THE ARMENIAN SOCIETY OF FELLOWS
The A r m e n i a n
Cultural Heritage Council A Committee of the Armenian Society of Fellows
Armenian Heritage Management System The Pan-Armenian Cultural Heritage Database
Project Outline
Scope, Context, and Governance Scope
Governance
The project establishes a standardized, comprehensive, GIS-based, and legally binding inventory system for Armenian cultural heritage, aligned with international standards and accessible via an online platform — serving as a foundational resource for preservation, advocacy, and future research. The database is to consolidate existing and new data on tangible and intangible Armenian cultural heritage, in Armenia and beyond.
1. The project is led by an ASOF Executive Committee delegated with decision-making power regarding this project. The Committee will have dynamic membership that represents the expertise and networking needed to scale up the project over time. The Committee will solicit and review candidate content providers. It will also delegate various phases of the projects to small task forces tapping into a wider network of scholars and experts from ASOF and beyond. By its nature, the project is interdisciplinary and as much about coordination as it is about standardization.
The adopted model is one designed for scalability yet simple enough to be initiated at small scale. The framework consists of two components:
2. Co-owners of the project have the following responsibilities and functions:
❖ The database that stores metadata about the content according to international legal and scienti c standards, cross-references the information across all its parts, provides an advanced search and research functionality to users, and delivers an online platform for the general public to explore and gets inspired by. The system will employ cutting edge information technology, including the use of Arti cial Intelligence and crypto/ blockchain, to manage and explore the information in novel and secure ways.
❖ Legal ownership of the electronic system and access to it. The setup will be cloud-based, so this entails access to the cloud infrastructure.
❖ A network of content providers who upload into the database information about the data they collect and hold, while according to the standards established by the framework and retaining the rights to the content they share. The option is provided to upload metadata only or digital content as well.
❖ Legal ownership of the intellectual property developed by the project.
Context The existing databases and management systems for Armenian cultural heritage have signi cant gaps, are often dif cult or impossible to access, and do not conform to international norms and legal standards. Irrespective of the wealth of the heritage, without proper organization, access, and promotion, it is in danger of being lost and/or falsi ed. At a time when Armenian heritage is targeted, this project is an urgent effort to address these shortcomings with the use of information technology as a critical ingredient in heritage preservation and management, policy making, international geopolitics, and security.
❖ Permanent voting seats on the Committee overseeing the project execution. The Chairmanship of the Committee will rotate amongst the co-owners. ❖ Agree to engage jointly in fundraising efforts for the main database component of the project. ❖ Be the primary candidates for hosting project staff and research projects on the framework development. ❖ Participation in advertising the project and in conferences developed around the project. 3. Content providers will be handled through separate contracts signed with the project co-owners. A process of application and review will be instituted for content providers, overseen by the project Committee, but co-owners of the project will have veto power on the participation of content providers. 3. Additional notes ❖ The responsibilities of co-owners are subject to funding availability. Coowners do not take on any nancial responsibilities and only commit to working together to fundraise for it. ❖ Co-owners can leave their co-ownership responsibilities with proper notice and without further obligations, and new co-owners can be added with a majority vote of the co-owners.
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
❖ There must be clauses regarding the security and transfer of the data in case of dissolution of the project.
Project Outline Phases & Goals Phases
Gaianè Casnati, Europa Nostra, Scienti c Director of SIREH
Formation
Aram Galstyan, Amazon AI, Board Member ARCS.ai
ASOF’s ArCH Council commits to be one of the co-owners of the project. Other founding co-owner candidates include:
Shant Kassardjian, Cybersecurity Director at the Information Systems Agency of Armenia (ISAA)
Jasmine Dum-Tragut ,University of Salzburg Armen Hovannisian, Attorney, member of the ABA Board of Governors
• The UCLA Promise Armenian Institute • USC Armenian Studies Center • NAASR — National Association for Armenian Studies and Research • AGBU Nubar Library
The Armenian Bar Association will draft the legal framework for the project. This will include both the co-ownership part, as well as the template for engagement with content providers.
Vatche Sahakian, Burton Bettingen Professor in Theoretical Physics at Harvey Mudd College, Executive Director of ASOF, Secretary of ARCS.ai Basile Simon, Director of Special Projects, Starling Lab at Stanford University Lucy Varpetian, Principal Assistant City Attorney at City of Glendale, Chair ex-of cio of the ABA Board of Governors In addition, the list will include one representative from each co-owner of the project. From ASOF, the representative will be:
At that point, candidate co-owners can ask for modi cations of the proposed charter before committing to the project co-ownership.
