Session: #364

Theme & Session Format

Theme:
Digital archaeology, science and multidisciplinarity: new methods, new challenges
Session format:
Session with presentation of 6 slides in 6 minutes

Title & Content

Title:
The Artefacts of the Future: what do you want to have access to and what are you willing to share?
Content:
The EAC’s Amersfoort Agenda (Schut et al. 2015) sets out some very useful pointers for addressing the challenges of the 3rd science revolution and particularly for the critical re-evaluation of how heritage data needs to be handled right here and right now if they are to be useful as digital artefacts of the future.
“These new digital opportunities might require a reconsideration of our working ethics, including the question of what we do and do not wish to share. The development of shared digital databases offers benefits not only to the professional world; it also provides potential benefits for society. We will need to exploit digital databases to their full potential and explore the possible uses for the greater public. The discipline could also put more effort into researching existing data and facilitating syntheses”
This highlights the need for some serious reconsideration, or “re-engineering”, of archaeological processes that were established in a different era when many of the tools we now have for data recording; analysis; research synthesis; and publication, were simply not available and in some cases barely conceivable, to previous generations of archaeological excavators, scientists or researchers. Broader directives towards Open Data, and Open Access publishing and Open Science, along with the emergence of the FAIR principles, are providing an increased impetus to data sharing and more open research opportunities.
This session will address some key areas for encouraging and supporting better sharing and re-use of heritage data, amongst these would be:
o Adopting and improving cooperative and multidisciplinary research tools for sharing and re-use of heritage data.
o Encouraging models of Open Access data and publication.
o Cost-benefits for wider use of Open Source software and supporting Communities of Practice (CoP) in the use of IT.
o Developing and supporting use of FAIR digital data standards.
Keywords:
Digital, Sharing, Open, FAIR, Communities of Practice
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Forum for Information Standards in Heritage - http://www.heritage-standards.org.uk/

Organisers

Main organiser:
Keith May (United Kingdom) 1,2
Co-organisers:
Achille Felicetti (Italy) 3
Affiliations:
1. Historic England
2. University of South Wales
3. Università degli Studi di Firenze (University of Florence) - PIN