Crowd- and Community-fuelled Archaeological Research
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Institute of Archaeology
Abstract
This project will not only use 'crowd-sourcing' methods to enable academics and other archaeological communities to co-produce innovative open datasets, but it will also pioneer a novel approach to co-designing and crowd-funding follow-up research. Archaeology has long been successful in piquing the interest of professional practitioners, volunteer societies and the wider public. These different archaeological enthusiasts do sometimes collaborate over archaeological fieldwork, interact via museum exhibitions or interact over other engagement activities, but beyond the edge of the excavation trench or the gallery case, they rarely cooperate on developing archaeological knowledge or on designing new research agendas. This project explores this untapped potential in three promising areas: transcription of archaeological archives, low-cost 3D object modelling and 'follow-up' research. We want to deepen existing links between two major London research institutions, the British Museum (BM) and University College London (UCL), and several well-established communities associated with (a) the UK's Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) and (b) some of archaeology's most famous archival and object collections from Flinders Petrie, Kathleen Kenyon and colleagues' early excavations in the eastern Mediterranean. These two strands capitalise on considerable expertise, heritage assets and interest within London itself, but each also offers wider national or international reach, opening up opportunities to explore how best to blend the respective research inputs of pre-existing online communities of interest, and a further 'crowd' of potential contributors worldwide. Together, we will crowd-source the transcription of hard copy archives and pioneer the construction of large numbers of 3D artefact models from ordinary photographs. The existing communities, new contributors and traditional academics brought together by these efforts will collectively also design attractive follow-up projects that might, over the longer term, be financed via individually small but collectively important online donations.
Planned Impact
We will seek wide national and international impact with four kinds of non-academic beneficiary. First, the project's collaborative remit will lead to direct impacts on local archaeological societies, other established archaeological communities and new crowdsourcing contributors who might not have had any previous engagement with archaeology. The two research institutions involved (the UCL Institute of Archaeology and the British Museum) will take this opportunity to broaden digital participation amongst their existing audiences and reach new ones. Community participants will themselves have an opportunity to steer the project's impact, by co-designing follow-up research that must be both of immediate interest to them and appealing to a wider set of potential micro-funders. By taking part, individuals and communities will also strengthen their own analytical, digital and photographic skills.
Second, above and beyond the impact on people and groups who contribute directly, the project's outcomes will be beneficial to archaeological practitioners working in resource management and the commercial archaeological sector as new open data will support enhanced resource impact statements and desk-based archaeological assessments. We will reach this group both directly through the project forum and social media, and via representative bodies such as the Council for British Archaeology and the Institute of Field Archaeologists. In the eastern Mediterranean, our project is also very relevant to the work of heritage NGOs in Gaza and the West Bank, and we will build on the team's extensive contacts to raise awareness.
Third, we will connect with two types of digital practitioner outside of traditional academic circles. Programmers and modellers will be able to use the open data produced by this project to develop a rich range of online resources, for example incorporating 3D artefact representations into multimedia applications or immersive virtual environments and we will engage with this sector thanks to the advisory group's professional links and via UCL's centre for entrepreneurship and business interaction. We will also support the group of digital professionals working in higher education and in the Galleries, Library, Archives and Museum (GLAM) sector, by producing technical guidelines detailing how crowd-sourcing can be used as tool for low-cost community engagement and for diversifying funding possibilities. These guidelines will be made available via the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement and GLAM-related representative bodies and organisations such as the Museum Association and The Audience Agency. In addition, the project team will make efforts to expand our recent links with the Open Knowledge Foundation and the Citizen Cyberscience Centre in order to demonstrate the potential for greater involvement by these 'open society' movements in archaeology.
The fourth and final group that will benefit from this research comprises those who provide professional training and those who shape policy in the cultural sector. The former will be made aware of our conclusions about how to support the participation of people with only basic digital skills and will be able to repurpose our own digital training resources. Targeted executive summaries will allow bodies such as the Department for Culture Media and Sport, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Arts Council England and English Heritage to invoke the project's results as case studies as part of their own white papers and policy-making.
Second, above and beyond the impact on people and groups who contribute directly, the project's outcomes will be beneficial to archaeological practitioners working in resource management and the commercial archaeological sector as new open data will support enhanced resource impact statements and desk-based archaeological assessments. We will reach this group both directly through the project forum and social media, and via representative bodies such as the Council for British Archaeology and the Institute of Field Archaeologists. In the eastern Mediterranean, our project is also very relevant to the work of heritage NGOs in Gaza and the West Bank, and we will build on the team's extensive contacts to raise awareness.
