History of the Archive

The National Archive of the Velocity Interoperability Network is a young institution, established on the same day as the departments whose records it keeps. The milestones below record its establishment and the first transfers to its care, and will be extended as its reading room, exhibitions and games come into operation.

1. Before September 2026

   Records kept by their creators

   Before the Archive existed, the papers that would become the founding records of the Network were held by the organisations that drafted them. There was no common place of deposit, no agreed standard for the preservation of the Network's records and no public catalogue of what had been created.

2. 6 September 2026

   Archive established

   The National Archive of the Velocity Interoperability Network was formally established, with responsibility for the permanent records of the Network and its departments, for their preservation and cataloguing, and for making them available to the public.

3. 6 September 2026

   First transfers accessioned

   The founding instruments, the published versions of standards VIN-1 to VIN-5 and the three notices with which the Official Register opened were the first records to be transferred to the Archive, and became series ARC-1, ARC-2 and ARC-3 of the catalogue.

4. 6 September 2026

   Official website launched

   The Archive launched archive.gov.vin, carrying a catalogue of its record series, the programme of exhibitions to be drawn from them, descriptions of the educational games in preparation and guidance on requesting records.

5. Later in 2026

   First exhibition

   Founding the Network, the first exhibition of the Archive, is to open online with the founding instruments of series ARC-1 and commentary from the Archive on the decisions of 6 September 2026.

6. By the end of 2027

   Founding year online

   The Archive aims to have every page of the records of the founding year digitised and available on this site, so that the first records of the Network may be read anywhere without recourse to the originals.

7. Forthcoming

   Reading room, further exhibitions and the release of the games

   The location and opening hours of the reading room, the opening dates of the remaining exhibitions and the release of each game will be announced on this site as they are confirmed.

The records referred to above are described in the Catalogue. For the Archive's present responsibilities, see About the Archive.