Events and Activities

Open Archaeology Prize

Winners of the 2009 ASOR Open Archaeology Prize competition were announced on November 20, 2009 at the annual ASOR meeting in New Orleans. First prize was awarded to the West Bank and East Jerusalem Archaeological Database Project. The purpose of the research portion of the IPAWG project was to develop a database of surveyed and excavated archaeological data from work done in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967. Second prize was awarded to the online publication of digital content from Brown University excavations at Petra's Great Temple from 1993 - 2006. This extensive corpus of over 123,000 linked items includes over 3000 images. Read more here.

The AAI, in collaboration with Prof. Nada Shabout (Univ. of North Texas), has received a Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the project "The Open Modern Art Collection of Iraq: Web tools for Documenting, Sharing and Enriching Iraqi Artistic Expressions." OMACI will prototype a robust, participatory content-management system to trace, share and enable community enrichment of the modern art heritage of Iraq. The project represents a collaborative effort of the University of North Texas, the Alexandria Archive Institute, and the School of Information at UC Berkeley. OMACI will create a virtual gallery with images of works of art, many of them now lost, from the Iraqi Museum of Modern Art in Baghdad, linked to publications, exhibition catalogs, and personal documentation. Technologies deployed in this project focus on ease of use and localization, extensive and inclusive documentation, community contribution, and syndication of content elsewhere on the web. The success of the system lies in its ability to reach a wide and participatory audience across the globe, offering users the ability to document, discuss, explore, and enrich Iraqi artistic expressions and experiences.

Sarah Whitcher Kansa

The AAI is conducting a short survey, which will inform an ongoing user needs study relating to web publication of archaeological content. The questions are aimed at gaining a better understanding of the types of web tools archaeologists currently use in their work (as well as tools they wish they could use!).

If you have a spare 10 minutes or so, we would very much value your feedback about how you use web technologies in your work. Access the survey here or by copying this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=GkohT1wAOWvmvmjeBggWlA_3d_3d

Thanks for your input!

Eric Kansa

Eric Kansa was invited to speak on April 14, 2009, at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW). The topic the evening was "publishing archaeological data on the web" and Eric's presented a paper entitled "Open Context: Digital Dissemination of Field Research and Museum Collections."

Overview: Publishing archaeological field data and primary documentation has received increasing attention and concern. This focus is driven by threats to archaeological sites and the inherently destructive nature of archaeological methods, as well as worries about digital preservation and access. In an attempt to respond to these needs, several initiatives are exploring several approaches toward digital dissemination. Open Context (http://www.opencontext.org) is an open source system that provides a cost-effective dissemination solution for field research and museum collections. The system offers integrated access and services across datasets pooled from multiple research projects and collections. A major challenge with Open Context's approach lies in data integration and mapping different source data sets to Open Context's common global structure. Open Context aims to provide Web-based tool for researchers and collections managers to upload, "markup" and publish diverse archaeological and museum collection datasets. It remains to be seen if this tool can be easy enough to use by individual contributors, or if trained staff will always be required to aid such markup.

AAI staff

In conjunction with a recently-launched 2-year study of user experience in digital heritage, the Alexandria Archive Institute has launched a new blog, Heritage Bytes. Heritage Bytes provides a space for discussion of specific strategies and methods to enhance access to, and usability of, primary archaeological research content. The blog will provide frequent reports on observations and learnings that result from this study, which is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and led by the AAI and the ISD Program at the School of Information at UC Berkeley. It will also review related efforts and provide interviews with project participants and others engaged in the digital humanities. Anyone interested in contributing to this blog, please contact us.

AAI staff

Winners of the 2008 ASOR Open Archaeology Prize competition were announced on November 21, 2008 at the annual ASOR meeting in Boston. The printed prize announcements can be found on page 31 of the Winter 2008 ASOR newsletter.