Third, we will connect with two types of digital practitioner outside of traditional academic circles. Programmers and modellers will be able to use the open data produced by this project to develop a rich range of online resources, for example incorporating 3D artefact representations into multimedia applications or immersive virtual environments and we will engage with this sector thanks to the advisory group's professional links and via UCL's centre for entrepreneurship and business interaction. We will also support the group of digital professionals working in higher education and in the Galleries, Library, Archives and Museum (GLAM) sector, by producing technical guidelines detailing how crowd-sourcing can be used as tool for low-cost community engagement and for diversifying funding possibilities. These guidelines will be made available via the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement and GLAM-related representative bodies and organisations such as the Museum Association and The Audience Agency. In addition, the project team will make efforts to expand our recent links with the Open Knowledge Foundation and the Citizen Cyberscience Centre in order to demonstrate the potential for greater involvement by these 'open society' movements in archaeology.
The fourth and final group that will benefit from this research comprises those who provide professional training and those who shape policy in the cultural sector. The former will be made aware of our conclusions about how to support the participation of people with only basic digital skills and will be able to repurpose our own digital training resources. Targeted executive summaries will allow bodies such as the Department for Culture Media and Sport, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Arts Council England and English Heritage to invoke the project's results as case studies as part of their own white papers and policy-making.
Organisations
- University College London (Lead Research Organisation)
- University College London (Collaboration)
- Mary Rose Trust (Collaboration)
- Catholic University of America (Collaboration)
- British Museum (Collaboration)
- Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE (Collaboration)
- Minnesota Historical Society (Collaboration)
- Egypt Exploration Society (Collaboration)
- New Forest Park Authority (Collaboration)
- University of Mississippi (Collaboration)
- SciFabric (Collaboration)
- Palestine Exploration Fund (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF YORK (Collaboration)
- Egyptian Museum of Turin (Collaboration)
Publications
Bonacchi, C.
(2014)
Proceedings of the Conference: Archeologia Pubblica al Tempo della Crisi
Keinan-Schoonbaert A
(2014)
MicroPasts. An innovative place for progressing research
in British Archaeology
Bonacchi C
(2015)
Experiments in Crowd-funding Community Archaeology
in Journal of Community Archaeology & Heritage
Bevan A
(2015)
The data deluge
in Antiquity
Bonacchi C
(2017)
Digital Co-production in Archaeology. An editorial
in Internet Archaeology
Chiara Bonacchi
(2018)
Co-producing Knowledge Online
in AHRC Connected Community Review Series
Bonacchi C
(2019)
Participation in heritage crowdsourcing
in Museum Management and Curatorship
Bonacchi, C.
(Submitted) Evaluating Participants and Participation in Heritage Crowdsourcing
in Cultural Trends, Submitted
Description | We have successfully demonstrated that a website devoted to fostering multiple different kinds of crowd-sourcing initiative associated with historical, archaeological and heritage research can both be very popular and produce high quality re-usable data. Our ongoing study of the nature of public engagement via the site also offers insights into citizen humanities and citizen science more generally. |
Exploitation Route | The raw data is published in open formats and is therefore available for re-use. |
Sectors | Environment Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
URL | http://crowdsourced.micropasts.org/ |
Description | Use across multiple museums, galleries and other institutions. |
First Year Of Impact | 2015 |
Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
Impact Types | Cultural Societal |
Description | Follow-on Funding for Impact and Engagement |
Amount | £79,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2015 |
End | 10/2015 |
Title | 3D models of Roman transport amphoras |
Description | This is a database of hundreds of different types of Roman amphora modelled in 3 dimensions and query-able for properties such as volumetric capacity, centre of gravity, tare weight etc. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2015 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | This one the UK Archaeology Data Service Digital Data ReUse Award (http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/blog/2015/10/we-have-a-winner-digital-data-reuse-award-2015/). |
URL | https://sketchfab.com/micropasts/folders/amphoras |
Title | 3D models of archaeological artefacts via crowd-sourcing and structure-from-motion |
Description | We have crowd-sourced a series of 3D mesh and point cloud models for archaeological artefacts (predominantly from the British Museum) using structure-from-motion and with online public contributions to an intermediate photo-masking step in the modelling workflow. This working is ongoing (October 2014), but already available. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Coverage of the transcription effort itself in national newspapers and magazines. Involvement of at least 700 different authenticated users in online transcription between April and October 2014. These models have already been 3D printed by members of the public. |
URL | http://micropasts.org/data-centre/ |
Title | Image tagging of historical archaeological photographs taken by Agnes Horsfield. |
