Beyond Sharks and Laser Beams: Lessons on Informatics Needs, Open Behaviors, and Analytics Practices to Achieve Archaeological Big Data, as Learned from the Digital Index of North American Archaeology (DINAA)

Summary

Demands for archaeological "big data" must move strategically beyond buzzwords. Sciences and humanities that are successfully augmenting their workflows with ubiquitous computing are necessarily dealing with issues of accessibility, interoperability, and fundamental questions about the intended utility of core collection strategies at massive scales. Fortunately for archaeology, solutions to these issues are achievable through emphases on existing research networks and readily "open" solutions. The Digital Index of North American Archaeology (DINAA) is the largest index of research descriptors on archaeological sites in the Americas that is completely public and open, covering almost two million square kilometers and over half a million archaeological sites in 15 US states. The construction and future of DINAA is only possible through workflows that emphasize openness (open source, open data, open science, and open government), because its function is to assist the research community in finding and organizing available information resources (not warehousing data, nor listing specific site locations). Each of these "open" philosophies affords the only realistic opportunities for archaeologists to begin analytical engagement with big data, including: emergent pattern recognition within the almost overwhelming variety of recovered information; massive qualitative and quantitative modeling; and successful integration of legacy, future-proofed, and non-anthropological information sources.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Macroscopic approaches to archaeological histories: Insights into archaeological practice from digital methods

Keywords

Spatial Coverage