First prize ($500) was awarded to the Abzu web site, led by Charles E. Jones, Head Librarian at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University and Research Associate, The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago. Launched in 1994, Abzu collects and manages open access scholarly material relating to the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world, including the rich corpus of ETANA Core Texts, which are available for free for noncommercial teaching and research. In addition to standard search functions, Abzu provides several different ways to track recently entered material, such as news feeds, a clip blog and a widget. It also allows for the re-presentation and re-formatting of material indexed in it in the continuing series "AWOL - The Ancient World Online", beginning at the Ancient World Bloggers Group Blog. Abzu is self sustaining with selection and editorial control having been integrated into the workflows of the editor at the Research Archives, Oriental Institute, the Blegen Library at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and at the Library of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.

Second prize ($200 in books, co-sponsored by the David Brown Book Company) was awarded to the Badè Museum of Archaeology web site, led by Aaron Brody (Pacific School of Religion). The Badè Museum’s web site was recently overhauled to allow for virtual outreach to a limitless audience, helping educate beyond the brick-and-mortar walls of the Museum's galleries, and bringing transparency to the Museum’s holdings. The web site provides access to reusable content from archaeological excavations at Tell en-Nasbeh, conducted by WF Bade in the 1920s and 1930s under the auspices of Pacific School of Religion. The new web site provides digital versions of the contents in the Museum’s exhibits, overviews of research projects and facilitates the ordering of traveling exhibit materials. By openly licensing all content with Creative Commons licenses, the Bade team has ensured that these free and open resources can be downloaded for reuse by anyone. The photographs and short movies are of particular interest, and Aaron informs us that many more resources will be coming on line in the near future.

The ASOR Open Archaeology Prize, sponsored by the Alexandria Archive Institute, rewards open access, digital contributions to Near Eastern archaeology. A panel of judges from the ASOR community selected winners based on the project’s scholarly merit, its potential for reuse in research or teaching and its availability on the web in a free and reusable format.

AAI Staff

In March 2008, the AAI hosted a session entitled "Web 2.0 and Beyond: New Tools for Archaeological Collaboration and Communication" at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) in Vancouver, British Columbia. Audio recordings and slides of the papers are now available on the AAI web site. More extensive versions of these papers will be published in 2009 in an edited volume presenting a variety of perspectives on the conceptual, theoretical and practical approaches to communicating archaeological knowledge through the use of new technologies and platforms. Follow this link to access the audio files and slides: http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/saa2008session.html

Sarah Whitcher Kansa

The Alexandria Archive Institute has received a grant of $250,609 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for its project Enhancing Humanities Research Productivity in a Collaborative Data Sharing Environment . In collaboration with the Information and Service Design (ISD) Clinic at UC Berkeley's School of Information, the AAI will engage with diverse user communities to create best-practice guidelines for the development of humanities data-sharing software to meet user needs, as well as continue to develop Open Context, a collaborative, free, open-access resource to facilitate online sharing of archaeological field research among excavators, scholars, and cultural heritage institutions.

The two-year collaboration will include intensive workshops that draw upon the experience of representatives from museums, active field projects, public archaeology, cultural resource management, specialists, and junior and senior scholars, to explore how current web technologies are (or are not) meeting the various needs of these groups.

The award is made through the Advancing Knowledge: The IMLS/NEH Digital Partnership grant program, which facilitates collaborations between libraries, museums, archives, universities, and other cultural organizations for projects using the latest digital technologies that will aid in the discovery and dissemination of new knowledge about our past and our culture.

View last week's announcement from the IMLS/NEH.

AAI Staff

Web 2.0 and Beyond: New Tools for Archaeological Collaboration and Communication Session organized by the AAI at the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) Annual Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia. Papers presented in the session will be published in an edited volume presenting a variety of perspectives on the conceptual, theoretical and practical approaches to communicating archaeological knowledge through the use of new technologies and platforms.

AAI Staff

The AAI is very pleased to announce the hire of John Ward, a recent graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Information. John brings several years of software engineering and development experience as well as expertise in information management and retrieval. He will be overseeing the optimization of Open Context's architecture and code as well as work to enhance performance and scalability. His efforts will lead to a far more modular, maintainable and high performance system that can be readily integrated with related projects.