Description | This is a series of keywords and localised image annotations of historical photographs taken in Jordan and neighbouring countries by Agnes Horsfield as part of archaeological fieldwork in the 1920s and 1930s. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | None as yet. |
URL | http://micropasts.org/data-centre/ |
Title | Object records for Egypt Exploration Society |
Description | A series of transcriptions of thousand of object card catalogues from the Egypt Exploration Society's excavations at sites such as Amarna, Sedment, Sesebi, Buhen and Armant. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2015 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Development of an internship programme at the EES (http://www.ees.ac.uk/news/index/307.html). |
URL | http://research.micropasts.org/2016/01/13/ees/ |
Title | Transcription of National Bronze Age Implement Index |
Description | We have been transcribing some 30,000 index cards constituting a full catalogue of the Bronze Age metal finds from the UK up to 1983 (held in the British Museum). This effort is now complete but requires final consolidation and checking. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Coverage of the transcription effort itself in national newspapers and magazines. Involvement of at least 700 different authenticated users in online transcription between April and October 2014. |
URL | http://micropasts.org/data-centre/ |
Description | Digitisation and enhancement of British Museum collections |
Organisation | British Museum |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | The MicroPasts team has developed relationships with several departments at the British Museum including. The team developed applications for the 3D modelling, transcription and geo-referencing of collections housed in these different departments, ranging from Byzantine and Roman artefacts to the Worthington George Smith catalogue. The team also supported MicroPasts volunteers' engagement with these collections via crowdsourcing. |
Collaborator Contribution | The department made available their collections and spent time helping with their initial digitisation, i.e. the creation of raw data to be then used for the crowdsourcing activities (e.g. photographing of objects, scanning of object cards, etc.) |
Impact | Crowdsourcing applications of two main kinds (3D photomasking and transcription), 3D models of artefacts, digitised and transcribed archival material. The collaboration was multi-disciplinary with British Museum departments providing expertise relevant to the collection and the MicroPasts team offering know-how on aspects related to the crowdsourcing as well as public engagement. |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | Fitzwilliam Museum Citizen Science |
Organisation | University of Cambridge |
Department | The Fitzwilliam Museum |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Our research team provided the expertise to set up the citizen science project with the museum, provided a platform for dissemination of the project, post project analysis and data cleaning. |
Collaborator Contribution | A new citizen science partnership was started with the public engagement section of the Fitzwilliam Museum as a coproduction response to Covid 19 close down of the museum facilities. This project aimed to transcribe audio archives of podcasts. The museum provided access to the archive, a model of how they wanted data to be created and manipulated and a platform on which to publish the results, mention in the Vice-Chancellor's newsletter and social media coverage. |
Impact | This project resulted in: 50 participants transcribing audio data 50 podcast episodes and audio guide entries being made accessible for audiences A new section on the beta website for holding the audio guide content for the museum - https://beta.fitz.ms/objects-and-artworks/audio-guide R stats code specifically for the MicroPasts project to enable replication of the results Python scripts for splitting audio into segments Application code for the MicroPasts community (and pybossa) to reuse |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Heritage Crowdsourcing |
Organisation | British Museum |
Department | Digital and Publishing |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Dr Chiara Bonacchi has been working with other members of the MicroPasts team (Daniel Pett, British Museum; Andy Bevan UCL Institute of Archaeology) and the crowdsourcing development company SciFabric on the creation of new crowdsourcing templates that will be used as part of the Ancient Identities Today project. MicroPasts is an AHRC-funded project that is still ongoing as a collaboration between the British Museum and the UCL Institute of Archaeology. Dr Bonacchi enriched the MicroPasts crowdsourcing website with new kinds of heritage crowdsourcing. |
Collaborator Contribution | Daniel Pett, Andy Bevan and SciFabric supported Chiara Bonacchi in the technical development and review of the new heritage crowdsourcing templates. |
Impact | As a result of this collaboration a number of new templates for heritage crowdsourcing were developed. These templates will be used for the Ancient Identities Today project. However, they have also been shared and made available for download and re-use via the project GitHub account: https://github.com/IARHeritages. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Heritage Crowdsourcing |
Organisation | SciFabric |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Dr Chiara Bonacchi has been working with other members of the MicroPasts team (Daniel Pett, British Museum; Andy Bevan UCL Institute of Archaeology) and the crowdsourcing development company SciFabric on the creation of new crowdsourcing templates that will be used as part of the Ancient Identities Today project. MicroPasts is an AHRC-funded project that is still ongoing as a collaboration between the British Museum and the UCL Institute of Archaeology. Dr Bonacchi enriched the MicroPasts crowdsourcing website with new kinds of heritage crowdsourcing. |
