Frequently Asked Questions About RuskinARC^™

What software and hardware are needed?

There's nothing to install. You only need a web browser and an internet connection. RuskinARC^™ works great across all common platforms and any modern web browser, tablet, or mobile device will do.

Does RuskinARC^™ work on tablets or smart phones?

Yes, RuskinARC^™ works on pads, tablets or smart phones. Clients are already using connected iPads or Android tablets while in the field.

Does RuskinARC^™ work in other countries?

Yes, RuskinARC^™works all over the world, for anyone charged with recording and understanding their important historic architectural resources. RuskinARC is compliant with the requirements of the US National Park System, and we do have users in countries outside the US.

What problems does it solve?

Professional surveys of historic resources boil down to fieldwork and research. But the systems we use to record, organize, and manage the information tend to be:

Labor-intensive
Expensive to maintain and support
Inaccessible (not online)
Lacking maps or only paper ones
Out of date
Hard to use (electronic PDFs, Word docs, Access forms, or GIS systems)
Photos are nonexistent or separated from data.
Research materials can't be easily attached.
Slow or crashy
Vulnerable to loss
Beyond the reach of volunteers, knowledgable locals
Unsatisfying, "geeky", and just not compelling.

How is RuskinARC^™ better?

RuskinARC^™ uses the web to consolidate your work and documentation. With this system information isn't caught up in scattered spreadsheets, reports, file cabinets, binders, or other sources where it just gets older and more out of date as time passes. That causes re-work, delays, expense, and missed opportunities for better planning and integration.

Obsolete lists of historic buildings
Custom, home-grown database solutions
Paper reports, binders
Static maps
Photo cabinets and CD-ROMs
Hand-coded web pages
Disconnected or limited spreadsheets and databases
Expensive custom systems

It's designed to make information about historic resources simple to collect, visualize, share, and understand, at low cost and using only a web browser.

How does RuskinARC^™ help us meet our objectives?

Broader and more efficient survey work
Faster work for compliance projects
Better public engagement and participation
Increased transparency and accuracy
Improved collaboration

What is RuskinARC^™ designed to do?

Increase transparency and accessibility
Bridge gaps between preservationists, citizens, and policy makers
Broaden citizen engagement and interest in built heritage
Streamline compliance projects (i.e., Section 106 in the US)
Reduce costs
Boost education and outreach
Capture rich local knowledge without losing professional oversight.
Replace outdated modes of documenting architectural resources.
Meet today's expectations for having information “at your fingertips.”
Minimize mistakes and inconsistencies.
Cut staff time when answering questions about historic properties.
Ease data sharing and collaboration across departments and divisions.
Provide decision and policy makers with accurate, timely information.
Promote character of place
Keep descriptions, photos, narratives, interactive maps, and archival materials together.

How much does it cost?

We package RuskinARC^™ so it's affordable and flexible. It has the "right" features whether you're a large community, association, or CRM firm -- or a small one. We want things to be a good fit with your needs and budget. More information about pricing and service levels is here.

Can you talk to us more about it?

Yes. Just ask. The more questions we can answer, the better for everyone. Your feedback is important. We are eager to hear your questions, or whatever you are thinking.

How do we get started?

Feel free to contact us. We'd be happy to walk you through it. Or start with a free trial.

What kind of training is needed?

Generally, no training is required to use RuskinARC^™. It is designed to behave like typical modern web applications, where clicking, uploading, zooming on a map, typing in information, selecting from menus, and similar actions are commonly understood. It's easy to use but some help may be needed to take best advantage of it. We can offer training as part of a professional services agreement. Feel free to get in touch.

Is training or a workshop available?

Yes, training in how to use RuskinARC^™ is available. We can work side by side with a designated person from your group, or present at a workshop for multiple people. We're eager for you to know and understand how to best use RuskinARC^™ to your advantage. Our goal is to make it a great long-term tool and increase your satisfaction with it as much as possible. Again, we can offer training as part of a professional services agreement.

