Dear Time Machine friends!

Moving quickly since the official end of the Time Machine CSA in February 2020, the Time Machine Organisation (TMO) has been laying the groundwork for implementation of the concrete plans contained in the CSA's final strategy and implementation plan. In spite of the recent COVID-19 complications which have been impacting work across the board, the detailed short-term action plan for the TMO's operations is still on track for completion in June. It will set Time Machine's priority goals and objectives which will guide the day-to-day work of the TMO staff and ensure that activities are carried out efficiently. We will of course be sharing this with the community as soon as details are finalised, in particular as it relates to collaborative elements such as the Requests for Comments (RFC).

We are happy to share with you more details on our recent and upcoming activities in this newsletter. Additionally, we would like to draw your attention to the Europe Day Manifesto which has been launched earlier in May by the European Heritage Alliance and calls for strong and broad community support.

Enjoy the read!

Time Machine CSA Final Review: Update

The final review meeting for the Time Machine CSA project took place on April 23, 2020. Taking place via Webex due to travel restrictions, this important moment provided the opportunity for both the European Commission Project Officers and the expert reviewers to ask questions of the Work Package Leaders and to offer their feedback directly. We are pleased to say that the discussion was fruitful, that a lot a valuable comments & recommendations were received and that the preliminary assessment of the CSA work was positive.

Subsequently, the official review report was received which formally confirmed the assessment, highlighted the agreed upon revisions to some deliverables and summarised the remaining information required for completion of the technical and financial reporting. Work is underway to complete all of these items by early June.

You can find all public deliverables of the Time Machine CSA on our website.

CSA deliverables

Europe Day Manifesto

On 9 May 2020 members of the European Heritage Alliance launched the Europe Day Manifesto ‘Cultural Heritage: A Powerful Catalyst for the Future of Europe’.

The Europe Day Manifesto aims to convey a strong message of solidarity, hope and unity to Europe’s leaders and citizens at a time when Europe and the entire planet are struggling to overcome an unprecedented crisis caused by the COVID-19 virus. Through this Manifesto, representatives of major European and international heritage networks which form part of the European Heritage Alliance express the readiness of the wider heritage world to contribute to Europe’s immediate social and economic recovery, as well as to the longer-term advancement of the European project.

The Europe Day Manifesto puts forward seven of the most important ways in which cultural heritage can act as a catalyst for positive change. On the part of our Time Machine network, our Executive Team strongly supports this initiative and calls you to sign as well.

Let me sign, too!

Time Machine Request for Comments (RFCs)

We are currently preparing the start of our "Requests for Comments" programme. A Request for Comments (RFC) is a form of peer-reviewed, consensual paper describing a single facet of the whole Time Machine in a standardised and open manner. Analogous to the development of various technologies that make up the Internet today we want to use this participation and publication scheme to create the different components of Time Machine together with the whole community. Anyone interested in contributing will be able to give feedback to various designs, review updates and even propose changes to the documents themselves.

A start date for our RFCs is not yet fixed but we hope to be able to give you more details very soon.

Local Time Machines

We are thrilled to welcome a new Local Time Machine to our network, the Cologne Time Machine. This local initiative is driven by enthusiastic and experienced family researchers, keen to make delving into the history of the city of Cologne in Germany a great experience and adventure!

Furthermore, there has been some exciting development in Switzerland: What started out as just one Local Time Machine, the Sion Time Machine, has now turned into the umbrella Valais-Wallis Time Machine comprised of 4 "sub-Local Time Machines":

To learn more about the recent development of our Local Time Machines, make sure to browse our latest articles in our newsroom.

Browse newsroom

Government Funding for Study on Finnish Time Machine Initiative

The Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland funds a study initiated by our Finnish Time Machine Ambassador Juha Hendiksson to evaluate and analyse the needs and strengths of the Finnish Time Machine network in order to enrich Time Machine as a whole and learn more about how the Finnish Time Machine members can advance their efforts with the help of Time Machine technology.

Details

Time Machine Ambassador Network

Our European network of Time Machine Ambassadors is growing steadily and staying active even during COVID-19 times. Time Machine Ambassadors are our volunteer experts spread across Europe that are eager to support the Time Machine vision and have the capacity to reach out to and inform a variety of national and international communities.

Follow our Time Machine Ambassadors on Twitter using #TimeMachineAmbassador and keep an eye on our Newsroom for upcoming activities.

Get in touch

#JoinTimeMachine

We are proud to see that even now our Time Machine network keeps on growing: Our joint vision to develop the Big Data of the Past for the Future of Europe and beyond has become more relevant than ever before and our increasing member base testifies to this vital need of jointly keep pushing to realise our vision.

Joining the Time Machine network is easy – you can simply become a member by joining the Time Machine Organisation (TMO) in one of two ways:

Individuals: Time Machine Supporter
Institutions: TMO Member Institution

The TMO is the institutional governing framework behind Time Machine and unites accomplished experts from science, technology and cultural heritage. As an international association, the TMO is open to any entity dealing with topics related to Time Machine as well as any individual interested in supporting the goals of Time Machine. By joining us, you will help drive the Time Machine forward by demonstrating to the European Commission the broad and diverse support base that exists for providing critical funding for Cultural Heritage projects.

Latest Time Machine members

Number of Time Machine Supporters: 220

Join now!

News and events

Digitisation and Cultural Heritage in Thuringia and Europe | 22 June 2020 | Online

The Role of Cultural HERItage in Socio-Economic Development and Preservation of Democratic Values |
15-18 June 2020 | Online

Time Machine panel discussion @ National Library of Finland | 26 August 2020 | Online

An Intimacy With the Physical World: New Technologies Generating new Knowledge | The Art Newspaper | Video

Let me watch