That was the topic of conversation at the latest Mellon Funded Scholarly Communication Institute (SCI) held at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) between October 22^nd-October 23^rd,2012. MATRIX Associate Director Ethan Watrall was invited to attend this institute, which focused on discussing what skills and pedagogical needs graduate students in the humanities will require to succeed in the digital age— as well as how traditional and digital humanities centers can intervene effectively in the transmittal of those skills and pedagogical processes to best prepare graduate students for traditional and alternative academic careers.

Dr. Watrall was part of a select group of invited attendees which comprised of directors and associate directors of various digital humanities and traditional humanities centers, along with deans and department chairs. Among the initiatives and programs central to the discussion was the Cultural Heritage Informatics Initiative Grad Fellowship Program and the Cultural Heritage Informatics Fieldschool, both of which are directed by Watrall.

To learn more about the Scholarly Communication Institute, or to read about upcoming and past institutes, visit their website. Or, to view the survey results that informed and prompted this institute, view Karina Rogers’ SCI presentation on the perceptions of career preparation in humanities graduate programs.

The print version of Archaeology 2.0: New Approaches to Communication and Collaboration was released this week by the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. Edited by Eric Kansa (Lead Developer of Open Context), and Sarah Witcher-Kansa (Executive Director of Alexandria Archive Institute), and Ethan Watrall (MATRIX Associate Director & Assistant Professor of Anthropology)the volume is the first book in the Cotsen Institute’s new Digital Archaeology Series. The book can be purchased from the David Brown Book Company. An open acces version of the book is also available at the University of California’s eScholarship repository.

The volume’s description reads:

How is the Web transforming the professional practice of archaeology? And as archaeologists accustomed to dealing with “deep time,” how can we best understand the possibilities and limitations of the Web in meeting the specialized needs of professionals in this field? These are among the many questions posed and addressed in Archaeology 2.0: New Approaches to Communication and Collaboration, edited by Eric Kansa, Sarah Whitcher Kansa, and Ethan Watrall. With contributions from a range of experts in archaeology and technology, this volume is organized around four key topics that illuminate how the revolution in communications technology reverberates across the discipline: approaches to information retrieval and information access; practical and theoretical concerns inherent in design choices for archaeology’s computing infrastructure; collaboration through the development of new technologies that connect field-based researchers and specialists within an international archaeological community; and scholarly communications issues, with an emphasis on concerns over sustainability and preservation imperatives. This book not only describes practices that attempt to mitigate some of the problems associated with the Web, such as information overload and disinformation, it also presents compelling case studies of actual digital projects—many of which are rich in structured data and multimedia content or focused on generating content from the field “in real time,” and all of which demonstrate how the Web can and is being used to transform archaeological communications into forms that are more open, inclusive, and participatory. Above all, this volume aims to share these experiences to provide useful guidance for other researchers interested in applying technology to archaeology.

MATRIX is very happy to announce that GradHacker (www.gradhacker.org) will be appearing on Inside Higher Ed.  Edited by MSU grad students Alex Galarza (PhD Candidate in the Department of History and Cultural Heritage Informatics Graduate Fellow) and Katy Meyers (PhD student in te Department of Anthropology and past Cultural Heritage Informatics Graduate Fellow), GradHacker is a collaborative blog for grad students, by grad students. Their contributing authors hail from a variety of universities and disciplines. The posts aim to share experiences, identify problems and solutions, and inspire discussion about our fields and academia. They take the term ‘hacking’ beyond technology, analyzing the process of graduate school to better navigate its challenges and reach our goals. GradHacker topics are as varied as the individuals who write about them; they include parenting, pedagogy, health advice, using social media, and proposing a digital dissertation to your committee.

GradHacker began life as an idea generated by the Cultural Heritage Informatics Initiative Graduate Fellows, and has been incubated by MATRIX for the past year.  MATRIX is proud to continue its support of this innovative grad student undertaking, and look forward to new and engaging work as they move into this new phase of the project.

MATRIX is very happy to announce the publication of Archaeology 2.0: New Tools for Communication and Collaboration.  Co-edited by Eric C. Kansa, Sarah Whitcher Kansa, and Ethan Watrall (MATRIX Associate Director and Department of Anthropology Anthropology Assistant Professor), the volume explores how the web is transforming archaeology and is the first in the new Cotsen Digital Archaeology series published by UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press.