Do you offer professional services to extend RuskinARC^™'s built-in features?

Yes. You may have requirements that go beyond what RuskinARC^™ currently offers in the way of features, data management, security, workflow, or output. Think custom forms, data imports or exports, integration, branding, etc. Please feel free to get hold of us. Read more about our professional services.

Who is already using it? Can we talk to them?

Yes. Shoot us an email and we'll put you in touch with some current users.

What’s on the roadmap? What new features can we look for?

RuskinARC^™ is in active development. In the past six months we’ve released a new feature about every three weeks. New features are underway including:

New views for presenting properties the way you'd like
Improved tracking for planning work and design review
Enhanced in-depth reporting with graphs and charts
Choice of map services
Controlled public comments and discussion

How do we control what people are doing on the system?

RuskinARC^™ keeps detailed logs of all activity performed on the system, including who performed what action, at what time. It logs whether or not an edit was made or a new resource was added, or if a photo was changed, etc.

Does it track revisions to historic resources or properties?

Yes. Every time a change is made to a property record, such as altering a construction date, adding notes, or updating a photograph, RuskinARC^™ saves the “old” information as a previous revision. This lets you track change over time as new photos are added or updates are made.

What about security? Should we worry about storing our information “in the cloud?”

Don't worry, your data always belongs to you and it's always safe. We acknowledge concerns about storing information on computers that aren't under your direct control. At the same time, the move to using online services is growing precisely because the benefits are so clear.

Using RuskinARC^™ means you don't have to

Install special software
Pay for network or systems management
Purchase and configure your own hardware
Maintain code at your own expense
Hire in-house programmers or support staff, etc.

Those costs are eliminated. We take care of infrastructure, software, data management, security, and support, so you don’t have to. We use extreme care and caution to be sure your account is safe against loss or unwanted breaches.

Are there backups?

Yes, absolutely. Backups are critical and we take them very seriously. You are free to export your data for safekeeping at any moment. At the Premium level, every night, all of the data in RuskinARC^™ is backed up to Amazon’s enterprise S3™ data storage service. All of the data is encrypted against unwanted access. Performance isn’t affected by the backup activity: it’s already happening. If for any reason data were to become unavailable on RuskinARC^™’s servers, we can restore it quickly from these backups.

How do we use RuskinARC^™ for architectural surveys?

Gather your team of hired consultants, staff, volunteers, or others who will do the field work and research. RuskinARC^™ lets you set up user accounts so you can see who's doing what. It can be a reconnaissance survey, or intensive.

Log into RuskinARC^™ and start entering the information. Enter addresses, upload photos, select styles and dates, etc. For fast surveys, there are only a few required fields --but you may be as complete as you wish.

That's it. Your catalog grows as you work. Your team can enter information from anywhere, even from the field if they have a tablet or iPad.

Can we load information we already have? Digitize our current survey reports?

Yes, but it's important to consider what format your existing survey information is in. We’ve seen everything from Access databases to musty folders with Polaroid photos stapled in them. We've succesfully moved lots of "old" data into RuskinARC^™.

You can do it yourself using staff or volunteers, or we’d love to do it, if you are willing to work with us. If your data is already electronic we are way ahead of the game. If not your info will have to be loaded in a different way. There are no real technical limitations.

Is RuskinARC^™ in use already?

Yes, RuskinARC^™ is already handling nearly 8,000 historic properties over three states and in Canada, including over 11,000 photos plus hundreds of attached files, drawings, and research articles.

Are there other examples we can look at?

Yes. We have data from other projects. We list a few of them here.

Can we make it look more like our other web pages?

Yes. We're releasing templates that put your name, logo or branding, colors, or other elements on screen so visitors know that what they are seeing is coming from you. You’re under complete control of your account, so we think it should reflect your identity. Branding is only available with a Premium Service Plan and additional charges may incur.

What do we get when we purchase a service plan?

With a service plan you get:

An administrative account
Dedicated service and management logins
Additional users (architectural surveyors, editors, managers -- even volunteers)
The ability to document, manage, map, evaluate, and showcase your historic resources, with attached photos and files
Help and setup
Automatic backups (Premium)
Upgrades, enhancements, and new features at no charge (Professional and Premium plans)
Full authority to use all program functions (Professional and Premium plans)
Our warranty
Our personal, ongoing support and help

There are large projects and small ones. We want things to be a good fit with your needs and budget. Review more information about pricing and service levels.

Where is our information physically stored?

Data in RuskinARC^™ is stored on dedicated web servers leased and managed by CRE Planning and Development. The servers run a protected 64-bit CentOS and the hardware is located in Dallas, Texas. In Dallas, the datacenter is managed and serviced by Softlayer (formerly ThePlanet). Among tech companies, it's cited as one of the premier datacenters in the world and is among the world’s largest providers of web hosting and cloud computing services. When you save information or upload a file in RuskinARC^™, the data goes to these servers.

Who “owns” the data?

You do. The data and files stored in RuskinARC^™ are always yours. We take no proprietary interest in “owning” any information about historic resources that is entered into the system, including attached files, photos, etc. And you can download everything at any time. We're focused on providing the access, the mapping and management platform, the features, and security.

Can I export to other systems?

We created RuskinARC^™ to produce extremely portable data (plain text, images and files) that is easy to get to. You always have access to all your data in organized, usable form for import, safekeeping, or refactoring into another system. You can download all data, pictures, files... everything. An authorized account holder can do an export at any time. For special exports, we can work with you as part of our professional services.

What about privacy? Some information may be potentially sensitive.

We've built privacy features in. You can choose which catalogs, projects, or potentially sensitive pieces of information are publicly visible and which are not. Furthermore, you can set certain pieces of information to never be visible, even if your project is.

What about downtime? What happens if the server goes down?

We take the security, protection, and long-term availability of your data very seriously and have done everything in our power to ensure that information is not lost and that downtime, if it occurs, is both temporary and minimal. We have regular off-site backups and the ability to get back online, up and running quickly in case of trouble.

Looks great. . .But what about ten years from now?

That’s an important question, for us and for you. While RuskinARC^™ has benefits right now, you are right to wonder about what might happen three, five, or ten years on.

Thinking about RuskinARC^™ from this standpoint, we see that steps should be taken to ensure clients can retain all their hard work or even keep using it in case anything happens that prevents us from meeting our obligations down the road. We want to take responsibility for your peace of mind in advance, and allay worries about RuskinARC^™’s long-term viability.

To that end, we offer some considerations:

One is data portability. We created RuskinARC^™ to produce extremely portable data (plain text, images and files) that is easy to get to. As an account administrator you are always sure to have access to all your data in organized, usable form for import, safekeeping, or refactoring into another system. You can download all data, pictures, files, everything. A logged-in account holder can do an export at any time.

The second is continued improvement. RuskinARC^™ is in ongoing development and will improve with time. New features are already in the works including faster, more responsive screens, expanded analytics and reporting, deeper methods for public engagement, easier interfaces, better import and export, and more. As for software, we’re already using the same technologies that drive some of the world’s biggest websites. The bottom line is, as web technologies advance and improve, so will RuskinARC^™. It won’t stay static or be tied to “dead” platforms. Creating it has been a passion for the last six years and will continue to be for a long time.

Third, our prospects. We’ve got great backers who are helping us through these first phases of introducing RuskinARC^™. We also have a strong track record for leaving delighted clients behind us in all other aspects of our work. We don’t plan to let that change.

Would you be willing to talk to us more about it?

Yes. Just ask. The more questions we can answer, the better for everyone.

In turn, we are good listeners. Feedback is something we want lots of to help make it successful for you. We are eager to hear your questions, comments, or whatever you are thinking.