Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Mobilization as mediation: implementing a tablet-based recording system for ceramic classification

ABSTRACT In this essay, we examine the potentials and challenges of mobile computing for a core activity of archaeological laboratory research—the typological analysis of ceramics. We discuss the collaborative development, implementation, and evaluation of the PAZC Ceramics module in the FAIMS Mobile platform. Our deployment of the module yielded significant improvements in the efficiency of data collection, as well as reduced numbers of missing fields and higher user satisfaction scores. However, it did not improve data consistency between users and yielded a classificatory system that was somewhat more challenging to update than our previous mode of operation. These results underscore some of the trade-offs that may be entailed in employing mobile technologies for archaeological applications and highlight the ways in which specific media configurations impact the production of archaeological knowledge. En este artículo, examinamos las posibilidades y desafíos que presenta la computación móvil para una actividad fundamental de la investigación arqueológica —el análisis tipológico de la cerámica. Discutimos el desarrollo colaborativo, la implementación y la evaluación de PAZC Ceramics, un módulo de la plataforma de Sistemas de Manejo de Información Adquirida en Campo (FAIMS, por sus siglas en inglés). Nuestra implementación del módulo produjo mejoras significativas en la eficiencia de la recolección de datos, así como un número reducido de campos perdidos y mayores puntuaciones de satisfacción de usuario. Sin embargo, no mejoró la coherencia de los datos entre usuarios y produjo un sistema clasificatorio un poco más difícil de actualizar respecto al modo de operación anterior. Estos resultados ponen de relieve algunos de los retos que presenta el empleo de tecnologías móviles para aplicaciones arqueológicas y destacan las maneras en que las configuraciones específicas del sistema de registro pueden afectar la producción del conocimiento arqueológico.

#c3t an agreeable swarm: Twitter, the democratization of media & non-localized proximity

This paper explores the way that Twitter has democratized usage and enabled non-localized proximity for users. We examine some recent changes in usages to demonstrate how public discourse, communication and information distribution affords users new ways of socializing and communicating. We also examine how Twitter has enabled individual non-technical users to communicate, collaborate and distribute information across social and geographic boundaries.

#c3t the command & control of Twitter: On a socially constructed Twitter & applications of the Philosophy of Data

This paper explores the transformation of Twitter from the traditional developer based command and control into something strangely democratic: a social (re)construction of utility, a twisting of this once unique service to serve the needs and desires, ever evolving, of its users. We explore changes in the social constructions of Twitter and use recent research in the Philosophy of Data to suggest potential explanations.