Digital Public Archaeology Reconsidered: Lessons From Michigan State University’s Campus Archaeology Program

Summary

Since 2008, Michigan State University has had an official Campus Archaeology Program (http://campusarch.msu.edu) which trains students, engages with a varied public, and mitigates all ground-disturbing activity undertaken by the campus, regardless of whether it falls under state or federal law. I created and continue to direct this unique program. No other campus has the extensive mandate, budget, or administrative support that we have been able to create, and while I oversee all activities, undergraduate and graduate students conduct the bulk of the everyday work. Even with support, we are a relatively small group and employ a variety of social media tools to reach our varied audiences. This paper presents both our successes and failures in social media, and outlines some pitfalls and lessons learned that may help others in their social media work. In particular, we have had to learn that every year, our social media campaign must begin anew since there are continually new people on campus, in town, and around the world who are unaware that we exist. New audiences are great, but it is easy to forget that 5 years ago is another era on a college campus.

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

• Current Practice in Digital Public & Community Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage