caa2014 community archaeology and technology: developing 'crowd and community-fuelled...
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Chiara Bonacchi, Daniel Pett, Andrew Bevan and Adi Keinan-Schoonbaert Paper presented at Computer Applications in Archaeology Conference 2014, 22nd - 25th April 2014, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris as part of Session 12: Community Archaeology and Technology. Session organisers: Nicole Beale and Eleonora Gandolfi. Session blog: http://blog.soton.ac.uk/comarch/TRANSCRIPT
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Developing MicroPastsCAA, 24 April 2014
Developing MicroPastsCAA, 24 April 2014
Chiara BonacchiUCL Institute of Archaeology
with Andrew Bevan (UCL) Daniel Pett (British Museum)
Adi Keinan-Schoonbaert (UCL)
Chiara BonacchiUCL Institute of Archaeology
with Andrew Bevan (UCL) Daniel Pett (British Museum)
Adi Keinan-Schoonbaert (UCL)
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Crowd-sourcing in archaeology
• Crowd-sourcing as – the practice of seeking information, services or funds in small
chunks from large groups of people, over the internet(definitions discussed in Dunn and Hedges 2012)
• Increasingly explored for supporting public audiences’ interaction with archaeology
– Participation in research– Participation in micro-financing
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Crowd-sourcing projects
• Diverse range:– Inspecting imagery for
archaeological features– Transcribing papyri– Interrogating built
architecture– Public recording of metal
finds…
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Crowd-funding projects
• Ranging from excavations to dissertations
• Using existing or new dedicated platforms
• Varying degrees of success
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Observations
• Mainly contributory models • Little evaluation done
ContributoryContributory
Collaborative
Collaborative
Co-creativeCo-creative
HostedHosted
Models for participation:Public Participation in Scientific Research Project, further elaborated on by Simon
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Introducing MicroPasts
• A collaboration between UCL and the British Museum
• Funded by the AHRC, Digital transformations in community research co-production
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Aim
• To develop and test an online space where mixed groups of archaeological enthusiasts collaborate to:
- produce innovative open datasets via crowd-sourcing (e.g. CC0, CC-BY)- develop new research projects into archaeology, history and heritage (sometimes involving crowd-sourcing)
- micro-fund those new collaborative projects via crowd-funding
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April
Launch
Day!Launch
Day!
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MicroPasts website micropasts.org
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Component 1: crowd-sourcing platformcrowdsourced.micropasts.org
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Crowd-sourcing applications
• 4 applications• Focused on British Prehistory
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Help cataloguing
• 30,000 index cards of all known Bronze Age metal artefact finds in the UK from 1800 to 1983
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Transcription and geo-referencing
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Help creating 3D models
• 3D SfM models of palstaves recorded in the British Museum Bronze Age Index (Photoscan)
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Image masking
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Component 2: community forumcommunity.micropasts.org
• Discourse (https://github.com/discourse/discourse)
• For research and platform co-design
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Component 3: crowd-funding platform
• Neighbor.ly
(https://github.com/neighborly/neighborly)
• Catarse (https://github.com/catarse/catarse)
• Micro-funding of projects co-designed via the forum or externally
• 3 seed projects initially– London’s Lost Waterway– Mapping waterway sites, and
transcribing relevant documents
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Evaluation: aims
• How do online communities of interest in the human past form and develop through the MicroPasts platforms?
• How do different contributors engage with archaeology and the past via the MicroPasts platforms, through time, and what is the value of that engagement for community members including institutions?
• What is the sustainability of the MicroPasts platforms, and the applicability of a similar model in other countries?
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Evaluation: methodology
• Approach– Quantitative / qualitative– Focus on MP platforms and
social media / ‘control cases’ amongst target audiences
– Online / offline– Link info on: contributors’
profile, opinions, behaviour; data produced; their re-use
– Taking time into account
• Methods (at different stages)– Online surveys – Talks / meet-ups– Google analytics– Pybossa statistics– Diary study– Social media data analysis
(cultural interests and practices)
– Text analysis and SNA
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Coming from…• Entry survey on
completion of first crowd-sourcing task– ‘Circles’, whether works
with archaeology / history as part of main job, age, email
• Forum, Google analytics, Pybossa statistics
(Very!) initial data: 16-23 April
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Suggesting that…• Community building:
– 195 registered members– UK and US focus– 55% of respondents not
working in archaeology / history
– 24% within our immediate network
• Engagement:– Photo masking: prevalent
‘entry’ application– Transcription: fewer
people, but the most dedicated ones
• Number of tasks• Anonymous contributors:
23-35% on transcription, 53% on masking
– Need for more guidance / visualisation
(Very!) initial data: 16-23 April
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Next steps
• Guidance and purposiveness– [3D model viewer]– Information on the Bronze
Age Index / British prehistory / 3D modelling
– Development of badges
• Tasks – Transcription of ‘discovery
cards’
• Crowd-funding platform
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Challenges
• Time in relation to the complexity of the platform– Long development times
and little space for front-end evaluation
– Need to co-design the platform as we go along / challenge of not losing users in the process
• Planning an evaluation that– Does not disrupt people’s
engagement– Is discrete but open and
ethically compliant
• Being ready to adapt the evaluation plan in response to people’s interaction while maintaining coherence
• Adoption of new funding practices within a university environment (crowd-funding)