Winter Workshop

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Virtual Environments for Research in Archaeology
(VERA)

• Winter Workshop
• University of Reading
• 6th December 2007

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Agenda

• 1030 - 1100 Welcome and coffee
• 1100 - 1230
• Digital Field Recording in Archaeology
• Development of the IADB
• Meet VERA! The Silchester Case Study
• 1230 - 115 Lunch
• 115 - 215 The IADB User Perspectives
• 215 - 315 Hands on sessions
• 315 - 330 Coffee
• 330 - 430 Plenary discussion about future
  developments
• 430 - 500 Roundup
• 5 onwards - light refreshments!

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Morning Talks 1100 - 1230

• Digital Field Recording in Archaeology
• - Professor Michael Fulford,University of
  Reading
• Development of the IADB
• - Mike Rains, York Archaeological Trust
• Meet VERA! The Silchester Case Study
• - Emma Jane ORiordan, University of Reading
• - Claire Fisher, University College London
• Questions?

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Morning Talk 3

• Meet VERA! The Silchester Case Study

- Emma Jane ORiordan, University of Reading
- Claire Fisher, University College London
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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study

• Silchester
• Excavation work began in the town in 1890.
• The Society of Antiquaries work began to excavate
  Insula IX in 1893.

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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study

• The Victorians
• The Victorian aim was to discover the plan of the
  entire town.
• Not much thought was given to excavation methods,
  but that sort of thinking was not in fashion at
  the time.

• These outfits were though

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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study

• Excavation Methods
• Silchester is one of the largest open area
  research excavations taking place in the country.
  
• The 55 x 55m trench contains many types of
  archaeological features.
• These are recorded using single context planning,
  with traditional context sheets and permatrace.

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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study

• Post Excavation
• After the context sheets have been completed on
  site, they are entered into the Silchester
  excavation database.
• The Integrated Archaeological Database (IADB)
  holds all of the digitised information on
  Silchester.
• Every context sheet has an individual record in
  the IADB, which can be linked to plans, photos
  and other information on the context..

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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study
Screenshot of a typical context sheet from the
IADB
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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study
Screenshot of a typical context sheet from the
IADB
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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study

• Benefits of the IADB
• Allows quicker retrieval of information than if
  the paper records had to be searched.
• Providing the context or plan has been digitised.
• Allows multiple copies of data to be printed out
• Less chance of a context sheet being lost on
  site but what about when changes are made?
• Allows easy visualisation of developments
  on-site.
• Again, providing the context or plan has been
  digitised.
• Provides a suitable dataset for further computer
  analysis
• Assuming that the information in the database is
  correct.
• Nothing ever works perfectly on site though!

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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study

• VERA and the IADB
• Main Problems
• Data accuracy
• Getting data into the database quickly
• How can VERA help?
• Digital Pens and Paper?
• Contexts could be digitised on the same day
• Handheld Internet Browser and Wireless trench?
• Contexts could be digitised instantly
• Find out what the users really want?
• What will people actually use?

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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study

• Digital Pens and Paper
• Logitech IO2 digital pens.
• Look and write like normal pens on what looks
  like normal paper.
• But
• When using digital pen and paper, a tiny camera
  in the pen registers the pen's movements across
  the grid surface on the paper.
• It stores it as a series of map coordinates.
  These coordinates correspond to the exact
  location of the page you're writing on.

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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study

• Digital Pens and Paper
• 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 iPens

• 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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Docking the iPens (2)
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Importing the Data
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Importing the Data (2)
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Importing the Data (3)
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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study

• We love Digital Pens!
• Simple to use and train people with.
• Robust (weather, mud and student proof).
• Speeds up post-excavation work.
• Encourages legible handwriting.
• Paper master copy created in the trench in case
  of computer related disaster!

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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study

• We love Digital Pens?
• Mix of lower case and capitals hard to read
• User needs to be able to fill in context sheets
  without prompts
• Lack of clear guidance led to some data omissions
• User needs to keep the correct pen and book
  combination
• Line breaks
• Were these things recorded on the paper version?
• Student or supervisor error?

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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study
Handheld Internet Browser

• 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.

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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study
The Silchester Wi Fi
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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study

• Not giving up yet!
• We can use the in-built camera and Skype software
  to contact specialists.

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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study

• Out of the Trench!
• User Training
• Specialist Contact
• Video conferencing
• Web Site
• Wiki
• Blog
• RSS Feed
• Calendar (coming soon!)

