S55: Requirements vs Reality — How to integrate data management into every day research
Session Organisers:
Steffen Strohm, Kiel University
Lizzie Scholtus, Kiel University
Oliver Nakoinz, Kiel University
Matthias Renz, Kiel University Oxford
Description
Session Format: Round Table
In last year’s session (CAA 2024: Keep It Simple Just Not Too Simple – Challenges and “Best” Practices in Managing and Integrating Archaeological Data) participants gave us an impression of challenges, obstacles and solutions for data management in archaeology. The discussion that followed the presentations revealed a stronger need for exchange and therefore, this roundtable session is meant to follow up of this session. The overview of last year’s talks, highlighted issues arising from the general conflict between implementing FAIR requirements and scientific reality in practice. One of these issues was motivating people with their limited time, will and computational skills, raising the question: Who should be managing research data, is it an individual level skill and responsibility or should it be handled by external personal, institutional or even state-level services? Each option impacts the workload and may come with dependencies on external resources. However, uncertainty of maintainability rises with an increasing number of dependencies not just within a project’s lifespan but also for its digital legacy. We want this roundtable to connect people involved in archaeological research, data management and infrastructure maintenance in order to discuss the mentioned conflicts and possible steps towards a realistic FAIRification of archaeological data. This can involve questions about implementation and maintenance of data storage and infrastructure services, controlled vocabularies (e.g., GND, geonames, VIAF, Pactols, Getty), ontologies (e.g., CIDOC-CRM) and data models. Additionally, we want to identify the necessary skills needed to successfully apply and use these tools, because motivating people means identifying realistic goals and enabling them to achieve those efficiently.
S56: Focus Group Discussion on Training Archaeologists in Digital Tools and Methods
Session Organisers:
Panos Constantopoulos, Athens University of Economics and Business & Athena Research Center
George Papaioannou, Athens University of Economics and Business
Agiatis Benardou, Athena Research Center & Athens University of Economics and Business
Maria Ilvanidou, Athena Research Center & Athens University of Economics and Business
Description
Session Format: Round Table
The encounter of Digital Technology and Archaeology has led to transformative changes to the research methodologies employed in the latter, in pace with the broader transformation fuelling the fields of Digital Humanities and Heritage. The emergence and adoption of digital tools and methods has significantly boosted the ability of researchers to manage and analyze extensive datasets, by applying complex methodologies with greater efficiency and accuracy and to formulate and test working hypotheses that would have previously been beyond the scope of the discourse. Despite these benefits, the use of and reliance on digital tools have introduced new challenges (Hugget, Reilly and Lock, 2018). Researchers in Archaeology are experienced in handling complex datasets and therefore digital tools and methods are valuable for managing data (Watrall, 2016), however they frequently encounter difficulties in getting familiar with, selecting and employing tools and methods that are reusable and adaptable to their specific needs and requirements. Sometimes the use of digital information management and analysis tools appears to be opaque or to become a self-contained exercise. This presents technical, scholarly and communicative challenges, hindering collaborative and transparent research practices, or even at times casting doubt on the soundness or usefulness of applying those methods (Dallas et al., 2022; Ilvanidou et al., 2023). In response to these challenges, the UNESCO Chair on Digital Methods for the Humanities and Social Sciences at the Athens University of Economics and Business https://www.dept.aueb.gr/en/unesco), aims at advancing the digital transformation of the way of working in the Humanities and the Social Sciences within an extensive web of international collaborations under the auspices of UNESCO. In this context, the Chair has joined the EU project “Advancing FronTier Research In the Arts and hUManities” (ATRIUM, https://atrium-research.eu). ATRIUM aims to enhance access to digital research infrastructures, build capacity and bridge gaps in frontier knowledge within the Arts and Humanities, with a special focus on Archaeology. As part of our role in ATRIUM, we actively contribute to a strand of work on the Skillset Assessment, the goal of which is to provide a) a general assessment of the skills (knowledge, abilities, and competencies) required for the active use of services provided by ATRIUM (as part of the broader ecosystem of Digital Humanities tools and services) with particular attention to the issues of the digital gap between the lesser and better-resourced countries and communities; and b) a set of recommendations about the topics and modalities of the training materials available or to be developed as part of the ATRIUM Curriculum. In line with the UNESCO Chair’s objectives in ATRIUM, we propose a focus group discussion which will serve as a platform for archaeologists of various career levels and professional roles to exchange experiences and strategies for effective training in digital methods. It will also address the challenges and opportunities presented by the integration of digital technologies in archaeological practice, as they feed into training requirements. Τhe insights gained from this focus group discussion will be used by the UNESCO Chair in co-designing, together with other ATRIUM partners, a comprehensive set of training material to be hosted, maintained and sustained on DARIAH-Campus, DARIAH’s discovery framework and hosting platform for learning resources (https://campus.dariah.eu/). The ATRIUM Curriculum will embed the description of ATRIUM services into the broader pedagogical scope focused on cross-disciplinary digital methods and wide-ranging competencies in FAIR and Open Science, as well as serve disciplinary-specific training requirements in the field of Archaeology. The focus group discussion will be structured to facilitate an in-depth exchange of ideas among participants. We will select and invite 8-10 researchers and practitioners from various archaeological fields, career levels and professional roles, preferably also from different countries, ensuring a diverse range of perspectives and experiences. Prior to the focus group discussion, we will circulate preparatory documents outlining the key topics and questions to be addressed. This will help participants prepare and contribute meaningfully to the discussion.
References
Dallas, C., et al. (2022). European survey on scholarly practices and digital needs in the human sciences. DARIAH-EU Digital Methods and Practices Observatory Working Group (DiMPO). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6583037
Huggett, J., Reilly, P. and Lock, G. (2018). Whither Digital Archaeological Knowledge? The Challenge of Unstable Futures. Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology, 1(1), pp. 42–54, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/jcaa.7
Ilvanidou, M., Pouli, K., Souyioultzoglou, I., & Tzedopoulos, Y. (2023). Trends in digital methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences in Greece. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10797453
Watrall, E. (2016). Archaeology, the Digital Humanities, and the “Big Tent”. In Gold, M. K. & Klein, L. F., editors, Debates in the Digital Humanities 2016, pages 351–353. University of Minnesota Press, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctt1cn6thb