Current Projects

Our efforts to build open content complement work already begun by the University of Chicago’s XSTAR Project. The XSTAR project is proceeding with five pilot data sets involving Near Eastern, Egyptian, and Chinese archaeology and history. With William and Flora Hewlett Foundation support, the AAI is currently working on a variety of projects to expand the accessibility and usefulness of primary field research.

	We developed a simplified version of the data structures described by David Schloen's Archaeological Markup Language (ArchaeoML) for expression in a relational database system. This relational version of ArchaeoML is demonstrated by the Open Context system. Since relational databases are ubiquitous and much more easily implemented by the community, we have made it much easier for individuals and allied projects to implement ArchaeoML solutions to meet their dissemination needs. (Left: Artifact and excavation images from the Domuztepe project)
	The AAI is providing 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.
	Access, reuse and reevaluation of evidence enable innovation and encourage new understanding and a diversity of opinions. Such openness best meets the intent of public funding of research, which is building public understanding, not subsidizing the creation of private intellectual property. Enabling derivative uses of information will insure that research projects produce results that serve as a foundation for future studies. To best meet the specific needs researchers face when sharing "raw data" (primary documentation), we are working with the new Creative Commons "Science Commons" to design new license customization options.
	The AAI is currently developing a web-based authoring tool to enable the community to easily contribute content to the Open Context and OCHER systems. This data-weaving tool, called “Penelope”, will enable individual researchers to publish their analytic data, notes, images, maps, and other types of content. Penelope will be available through links on the Open Context web site and will come with simple instructions on how to prepare and upload content.