Collaborator Contribution | Daniel Pett, Andy Bevan and SciFabric supported Chiara Bonacchi in the technical development and review of the new heritage crowdsourcing templates. |
Impact | As a result of this collaboration a number of new templates for heritage crowdsourcing were developed. These templates will be used for the Ancient Identities Today project. However, they have also been shared and made available for download and re-use via the project GitHub account: https://github.com/IARHeritages. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Heritage Crowdsourcing |
Organisation | University College London |
Department | Institute of Archaeology |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Dr Chiara Bonacchi has been working with other members of the MicroPasts team (Daniel Pett, British Museum; Andy Bevan UCL Institute of Archaeology) and the crowdsourcing development company SciFabric on the creation of new crowdsourcing templates that will be used as part of the Ancient Identities Today project. MicroPasts is an AHRC-funded project that is still ongoing as a collaboration between the British Museum and the UCL Institute of Archaeology. Dr Bonacchi enriched the MicroPasts crowdsourcing website with new kinds of heritage crowdsourcing. |
Collaborator Contribution | Daniel Pett, Andy Bevan and SciFabric supported Chiara Bonacchi in the technical development and review of the new heritage crowdsourcing templates. |
Impact | As a result of this collaboration a number of new templates for heritage crowdsourcing were developed. These templates will be used for the Ancient Identities Today project. However, they have also been shared and made available for download and re-use via the project GitHub account: https://github.com/IARHeritages. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Partnership with Archaeology Data Service: Radiocarbon Hunt |
Organisation | University of York |
Department | Archaeology Data Service (ADS) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We are crowd-sourcing the search for and collection of radiocarbon dates otherwise buried in a 'grey literature' library of some 40,000+ commercial archaeological fieldwork reports held by the Archaeology Data Service. |
Collaborator Contribution | Provision of access to the entire grey literature library, social media support, preparation for launch. |
Impact | None as yet. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Partnership with Egypt Exploration Society |
Organisation | Egypt Exploration Society |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Learned Society |
PI Contribution | The MicroPasts team developed crowdsourcing applications for the transcription and georeferencing of archival collections owned by the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) including object card collections from a number of 20th century archaeological missions (e.g. Armant seasons, Buhen seasons, Sesebi and Amarna seasons, etc.). They also gave gave lecture on heritage crowdsourcing for scholars hosted by EES in summer 2015. |
Collaborator Contribution | The EES provided their archival collections for crowdsourcing. |
Impact | Crowdsourcing applications, scanned and transcribed cards, lectures. The collaboration was multidisciplinary with EES providing expertise related to the collection and the MicroPasts team about crowdsourcing and public engagement. |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | Partnership with Mary Rose Trust |
Organisation | Mary Rose Trust |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | The MicroPasts team developed 3D photo-masking applications to mask photos of Mary Rose artefacts. The team also supported MicroPasts volunteers with the creation of models of Mary Rose objects using the masks that had been crowdsourced. This process helped the Mary Rose Museum to engage existing and new audiences in new ways and to create a number of outputs (3D models, 3D prints, and blog posts) that were used in a number of educational activities online and offline, in the museum spaces. |
Collaborator Contribution | The Mary Rose curators, photographer and outreach officers chose and photographed 5 objects that were then modelled by MicroPasts volunteers. The photo-taking was guided by the MicroPasts team via face-to-face training and tutorials. Mary Rose staff also publicised MicroPasts crowdsourcing applications related to their collections and were involved in interactions with the public to answer questions about the artefacts used in the activities. |
Impact | 2 crowdsourcing applications, 4 modelled objects of which 3D prints were also made. Educational activities undertaken at the Mary Rose museum using MicroPasts 3D models and prints. The collaboration was multidisciplinary with the Mary Rose Trust providing expertise related to the collection and the MicroPasts team about crowdsourcing and public engagement. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Partnership with Museo Egizio |
Organisation | Egyptian Museum of Turin |
Country | Italy |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | We have been crowdsourcing the 3D photo-masking and modelling of objects housed at the Egyptian Museum of Turin, Italy. |
Collaborator Contribution | The Museum helped to make MicroPasts known in Italy, through nation-wide publicity via articles in major Italian newspapers such as La Repubblica and La Stampa. |
