12 C O N T E X T 1 2 6 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 2 similar arguments and evaluations carried out by English Heritage and Historic Scotland on sashes. It is an interesting comparator to that work. The instructive photos show some interesting details of ferramenta (the iron frameworks providing a fixing for glazing panels in a window) and a wide variety of window patterns, demonstrating significant degrees of local distinctiveness and examples of past vernacular repairs. The author rightly emphasises that while the future success of a historic building will depend on the ability to adjust to a contemporary use, the importance of windows for the distinctiveness of the overall appearance requires a high degree of sensitivity. Unsurprisingly the author concludes that appearance is best preserved where original building materials and historic manufacturing techniques are retained. If reliable strategies for a substantial improvement in their physical properties can be achieved, it may be possible to find feasible and reversible ways to complement existing windows with an existing thermal layer – usually in these Bavarian examples by a secondary window. The paper by Edmund Lee of English Heritage ‘“Everything We Know Informs Everything We Do”: a vision for historic environment sector knowledge and information management’ gave this reviewer a bit of a Donald Rumsfeld moment (passim). Lee addresses the opportunities provided by changes in technology and the potentially greater emphasis in future on socially constructed knowledge of good practice. This can be captured by social media or Web2 online communities of practice as a complement to recorded information and traditional forms of data gathering. When you need to find something, do you turn to your (often expensively acquired) library, or do you Google the issue (depending on the effectiveness of their filtering), or do you look to wiki forms of collaborative writing of user forums? The author looks at managing this know-how; examines the value of online communities of practice; and discusses how we personally apply it. For professionals under pressure and suffering information overload, this is a very thought provoking examination of knowledgebased issues, aired previously at the IfA Conference in 2009. The two other articles deal with world heritage issues. Simon Makuvaza of Leiden University looks at the political and organisational dispute between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and the efforts by the latter to take over the management of the Victoria Falls world heritage site, but being refused ownership. The author suggests ways in which this protracted dispute could be resolved and better managed. Last, but by no means least, Dennis Rodwell provides a timely personal review of some of the key policy drivers behind UNESCOWorld Heritage Conventions over the last 40 years. He charts the changing emphasis on issues from ‘environment’ and ‘protection’ in 1974, to current agendas embracing ‘sustainable development’, ‘climate change’ and ‘culture’. This issue seems particularly topical in the light of the World Heritage Committee’s concern that the Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City world heritage site has been compromised as a consequence of the overwhelming scale of recently completed and approved, but as yet to commence, commercial developments that threaten the very status of the world heritage inscription. Rodwell expresses concern that the cultural and environmental ethos of the World Heritage Convention has changed to the detriment of inscribed sites by favouring development that delivers selective economic gain at the expense of local communities. Consequently the author believes that the branding of individual sites is taking precedence over collective issues of protection and conservation, undermining the founding vision. Those readers who have an interest in or responsibility for the management of historic cemeteries or burial grounds might note that after two years or more of deliberations a revised version of the British Standard specification BS 8415 has appeared. It is briefly explained in Natural Stone Specialist (May 2012). The cost of the standard is £136 – for 28 pages. Revised procedures for risk assessments and monument testing are set out. These follow on from the instruction from the Ministry of Justice to burial authorities in 2009 to stop laying down memorials unless these were a real physical danger to site users. In the June issue, Barry Hunt refers rather acerbically to the recently updated British Standard EN 1467, dealing with requirements for rough stone blocks. This runs to 18 pages, although Hunt cites only 11 useful pages of spaced-out text – just-under 3,000 words in total. This costs £96! Given that he considers that
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