Increasingly, archaeology data are being made available openly on the web. But what do these data show? How can we interrogate them? How can we visualize them? How can we re-use data visualizations?
We鈥檇 like to know. This is why we have created the Open Context and 杏吧原创 University Prize for Archaeological Visualization and we invite you to build, make, hack, the Open Context data and API for fun and prizes.
Full details are listed below and on the .
Who Can Enter?
Anyone! Wherever you are in the world, we invite you to participate. All entries will be publicly accessible and promoted via a context gallery on the Open Context website.
Sponsors
The prize competition is sponsored by the following:
- The Alexandria Archive Institute (the nonprofit that runs Open Context)
- The Digital Archaeology at 杏吧原创 University Project, led by
Categories
We have prizes for the following categories of entries:
- Individual entry: project developed by a single individual
- Team entry: project developed by a collaborative group (2-3 people)
- Individual student entry: project developed by a single student
- Student team entry: project developed by a team of (2-3) students
Prizes
All prizes are awarded in the form of cash awards or gift vouchers of equivalent value. Depending on the award type, please note currency:
- Best individual entry: $US200
- Best team entry (teams of 2 or 3): $US300 (split accordingly)
- Best student entry: $C200
- Best student team entry (teams of 2 or 3): $C300 (split accordingly)
We will also note 鈥淗onorable Mentions鈥 for each award category.
Entry Requirements
We want this prize competition to raise awareness of open data and reproducible research methods by highlighting some great examples of digital data in practice. To meet these goals, specific project entry requirements include the following:
- The visualization should be publicly accessible/viewable, live on the open Web
- The source code should be made available via or similar public software repository
- The project needs to incorporate and/or create open source code, under licensing approved by the .
- The source code must be well-commented and documented
- The visualization must make use of the Open Context API; other data sources may also be utilized in addition to Open Context
- A readme file should be provided (as .txt or .md or .rtf), which will include:
- Instructions for reproducing the visualization from scratch must be included
- Interesting observations about the data that the visualization makes possible
- Documentation of your process and methods (that is to say, 鈥榩aradata鈥 as per the )
All entries have to meet the minimum requirements described in 鈥楨ntry Requirements鈥 to be considered.
Entries are submitted by filling a Web form () that will ask you for your particulars and the URL to your 鈥榣ive鈥 entry and the URL to your code repository. You will also be required to attest that the entry is your own creation.
Important Dates
- Closing date for entry submissions: December 16, 2016
- Winners announced: January 16, 2017
Criteria for Judging
- Potential archaeological insight provided by the visualization
- Reproducibility
- Aesthetic impact
- Rhetorical impact
- Appropriate recognition for/of data stakeholders (creators and other publics)
Attention will be paid in particular to entries that explore novel ways of visualizing archaeological data, or innovative re-uses of data, or work that takes advantage of the linked nature of Open Context data, or work that enables features robust/reproducible code for visualizations that could be easily/widely applied to other datasets.
Judges
The judges for this competition are drawn from across the North America:
- 鈥 Memorial University
- 鈥 Cultural Resources Department at AECOM
- 鈥 Harvard Art Museums, Sardis Expedition
- 鈥 Alexandria Archive Institute
- 鈥 University of Washington
- 鈥 Michigan State University
- 鈥 University of Texas at Austin
- 鈥 Indiana University South Bend
- 鈥 Stony Brook University
Resources
- Programming Historian
- A digital history workbook
- Digital History Methods with R 鈥 Lincoln Mullen
- Open Context API documentation
- Eric Kansa (Open Context鈥檚 primary developer) will be happy to assist (and help troubleshoot! Email: kansaeric@gmail.com or Contact via )