“Goodness me archaeology is boring” The internet, micro-blogging and what we

really think about the past

Keith Challis, IBM Vista, Institute of Archaeology & Antiquity

Dr Mourad Oussalah and Faizan Bhat, School of Engineering, Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr Thorsten Schnier, CERCIA, School of Computer Science

http://www.youtube.com/embed/F6P90SOf4jY

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

• Attitudes to archaeology as a discipline are media shaped

• How does the public at large perceive archaeology?

• How do people articulate thoughts and attitudes to the past?

• How do people engage with landscape, especially landscapes replete with historic meaning?

• What thoughts do they articulate?

• How are spaces used?• What does the public

think?

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

• Is there an answer?

• Twitter – micro blogging

• 140 characters, geolocated, user meta-data, stream of consciousness

• 1.87 million tweets over a 50 day trial run

Building a Twitter Harvesting Application

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

• Micro-blogging platform

• Number of input and output sources

• Well developed API for publishing and consuming

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

• Twitter Streaming API• Most suitable for large

scale data collection • Filter predicates -

usernames, keywords, locations

• HTTP long-poll connection

• Statuses/filter resource

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

• Command-line Java– Streaming API Connection– SQLite database storage– Persistent, fault-tolerant

• Django web interface– User-friendly– Creation and management

of streams

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

So What Have We Learned?

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

Is this data of any use?• Most previous research

has focused on broad spatial patterns or user relational networks

• We are interested in content analysis – what people say and where they say it

• Complex keyword searches (wordnet)

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

Keyword Search• Must take account of

abbreviation, misspellings and slang

• Not surprisingly little direct reference to archaeology!

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”@zooarchaeologis have you looked into British military fitness? Highly recommend

@zooarchaeologis no one was more shocked when I got addicted but had to stop due

CASPAR seminar 2 producing archaeology for tv Charles Furneaux. 4pm, room 612 IO

@mrarchaeologist yeh... but really where is there a British equivalent? HIGNIFY.

@mrarchaeologist don't get me wrong... I love the daily show, but it took years

@mrarchaeologist heck that'll be a format change and a half LOVE IT

RT @archaeologynews: Fourth Great Escape tunnel to be excavated:

@zooarchaeologis urgh! I still have horrible memories of getting it as a teen. H

An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have; the older she gets, the m

Recent updates from @pennmuseum are worth following. Great archaeological collec

Visualising Portus (Roman harbours - my favourite type of archaeology) and 2nd l

http://bit.ly/fySaG2 CBA community archaeology bursaries.

@mumsrock @zooarchaeologis but root canal was much cheaper on nhs. Dentist mixed

@maryrose246 yeah I have done no classics/archaeology revision at all

Right I need to: write my coursework plan, answer 2 beethy archaeology exam ques

This is genuine social media archaeology --> RT @chrismessina first hashtag ever

@atomicburgers I wanted to be an archaeologist. I blame Tomb Raider.

Goodness me, archaeology is boring.

Me and @archaeologyBoy have succeeded in getting a photo of me with a normal siz

Might combine it with archaeology and go somewhere "old" and trowel through mole

Is rather determined to pass my archaeology exam!-i know my sites, key words jst

RT @archaeologynews: Wreck of USS Revenge discovered off of Rhode Island http:/

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

Keyword Search• Terms that relate

more broadly to culture and heritage more commonly used

• Eg museum, cathedral, abbey…

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”Getting a slow start after a busy day yesterday. A museum and a library are on t

@daveyfong It belongs in a museum, that's what I told my aunt

RT @bridgetmck: Interesting news that Delhi plans a Tate Modern style art museum

Mmm, gravity always wins... #naturalhistorymuseum http://twitpic.com/3kw75w ht

Checking out the science museum. Pretty intense.

Having a rest after rushing round the museum — at Starbucks Elmwood Ave http:/

Via @culturevultures rt @futureofmuseums: http://bit.ly/gL8YR5 <- Great article

Picnic made. We taking on the tube for family outing to natural history museum.

Bus to the pencil museum, Keswick anyone? http://yfrog.com/hseg5zkj

I am not going to a museum end of. YOU LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE !!

@dawnhfoster I agree with the others. The Sir John Soanes museum is fascinating.

Nooo museum </3

Mum : if we go to tmhe museum today then we re going shopping tomorrow

Canal Boat - another boat museum photo #flickr #photography #photo http://flic.k

Off into london film museum now! #excited.

At the RAF museum at Hendon on a boys day out @ RAF Museum London http://instag

Going to take our friend's little boy to @railwaymuseum in York for his first ev

we are at the national railway museum in York. #funtimes!

Just laid under a suspended Sea Harrier, there are museums that don't let you ge

Lunch after the museum. — at The Plough http://gowal.la/c/3fsap

@cormacflynn how was leprechaun museum?

Just seen a pangolin in the natural history museum. Haha they look stupid

@SpiceGirlMuseum wow I can't wait to see your collection at Leeds museum gear yo

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

Spatial Analysis• Harvesting app allows

basic analysis of spatial patterns

• Export to GIS allows comparison with other spatial data and more complex spatial and time-series analysis

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

• Time and Movement

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

Ideation and Images• How do people see

landscape and heritage?

• Do their images betray underlying attitudes and bias?

• Twitpic, etc allows tweeting of urls for digital images

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

Issues• Volume of data

creates analysis issues

• Complex text/ language searches

• Limited demographics of twitter users

• Vacuous garbage or underground intelligence?

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

Mobile Signal Coverage• Mapping suggest

comprehensive coverage of populated places

• Mobile coverage limits ability to tweets from remote areas

• Poor, or no GPS compromise locational accuracy

So Now What..?

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

More Data• Need to collect more

data• Cover all seasons, eg

summer more outside tweets and more heritage visitor tweets

• Cover auspicious dates/events

Heritage Applications• Analysis of response

to historic landscapes (urban and rural)

• Visitor intelligence (managed places)

• Cultural preferences• Response to events

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

Other Applications• Numerous other

application areas• Public health• Causal data to

examine in relation to clinical outcomes

• Targeted spending of public health budget

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

CAA 2011 The internet, micro-blogging and what we really think about the past

“Goodness me archaeology is boring”

Other Applications/Data

• More publically streamed data

• Flickr, geolocated photo streams

• Post-hoc, users geolocate photos at time of upload

• Crowd-sourced image libraries

• 3D modelling from crowd-sourced images

Thanks

Keith Challis, IBM Vista, Institute of Archaeology & Antiquity

Dr Mourad Oussalah and Faizan Bhat, School of Engineering, Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr Thorsten Schnier, CERCIA, School of Computer Science