Archaeology on the Net (ad for Net resource directory)

Hugh Jarvis (C129QP43@UBVM.BITNET)
Tue, 20 Sep 1994 18:42:32 EDT

Note, this is an ad, but I think very relevant...
Hugh Jarvis
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Having just finished writing a 'paper and ink' guide entitled
ARCHAEOLOGY ON THE NET: AN INTERNET RESOURCE LIST,
I thought it might be worth summarizing what I have found.

This is my first attempt at writing a resource list, and I probably haven't
found every relevant resource. Those I have found are not necessarily
straightforward to classify, and my selection of resources, particularly of
those 'closely related', but not archaeology per se, has been (inevitably)
subjective. So far I have found few non-English language resources, though
doubtless they exist. Nevertheless I think it may be worth reporting on
what I have managed to turn up.

***************************************************

RESOURCES DEVOTED TO ARCHAEOLOGY

As of September 1st, I had found 50 resources devoted to archaeology. The
United States contributed 33 of these, Australia 9 (all of them at ANU),
Britain 5, Canada 2 and Greece 1. Seven resources were for the
archaeological sciences, the rest for 'general' archaeology. By subject
area, 13 resources were devoted to Mediterranean and Classical archaeology,
6 to the Americas, 3 to the Near East, 2 each to Oceania/Pacific basin and
East Asia, and 1 each to southeast Asia and northern Europe.

In terms of the different internet services, there were 12 electronic mail
listserver common-interest discussion groups, 9 Gopher servers, 9 on-line
databases, 8 World-Wide Web servers, 4 combined Gopher/World-Wide Web
servers, 2 Internet Usenet common-interest discussion groups, 2 electronic
newsletters, 1 on-line museum catalogue, and 1 specialized network services
provider.

ARCHEOLOGICAL PUBLISHING ON THE NETWORK

I located 7 special archaeological World-Wide Web publishing projects on
the network. The United States was responsible for 5 of these, the other 2
were Italian; 6 of them devoted to Mediterranean/classical archaeology, the
other one to the Near East.

'CLOSELY-RELATED FIELDS'

I identified 45 key resources for fields "closely related to archaeology
such as anthropology, geography (especially Geographical Information
Systems), history, museology, and conservation". Of these 29 were in the
United States, 4 in Canada, 3 in Britain, 2 in Australia, and 1 each in New
Zealand and Switzerland. Ten resources were science related. By subject
area, 5 resources were devoted to Mediterranean and Classical archaeology,
3 to the Americas, 2 to East Asia, 1 to the Near East, and 1 for northern
Europe.

In network service terms, there were 19 electronic mail listserver
common-interest discussion groups, 8 World-Wide Web servers, 7 on-line
documents, 4 on-line databases, 4 combined Gopher/World-Wide Web servers, 3
Internet Usenet common-interest discussion groups, 2 electronic journals
and newsletters, and 1 Gopher server.

***************************************************

SOME TENTATIVE / RANDOM OBSERVATIONS

1. East coast academic American classical/Mediterranean archaeologists
(with facilities at Michigan, Brown, Cornell, and Harvard universities,
Bates and Colby colleges etc.) are using the network far more creatively
than any other group.

2. The number of students, academics and dirt archaeologists using the net
is difficult to estimate. There were 1377 individuals subscribed to one or
more of the three lists - AIA-L, Arch-L and Arch-Theory - on the19th of
September. However there are probably a significant number of
archaeologists who use the network, but who are not on the listservs. My
guess is that there are less than 2000 archaeologists now using Internet
facilities.

3. The optimum size for a list seems to be about 250 to 500. These
medium-sized lists can be both lively and reasonably intimate. I was very
impressed recently when 20 or so 'lurkers' on ARTIFACT 'came out' and
introduced themselves one by one. On the other hand there are some small
intermittent lists with under 150 subscribers, and I doubt whether these
are viable.

4. There is a marked lack of British participation on the net, relative to
the substantial British contribution to archaeological research, publishing
and teaching. Apart from one lively electronic mail listserver
common-interest discussion group (Arch-Theory), the facilities I included
were generally there for their potential rather than for any substantial
present offerings (and possibly because I am British myself).
The impressively conceived multimedia archaeology project known as the
Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) Archaeology Consortium
Project, (in which most if not all of the British university archaeology
departments are participating), is apparently NOT cross-platform, and NOT
being put on the net.

5. The Australian resources at ANU while plentiful, have been very
difficult to access during the past year. I haven't been able to discover
why this is, but I assume the ANU system can't handle much traffic.

***************************************************

ARCHAEOLOGY ON THE NET:
AN INTERNET RESOURCE LIST
by Simon Holledge

Descriptive list complete with subject index and appendix describing
Internet services [electronic mail (e-mail), file transfer protocol (FTP),
Gophers, Listserv common-interest discussion groups, telnet, Usenet News,
Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS), and the World-Wide Web].

80 pages, B5 size.

Price: US$ 22.50 / 15 pounds sterling / Australian $ 30
Please note that this is INCLUSIVE of postage and packing.

1st edition: September 1994 (25th anniversary of the Internet!).

Published by
WESSEX INTERNATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGY, Cambridge, England

European distribution:
Wessex International Archaeology, 33 Herbert Street,
Cambridge CB4 1AG, England
E-mail contact:
sck12@phx.cam.ac.uk

North America (until October 6), rest of the world, :
E-mail contact:
Simon@Twics.com

North America (from October 7):
E-mail contact:
fisk@midway.uchicago.edu

Australia / New Zealand:
E-mail contact:
drjmh@gamgee.cc.flinders.edu.au
_________________________________________________________

Is this a commercial? Well, yes. My apologies to anybody who feels unhappy
about this. It would be euphemistic to call this project non-profit making.
We actually expect to make a loss (of money, not to mention sleep.) But I
hope that by publishing it we can at least save a few people from the
perils of nocturnal 'net-surfing' to which I unfortunately succumbed.

If, to my surprise, we do make a profit $@Q (J and the publication survives in
one form or another, we intend to reduce the price of the next issue by a
substantial amount.
_________________________________________________________

Simon Holledge, 1-8-3 Takada, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 171, Japan
E-mail Simon@Twics.com
Fax +81-3-3232-5278, Phone +81-3-3985-6317
HRA: Institute of Archaeology, University College London