Flag Fen Lives – Day 20

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

We FINALLY get our Field School Venturer Louise (three weeks!) to do a bit on camera! There’s also a lil’ something special about how our online interface works for recording, and how awesome SIS Live is for hooking us up to the internet. And, we have our MOST SPECIAL visitor yet on site…

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Comments (4)

Victoria
August 14, 2012 Reply
The Benny Hill Santa chase is the funniest thing I have seen EVER! Thanks for including that….

Brendon
August 15, 2012 Reply
BAD SANTA!

Hugh.Corley@English-Heritage.org.uk
August 14, 2012 Reply
Hello, I noticed in the video that the paper records were being checked, however, some records it would appear are only digital (ie they are created in the iPad). Are you keeping your paper record? Is the digital record in ARK the primary record (ie the record that will be used for further interpretation and eventual deposit in the archive)? Who on the project is trained to use ARK? On our English Heritage excavations the intention is that only the digital record be checked and that the excavator creates this record in the digital system from notes, so I’m curious about other ways of working and there pros and cons.
Cheers, Hugh

Brendon
August 15, 2012 Reply
Hi Hugh,
This year we are trialing the ARK with a standard issue package supplied by LP Archaeology, just to road test what it would mean in terms of our work flows, and the benefits for our off-site venturers.
Having played around this year, I think we certainly can do it – and think that by this time next year we will be in a position to effectively crowdsource the post-ex through our venturer community. This is still at the development/funding stage for us, but I’m confident it will be done – the technology’s there.
Everyone can use the ARK who knows how to fill in a context sheet – the only difference is the interface. The record still gets checked off by the trench supervisor/director. This can then be ‘reinterpreted’ by anyone on the network with read/write access, or embedded as a hotlink in any social media or site narrative.
We are using a paper archive at the moment as our primary record – but I think this is something we can all eventually dispense with.
All the best, Brendon