ASOR Open Archaeology Prize

 

 

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The ASOR Open Archaeology Prize is awarded to the best open-access, open-licensed, digital contributions to Near Eastern archaeology by ASOR members. This competition is open to all ASOR members. Members may submit their own project or nominate the project of another ASOR member. A panel of researchers will judge the quality and significance of submitted materials. Evaluations will be based on the project's scholarly merits and potential for reuse in research or teaching. To be eligible, projects must be freely available on the Web (ie not password-protected) and downloadable in an open, reusable format. All content must be provided under licensing terms no more restrictive than the Creative Commons Attribution, Noncommercial, Share-Alike License (see details below). These open licensing terms will help maximize the impact of your research and ensure that others can build on your contributions.

How to Participate:

Submission Deadline: October 17, 2008

To compete, email submissions and nominations to Sarah Whitcher Kansa, the competition organizer at (skansa@alexandriaarchive.org ). Please use subject heading "ASOR Open Archaeology Prize Entry." In the body of the email, include your project name, its url, and the license you have attached to it. (Note: The license must also be clearly marked on the web site of the project itself.) Please also include your institutional affiliation and a brief background of what purpose the project serves, when it was developed, and who (if anyone) has funded it. For assistance with licensing, please feel free to contact the competition organizer. If you are nominating a project, simply explain the nomination and provide contact details for the project director. Please note: You must be a current ASOR member to compete.

You may also submit an entry on DVD by post to:

The Alexandria Archive Institute (Open Archaeology Prize)
125 El Verano Way
San Francisco, CA 94127

Tel: (510) 528-5392
Fax: (866) 505-8626

 

The Prizes:

First Prize: $500

Runner Up: A $200 gift certificate from the David Brown Book Co.

 

Examples of Eligible Projects:

Examples of projects that can be submitted / nominated include the following:

  • A published paper with accompanying data (in spreadsheet format)
  • Digital materials (videos, games, slideshows) to enhance museum exhibits or instruction
  • Software (and its documentation) that can further scholarship in the archaeological community
  • A "library" of media (such as slides) with associated metadata (keywords, notes, etc.)
  • A video or slide show with accompanying source files and materials that facilitate reuse
  • A specialist database (such as a faunal or plant assemblage, or a corpus of seals, beads, or ceramics), with contextual information and photos, if available

Winners of the 2007 ASOR Open Archaeology prize competition can be viewed here or here.

 

Judging and Awards:

Judges from the ASOR community (Junior and Senior Scholars) will review all entries and winners will be announced in November at the awards ceremony of the 2008 ASOR meeting in Boston.

 

Access, Documentation and Copyright Requrements:

  • Choosing a License: All content must be licensed with a Creative Commons License that does not restrict the creation of "derivative" (modified or adapted) works. Please visit creativecommons.org for more details on copyright licensing. Remember, you can only license copyrighted content that you own; please do not submit material that does not belong to you!
  • Submissions can be hosted on any personal, commercial, or institutional website, so long as they are available free of charge and without login or password restrictions.
  • Submissions must be available in open or widely used file formats. A single submission can be made available with multiple file formats to maximize its potential for reuse.
  • Submissions must have adequate documentation (titles, keywords, authors, etc.) to facilitate discovery and reuse. Meaningful reuse of materials also requires the availability of documentation about data and media collection methods, organization, structure, and meaning.
  • If you have useful photo libraries, datasets and linked publications, but no place to put them on the Web, you are welcome to post your project to the Open Context database (www.opencontext.org). Please contact the competition organizer for instructions on how to do this.

 

About:

The ASOR Open Archaeology Prize is one of a series of such competitions sponsored by the Alexandria Archive Institute, promoting the development and use of open educational resources in archaeology and related disciplines. The Open Archaeology Prize aims to enhance community recognition of open scholarly communication. The competition is supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the David Brown Book Company.