1. Archaeoinformatics
An information systems framework for
archaeology
Ahmad Alam
Supervisor: Professor Andy Brass
Co-Supervisor: Professor Robert Stevens
Bio-Health Informatics Group

2. Is sharing information important?
•
Life sciences have shown the importance
•
Highlights data quality issues
•
Generates new avenues for research
•
Improves preservation

3. Archaeological data “Big Bang”
Dig Site
Metals
Expert
Mummy
Pathologist
Pottery
Specialist
Linguistics
expert
Stakeholders
Museums
Public Sector/
Local government
Researchers
Just like the expansion of the Universe,
everything moving further away

4. Mummies On Rails
A system for recoding mummy data using a modern
development framework.
Ahmad Alam, Ian Dunlop, Robert Stevens, Andrew Brass
(Comp. Sci.)
Jenefer Cockitt, Rosalie David, Ryan Metcalfe (KNH)
Bio-Health Informatics Group
Result? No publication
•
Permission was needed from the record set holder
•
Author had retired; difficult to work out who can
give permission to use it.

5. Non-functional requirement had been missed
Functional Requirements
Non-Functional Requirements
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Extensive standards
Ontologies
Web 2.0
Tried and tested
methods
• Effective
• Working technologies
Governance
Organisational Structures
Maintainability
Longevity
Ease of use
Capture very difficult
Issues and Problems
Issues and Problems
• Usually Rectifiable
• Can be catastrophic, i.e.
non adoption of a system
• User hostility
• Un-Implementable

6. Q Methodology
•
Proven to work through numerous studies, especially
attitudinal studies in life sciences
•
Allows for qualitative analysis that can be analysed
quantitatively : Factor Analysis

7. Application of Q Methodology: The Concourse
Semi structured interviews with archaeologists from
contrasting archaeological communities:•
•
Forensic Egyptologists - KNH
Industrial Archaeologist – University of Salford
Preliminary findings
•
No such things an archaeological ‘community’ with
regards to data sharing
•
One sees governance and ownership as a major barrier
to sharing the other has to share but has quality issues

8. What’s next?
• Q Sort volunteers needed
• 30 minutes of card sorting
• The more merrier
• Apply results to make useful tools for
archaeological data sharing
• Resultant research to help formal requirements
analysis in computing sciences for ‘nonfunctional’ requirements

9. Mepr available on:http://mepr.herokuapp.com/admin/login
admin@example.com (password:password)
Q Methodology http://qmethod.org
Contacts
Me:
ahmad.alam@manchester.ac.uk
The Professor:
andy.brass@manchester.ac.uk