Participatory Data Quality Estimation Procedures
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 29/10/2019

Archaeological data are what economists call a ‘non-rivalrous’ good: they can be processed again and again with no diminishing of their value. The proliferation of surveys and excavations, coupled with the recent embracement of digitalization in archaeology, has exponentially increased the amount of data. Instead of keeping isolated data silos, one of the current challenges is the aggregation and correlation of data in the 3V’s perspective of Big Data: high volume, high velocity and high variety. In order to develop a rigorous strategy of data aggregation and correlation, one of the current tasks is providing the answer to a fundamental key question: can we rely on datasets collected in the past by someone else? And – if yes – how can we datafy and aggregate thematically, geographically and/or temporally circumscribed datasets within a wider and interdisciplinary ‘Big Data’ perspective? This challenge turns around the need to approach legacy data through a careful process of source criticism, aiming to address trends, gaps or errors and to develop explicit data quality estimation procedures. This paper presents a forthcoming project concerning the archaeological record from the Southwest of Cyprus; this project aims to develop participatory strategies for data evaluation and aggregation through testing an online platform (WebGIS/WebGeoDatabase) that can promote open access to and peer review of archaeological data, as well as a powerful partnership between the academic community and the non-expert stakeholders.

(Francesca Chelazzi)