Keeper of the Records of Scotland
• Abdullah El Reyes, Director, United Arab Emirates Center for Documentation & Research
• Fareed Hassan Al Marzouqi, Director of Support Services, United Arab Emirates Center for Documentation & Research
• David McGlennon, Director of Strategic Planning, United Arab Emirates Center for Documentation & Research
• Peter Bruce, Chief Technology Officer, Library and Archives of Canada
• Peter Horsman, Director of Research, Dutch Institute of Archival Education & Research (Archiefschool)
• Peter Van Garderen, Software Release Manager, ICA-AtoM Project (Artefactual Sytems)

We reviewed the ICA-AtoM feature roadmap for the 1.0 beta release due in July 2008 and the stable 1.2 release due in June 2009. We discussed the preparations for the ICA-AtoM sessions at the upcoming ICA Congress in Kuala Lumpur, including the preparation of a demo CD to be made available to all attendees. The Steering Committee also discussed copyright, license, trademarks and the project's governance structure. We prepared a draft organizational chart (see attached). This chart, along with the membership of the ICA-AtoM Steering Committee, will be finalized at the Steering Committee's next meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

I have just posted an article on my blog about a pilot project that will be testing the ICA-AtoM software for use in a provincial union list of archival descriptions here in British Columbia, Canada.

http://archivemati.ca/2008/04/26/ica-atom-goes-provincial/

The article also contains some more current information about the status of the ICA-AtoM software development.

As well, on May 6-7, the first meeting of the ICA-AtoM Steering Committee will take place at the Dutch Archiefschool in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Dear colleagues,

N° 1 of the "Newsletter on Archives and Human Rights" is now available at the following address: http://www.unesco.org/archives/hrgnews/

Best regards,

Jens Boel
Chief Archivist
UNESCO

27 March 2008