The volume’s description reads:

How is the Web transforming the professional practice of archaeology? And as archaeologists accustomed to dealing with “deep time,” how can we best understand the possibilities and limitations of the Web in meeting the specialized needs of professionals in this field? These are among the many questions posed and addressed in Archaeology 2.0: New Approaches to Communication and Collaboration, edited by Eric Kansa, Sarah Whitcher Kansa, and Ethan Watrall. With contributions from a range of experts in archaeology and technology, this volume is organized around four key topics that illuminate how the revolution in communications technology reverberates across the discipline: approaches to information retrieval and information access; practical and theoretical concerns inherent in design choices for archaeology’s computing infrastructure; collaboration through the development of new technologies that connect field-based researchers and specialists within an international archaeological community; and scholarly communications issues, with an emphasis on concerns over sustainability and preservation imperatives. This book not only describes practices that attempt to mitigate some of the problems associated with the Web, such as information overload and disinformation, it also presents compelling case studies of actual digital projects—many of which are rich in structured data and multimedia content or focused on generating content from the field “in real time,” and all of which demonstrate how the Web can and is being used to transform archaeological communications into forms that are more open, inclusive, and participatory. Above all, this volume aims to share these experiences to provide useful guidance for other researchers interested in applying technology to archaeology.

The digital edition of the volume is especially important because it is open access (hosted by the  University of California eScholarship service) and being made available freely to the scholarly community and the public under a Creative Commons BY-SA (By Attribution, Share Alike) license.

The volume’s c0-editors went so far as to a prepare a unique copyright statement in order to provide both context and rationale for why the open access edition of the volume under this specific CC license:

This volume carries a Creative Commons BY-SA (By Attribution, Share Alike, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) license. In short, this means that others can freely distribute, remix, and build upon the contents of this volume, provided two very important conditions are met: the original author receives proper attribution (especially citation) and all subsequent works carry the same license. We chose a Creative Commons license primarily because of our deep concerns in the sustainability of sharply escalating costs in scholarly publishing. These costs make it increasingly difficult for educational institutions, our col- leagues in commercial archaeology, students, and members of the interested public to (legally) obtain peer-review publications. Please note that the Creative Commons BY-SA license allows for commercial use, as well as free distribution both inside and out- side of the Academy. Permissions for commercial reuse does not, however, mean commercial appropriation. The “copyleft” philosophy embodied by this license enables this work to move in many contexts, but any adaptation or enhancement of this work must be shared back, openly, with the community. Finally, because this license requires proper attribution in any subsequent duplication or adaptation, we hope this volume helps build exposure and recognition for our contributions, and that our colleagues follow in this example. With enough accessible and open data (“data” that includes content like this book), we open up more opportunities for text-mining, tagging, aggregating, linking, visualizing, and hopefully better understanding. 

The print edition of the volume will be available for purchase from UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press.

MATRIX is very happy to host the Michigan State University Cultural Heritage Informatics Fieldschool.

Taking place from May 31st to July 1st on the campus of Michigan State University and offered by the Department of Anthropology, the Cultural Heritage Informatics (CHI) Fieldschool, which is part of the MSU Cultural Heritage Informatics Initiative, introduces students to the tools and techniques required to creatively apply information and computing technologies to cultural heritage materials and questions.

The CHI Fieldschool, which is taught by Ethan Watrall (MATRIX Associate Director and Assistant Professor of Anthropology) is a unique experience that employs the model of an archaeological fieldschool (in which students come together for a period of 5 or 6 weeks to work on an archaeological site in order to learn how to do archaeology).  Instead of working on an archaeological site, however, students in the CHI Fieldschool will come together to collaboratively work on several cultural heritage informatics projects.  In the process they learn a great deal about what it takes to build applications and digital user experiences that serve the domain of cultural heritage – skills such as programming, media design, project management, user centered design, digital storytelling, etc.

The CHI Fieldschool is built firmly on the principle of “building as a way of knowing” (of “hacking as a way of knowing as some have called it), a model in which students develop a far better understanding of cultural heritage informatics by actually building tools, applications, and digital user experiences than they do with passive analysis and commentary. The added benefit is that by building tools, applications, and digital user experiences, students also have the opportunity to make a tangible and potentially significant contribution to the cultural heritage community.

For more information on the CHI Fieldschool, please visit the Fieldschool website (http://sites.matrix.msu.edu/chi-fieldschool/)

The Quilt Index launched a survey today to gather descriptions of quilt collections across the globe. The survey is part of a collaborative planning process to expand the Index, funded by the U.S. Institute for Museum and Library Services.

The survey will help develop international partnerships, as well as build on a public listing of international collections of quilts and quilt documentation.

Results will be added to a resource page listing quilt collections on the Quilt Index Wiki.

If you know about, own, or serve as custodian for quilt documentation, individual quilts, or quilt collections located outside the United States, we would love to hear from you. Click here to participate in the survey.

The Quilt Index is a partnership of MATRIX, Michigan State University Museum and The Alliance for American Quilts. The collaborative planning process also involves the International Quilt Study Center & Museum.