Enhancing Humanities Research Productivity in a Collaborative Data Sharing Environment

FAIN: PK-50072-08

Alexandria Archive Institute, Inc. (San Francisco, CA 94127-2036)
Sarah Whitcher Kansa (Project Director: March 2008 to June 2011)

Creating best-practice guidelines for the development of humanities data-sharing software to meet user needs, as well as to support the continued development of Open Context, a collaborative, free, open-access resource to facilitate online sharing of archaeological field research among excavators, scholars, and cultural heritage institutions.

This project represents a multi-organizational, interdisciplinary effort to enhance collaborative research in cultural heritage fields by exploring user experience with Web-based technologies. The objective of this project is to document user needs around online systems for sharing primary data and documentation of cultural heritage collections. To this end, we will draw upon the experience and insights of representatives from different stakeholder groups in three broad arenas: academic researchers, heritage managers, and specialist communities. Investigations undertaken in this study will result in best-practice guidelines to guide humanities computing efforts on how to best meet the diverse user needs in future online data sharing systems. Using an iterative cycle of development, deployment, and evaluation, this project will enhance Open Context, a collaborative, open-access data sharing system already in use for archaeology and related disciplines.