Virtual Research Environment for Archaeology VERA

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Virtual Research Environment for Archaeology
(VERA)

• Prof Mark Baker
• School of Systems Engineering
  University of Reading Tel [phone]
  E-mail Mark.Baker_at_computer.org
• Web http//acet.rdg.ac.uk/mab

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Outline

• Brief recap a VERA,
• VERA at the 2007 Silchester Dig.

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The VERA Project

• Virtual Research Environment for Archaeology.
• A JISC funded collaboration.
• Building on VRE 1 project.
• Developing computer-based tools for
  archaeologists.
• VERA took part in the 2007 Silchester excavation.
• It rained a lot!

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The aims of VERA

• Enhance the means of documenting and archiving
  archaeological excavation data.
• Create a suitable Web portal that provides
  enhanced tools for the user community.
• Develop tools that work with existing practices
  of research archaeologists unfamiliar with VRE.
• Test these tools out in the field with the
  archaeologists.

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VERA is a Collaborative Effort

• CS School of Systems Engineering, University of
  Reading.
• Archaeology Department of Archaeology,
  University of Reading and The York Archaeological
  Trust.
• User Testing School of Library, Archive and
  Information Studies, University College London.

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VERA at the 2007 Silchester Dig

• The testbed is the Silchester Town Life project -
  eleventh season.
• The excavation site is a portion of what was once
  a large, bustling Roman town.
• The aim of this dig is to trace the site's
  development from its origins before the Roman
  Conquest to its abandonment in the fifth century
  AD.

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Gathering Data with Digital Pens

• Logitech IO2 digital pens.
• Look and write like normal pens on what looks
  like normal paper.
• A camera inside the pen records what has been
  written.

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Digital pens for Context Cards

• Context cards describe what the archeologists
  have discovered.
• At the 2007 Silchester dig VERA used digital pens
  for all finds in the south east corner of the
  trench.
• The pens and paper survived the weather, the mud
  and the archaeology students.

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Docking the Pens

• The pages are imported and interpreted by
  software.
• Text is converted using hand writing recognition
  software and diagrams are saved as images.

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Importing the Data

• After checking for spelling and archaeological
  errors, the text is copied to the clipboard and
  pasted into the VRE (1) portal.

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The Digital Pens were a Success

• Simple training.
• Robust (weather, mud and student proof).
• Speeds up post-excavation work (context cards
  must be transcribed).
• Encourages legible handwriting.
• Paper master copy created in the trench in case
  of computer related disasters (unlike a PDA for
  example).

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Context Cards with Nokia N800s

• The Nokia N800 Internet Tablet is a hand held
  Internet Browser.
• PDAs have been used in the past to record context
  cards directly into the VRE portal, VERA tried
  again this year.
• Computer equipment does not like sunlight, rain,
  dust or mud.
• The system relies on a stable WiFi link
  (Silchester gets Internet access from a barn down
  the road).

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N800s for Complimentary Data

• Digital pictures of finds can be taken and
  uploaded from the trench, VERA tried this when
  the weather permitted.
• Skype can be used to bring a remote expert into
  the trench for advice.

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Silchester 2007 Dig Summary

• Rain stopped play for nearly 50 of the dig.
• The digital pens were a storming success.
• VERA documented the digging process using diaries
  to gain insight into the archeological processes.
• VERA gained first hand experience living and
  working with the archeologists in the field .

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Plans for the 2008 Silchester Dig

• Follow up on the success of the digital pens.
• Wireless camera monitoring of the dig, where do
  the archaeologists work?
• A bigger generator for all the technology.
• Rely on Internet - ensure that this is stable,
  provides full coverage and a good service.

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VERA Web site

• A standard-based Web site with an integrated Wiki
  and Blog.
• Follow the progress of the project by subscribing
  to our RSS feed.
• The web site is at - http//vera.rdg.ac.uk/

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VERA Portal

• The current VRE 1 portal is a bespoke PHP
  application, VERA will migrate this into JSR-168
  portlets.
• We are using Gridsphere for the portlet
  container.
• The prototype VRE 2 portal will use a
  portal-bridge to consume the VRE 1 portal.
• VERA will develop generic portlets for use in
  other VREs.

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Web Applications and Portals

• We strongly believe that instead of refactoring
  Web applications (e.g. Wikis and Blogs) to fit
  into a Portal Framework, that a portlet should
  consume the Web applications
• Provides a greater range of software to use
  within the portal,
• The software is not forked from the main source
  tree,
• It is NOT necessary to maintain the Web
  application.
• We followed this route in VRE I - Sakai
  Demonstrator project, and we believe that this
  route is the best way forward with the VRE I -
  Ogham portal.

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Recycle Bridge - Demos

• We have produce what we call the Recycle Bridge
  that can consume most Web applications.
• All that need to be done to integrate a Web
  application into the Recycle Bridge is to address
  the security - via and plugin or a patch.
• This approach means that all time and effort
  creating bespoke portlets for Portal frameworks
  should be over
• Save huge amounts of time and effort.
• Mat will show a demonstration of the VERA Web
  site and Portal after this talk.

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Recycle Bridge - Demos
MediaWiki
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Recycle Bridge - Demos
Wikipedia
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Recycle Bridge - Demos
Recycle Bridge - MediaWiki
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Recycle Bridge - Demos
WordPress - one of the most used Blog systems
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Recycle Bridge - Demos
We use it for the VERA blog
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Recycle Bridge - Demos
And expose its content to the VERA Web site
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Recycle Bridge - Demos
Recycle Bridge - WordPress
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Recycle Bridge - Demos
VERA Portal Login
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Recycle Bridge - Demos
The IADB is a bespoke PHP VRE
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Recycle Bridge - Demos
Recycle Bridge - consuming the IADB
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Conclusions

• A great collaborative effort between the VERA.
  partners.
• 2007 Silchester Dig
• The digital pens were a storming success,
• The Nokia were a limited success,
• VERA documented the digging process using diaries
  to gain insight into the archeological processes
  - Claire Fisher will briefly talk about this,
• VERA partners gained first hand experience living
  and working with the archeologists in the field .
• Undertaken various software engineering processes
  to create a sustainable system - updates to the
  Ogham code, use of SVN and Trac.
• IADB/Silchester portal consumed into a Portal
  Framework via our Recycle Bridge.

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Current Work

• Starting to work on 3D views of site data - need
  to potentially make changes to how data is
  stored, and we need to create an interface to
  view images.
• User feedback and Analysis
• Winter Workshop organised for 6th December - some
  25 IADB and others attending.
• Undertaking user interviews.
• Log analysis being under way.
• Making preparations for next years dig too.