Impact | 3D models, shared via the 3D modelling platform Sketchfab; blog posts; engagement of members of the public living in Italy (further internationalisation of the research and crowdsourcing activity); formal inclusion of a 'public archaeology' and open data agenda in the policy of Museo Egizio. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Partnership with the Minnesota Historical Society |
Organisation | Minnesota Historical Society |
Country | United States |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | The project team created source code and scripts for the manipulation of data from excavations by the Minnesota Historical Society at Fort Snelling. |
Collaborator Contribution | Provision of data for crowdsourcing, expert advice on these data. |
Impact | Development of ongoing relationship, framework for creation of other projects. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Partnership with the New Forest Park Authority |
Organisation | New Forest Park Authority |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Crowd-sourced translation of WW2 newsletters from a German Prisoner-of-War camp in the New Forest. |
Collaborator Contribution | Provision of scans of newsletters, public outreach, long-term archiving of the results. |
Impact | Only the first newsletter is translated and a second newsletter's translation is currently ongoing. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Partnership with the Palestine Exploration Fund |
Organisation | Palestine Exploration Fund |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | The MicroPasts team developed crowdsourcing applications for the 3D photomasking and modelling of objects owned by the Palestine Exploration Fund. The team also helped to support engagement with these crowdsourcing applications. This also offered PEF new avenues for engaging current and new audiences. |
Collaborator Contribution | The Palestine Exploration Fund provided the artefact collections that were used in crowdsourcing and modelling activities by MicroPasts volunteers. |
Impact | Crowdsourcing applications, 4 3D models of objects. The collaboration was multidisciplinary with PEF providing expertise related to the collection and the MicroPasts team about crowdsourcing and public engagement. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Partnership with the Petrie Museum |
Organisation | Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Learned Society |
PI Contribution | The MicroPasts team developed crowdsourcing applications for the transcription of a collection of diaries of the archaeologist Flinders Petrie, housed at the Petrie Museum. |
Collaborator Contribution | The Petrie Museum made available scans of the diary pages to be transcribed and helped with the promotion of the application as well as answering questions from the public that related to the collections that were crowdsourced. |
Impact | Crowdsourcing applications, transcribed diaries of Flinders Petrie. The collaboration was multidisciplinary with the Petrie Museum providing expertise related to the collection and the MicroPasts team about crowdsourcing and public engagement. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Project Andvari |
Organisation | Catholic University of America |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The MicroPasts crowdsourcing website helped the classification of medieval stone artefacts housed in Northern European museums. A new method of linking open data was tested. |
Collaborator Contribution | They offered their collections of medieval stone artefacts. |
Impact | One crowdsourcing applications and TOT Objects classified as a result. Public engagement with collections housed in different and geographically spread museum organisations. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Project Andvari |
Organisation | University of Mississippi |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The MicroPasts crowdsourcing website helped the classification of medieval stone artefacts housed in Northern European museums. A new method of linking open data was tested. |
Collaborator Contribution | They offered their collections of medieval stone artefacts. |
Impact | One crowdsourcing applications and TOT Objects classified as a result. Public engagement with collections housed in different and geographically spread museum organisations. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Title | Crowd-funding platform (Neighbor.ly fork) |
Description | Crowd-funding platform using a PayPal Express payment gateway and forked from the popular Catarse/Neighbor.ly initiative. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | None as yet. |
URL | https://github.com/MicroPasts/neighborly |
Title | Crowd-sourcing application for 3D model photo-masking |
Description | This application works within the Pybossa citizen science framework and has been implement as part of the MicroPasts project (micropasts.org). It allows online contributors to mask individual photographs of archaeological artefacts so that these mask can then be used to improve 3D model construction via Structure-from-Motion. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | Used by at least 700 different authenticated users between April and October 2014. |
URL | https://github.com/MicroPasts |
Title | Crowd-sourcing application for index card transcription |
Description | This application works within the Pybossa citizen science framework and has been implement as part of the MicroPasts project (micropasts.org). It allows online contributors to transcribe images of handwritten index cards into a series of pre-determined fields. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | Used by at least 700 different authenticated users between April and October 2014. |
URL | https://github.com/MicroPasts |
Title | Crowd-sourcing application for tagging historical photographs |
