The announcement by the International Council of Archives (ICA) regarding updating the four existing ICA standards was published in 2008. In 2012, the ICA appointed the Expert Group on Archival Description. Its purpose for 2012–2016 was to develop uniform and coherent archival material description standards based on practical and theoretical archival science principles — Records in Context (RIC). The conceptual model of RIC goes beyond the ICA practices collected in ISAD(G) – its purpose is to deliver a semantic and structural underpinning for description systems and software modules used to manage documentation. RIC-CM attempts to identify and encompass the full range of needs related to describing and making available archival materials, expressing them in a precise and detailed manner so that they can be utilised by semantic technologies. It is more complex than the existing ICA standards, and the transition from the hierarchical, fonds-based model to a more flexible and open network model of description will be a gradual process.