Eric Kansa

Eric Kansa, co-founder and former Executive Director of the Alexandria Archive Institute, is one of seven winners of the 2008-2009 Digital Humanities Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). NEH Digital Humanities Fellowships support individuals pursuing advanced research or other projects in the humanities that employ digital technology. Eric, who is now Executive Director of the Information and Service Design Program at UC Berkeley's School of Information will use this grant for the project "Accessing and Presenting Open Source Cultural Heritage Collections." The grant will support students from the School of Information to develop technologies around the Open Context data publication system.

Open Archaeology Prize

Scholars from UC Berkeley swept the Open Archaeology Prize competition, held at the 2007 meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR). One of a series of award competitions around “open archaeology” led by the Alexandria Archive Institute and funded primarily by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, this particular Open Archaeology Prize targeted members of ASOR, a long-standing organization of archaeologists conducting research in the Near East. The winners, who were selected based on their project’s scholarly merit, potential for reuse in research or teaching and availability on the web in a free and reusable format, were announced last week at ASOR’s annual meeting in San Diego. First prize for a Senior Scholar was awarded to the team led by Ruth Tringham (Professor, Department of Anthropology) and Noah Wittman (Program Manager, ) for their website “Remixing Çatalhöyük” . First prize for a Junior Scholar was awarded to Catherine Foster (PhD student, Department of Near Eastern Studies) for her project “Household Archaeology and the Uruk Phenomenon: A Case Study from Kenan Tepe, Turkey”. A second prize of $200 in books, co-sponsored by the David Brown Book Company, was awarded to Justin Lev-Tov (Statistical Research, Inc.) for his project “Hazor: Zooarchaeology”. CLICK HERE FOR FULL DETAILS.

The Nov-Dec 2007 issue of Educational Technology magazine is an entire special issue dedicated to "Opening Educational Resources". A series of articles in this issue highlight open educational models, including OpenCourseWare, Connexions and a piece on Open Context called "Open Content in Open Context", co-authored by Sarah Whitcher Kansa and Eric Kansa. Click here to download the article.

Open Context

An article in today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette entitled "Internet Fuels Global Learning Community" highlights the benefit of open educational technologies to global learning. It discusses numerous initiatives aimed at facilitating access to educational material and interaction between individuals. The article states "In field after field, the Internet is breaking down classroom walls and giving students and researchers unparalleled access to data and one another." Open Context is mentioned along with the major information sharing initiatives arXiv.org and PubMed Central. See the article at the following link: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07289/825636-298.stm

Sarah Kansa

The AAI announced today the launch of the Open Archaeology Prize, to be awarded to a member of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) at the upcoming meeting in San Diego (Nov 2007). The Open Archaeology Prize is awarded for the best online, free resource on archaeology developed by an ASOR member. Projects can be data, photos, video, slides, etc. The only stipulation is that they be freely available online for creative reuse. The competition is sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the David Brown Book Company. Follow this link to the competition announcement and guidelines.

The Society for Historical Archaeology's new open access "Technical Briefs" series just published a short peer-reviewed article about Open Context. The article discusses recent moves toward open access in scholarly communication, and looks at Open Context and its role in working toward "open data" in archaeology. Click here for the same article in printer-friendly .PDF format.

Eric Kansa

ArchaeoInformatics.org, a consortium of five institutions working toward a cyberinfrastructure for archaeology has just made an in depth presentation about Open Context available. The presentation introduces Open Context and why it is a significant advance for data sharing in archaeology, and how it may illustrate a valuable approach for data sharing in many other 'small science' disciplines.

Streaming and downloadable audio (podcast) and video is available thanks to ArchaeoInformatics at: http://archaeoinformatics.org/lecture_series/video/eric_kansa/eric_kansa.html

AAI Staff

Please join us for an event at the Society for American Archaeology Conference in Austin, Texas on Friday, April 27 (7 - 8 PM, Room 410, Austin Hilton). We will be celebrating “Open Archaeology” with free sushi, friendly conversation, and a chance to network with other researchers working to reform and enhance communications in our discipline.

