IDOVIR - Infrastructure for the documentation of virtual reconstructions

• Applicants: Dr. Wolfgang Stille; Professor Dr. Thomas Stäcker; Professor Dr.-Ing. Oliver Tessmann; Professor Dr. Markus Wacker
• Subject Area: Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology ; Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology ; Art History
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 460771453

For some time now, the field of virtual architectural reconstruction has called for and theoretically formulated the documentation of decision-making processes in reconstructions. Research results should be comprehensible, permanent and openly accessible. However, up to now this has often been an exception, and there is a risk of losing the knowledge implicitly embedded in reconstructions. With IDOVIR, a platform has now been created in the first phase of the LIS DFG project funding eResearch Technologies that offers a freely accessible and long-term available option for the documentation of reconstructions, their genesis (paradata), and their metadata. In the second project phase of IDOVIR, the developed platform is to be further disseminated and established in the specialist community. The platform is to be consolidated in initial steps and the use of IDOVIR is to be made even more user-friendly and attractive. This will make the practice of documenting reconstruction projects easier and more natural. The version of IDOVIR developed in the first phase of the project was presented at various workshops and conferences and is already being used by several institutions. Further intensive exchange with the community is now required for wider dissemination and publicity. This also includes increased exchange with neighboring communities such as archaeology, art history and heritage conservation in order to learn from the findings of other disciplines and supplement the corresponding functions. Targeted contact is also to be made with colleges and universities that carry out virtual reconstructions in order to expand the use of IDOVIR in teaching. In order to further improve the practice of documentation, IDOVIR is to be further developed in a targeted manner. During the first project phase, many comments and ideas were collected from users, which were included in the development plan but could not be implemented within the first project phase. However, they are important building blocks for the use of IDOVIR and are to be developed in the next project phase. Broader acceptance and willingness to use IDOVIR is to be achieved on the one hand by providing additional support for workflows with a focus on automated data entry and the transfer of freely available data, as well as by offering additional target group-oriented tools. On the other hand, the communication aspect is to be strengthened and IDOVIR is to be integrated even more effectively during the process of creating a reconstruction, so that the documentation no longer represents any significant additional work in the end. There is a strong hope that the convincing and profitable use of IDOVIR during the reconstruction phase will provide decisive impetus for the creation of documentation.

• DFG Programme: Research data and software (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)