DigVentures

[BAJR]

and I did support this...
http://romandnaproject.org/


and got some goodies to go with it..

so WElsh Andy is right.

a new way of funding...

[kevin wooldridge]

I was under the impression it wasn't illegal but required a licence from the Financial Services Authority... and the cost of the licence was greater than most small ventures could raise... http://www.economicvoice.com/could-crowd...z1nuRebdwM

[BAJR]

Worth reading this.

Yes it is legal... it is just restricted.

http://wedidthis.org.uk/2012/02/20/crowd...ew-economy

[poodash]

Apart from the Crowdsourcing (which is just a new way of raising cash), this looks like just another field school. Albeit on a great site.

However, I worry about a number of issues with this. There has been a short thread on the Past Horizons website in which the question of local community involvement was raised. The Digventures Managing Director appeared to sidestep this by talking about "building a community around the project", which of course isn't the same as community involvement per se as it is generally understood.

Both have their place but involving the local community is pretty crucial in this area: it's the stamping ground of our old friend Councillor Alan Melton. Although he might be back in his box, not specifically to try to involve his electors looks short-sighted. The project is patently not elitist (after all, it's flogging something), but expecting people to stump up over ?400 per week for a spot of digging and tuition (and with no concessionary rate, in this economic climate!) introduces its own constraints and prohibitions for public involvement. If I was going to pay cash to any field school (or any form of tuition), I'd want to be damned sure I'd get value for money.

And this is slated as "our first project" ....

[Oxbeast]

@Poodash: great user name.

?400 for a week is not that different to other 'have an experience/learn a skill/meet new people in the open air' type of courses. My mate did one of these http://www.greenwoodwork.co.uk/website/calendar.html to bui

[P Prentice]

Whilst I really like the idea of crowd sourcing I don't really like that it plays into the Big Society nonsense of getting us to pay for things we should already be funding via our taxes.

nail on the head - but given its 'wide world' aspirations, i would expect it to be overrun with corpulent americans and it is always nice to fleece them. i just hope that the research is properly disseminated and it dosent end up with a crap time team spin

[P Prentice]

It would be interesting to see a list of the worlds best field archaeologists. I haven't heard of any of the people who are running this company - and I imagine that no-one would be so presumptive to be self promoting - so I guess they are getting in some big guns to do the real work

so who are these big guns?
what is a big gun? - (hold yourself back unit)
i cany wait for them to appear - turkey shoot anybody

[kevin wooldridge]

There are some cracking pubs in Peterborough.....

[tom wilson]

If you build it, they will come, as James Earl Jones once said.

Wait...they're building a Death Star?

[Sith]

Wait...they're building a Death Star?

The ability to destroy a site is insignificant next to the potential of the Force.