3.2. Measure Twice, Cut Once: Cooperative Deployment of a Generalized, Archaeology-Specific Field Data Collection System

Authors

Adela Sobotkova, Macquarie UniversityFollow
Shawn A. Ross, Macquarie UniversityFollow
Brian Ballsun-Stanton, Macquarie UniversityFollow
Andrew Fairbairn, University of QueenslandFollow
Jessica Thompson, Emory UniversityFollow
Parker VanValkenburgh, Brown UniversityFollow

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Description

The Federated Archaeological Information Management Systems (FAIMS) Project is an Australian, university-based initiative developing a generalized, open-source mobile data collection platform that can be customized for diverse archaeological activities. Three field directors report their experiences adapting FAIMS software to projects in Turkey, Malawi, and Peru, highlighting three themes: (1) the transition from paper to digital recording has upfront costs with backend pay-off, (2) the transition involves decisions and tradeoffs that archaeologists and technologists need to make together, and (3) digital recording has both short- and long-term benefits. In the short-term, project directors reported efficient acquisition of richer, more accurate, data. Longer-term, they anticipated that the availability of comprehensive, born-digital datasets would support rigorous demonstration of field intuitions and faster publication of more complete datasets. We argue that cooperative development involving archaeologists and technologists can produce high-quality, fit-for-purpose software, representing the best chance to embedding new technology in established projects.

Publication Date

10-15-2016

Publisher

The Digital Press @ University of North Dakota

City

Grand Forks, North Dakota

Keywords

Android development, digital archaeology, field data recording, mobile applications, open source

Disciplines

Classical Archaeology and Art History

Comments

For Supplemental Material see: https://mobilizingthepast.mukurtu.net/collection/32-measure-twice-cut-once-cooperative-deployment-generalized-archaeology-specific-field

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Sobotkova, Adela, Shawn A. Ross, Brian Ballsun-Stanton, Andrew Fairbairn, Jessica Thompson, Parker VanValkenburgh. “Measure Twice, Cut Once: Cooperative Deployment of a Generalized, Archaeology-Specific Field Data Collection System.” In Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future: The Potential of Digital Archaeology, edited by Erin Walcek Averett, Jody Michael Gordon, and Derek B. Counts, 337-371. Grand Forks, ND: The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota, 2016.