AAI Staff

Through our long-term collaboration with the UCLA / University of Manchester Domuztepe Excavations, Open Context will shortly be featured with other ground-breaking social science and humanities research at UCLA. On Thursday, May 10th, UCLA's Institute for Digital Research and Education will host an event, "Countries, Cultures, Communication:Digital Innovation at UCLA" celebrating innovative research using digital technologies. Open Context will be among the projects to be showcased.

AAI Staff

Eric Kansa will travel to India to participate in a conference organized by the Global Heritage Fund and Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He will discuss open access and open licensing solutions for communicating world cultural heritage and introduce new web-based data publishing tools for Open Context.

AAI Staff

The AAI is happy to announce the release of its winter newsletter detailing recent developments and accomplishments. Major highlights of this newsletter include:

• Development of Open Context
• New Publishing Projects
• Efforts to Promote Open Access
• Thanks to our Funders

AAI Staff

San Francisco, CA - The Alexandria Archive Institute (AAI), a non-profit organization building tools for open access to world cultural heritage via the Internet, is delighted to announce a continued and expanded partnership with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (http://www.hewlett.org) . As one of the Hewlett Foundation Education Program’s Open Educational Resources projects, the AAI has developed Internet tools and addressed incentives for scholars to openly share the primary research data. Past awards from the Hewlett Foundation have supported the AAI’s development and implementation of Open Context, an online, integrated database for global cultural heritage content (http://www.opencontext.org). With this most recent grant of $250,000 from the Hewlett Foundation (in support of general operating activities) the AAI will move into a new phase, that of promoting the creation and use of Open Educational Resources. To this end, the AAI will use Open Context as an open-sourced platform to disseminate field research, museum collections, and other cultural heritage media. Convenient Web-based access to such resources will make significant contributions for both instruction and research. The AAI will further promote access to scholarship by organizing a series of Open Archaeology Prize competitions at national conferences over the next two years. The AAI looks forward to collaborating with the Hewlett Foundation to promote open access in the scholarly community. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation makes grants to help solve social and environmental problems. For more information, please visit http://www.hewlett.org. For more information about the AAI, please visit http://www.alexan driaarchive.org. For questions about using or publishing with Open Context, contact Sarah Kansa, Assistant Director, The Alexandria Archive Institute, skansa@alexa ndriaarchive.org.

Sarah Whitcher Kansa

Sarah Kansa leads a discussion on how scholarly communication is in the midst of an important transition toward increased openness, access, scope and diversity. The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) recently called upon university counsels, boards of trustees, and provosts "to provide aggressive support for the principles of fair use and open access, and to promote awareness and use of Creative Commons licenses." The Junior Scholars Committee with the help of the Alexandria Archive Institute will host the Lunch. We will discuss these changes and how junior researchers can best position themselves to profit from this important shift toward open scholarship. We will also launch the "Junior Scholar Open Archaeology Prize", a new initiative to build awareness of open access research and enhance the prestige and community recognition of open scholarly communication.

The International Council for Archaeozoology (ICAZ) and the AAI announced winners of the first “Junior Researcher Open Zooarchaeology Prize”. Five prominent zooarchaeologists reviewed all eleven entries and have determined the following winners, based on the conference papers' scholarly merits and their potential for reuse in research or teaching.To encourage the widest possible dissemination and reuse of this scholarship, all of the entries are licensed under open Creative Commons. copyright licenses.

The competition winners are:
Christian Gates St-Pierre (1st Prize)
Ana Belen Marin Arroyo (2nd Prize)

Congratulations to the winners, and many thanks to the five judges for their careful review and evaluation of the entries. Finally, special thanks go to all those who entered into the competition. All of the entries provide valuable resources for the zooarchaeology community. They provide examples to guide junior researchers on crafting conference presentations, offer invaluable reference material for research, and demonstrate important contributions to zooarchaeological understandings of the past.

AAI Staff

The AAI has been contracted to help a new NEH funded initiative to publish UC Berkeley excavation results from Nineveh in Open Context, the AAI’s open access data sharing system. The goal of this project, led by David Stronach and Eleanor Wilkinson, is to create a comprehensive open-access resource of all of the excavation results, including field data, images, and relevant scholarly information about the history and archaeology of Iron Age Nineveh.

AAI Staff

The AAI is supporting an open expert panel discussion for the upcoming "Preserve America Summit" that will be held in October of 2006. The expert panel will discuss issues relating to national historical preservation policy and how best to structure the US role in international efforts at historical and cultural heritage preservation. This discussion is open to all and is available under the open terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license. To view the discussion, please click here.

The AAI is pleased to join iCommons on a program to explore how the global digital commons can shaped to best meet the needs and concerns of indigenous peoples and indigenous cultural heritage. The AAI will help bring together multiple stakeholders who will shape indigenous knowledge ethical, licensing, and other policy recommendations. Please check back us for updates on the status of this project.

The AAI will be represented at the iCommons Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Eric Kansa will participate in a panel discussion that aims to explore more fair and equitable frameworks for sharing cultural heritage and traditional knowledge.

AAI Staff

The International Council for Archaeozoology (ICAZ) and the Alexandria Archive Institute have teamed up to create BoneCommons, an open access internet-based forum for the archaeozoological community. BoneCommons facilitates communication between ICAZ members by providing a place for them to "meet" online. ICAZ members can post questions, have discussions, and upload photos, charts, papers, and references.

AAI Staff

The SAA Executive Staff has approved the blog "Digging Digitally" as a tool to facilitate Digital Data Interest Group (DDIG) discussions. DDIG members can use this blog to share news and announcements about their programs and activities. Hopefully, DDIG members will post suggestions on developing data sharing standards, intellectual property frameworks, policies, and other issues. DDIG members are also invited to use this weblog as a way to share links to individuals, projects, programs and organizations.

The founding organizers (Keith Kintigh and Dean Snow) of the new Society for American Archaeology's Digital Data Interest Group (DDIG) chose Eric Kansa to act as the group's volunteer "convener". This role includes: serving as a point of communication between DDIG and the SAA leadership, as well as facilitating discussions and fostering collaborations between DDIG members and other researchers.

AAI Staff

Beta-launch of Open Context, an integrated data sharing system with museum reference collection and field archaeological documentation. Thanks to several researchers, including the Domuztepe team, Justin Lev-Tov, Denise Carruthers, and Paul Goldberg, and Richard Meadow Open Context is now available for general public use and evaluation. We look forward to gaining feedback on usability, tools, and reporting of bugs(!).

Whose Bones are Those? Human and Animal Processing in the "Death Pit" at Domuztepe, a Halaf Settlement in South-Central Turkey A paper Sarah Kansa presented with Suellen Gauld (Santa Monica Community College), Elizabeth Carter (UCLA) , and Stuart Campbell (University of Manchester) at the SAA conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This paper discusses a large and enigmatic deposit of heavily processed human and animal bones recovered at Domuztepe, Tuekey (Late Neolithic). Much of the primary data in this paper is accessible in Open Context

AAI Staff

Toward a Cyber-infrastructure for Archaeology: Tools and Incentives Public forum held to discuss digital data sharing challenges, including conceptual, technological, and incentives. Society for American Archaeology Annual Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

‘Some Rights Reserved’ and Bio/Cultural Heritage Presentation given in the Traditional Knowledge panel discussion at the Yale Law School- Information Society Project's Access to Knowledge Conference. New Haven, Connecticut.

Data Integration with ArchaeoML and Tagging Presentation (read by David Schloen) on combing ArchaeoML and folksonomy systems for archaeological data integration. Computer Applications in Archaeology Conference, Fargo, North Dakota.

Sarah Kansa went to Phoenix, Arizona as an invited participant on a multi-university collaborative project, headed by Keith Kintigh (ASU) and funded by the National Science Foundation, seeking to encourage better data sharing in archaeology. Sarah demonstrated Open Context and represented the ICAZ Database task-force in discussions centering on the ASU’s project goals of developing a standard “ontology” for zooarchaeology.

