12th March 2009, 12:28 AM
It is late and I am tired, and I have cut down a much longer essay into the following points.
Yes we do want data!
Personally I welcome your efforts to engage with archaeologists, and sympathise with your frustrations, although I have no idea about the detail. The issue of communication between the UKDFD, the PAS and the Nighthawking Survey is not one I know anything about - since I have not been personally involved with any of these organisations or initiatives. Nor am I a member of ALGAO so I cannot speak for them.
However, I suspect that the issue of public accessibility to the records was the main sticking point.
And this for me is the great irony - since everyone on all sides of this debate believes in public access. However [u]individual</u> public access needs to be balanced against [u]collective</u> public access. Individual public access means that you or I have the right to go to a place and dig holes in it and find things. Collective public access means that the results of that activity need to be somehow published and made available to add to the greater sum of human knowledge.
I am sure that we both agree that this balance needs to be struck, I suspect the difference is in where the line is drawn.
Yes we do want data!
Personally I welcome your efforts to engage with archaeologists, and sympathise with your frustrations, although I have no idea about the detail. The issue of communication between the UKDFD, the PAS and the Nighthawking Survey is not one I know anything about - since I have not been personally involved with any of these organisations or initiatives. Nor am I a member of ALGAO so I cannot speak for them.
However, I suspect that the issue of public accessibility to the records was the main sticking point.
And this for me is the great irony - since everyone on all sides of this debate believes in public access. However [u]individual</u> public access needs to be balanced against [u]collective</u> public access. Individual public access means that you or I have the right to go to a place and dig holes in it and find things. Collective public access means that the results of that activity need to be somehow published and made available to add to the greater sum of human knowledge.
I am sure that we both agree that this balance needs to be struck, I suspect the difference is in where the line is drawn.