Description | This application works within the Pybossa citizen science framework and has been implemented as part of the MicroPasts project (micropasts.org). It allows online contributors to tag scanned historical photographs with keywords and spatial annotations on the image. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | Used by at least 700 different authenticated users between April and October 2014. |
URL | https://github.com/MicroPasts |
Title | Crowd-sourcing platform (Pybossa fork) |
Description | This is a fork of the Pybossa citizen science platform (http://pybossa.com/), with a series of modifications, including a new theme. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | None as yet |
URL | https://github.com/MicroPasts |
Title | Crowdsourcing application, your city, your place |
Description | Crowdsourcing application to explore values associated with urban heritage |
Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | capturing public values of heritage |
Title | Crowdsourcing applications for photo-tagging and transcribing the Scottish Political Archive |
Description | Crowdsourcing applications for photo-tagging and transcribing the Scottish Political Archive on the MicroPasts website. |
Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Impact | Engagement of members of the public with the digitisation of leaflets and photographs the are part of the of the Scottish Political Archive. |
Title | Crowdsourcing software for assignation of Roman Imperial Coinage Identifiers to Portable Antiquities Scheme coins |
Description | This javascript and HTML5 application allowed the Portable Antiquities Scheme and the American Numismatic Society to collaborate with the public to crowdsource Roman Imperial Coinage numbers for coins discovered by the public in England and Wales. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2015 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | Enhancement of PAS database (https://finds.org.uk) and incorporation of data into NEH funded Online Coins of the Roman Empire (http://numismatics.org/ocre). |
URL | https://github.com/MicroPasts/romanImperialCoins |
Title | Forum software (Discourse fork) |
Description | This is a fork, only slightly modified from the master, of the Discourse forum software (http://www.discourse.org/) |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | None as yet. |
URL | https://github.com/MicroPasts |
Title | Python scripts for image manipulation |
Description | Python scripts for image tiling, bulk image download from S3, image masking based on geoJSON polygons, etc. All tasks associated with the manipulation of crowd-sourcing outputs. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | None as yet |
URL | https://github.com/MicroPasts/MicroPasts-Scripts |
Title | R scripts for crowd-sourcing data consolidation |
Description | These are a series of scripts for consolidating crowd-sourcing data from the MicroPasts platform. They are largely associated withe manipulation of JSON output and various cleaning and re-arrangement task to enable expert review. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | None as yet |
URL | https://github.com/MicroPasts/MicroPasts-Scripts |
Title | WebGL viewer |
Description | This viewer for 3D models is built with WebGL and three.js. it inlcudes tools for handling metadata via Markdown files, facility for loading .obj models and multiple textures from any publicly accessible URL, as well as measurement tools. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | None as yet. |
URL | https://github.com/MicroPasts/MicroPasts-3Dview |
Description | 'After the crowds disperse: Crowdsourced data rediscovered and researched' |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | An AHRC funded Towards a National Collection Foundation project workshop focused on Citizen Science and insights drawn from projects engaged in this field. Pett and Bonnachi presented on the work of the MicroPasts project to an audience of professional colleagues and then answered questions for the organisers. This was intended as a knowledge transfer activity. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/after-the-crowds-disperse-crowdsourced-data-rediscovered-and-re... |
Description | 'Archeologia e comunicazione' (Archaeology and Communication). Keynote given by Dr Chiara Bonacchi for the Workshop 'Archeologia e comunita': una stratigrafia di relezioni' (Archaeology and communities: a statigraphy of relations', given on 19/12/17 at IULM University, Milan, Italy. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A lecture where both MicroPasts and the Ancient Identities Today projects featured prominently. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | 12-16/09/18 talk: 'Crowdsourcing Arts and Heritage', for the 5th International Symposium on Cultural Heritage Conservation and Digitisation (Tsinghua University, Beijing, China). |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | 12-16/09/18'Crowdsourcing Arts and Heritage', for the 5th International Symposium on Cultural Heritage Conservation and Digitisation (Tsinghua University, Beijing, China). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | 12/02/19 talk: Cultural Citizenship and participation in heritage crowdsourcing', Centre for the Environment, Heritage and Policy, University of Stirling (Stirling, UK). |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | 12/02/19 Cultural Citizenship and participation in heritage crowdsourcing', Centre for the Environment, Heritage and Policy, University of Stirling (Stirling, UK). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | 2017, 'Digital Heritage 'Big' Data Hacking and Visualisation', International Workshop organised at the UCL Institute of Archaeology by Dr Chiara Bonacchi and Dan Pett (British Museum, UK). |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This workshop will discuss expressive uses of 'big data' visualisations to engage citizens with the results of research into the human past and its contemporary legacies. It will bring together perspectives coming from the creative arts, design, software development, cultural heritage and museum studies. Speakers and discussants will reflect over the principles that could and should be driving the development of digital applications for the public interpretation and communication of heritage research that is based on the analysis of relatively large, varied and rapidly changing quantities of data extracted from web infrastructures. The workshop is linked to the Ancient Identities Today project, which is experimenting with approaches that combine the use of 'smaller' and 'bigger' data online and offline, to study and communicate the meanings and uses of ideas and materials from the Iron Age, Roman and Early Medieval pasts in contemporary Britain. Organisers: Chiara Bonacchi (UCL Institute of Archaeology) and Daniel Pett (British Museum) The event is funded by the UCL Global Engagement Fund, with additional sponsorship from the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities, and the UCL Institute of Archaeology Heritage Studies Section. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://ancientidentities.org/digital-heritage-workshop/ |
Description | 28/04/2022 Citizen science in heritage: from memory institutions to urban heritage planning and conservation, invited talk for the conference Enriching dialogues of Citizen Science, Museum of Cultural History, Oslo. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | About 40 academics and practitioners in heritage attended the talk. Some of them reported changes in knowledge and understanding about the subject and expressed the desire to explore further collaborations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Community-Based Research During Covid-19 Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A workshop was held by the Society of Museum Archaeologists entitled Community-Based Research During Covid-19 Workshop, with Pett as one of the panelists to present on his experiences with citizen science. This was meant to impart insights to the participants, with small breakout groups. This collaborative working event led to the production of a new crowdsourcing project with English Heritage - identification of people related to the Roman Excavations at Corbridge. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Courtauld research panel discussion |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A panel was held to mark the launch of Jack Hartnell's 'Continuous Page' research project with international participants being live broadcast on Zoom for a global ticketed audience. Panelists presented on digital documentation methods and anecdotes from their academic practise. Post presentation, panelists discussed concepts amongst themselves before being turned over to online Q&A. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://youtu.be/7BmPeFTeX1Q |
Description | Engagement with archaeology, history and heritage via online crowdsourcing |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | over 2000 people worldwide helped creating or enhancing archaeological and historical data via the MicroPasts crowdsourcing website. In this way they engage with an array of collection types, historical periods, themes and research methods. The following was reported and observed: acquisition/consolidation of knowledge and skills (collection specific or technical, etc.), change of behaviour (e.g. increased team-work, change of occupation status, etc.), enjoyment and development of creativity particularly in relation to the manipulation of data for the creation of 3D models. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016 |
URL | http://crowdsourced.micropasts.org |
Description | Lecture on Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding in Archaeology, given on 19 Feb 2018 at the UCL Institute of Archaeology by CB |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Lecture on Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding in Archaeology, delivered using MicroPasts as a case study. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Lecture on Heritage Crowdsourcing delivered as part of the PG course on Archaeological Data Science, at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, in December 2018. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | The class introduced heritage crowdsourcing from both a theoretical and a practical point of view, using the MicroPasts case study as a platform. About 10 PG students participated and required further information about the topic presented. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | London Museums Group - Agile |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | An online panel discussion moderated by the director of the Cartoon Museum, with Daniel Pett from the Fitzwilliam Museum and the director of the Shuttleworth Collection (Bedfordshire) discussing the impacts of Covid19 on working practise in museums - focus points were on digital and the methods that this could implement/learn from. Over 90 people attended with robust questioning following the panel discussion. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://youtu.be/mbbwfbRq0sc |
Description | Michigan State University: Institute of Digital Archaeology Method and Practice |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Co-Investigator Daniel Pett participated for 2 years in the MSUDAI workshops funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. These two years of workshops, talks and practical activities culminated in participants using the MicroPasts platform to deploy their own crowdsourcing projects (institutions included Denver Museum of Nature and Science and Minnesota Historical Society) and gain benefits from international co-operation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016 |
