Barriers to Participation in Archaeology Online Workshop: Sísyphos and the Troll on the Gate of the Digital Divide: Barriers to Online Participation With the Portable Antiquities Scheme

Last of the presentations from the workshop. All of the presentations can be seen here or you can look at the whole event here- http://storify.com/lornarichardson/workshop-on-barriers-to-participation-with-archaeo

Dan Pett

Portable Antiquities Scheme

Sísyphos and the Troll on the Gate of the Digital Divide: Barriers to Online Participation With the Portable Antiquities Scheme

This paper will address a variety of barriers that are readily apparent in the Portable Antiquities Scheme’s (PAS) attempts to engage a world wide audience with its online and offline offer. It will look at the problems of ethics and recording of archaeological objects from disturbed contexts, technological and knowledge transfer challenges and the effects of internet ‘trolls’ on the participatory experience. The digital offer of the PAS has been available since 1999 and now has an annual audience of over 500,000 visitors and has over 20,000 contributors to the project.