This week I had the opportunity to talk to students in the Women’s Studies department here at UC. The topic concerned digital note taking but this time for social observations and interviews. In an effort to frame the discussion and to make sure all of the students (and not just the tech savvy ones) were able to follow along I worked out a list of advantages, questions, and guidelines for recording paperless. I decided to attach those notes to this blog, since these should be on the minds of anybody attempting to jump to direct digital recording.

The executive summary for those who are impatient is that going digital is a good idea and that, for their specific project, Evernote would work just fine.

The black text is from their handouts. The gray text are my talking notes.

• data security – you can have instant or near instant backups
• additional data features  – you can use location, camera, video, and other features of device
• instant multimedia  – you can integrate images or audio immediately
• instant data distribution – you can immediately share data with colleagues or advisors (you can share notebooks in Evernote)

• will it be disruptive? – in one of the readings (Casanova 2011, Making up the Difference: Women Beauty, and Direct Selling in Ecuador, xiv) the author mentions that economic disparities between the interviewer and interviewed can be a problem while conducting social research. Using an $800 device to record the observations of some people might be too conspicuous. But typing on a phone is something almost everybody does, and a smartphone might work well in those situations. Sometimes paper or even napkins are best. 
• how does data get in? – how easy is it to use the camera, microphone, keyboard?
• how does data get out?- what output formats are available?
• what kind of battery life is required? – can you get external battery packs or make sure your device has a swappable battery and replacements
• will a network be required?- will you need to look things up, or connect to a networked database?
• what kind of international use issues can be predicted?- data plans in foreign countries for phone users can be tricky and/or expensive

• backup often
• test and practice all software and methods before leaving- can’t stress this enough: smartphone microphones, for instance, differ greatly so learn to use your device in different acoustical situations, rehearse making new documents, or make them ahead of time, don’t be seen struggling with your equipment
• resist the urge to update your tech in the field- turn off automatic software updates and make no OS updates while in the field; update apps only if necessary for data security
• have a backup plan in case the tech fails to work- for instance: make a paper form just in case and find the nearest photocopy shop
• consider using the least difficult of several options- forms in Evernote vs. full blown database. Both can handle structured data (that is, structuring your conversation with the participant, not xml type structured data). The database approach is best for quantitative data but you might be able to get  away with a simple spreadsheet (and thus no database development).
• make sure you have a tech contact back in civilization to look up troubleshooting techniques for you – you might be in places with bad or no internet access and others might have to lookup troubleshooting issues and even contact tech support on your behalf.
• backup often

• Dropbox (free)- mostly mentioned because many apps have an option to save to your dropbox account.
• Evernote (free)- good note taking app, and the focus of most of the talk. Go over: 
  • text note taking
  • audio recording
  • both text and audio at the same time
  • image capture directly to the document
  • using a source document for structured data for interviews (create a form in one note and copy/paste that form to other notes for interviews)
  • the details button shows the map location of the note
• FileMaker Go ($40 iOS only, requires desktop Filemaker Pro for development)
• Numbers ($10 iOS only)

I had the honor of chairing a session of the recent AIA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia this past weekend. The session was titled “New Digital and Visual Approaches to Archaeology” and was the only pure ‘computer’ session this year. The papers were well chosen, however, as they all concerned the swift recording of standing architecture and the techniques used by the authors were similar.

Christopher Stackowicz, from Bethel College, showed us his work with the Greek Architecture Project at Corinth (http://www.nd.edu/~corinth/). He is using panoramic photographs displayed in VRVformats, but he is also creating overlays on top of the photos which can display a reconstruction of the area/building at certain points in time. The many views that are created are being assembled in software originally designed for real-estate, called Tour Weaver Pro, for navigation and searching. The project is in its third year and is not yet finished but looks promising and very well thought out.

This was followed by a multi-authored paper by Sarah Chapman (University of Arkasas), Sarah Chandlee (University of Tulsa), and Lori Lawson (American University in Cairo) on their Digital Preservation Project at Tell Timai, Egypt. Their focus is on the creation of a site-wide 3D model using GIS and photogrammetry. Right now they have several satellite images and a working GIS, and the photography will begin in earnest this summer. They also said that they wish to extend the photogrammetry technique to the documentation of excavated units as well, which was of great interest to me.

The third paper was by Marcus Abbott, from ArcHeritage, a part of the York Archaeological Trust. He has created a 3D survey of Stavely Hall, a partially destroyed country residence originally built in the early 17th century. The model of the house and various trenches excavated around the property was created with a landscape scanner and photogrammetry. The delivery of the scenes are in panoramic VR formats, in the same manner as the Corinth project mentioned above. His work can be seen at http://www.marcusabbott.org/.

Tim Rast, an archaeologist who authors a blog called Elfshot has written a post about his experience drawing archaeological features on an iPad using iDraw. He has some excellent images of his work.