Session: #253

Theme & Session Format

Theme:
6. A Decade after the ‘Third Science Revolution in Archaeology’
Session format:
Discussion session (with formal abstracts)

Title & Content

Title:
CANCELLED More than Just LOUD? Putting Digital Data into Context
Content:
According to much-cited principles, digital research data should be published according to the FAIR and CARE principles and be LOUD (Linked Open and Usable Data). With a focus on the U of LOUD, in our session we would like to discuss how the linking of data (in a given structure or between structures) affects usability and understanding. Usability is achieved by free or low barrier accessibility to data that is well documented and as intrinsically comprehensible as possible. The aim of linking data is to provide context (Tim Berners-Lee). But what is context and what is not? What kind of context is helpful in furthering the user’s comprehension and what kind is not?
Oddly enough, ‘context’ is also an important term in archaeological research used to denote entities that are subject to investigation. This rather self-evident definition is probably the only one that archaeologists can agree on, for ‘context’ has as many meanings as there are fields of archaeological research. To name but a few, ‘context’ is frequently applied to a trench, a definable area of a find, an assemblage of objects, to traits or to disiecta membra, the dislocated architectural structures with a rich history of different contextualizations.
So, in archaeological research AND for linked open data, contextualization is of central importance, as it provides sustainable long-term value for scientific research. But in the process of digitizing, modelling and linking archaeological data multiple meanings of context emerge: the re-contextualization of scattered information of objects, the neo-contextualization of data with metadata or through historical and/or epistemological research.
We welcome contributions from all fields of archaeological research, as well as from history of archaeological research, to reflect on the notion of ‘context’ in conjunction with digital data collections, big data, digitization projects and the LOUD publication of data and information.
Keywords:
Digital Archaeology, Research Data Management, Linked Open Usable Data (LOUD), Archaeological and digital context, History of archaeological research, Theory and concepts in archaeology
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
yes
Session associated with DGUF:
yes
Session associated with other:

Organisers

Main organiser:
Katja Roesler (Germany) 1
Co-organisers:
Courtney Nimura (United Kingdom) 2
Juliane Watson (Germany) 3
Affiliations:
1. Roman-Germanic Commission (RGK)
2. University of Oxford
3. German Archaeological Institute (DAI)