ARIADNE Project: Enhancing Archaeological Data Collaboration in Europe

1. The ARIADNE projectAdvanced Research Infrastructure for Archaeological Data Networking in Europe Franco Niccolucci PIN Project Coordinator

2. What is ARIADNE • ARIADNE is a Research Infrastructure aiming at the integration of archaeological datasets in Europe • Four years’ duration • Starting 1st February 2013 • 24 partners • Coordinated by PIN-U. of Florence (IT)

3. The ARIADNE Partnership • Coordinator • Partner • Associate

4. Why ARIADNE • Huge number of archaeological data available in digital format • Large number of non-communicating archaeological datasets • Increasing interest of the research community for data sharing, both passive (“access”) and active (“provide”) • Social pressure for opening data vaults

5. Project Goals • Enable sharing, accessing, using and re-using archaeological datasets • Overcome fragmentation • Foster dataset interoperability • Establish accepted standards and common protocols (e.g. for the quality of digital replicas) • Enable resource discovery and faceted searches • Explore new methods • Create useful tools for searching and browsing Connect, not assemble

6. Project Activities • Networking: establishing collaboration among archaeologists to overcome fragmentation • Collecting, recording and providing information on • What is available The Project Registry • What is going onLiaisons and Cooperation • What needs to be done The Project Innovation Plan • Training on innovation • Joint Research on • Standardization of metadata and reference works (thesauri, gazetteers, authority lists) • Tools for data access and services • Data lifecycle: acquisition, management, long-term preservation • New methodological tools

7. The ACDM • The ARIADNE Catalog Data Model (ACDM) aims at describing datasets, services, and resources in the archaeological domain • So far it addresses databases, collections, thesauri, with plans for covering all relevant resource types • Based on DCAT (W3C recomm.) and other widespread ontologies • Data collected into a registry, using a data acquisition tool • To be used internally to support integration design • Conceived to became a publicly available service and to be extended to other domains (e.g. conservation/restoration/management)

8. Overview of Partners’ Datasets • 20 countries • 24 languages • 1,500,000+ database records • 40,000+ grey literature files 38% DBMS 20% Structured data (datasets) 9% Collections 9% Multimedia 9% Sparse files 15% GIS

9. MetadataSchemas There is great disorder under heaven, the situation is excellent Eight partners (SND, KNAW-DANS, DISCOVERY, MiBAC-ICCU, INRAP, ADS, CYI-STARC) have adopted formal metadata standards for their datasets. The metadata standards reported are: • DDI, DataCite, MARC/UNIMARC, TriDAS, Dublin Core application profiles, INSPIRE, ISO 11915, CARARE, LIDO, CIDOC-CRM. Ten partners (ZRC SAZU, MiBAC-ICCU, ADS, AIAC, MNM-NOK, CYI-STARC, ARUP-CAS, ATHENA RC, NIAM-BAS) have developed proprietary metadata schemas for some of their datasets. However, all these can be mapped onto CIDOC-CRM. Four partners (DISCOVERY, INRAP, ARHEO, OAEW) reported some datasets for which a metadata definition is not currently available but could be derived from the database structure.

10. Research & Management • Make datasets created for Management use • available • usable/useful for Research use • Make tools and methods created for Research use • available • usable/useful for Management use • Establish a common Agenda for Digital Archaeology

11. The (current) datasets lifecycle Research Questions Research Research Data Archaeological Work (Field & Lab) Management Data Management Rescue excavations, Conservation, Restoration, Presentation

12. The (interim) datasets lifecycle Research Questions Research Research Data Archaeological Work (Field & Lab) INTEROPERABILITY Management Data Management Rescue excavations, Conservation, Restoration, Presentation

13. The (ideal) datasets lifecycle Research Questions Archaeological Data Research Research Data Archaeological Work (Field & Lab) Management Data Management Rescue excavations, Conservation, Restoration, Presentation

14. Examples of Collaboration • Mapping the metadata schema and the thesauri of ICCD (Italian Central Institute of MIBAC for Catalogue and Documentation) to ARIADNE standards to achieve future interoperability with SIGEC • Accessing “grey” literature, e.g. excavation reports (UK) • Using ARIADNE visual tools for virtual restoration

15. A Potential for Collaboration • Incorporate the EAC Agenda in the ARIADNE Innovation Plan • Share expertise on standards and data management • Support other activities of common interest • Develop pilot applications • Propose new ambits for research of special interest for EAC • Establish cooperation agreements with individual national institutions • often, but not necessarily, involving also a local research institution • Establish overall cooperation at European level

16. Q&A • Will the ARIADNE data infrastructure be accessible by anybody? • YES. Registration may be required to access some reserved data • How will ARIADNE protect sensible data? • Via “identity federation” of registered users. The access policy of each dataset will be jointly established with the data owner • Is the ARIADNE infrastructure designed for anybody? • NO. It is intended for professional use: researchers, professionals, practitioners, heritage managers etc. • Can anybody add a repository to the ARIADNE network? • NO. This must be done upon arrangement with ARIADNE to protect the integrity and quality of the data infrastructure. However, interesting datasets will be usually accepted.

17. Q&A • Will ARIADNE consider only archaeological datasets? • Officially, YES. But on a case-by-case decision • Why should we (ministry, heritage agency, university department, company) join ARIADNE? • For many good reasons, among others: • You will have a voice in a EU supported initiative and bring in your requirements • You will increase accessibility to your datasets • You will avail of the ARIADNE technology and services for free • Can we get support from ARIADNE? • Cash, NO. Services, YES: e.g. travel & subsistence costs for participating in meetings and for attending training. In special cases ARIADNE may fund a joint scholarship

18. OK! • Good, we are convinced, what should we do now? • Contact me at either of the emails below for a preliminary contact to discuss your participation: • franco.niccolucci@pin.unifi.it • franco.niccolucci@gmail.com • www.ariadne-infrastructure.eu

19. ARIADNE is a project funded by the European Commission under the Community’s Seventh Framework Programme, contract no. FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2012-1-313193. The views and opinions expressed in this presentation are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. Contact: niccolucci@pin.unifi.it www.ariadne-infrastructure.eu