URL | http://digitalarchaeology.msu.edu/final-thoughts-on-msudai-crowdsourcing-and-the-world-of-digital-ar... |
Description | MicroPasts Learning Resources |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | These resources include technical notes on transcription, 3d modelling strategies, etc. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016 |
URL | http://micropasts.org/learning/ |
Description | MicroPasts Research Blog |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | On this blog, we or collaborators have offered short discussion of research results, research rationale or other interesting news associated with the MIcroPasts project of the research topics it has become involved with. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016 |
URL | http://research.micropasts.org/ |
Description | MicroPasts crowdsourcing conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A conference drawing together insights into crowdsourcing history and archaeology, held at the Royal Geographic Society in March 2015. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHoSalhpL825RuHkQh2tbjg |
Description | Podcast Interview: Shawn Graham |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Professor Shawn Graham, Carleton University interviewed Daniel Pett for a podcast episode and for his teaching course for Canadian students. This wide ranging discussion touched on topics related to all of Pett's AHRC funded research activities |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://digiarch.netlify.app/ |
Description | Public talk for RESCUE-The British Archaeological Trust's |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk: 'Co-producing knowledge and collections online',; public talk for RESCUE-The British Archaeological Trust's AGM and Public Lecture/Panel Discussion on Digging into the future of digitisation: what does this mean for archaeology? |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Pushkin Museum, Moscow Digital Round Table |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | An online (Zoom) international round table was organised as part of the Pushkin Museum's "Inter-Museum" Digital Technologies conference that was simulcast in Russian and English. This roundtable had presentations from each of 4 delegates talking about their research foci, the Fitzwilliam contribution was on 3D technologies, citizen science and linked data. The roundtable moved on to discuss between panelists and then was opened to the international audience . This conference was meant to be a physical, in person event, but due to Covid 19 went online completely with over 500 delegates registered. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://imuseum.ru/en/ |
Description | Talk given on 22/06/2017 by Dr Chiara Bonacchi, for the workshop 'Digital and Analogue tools in heritage management - Contemporary and future perspectives', Newcastle University, UK. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk on crowdsourcing in heritage - raised awareness of the processes and methods that support this activity. About 30 participants gained awareness of this. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Talk on participation in heritage crowdsourcing |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk on participation in heritage crowdsourcing for the workshop: 'After the crowds disperse: crowdsourced data rediscovered and researched'. This workshop was a collaboration between the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, The National Archives, Royal Museums Greenwich and Zooniverse. The workshop formed part of the AHRC-funded Engaging Crowds project that sits within the AHRC programme: Towards a National Collection: Opening UK Heritage to the World. Specifically the event wanted to identify and address the significant hurdles to overcome in order to achieve seamless movement of data between institutional collection management systems (CMS) and crowdsourcing platforms and back again. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Teaching of Crowdsourcing in Archaeology and Heritage |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | The MicroPasts websites (and methods) were used for hands-on teaching at PG level. The session was taught at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, as part of the Archaeological Data Science module, and focussed on crowdsourcing as a method for research and public engagement in archaeology and heritage. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |
Description | • 2018, 'The pop-up museum', Exhibition session at Mozilla Festival (Mozfest), London. Co-organised with Dan Pett (Fitzwilliam Museum), Jennifer Wexler (British Museum), |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | • 2018, 'The pop-up museum', Exhibition session at Mozilla Festival (Mozfest), London. Co-organised with Dan Pett (Fitzwilliam Museum), Jennifer Wexler (British Museum), |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | • 2018, Social Heritages: Addressing Global Challenges in Contemporary Society. Culture and Heritage Session, delivered for Research Week, at University of Stirling, UK. Highlighting innovative research directions for the field. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | 2018, Social Heritages: Addressing Global Challenges in Contemporary Society. Culture and Heritage Session, delivered for Research Week, at University of Stirling, UK. Highlighting innovative research directions for the field. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |