Lets Share a littlE Information

[BAJR Host]

Here is a small but deadly question... IF online data from SMRs / HERs and
NMRs is supposed to be publicly accessible then why not make the data
available as feeds or data dumps to other websites... where surely the
concept is to distribute the data, rather than try to protect data which is
supposed to belong to everyone anyway?

)

So... for example... why could I not present an RSS feed of all roman sites
viewed on my site via a map based technology (ie Google Map)

I have also put this on Britarch to see what the view is.


Another day another WSI?

[tom wilson]

'...and then, I will RULE THE WORLD!! Mwah ha ha ha!!...'


Just kidding.

As an SMR user I would find this really useful, particularly if it crossed modern county boundaries. It could be quick, easy and comprehensive if it was set up and maintained properly. I might be able to rapidly re-interrogate the data to refine my searches, which you can't do if every search must be requested from the SMR officer who might not be able to get back to me for two weeks. However, the curators out there might have some reservations about cost, compatability, responsibility, etc.

I suspect that somebody somewhere would soon find themselves regarded as surplus to requirements by their local government paymasters, while no central govenment body is likely to dig deep and pay for an administrator.

I could be wrong. Perhaps just bundling up entries and handing them over to an external source (with it's own funding) might save planning archaeologists from the labour of answering SMR search requests, allowing them to get on with their myriad other tasks.

So: a very nice ideal, but how would it pan out in practice?

'Have a good plan, execute it violently, do it today'.
General MacArthur

[flashdigger]

Certain city/town councils are in the process of creating Urban Archaeological Databases which are map based and contain all SMR data + more useful layers of information. The plan is then to make this resource available to the general public. This is certainly the way forward but it requires a large amount of financial resources to set up.