Mark Chenian, UBS Financial Services Inc., ASOF Executive Board Member
The founding co-owners will then convene the ASOF committee and initiate the work.
Broad Goals
The initial set of candidates that have shown interest in participating in the project as content providers include: Artsakh Ministry of Culture, Matenadaran, RAA, TUMO.
❖ Supporting Armenian institutions in updating their processes in data collection and management and in improving institutional collaborations and management
Initial Membership of the Committee
fi
fi
fi
fi
The following individuals have con rmed their participation in the Committee, appointed by the ASOF Executive Board. They represent ASOF, ARCS.ai, ABA, ISAA, SIREH, Starling Lab.
fi
Taline Sahakian, Constantine Cannon, Chair of the ABA Board of Governors
Raf Teperdjian, McDermott Will & Schulte, Armenian Bar Association
Establishment
fi
Christina Maranci, Harvard University, ArCH Council member
❖ Promoting digitization of data to make Armenian culture accessible to a larger community of scholars and to the public worldwide, through its publication in international platforms ❖ Promoting Armenian culture and heritage internationally and keeping track of centuries of Armenian heritage around the world to protect it from destruction, falsi cation, and neglect ❖ Contributing to the fostering of the Armenian identity and to projecting soft power strategically
The First Year
Starting with immovable heritage in Artsakh and Syunik
M1
Phases 1 to 3
M2 M3 M4
Phases 4 and 5
M5 M6
Phase 7
M7 M8 M9
Phase 6
Phases 8 and 9
M10 M11 M12
Project Benchmarks
Design Phase
Deployment Phase • Periodic security audits and incident response
1. Project scope, RACI, ownership, partners
• Cataloging oversight and training material for content providers
2. Inventory framework and sharing parameters (Starling) Taxonomy, metadata (e.g., Dublin Core, CIDOC)
• Outreach, media, crowdsourcing
3. Assess/ensure compliance with laws Initiate fundraising and solicit funding partners 4. Database design and infrastructure setup Secure access control & encryption setup Integration and development of A.I. tools 5. Risk and legal compliance review 6. BETA LAUNCH 7. Integration with other heritage databases Staff training and procedural documentation External reporting and transparency 8. Data quality assurance & validation 9. VERSION 1 LAUNCH
• Long-term preservation and sustainability strategy
Year One Priorities: Artsakh and Syunik Sub-inventory A: Buildings (e.g., chapels, monasteries, churches, castles) – approximately 1,000 entries. Sub-inventory B: Monoliths (e.g., cross-stones, tombstones) – approximately 2,700 entries. Sub-inventory C: Sites (e.g., natural sites, cemeteries, ancient remains, museums) – approximately 700 entries. Training and Capacity Building. Workshops/training for content providers.
Budget
Setup cost and launch
2026 Setup Budget - $250,000 $20,000 Phases 1 to 3 (travel/administrative)
Ministry of ESCS Legal services provided pro bono by McDermott Will NUACA, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography & Schulte SIREH
$180,000 Phases 4 to 6: Platform development and testing Consultations with the Getty Trust (donated)
$35,000 Phase 7 and 8: Training/workshops
Cybersecurity provided by RA’s ISAA ARCS.ai research grant for A.I. integration technology Engagement with tech team in Armenia SIREH
$15,000 Program management, promotion, assessment, and Project co-owners auditing
$250,000 Annual Budget after year 1 - $250,000 $100,000 Librarian/permanent staff
A co-owner
$100,000 Technology upgrades and maintenance/research
Yerevan team/co-owner institution
grants
$35,000 Training/workshops
SIREH
$15,000 Program management, promotion, assessment, and Project co-owners auditing
$250,000 NOTE: Budgets for content providers are separate and are not the purview of the project.
The Armenian Society of Fellows P. O. Box 60923, Pasadena, CA 91116 Հայ Մշակ թային և Գիտական Ընկերակց թյ Ալիխանյան եղբայրների փողոց 2 Աջափնյակ , Երևան 0036, Հայաստան
Société Savante Arménienne Bibliothèque Nubar, 11 Sq. Alboni, 75016 Paris, France
ու
ու
ու
asof.am
ն