AAI Staff

Test launch of "Open Context" a web-browser accessible portal to explore ArchaeoML structured content. (Click here to explore)

Launch of ArchaeoCommons and support of the 2006 Society for Historical Archaeology conference in Sacramento. ArchaeoCommons, an AAI sponsored group, provided digital services for the 2006 SHA Conference. (Click here to explore)

Jeanne Lopiparo discussed AnthroCommons in the plenary session, “The Health of Scholarly Communication in the Discipline,” at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association. AnthroCommons was identified by NCA conference organizers as an example of how innovative digital technologies might be utilized to encourage faster, better and cheaper publication in academia.

Launch of AAI's digital support services for the International Council for Archaeozoology's conference in Mexico City (2006). The AAI is providing online conference registration, e-commerce, and web-development services. In addition, the AAI will provide ICAZ members with a service, BoneCommons developed from AnthroCommons, that will enhance the research and educational value of the 2006 conference by enabling open access to conference presentations.

Publication of "Protecting Traditional Knowledge and Expanding Access to Scientific Data" in the International Journal of Cultural Property, Vol. 12, Num. 3. (Click here to download a self-archived version)This paper, coauthored with Jason Schultz (EFF) and Ahrash Bissell (Duke), discusses incentive issues for sharing field research as well as potential licensing strategies to better recognize the interests of cultural heritage stakeholders.

Publication of "A community approach to data integration" (Geosphere Vol. 1, Num. 2). This paper discusses the ArchaeoML data structure, its application, and theoretical value.

Presentation at the "Advancing the Effectiveness and Sustainability of Open Education" conference in Logan Utah. Click here to view the presentation. Click here for the pod cast.

AAI Staff

Demonstration of ArchaeoML-based databases for the Microcosms Project, a system-wide survey of University of California of material collections.

AAI Staff

Turning Data Into Knowledge: Moving Primary Field Data to an Open Knowledge Commons (Forum at the SAA Annual Meeting), Salt Lake City, UT.

AAI and Creative

Building a "Cultural Heritage Commons", Incentives and Equity Discussions on the applicability of "some rights reserved" frameworks for traditional knowledge and cultural heritage with intellectual property experts, indigenous rights advocates, scholars, Creative Commons, and the Internet Archive. Meeting hosted by the Alexandria Archive Institute, San Francisco, CA.

AAI Staff

Hewlett Foundation Open Content. (Meeting), Menlo Park, CA.

Eric Kansa, Executive Director

Digital Preservation and Access: Building a Future for the Past. Lecture presented to the Livermore Rotary Club, Livermore, CA.

Sarah W Kansa, Assistant Director

Goddesses, Ancestor Cults, and the Origins of Civilization Lecture presented to the Metropolitan Club, San Francisco, CA.

Eric Kansa, Executive Director

Intellectual Property, Cultural Heritage and Open Dissemination Meeting hosted by the Alexandria Archive Institute, Conference room of Deloitte and

Eric Kansa, Executive Director

A Cultural Commons and the Past: Intellectual Property and Archaeology. Lecture presented to the Congress of Cultural Atlases: The Human Record, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.

Eric Kansa, Executive Director

A Future for the Past: Stewardship, Access, and Digital Archaeology. Lecture presented to the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.

Eric Kansa, Executive Director

Digital Documentation in Context: ArchaeoML and Scalable Databases for Publication. Lecture presented at the Digital Documentation Workshop, Computer Applications in Archaeology Conference, Prato, Italy.

Eric Kansa, Executive Director

Open Knowledge and Heritage: Moving the Past to the Cultural Commons. Lecture presented at the Reuters Digital Vision Program, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.

Eric Kansa, Executive Director

The Silk Road Network of Ancient Bactria and Digital Networks of Today. Lecture presented to the Silk Road Foundation Lecture Series, Stanford University, Stanford, CA. (