Tag: overview

Posted on

2008: an overview

An incomplete, retrospective list of work, talks and more in 2008…

Posts I wrote for the Museum of London / MoLAS blog included: What have you always wanted to ask a curator or museum specialist? and Why should IT students consider working in cultural heritage?.

And my personal blog, Open Objects, was nominated for an award! In the 'programming and development blog' category of the ComputerWeekly.com IT Blog Awards 08!

The ‘Podcasts from the past’ project – audio descriptions of gallery objects created by ordinary Londoners – helped shape my thinking about activities that served two purposes at once. In this case, the project encouraged people to access collections they wouldn't normally have access to, while creating audio for visually impaired visitors.

Panel paper: A Little Web 2.0 Goes A Long Way at "Wine, Web 2.0 and What's New"; Museums, Libraries and Archives E-Learning Group. The Trocadero Centre, London, February 7, 2008.

Presentation: MultiMimsy database extractions and the possibilities for OAI-based collections repositories at the Museum of London, UK MultiMimsy Users Group. Museum in Docklands, London, April 18, 2008.

Panel paper: The role of the IT professional in a heritage institution – I was guest speaker on a panel for a course in 'Culture and Heritage Informatics' at Kingston University, London, April 28, 2008 (my work blog post about it is above, and I blogged on 'Talking to IT students about the cultural heritage sector' on Open Objects too.

Presentation: "Web 2.0 in the Real World" – a case study for an MLA London Workshop on 'Web 2.0 and Social Networking for Museums, Libraries and Archives', held in London on July 14, 2008.

I also went to Bathcamp and Museums on the Web 2008, and published a report on The 2008 Mashed Museum Day and UK Museums on the Web Conference on Ariadne.

Posted on

2007: an overview

An incomplete, retrospective list of work, talks and more in 2007…

I started to teach on a new Digital Humanities course in the Spring/Summer Term 2007 at Birkbeck. 'Introduction to Digital Humanities' was a new postgraduate course at Birkbeck College which combined aspects of media studies, humanities computing and literary studies to foster an appreciation of the core methods and practical, political/philosophical and pedagogical issues in digital humanities.

I devised and taught classes on:

  • Introduction to Databases, February 27, 2007
  • Creating Digital Resources, May 1, 2007
  • New Working Models, May 15, 2007
  • Creating Digital Resources II: database design for the digital humanities, May 29, 2007

I also gave a class on 'Computer assisted interpretation; integration of finds and site sequence' for the Birkbeck MA Archaeology Module "Archaeological Post-Excavation and Publication".

I gave a paper: Buzzword or benefit: The possibilities of Web 2.0 for the cultural heritage sector at the CAA (Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology) UK Chapter Meeting, January 24 – 26, 2007, Tudor Merchants Hall, Southampton

I gave what was possibly my first paper at an MCG conference, Sharing authorship and authority: user generated content and the cultural heritage sector (so web 2.0!) at Web Adept: UK Museums and the Web 2007, Leicester, June 22, 2007.

I started a blog for the Museum of London (so 2007) – 'first post', 'What does a database programmer do in a museum?'. A hilarious attempt to make my bio relatable: 'My job title is 'Database Developer', which means I am a specialised kind of computer programmer. I spend a lot of time working with the big databases that people like curators, collections managers, archaeologists and archivists use to record, analyse and publish their data. I talk to them to understand their requirements, then update or create applications to help them. I also help with geek stuff for the websites'. The blog didn't last, as so many didn't, but I still think 'About my museum job' posts were a great way to make museums more inclusive by showing all the different types of careers you could have in a museum.

I published a report: Nick Holder, Mia Ridge and Nathalie Cohen, The Tony Dyson Archive Project: Report of a pilot study investigating the creation of a digital archive of medieval property transactions along the City waterfront, Museum of London Archaeology Service. The linked file is a PDF version of the report, without mapping and plan diagrams.

A white man stands in an archaeological excavation with a canvas shelter overhead
Ian Hodder doing a tour of Catalhoyuk

I also contributed to the Çatalhöyük Archive Report 2007; an excerpt of my main bits is at https://doi.org/10.17613/3n8z-9z11. Blog posts on/from Çatalhöyük include:

Posted on

2006: an overview

An incomplete, retrospective list of work, talks and more in 2006…

I gave a talk on the Design and development of the Dyson Archive of medieval London property transactions (Powerpoint slides) at a seminar on 'The Dyson Archive of medieval London property transactions: a seminar to discuss future work', June 12, 2006, London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre. I also published on The Tony Dyson Archive Project, with Nathalie Cohen and Nick Holder: a 'report of a pilot study investigating the creation of a digital archive of medieval property transactions along the City waterfront'.

Photo of a figurine of a bear in a museum display
Bear figurine at Catalhoyuk Exhibition, Istanbul

I worked at Çatalhöyük in Turkey over the summer and in the off-season, some of which is documented in Archive report: Çatalhöyük Archive Report 2006; there's an excerpt of my main bits at https://doi.org/10.17613/2shn-2v07.

Çatalhöyük blog posts, 2006:

I gave a paper: Clay pipe recording at MoLAS and the stamped makers' mark website at the SCPR Annual Conference, September 16, 2006, London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre, Mortimer Wheeler House: 'The paper discusses the process from initial specification through requirements gathering, database design, development of the database application and website, to publication online'.

I gave a seminar paper on 'The IT Strategy for Exploring 20th Century London' for the Exploring 20th Century London Project, September 25, 2006, at the Museum in Docklands, London.

After working in Turkey I travelled through Romania, Moldova, Transdniestr, and Ukraine.

Posted on

2005: an overview

An incomplete, retrospective list of work, talks and more in 2005…

Photo of three people in a seminar room with a computer screen projected on a wall
Me and Tuna sharing updates on database work in the seminar room at Çatalhöyük Research Project

In 2005 I did more fieldwork at Çatalhöyük and gave a seminar on 'Not One Voice But Many: The Çatalhöyük Database' while I was on-site in July 2005. Some of my work is documented in the Çatalhöyük Archive Report 2005, including work on ground stones, macro botany, and figurines reports, as well as my own brief database report Çatalhöyük 2005 Archive Report Database and IT Team.

I gave a paper on 'The IT Strategy for Exploring 20th Century London' at the Museums Association Conference, October 24, 2005, Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London.

I also did a talk on the '20th Century London' Project IT Strategy at the On Line Galleries and Narrative Workshop, Manchester City Galleries, Manchester Museums Consortium, December 12, 2005.

Posted on

2004: an overview

An incomplete, retrospective list of work, talks and more in 2004…

Site discussion

I went out to work on-site at the Çatalhöyük Research Project near Konya in Turkey for the first time. Some of my work is documented in reports including Figurines and the Çatalhöyük 2004 Archive Report Database and IT, and some general background to the database and IT work we did on site is in Some of the history of the Catalhoyuk database.

I also gave a paper on 'The development of the Ceramics and Glass website' at the Ceramics and Glass Seminar, November 18, 2004 (Powerpoint slides), Mortimer Wheeler House, London.