Internet Archaeol 15. Paul Gilman. Recent developments: standards

1.3 Recent developments: standards

There is now a widespread acceptance of the importance of data standards, and the key platforms for this, the Monument Inventory Data Standard (MIDAS), the event/monument/source data model and the national reference data terminology thesauri and word lists (INSCRIPTION) have already been agreed. These standards will inevitably develop in the light of practical experience and in response to new areas. A forum for discussing developments in data standards is already in place, the Forum on Information Standards in Heritage (FISH) and its work and that of other standard setting groups will continue. The advent of the Archaeology Data Service has also provided a welcome impetus through their guides to good practice. Moreover, as their remit is to make archaeological data available digitally, they have been pioneers in enabling access to core data from some SMRs via the Internet. Nevertheless, major challenges remain for the future, not least the need to develop standards for archaeological spatial data.