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+--- Thread: Dig Ventures (/showthread.php?tid=4369)
Dig Ventures - BAJR - 13th March 2012
Don't forget your chance to help save this site for the future - and get rewarded for it too!
http://www.sponsume.com/project/digventures-flag-fen-lives-1
Come on, even a tenner is a help. and one day... it could be you - and what goes around comes around.
at least share it... go on...
Dig Ventures - BAJR - 13th March 2012
The DigVentures Flag Fen Lives project is very pleased to announce that we are now able to accommodate group bookings for our field school in summer 2012, from 23rd July -12th August, and can offer a discount of 10% for any group bookings of five people or more – what a great way to spend a day with friends!
For the first time in over ten years, there will be live excavation on the iconic Bronze Age site of Flag Fen, in Cambridgeshire. This internationally significant monument is acknowledged as one of the most important Bronze Age sites in the world, and is comprised of over 60,000 waterlogged timbers as well as thousands of artefacts. Archaeology on the site dates back to the Neolithic, with only 1.5% of the total area having been excavated thus far.
As part of the field school, we will be working with a team of top-notch Bronze Age and wetlands archaeology specialists – there simply will not be a better opportunity to learn about this unique and challenging type of archaeology. We are also offering a unique lecture programme, and have engaged some of the UK’s top archaeologists to speak, as well as join us in the trenches:
? Dr Francis Pryor, author and excavator of Flag Fen
? Professor Emeritus Martin Carver, Editor, Antiquity
? Professor Timothy Darvill, Bournemouth University
? Dr Will Fletcher, English Heritage inspector of ancient monuments for Norfolk
? Professor Vincent Gaffney, Chair in Landscape Archaeology and Geomatics, University of Birmingham
? Dr Benjamin Roberts, Curator, European Bronze Age, the British Museum
? Dr John Gater, Geophysicist, GSB Prospection and Time Team
? Gerard Twomey and Graeme Young, Bamburgh Research Project
? Julian Richards FSA, author and broadcaster
? Mark Knight, Senior Project Officer, Cambridge Archaeological Unit
? Clive Waddington, Managing Director, Archaeological Research Services Ltd
We would like to make this project as collaborative as possible, and would welcome participation from local societies and other groups. Spaces on the field school range from one day to three weeks; we have a limited number available, and will be accepting applications on a first-come, first-served basis.Our acceptance window closes on April 30, 2012.
Please visit our website, www.digventures.com, for more information about the project. The tabs ‘Flag Fen Lives’ and ‘FAQs’ address the specifics of the field school. Please get in touch with me directly to book your visit, and for any further questions.
Dig Ventures - pdurdin - 19th April 2012
Questions for the DigVentures people:
What will happen to the Flag Fen plans if the Sponsume project fails to generate the ?25,000 target -- as looks likely right now given the rate of gain over the last few weeks? Will you be seeking alternative funding, or trying for a different project?
This is different to most Sponsume/Kickstarter projects in that (some) contributors are planning to put more than just money into this. Hopefully none have gone too far with booking time off work, travel plans etc. How will you be managing the disappointment (and possible backlash) if you fail?
Have you considered what effect the failure of such a high profile project will have on the viability of other projects attempting to use crowdfunding? If this is something that will be covered in the paper someone was doing (I don't remember the details, sorry), will the paper be available to the archaeological community?
Dig Ventures - BAJR - 19th April 2012
I can't answer for them... and this is based on a knowledge of how these work.
Rather than talk of failure (glass half empty) one should consider success... (glass half full)
This has created money/funding where none existed. therefore people can get involved more than before.
I say this due to my own (small) crowd funding. people paid a tenner a day for the site and this then covered the costs for C14 dating - The more that was provided the better. but I budgeted on a wish for 1500 but an expectation of half that. as it happens we achieved the goal and thus success.
Success and failure are emotive words. and crowdfunding is a new one in the UK... cos we is miserable gits
BUT... there are lessons to be learned from this as well. For my own part.. I kept it small, kept it slim. and built it up - This also meant that the professional archaeologists who worked the 4 days were not paid.. none of us. and the report is an act of love... the funding pays for specialist dating. Sometimes... money is not everything. And a skills bank - giving some free time to the community as a whole - can work as well as crowdfunding. Inventive archaeology never fails. it just learns
:face-approve:
Dig Ventures - Unitof1 - 19th April 2012
Quote:This also meant that the professional archaeologists who worked the 4 days were not paid.. none of us. and the report is an act of love.
Just where is this on the bajr pay scale. Maybe you should have a doing work where you ineffect pay but are wanting to use the term professional and archaeologist in the same breath bajr scale. How about Gzero.
Dig Ventures - BAJR - 19th April 2012
Pay scales are to do with commercial work - this is called giving some of your own time for a public good without losing the professionalism of your 'day job' it is called making a difference for no financial gain - because you are able to do so backed by your day job.
I can't do this all year. but I can do a couple of these. A project needs funding - simple fact of life. However. you can often give time in lieu of money. This is called being socially aware.
However. this is not the place for this discussion - this is about Dig Ventures.
Dig Ventures - Unitof1 - 19th April 2012
There was this a little while back
http://www.guardian.co.uk/voluntary-sector-network/2012/jan/04/corporate-charity-engagement-plan
not sure what this "up to five days 'volunteering leave' is already available in some big firms and government departments" is but
to my mind if you work as a professional archaeologists it should be taxed as such or if you like the tax/expenses could be claimed to somebody. But them we live in a british rip off charity world. I believe that in america certain expenses can be claimed back against tax.
Dig Ventures - Jack - 19th April 2012
I like to equivocate working for free in archaeology (be it digging, writing a publication, doing research, publicity, teaching etc.) to open-sourced products (such as firefox, open office etc.)............
A noble and praiseworthy pastime.
Dig Ventures - kevin wooldridge - 19th April 2012
Jack Wrote:I like to equivocate working for free in archaeology (be it digging, writing a publication, doing research, publicity, teaching etc.) to open-sourced products (such as firefox, open office etc.)............
A noble and praiseworthy pastime.
Totally agree.....I think there are many archaeologists who give time and resource without asking for anything in return...doesn't make them any less professional. Infact the closest parallel might be the pro bonum system that many lawyers and solicitors use....
Dig Ventures - CARTOON REALITY - 19th April 2012
Quote:Infact the closest parallel might be the pro bonum system that many lawyers and solicitors use....Oh great, now we're being compared to lawyers . . . What next? Drug dealing mafia? Vampires?