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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study
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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study
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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study
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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study

• VERA Blog and RSS Feed
• Uses Wordpress
• Easy to create entries
• Easy to find archived entries
• Colourful
• Updated Regularly by the VERA team
• The Blog can be added to by anyone logged in
• Comments can and are left by readers
• The RSS Feed can be incorporated into RSS readers
  or even the Firefox Browser Toolbar

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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study
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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study
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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study
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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study
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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study
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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study
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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study

• Aims of Research
• To build up a picture of the existing working
  practices of archaeologists and associated
  specialists
• Behaviour patterns
• Problems
• Identify common themes to help guide development
  of VRE
• To discover how technology is integrated into
  their work
• Includes both computational and traditional
• Use findings to derive requirements for system
  design
• User testing
• User case analysis
• Usability workshops

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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study
Areas of study work undertaken

• On-site data gathering
• Excavation recording (context sheets, plans,
  sections, EDM)
• Finds
• Environmental
• Science
• On-site research
• On-site teaching
• Diary study during 2007 field season

• Post-excavation research
• Analysis of excavation data
• Specialist analysis
• Research
• Publications
• IADB
• Interviews with specialists
• Usability workshop

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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study
Preliminary findings Diary studies

• Learning new technology on the job is not ideal
• Because the students are having to learn so much
  about the archaeology itself, it's just an extra
  complication to have to learn how to use digital
  pens, palm tops etc.
• Technology must be reliable and easy to use
• Computer was slow and infuriated me
• Digi-paper took some getting used to and as a
  result slowed me down.
• Need to build in quality control
• Also say that plans were automatically and
  immediately transferred to computer, how can
  supervisors check them?
• Environmental problems are a key issue
• Failing to use Nokia handheld - WiFi not working
  and sunlight OTT. Suggest attach
• 1-2m parasol to Nokia?
• We work in muddy and wet conditions and
  expensive equipment may well be ruined.

Value of familiarity
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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study
Preliminary findings User interviews

• Specialists are open to new technology if they
  can see a use for it
• Digital pens and paper - popular idea to avoid
  transcription errors
• Experts have established work patterns
• Specialists who use the IADB infrequently feel
  that it needs to be intuitive and reflect how
  people usually work dont want to relearn
  each time
• Ownership of data
• Specialists want to be able to see who has
  created/changed data
• Importance of communication
• Concern that changes implemented without
  notifying users - specialists have lost data in
  the past. Users must trust the technology
• A common language making the VERA VRE widely
  applicable
• When specialists work for more than one project
  they dont want to have to learn a new set of
  terms or rules for each project

Technology must be tool rather than master
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Meet VERA! - The Silchester Case Study

• Future Plans
• Usability Workshop, and resulting analysis
• Cradle to Grave record analysis
• User tests
• Remote users
• Researchers
• Those used to using the database
• Interviews with experts from outside the project
• 2008 field season - researcher (Claire Fisher) on
  site
• Engagement with users

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The IADB User Perspectives 115 - 215

• This is intended as an informal discussion
  session so if anyone else would like to say
  anything then there is time at the end.
• - Amanda Clarke and Klare Tootell, University
  of Reading
• - Kurt Hunter-Mann, York Archaeological Trust
• - Ailsa Mainman, York Archaeological Trust
• Questions and Discussion?

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Hands On Sessions with UCL 215 - 315

• This will take place in Room 101 of the Palmer
  Building.

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Future Developments 330 - 430

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What have we talked about?

• Growing complexity of archaeological field
  projects
• Thousands of contexts!
• The need for an approach that can work through
  the whole excavation process and into publication
• Publication requirements of post PPG 16 (1990)
  expansion
• Growing volume of printed electronic outputs
• The need for cross-searchable databases and
  integrated methodologies
• Many specialists on a project and many different
  methods of input
• Different projects use the IADB in different ways
• Matrix down approach (Silchester)
• Set, group, phase approach (YAT)

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What have we talked about?

• Environmental Problems
• Fragile site infrastructure
• Electricity!
• Training in the use of new technologies
• Do we train a core team or everyone?
• Different stages and levels
• Will we ever get everyone to take up a new idea?
• Integrity and reliability of the site record
• Archiving issues
• Storage
• Migration
• Dissemination issues
• Online publication

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Silchester Use of the IADB

• Supervisor information packs
• Context descriptions
• Context interpretations
• Print-outs of multi-context plans
• Copies of sections
• Simple context / plan look-ups
• Large, multi-context plans
• Stratigraphy queries
• Mystery features
• Contexts plans no longer digitised on-site
• Need to make amendments

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Roundup 430 -

• What have we thought about today?

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Virtual Environments for Research in Archaeology
(VERA)

• Thank you for coming!
• http//vera.rdg.ac.uk