Sampling Nature Webinar with Sarah Kansa, Open Context | Friday, November 3
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Erin Robinson
Oct 27, 2023, 7:25:13 PM10/27/23
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Hi All -
Please join the Sampling Nature RCN next Friday, November 3 at 1pm ET for our 3rd webinar in the series with Dr. Sarah Kansa, Open Context on "Small identifiers with big impacts: examples from archaeological fieldwork"
Register here. The abstract and Sarah's bio are below.
Please share with your networks and I hope to see you there!
Best,
Erin
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Webinar Abstract: The importance of identifiers is difficult to convey to many researchers that lack formal training in databases or data management. While under-appreciated, identifier practices can have big downstream impacts on data re-use.
In this webinar, we will discuss common identifier practices in the context of an archaeological field project. Different archaeological artifacts, ecofacts (animal or plant remains associated with past human behavior), architectural features, and stratigraphic deposits are all understood in relation to one another. Such relationships inform the understanding of "context", which is a core interpretive concept in archaeology. Naming and identifying the locations, objects, and other things involved in these contextual relationships make identifier practices critically important in archaeology.
Through observations and interviews with archaeologists in the field, our team identified recording practices around identifier creation during archaeological excavation that led to confusion or ambiguities that impacted the sample’s later use. We also interviewed data re-users and found that many of their frustrations with re-using data created by others stemmed from identifier problems during initial recording of samples.
We will discuss some of our attempts to find pragmatic improvements to streamline identifier practices during archaeological field work. We attempted to find solutions that could be feasible to implement in challenging field conditions with "off the shelf" software and limited network connectivity. We hoped to limit disruptions to existing practices while promoting greater long term persistence and more global findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability of archaeological samples.
Bio: Sarah Kansa is Executive Director of the Alexandria Archive Institute, a California non-profit organization that develops Open Context, a data publishing service for archaeology and cultural heritage. Sarah collaborates on projects that advance data publishing and data literacy in various archaeological and cultural heritage communities. She has a Ph.D. in archaeology (University of Edinburgh) and has spent more than 25 years conducting zooarchaeological research at sites in the Middle East and Europe. She served as Vice President of the International Council for Archaeozoology (ICAZ) from 2014-2018 and President from 2018-2023. Sarah is chair of the Digital Technology Committee for the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and served on the Publications Committee for the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) and the American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR). She is also the series co-editor for Archaeobiology (Lockwood Press) and Executive Editor of Open Context. She participates on several grant-funded projects, most recently as a co-director on Advancing FAIR+CARE Practices in Cultural Heritage, funded by the IMLS.
In this webinar, we will discuss common identifier practices in the context of an archaeological field project. Different archaeological artifacts, ecofacts (animal or plant remains associated with past human behavior), architectural features, and stratigraphic deposits are all understood in relation to one another. Such relationships inform the understanding of "context", which is a core interpretive concept in archaeology. Naming and identifying the locations, objects, and other things involved in these contextual relationships make identifier practices critically important in archaeology.
Through observations and interviews with archaeologists in the field, our team identified recording practices around identifier creation during archaeological excavation that led to confusion or ambiguities that impacted the sample’s later use. We also interviewed data re-users and found that many of their frustrations with re-using data created by others stemmed from identifier problems during initial recording of samples.
We will discuss some of our attempts to find pragmatic improvements to streamline identifier practices during archaeological field work. We attempted to find solutions that could be feasible to implement in challenging field conditions with "off the shelf" software and limited network connectivity. We hoped to limit disruptions to existing practices while promoting greater long term persistence and more global findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability of archaeological samples.
Bio: Sarah Kansa is Executive Director of the Alexandria Archive Institute, a California non-profit organization that develops Open Context, a data publishing service for archaeology and cultural heritage. Sarah collaborates on projects that advance data publishing and data literacy in various archaeological and cultural heritage communities. She has a Ph.D. in archaeology (University of Edinburgh) and has spent more than 25 years conducting zooarchaeological research at sites in the Middle East and Europe. She served as Vice President of the International Council for Archaeozoology (ICAZ) from 2014-2018 and President from 2018-2023. Sarah is chair of the Digital Technology Committee for the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and served on the Publications Committee for the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) and the American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR). She is also the series co-editor for Archaeobiology (Lockwood Press) and Executive Editor of Open Context. She participates on several grant-funded projects, most recently as a co-director on Advancing FAIR+CARE Practices in Cultural Heritage, funded by the IMLS.
Erin Robinson
Nov 3, 2023, 12:04:59 PM11/3/23
to Sampling Nature RCN
Hi All - This webinar is happening in just under an hour! Hope to see some of you there. Register here -> https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApce2qqzsrHtZM0_5nCSuDotEDEUtGWxVt
Best,
Erin
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