[open-archaeology] Heritage Method Store Proposal

Tue Sep 21 08:21:33 UTC 2010

Dear Anthony,
I am on my way to Italy already with very limited access to the 
internet for more than a week. I will answer when I am back in my 
office.

Best,

Axel

Zitat von Anthony Beck <ant.beck at gmail.com>:

> Dear All,
>
> Quick update:
>
> I have now submitted this as a project proposal to OKFN. I have requested
> hosting, technical and developer resource (there may be some legal elements
> as well).
>
> I also exchange e-mails with Mike Heyworth at the Council for British
> Archaeology last night. Mike/CBA are happy to commit some resources to the
> initiative. Given the community and outreach focus of CBA and the high
> esteem in which it is held it would seem sensible if we undertake this
> jointly between OKFN and CBA. I've included a direct link to Stuart Jeffrey
> at the ADS.
>
> Best
>
> Ant
>
> On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 4:30 PM, Anthony Beck <ant.beck at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Oops. Didn't realise my work account wasn't registered
>>
>> Best
>>
>> Ant
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Anthony Beck <A.R.Beck at leeds.ac.uk>
>> Date: Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 4:06 PM
>> Subject: Heritage Method Store Proposal
>> To: "open-archaeology at lists.okfn.org" <open-archaeology at lists.okfn.org>,
>> "Michael Doneus (michael.doneus at univie.ac.at)" <
>> michael.doneus at univie.ac.at>, "rachel.opitz at googlemail.com" <
>> rachel.opitz at googlemail.com>, "wlodekra at amu.edu.pl" <wlodekra at amu.edu.pl>,
>> "nina.heiska at tkk.fi" <nina.heiska at tkk.fi>, "gianluca.cantoro at gmail.com" <
>> gianluca.cantoro at gmail.com>, "dart-investigators at comp.leeds.ac.uk" <
>> dart-investigators at comp.leeds.ac.uk>, "Dr. Axel Posluschny" <
>> posluschny at rgk.dainst.de>, Cameron Neylon <cameron.neylon at stfc.ac.uk>, "
>> jo.walsh at ed.ac.uk" <jo.walsh at ed.ac.uk>, Dave Cowley <
>> Dave.Cowley at rcahms.gov.uk>, "j.p.mills at newcastle.ac.uk" <
>> j.p.mills at newcastle.ac.uk>, "remondino at fbk.eu" <remondino at fbk.eu>, Keith
>> Challis <k.challis at bham.ac.uk>, "ahzcb at granby.ccc.nottingham.ac.uk" <
>> ahzcb at granby.ccc.nottingham.ac.uk>, "anthony at discoveryprogramme.ie" <
>> anthony at discoveryprogramme.ie>, "robert at discoveryprogramme.ie" <
>> robert at discoveryprogramme.ie>, "mikeheyworth at britarch.ac.uk" <
>> mikeheyworth at britarch.ac.uk>, "antiquist at googlegroups.com" <
>> antiquist at googlegroups.com>
>> Cc: "ant.beck at gmail.com" <ant.beck at gmail.com>
>>
>>
>> Apologies for cross posting:
>>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> At the Aerial Archaeology Research Group conference I suggested we produce
>> a methodology store. The aim of such a resource is to stop the community
>> “re-inventing the wheel” by sharing methodologies and algorithms, to provide
>> a place where methodology can be discussed and developed, to provide an
>> audit trail for developments and an ability to “fork” methodologies in light
>> of different localities, technologies, to be able to provide links between
>> methodologies developed at different scales or for different environments
>> etc. I discussed this with colleagues and collaborators at the Open
>> Knowledge Foundation (OKF: particularly the Open Archaeology group – which I
>> recommend you join), the Remote Sensing and Photogrametry Society (RSPSoC),
>> the Council for British Archaeology and colleagues with a professional
>> interest in these topics (Jo Walsh at Edina and Cameron Neylon at the
>> Science and Technology Facilities Council). In addition members of the EU
>> funded ArchaeoLandscapes project (http://www.archaeolandscapes.eu<
>> http://www.archaeolandscapes.eu/>), which had a meeting directly after
>> AARG, were also supportive. The support for this initiative has been
>> overwhelming. The above constitutes the what and why for a heritage
>> methodology store: the issue seems to be not a matter of “if” we do this but
>> of where, how and who.
>>
>> For the Where I would suggest we do this under the umbrella of the Open
>> Knowledge Foundation (OKFN: http://okfn.org/). This means that it’s clear
>> that the resource is about openness and applies to all methodologies rather
>> than just the specifics about a single interest group. Jonathan Gray is the
>> community co-ordinator for OKFN. Jonathan: What do you think? Is this
>> possible/desirable? What are the cost/resource implications. Comments from
>> anyone else?
>>
>> The How is likely to be the most difficult questions. We can use a range of
>> different technologies. Stefano Costa has suggested a wiki, which is a
>> simple and easy tool. At the other end of the spectrum we could use
>> something like MyExperiment or GitHub (software management). MyExperiment
>> allows the production of digital workflows that can transform data with
>> algorithms (something that would be very useful for those of us doing
>> numerical analyses – like the heritage remote sensing specialists). However,
>> this may provide too much clutter for other users. Between these two tools
>> are a spectrum of other technologies that may be useful (Stack Overflow,
>> Mahara, etc.). However, the point is to build a community around the content
>> that are prepared to discuss and improve methodologies (hence – an indexing
>> service of available methods is not adequate). In the short term I feel that
>> we should use tools that are accessible to a large audience rather than
>> exclusive to a technologically sophisticated audience. This stops us being
>> too prescriptive and allows us to extend tools as the community requires
>> them. I’m sure a number of you have much more experience than I do in this
>> area: please feel free to comment on this?
>>
>> For the who, I’m happy to run with this in conjunction with the DART PhD
>> students. I’ll put up a shout if things become difficult.
>>
>>
>> For completeness I have also included members of Antiquist in this
>> discussion. Please feel free to forward this e-mail to your own heritage
>> special interest groups. However, it would be good if conversations were
>> threaded to the Open Archaeology list at open-archaeology at lists.okfn.org
>> <mailto:open-archaeology at lists.okfn.org>.
>>
>> Best wishes and many thanks for all your help and support
>>
>> Ant
>> ---------------------------------------
>> Anthony Beck
>> Research Fellow
>> DART Project
>> School of Computing
>> University of Leeds
>>
>> DART has 3 fully funded PhD studentships advertised. More details at
>> www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/dart<http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/dart>
>>
>>
>