Digital Antiquity Technology Director Adam Brin and Executive Director Francis P. McManamon are co-contributors to the Society of Historical Archaeology’s May 2012 Tech Week Blog. This week’s blog topic, hosted by the SHA Technology Committee, examines the use and application of digital data in historical archaeology. Brin and McManamon, along with representatives from “Stories Past” and the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS), were invited to comment on the future of online databases and data sharing, the role played by their organizations in the larger field of archaeological data sharing and online databases, and the major hurdles that stand in the way of wide-scale acceptance and use of online databases in the archaeological community.
In their commentary, Brin and McManamon review the challenges and opportunities with archaeological data access, use, and preservation, sharing their concerns and solutions for sustainability of digital repositories. They support and encourage the notion that the archaeological community, together with technologists, can build tools that digitally preserve important archaeological data and make it accessible for analysis and re-use in ways that could only be dreamed of in the past. The blog, “Sustainable Archaeological Databases – a view from Digital Antiquity” posted on May 29th, 2012. To read more and join in the discussion, click here.