Henriette Roued-Cunliffe (Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich)
I was inspired by the call for papers asking for practical uses of data sharing which show how researchers are actually using large collections of data to move archaeological knowledge forward. In 2007 I researched data interoperability for my MSc dissertation under the title ‘Heritage Portals and Cross-Border Data Interoperability’ (Roued Olsen 2007). For me this was the beginning of a deep interest in accessibility and sharing of heritage data.
I have now revisited this subject with a personal research project, where I will discuss how accessible heritage data actually is at this current point in time.
The hypothesis is that there is so much data available online after many years of digitisation and online publishing projects that I am able to research a subject thoroughly through the Internet. By thorough research I mean that I will be able to not only search and find data about my subject, but also analyse different types of data (e.g. spatial, textual and numerical data) from several different data sources in order to draw conclusions. It is my impression that the last five years has provided more and more data sources that not only make their data available online for searching, but which also make it available through different types of Web Services and other export functionalities. A good example of this is the Portable Antiquities Scheme (finds.org.uk), which gives registered researchers the option of exporting both textual and spatial data for further research. The two subjects I plan to research are chosen out of personal interest and for the sake of variety. These are Bronze Age palstaves and knitted sock. The research will be conducted online and published on my blog (roued.com).
References
Roued Olsen, H. (2007) Heritage Portals and Cross-border Data Interoperability. MSc in Archaeological Computing, University of Southampton.
Video by Doug Rocks-Macqueen, originally posted on his blog.
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