2011 Cultural Heritage Informatics Fieldschool

Alexis Santos here, I’m studying anthropology and archaeology at New College of Florida where I will be a senior working towards my B.A. next August. I love technology. I’m the Online Editor for New College’s student newspaper (the Catalyst), I write a somewhat weekly technology column, I’ve done some video game news blogging in addition to a dash of podcasting and I’m constantly reading about technology and web start-up companies.

Technology is used widely in the field of archaeology with artifact dating, GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and a whole host of data & artifact analysis techniques. However, technology seems underused in the field when it comes to the representation of archaeological sites and artifacts. Cultural heritage informatics holds tremendous potential for archaeology and cultural heritage at large. Cultural heritage informatics can help interest people in the various manifestations of cultural heritage and allow for a greater understanding of them. With the help of technology, archaeologists can create GPS guided tours, 3D models of structures or artifacts, augmented reality applications to see structures where they once stood, build online repositories and even let community members map places that hold historic meaning to them. The possibilities are limitless.

I’m taking the Cultural Heritage Informatics Fieldschool to explore some of the possibilities cultural heritage informatics holds for representation, public outreach and even collaboration.

You can follow me on Twitter through @alexissantos