==================================
Moderated intarch-interest posting
==================================

Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 13:29:50 -0700
From: Carol McDavid <[log in to unmask]>

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS - APOLOGIES FOR CROSS POSTING - FEEL FREE TO FORWARD

Following is a preliminary outline for a session to be proposed for the
Annual Meetings of the Society for Historical Archaeology, to be held in
Long Beach, California, January 10-13, 2001. If you think you would like to
participate, please respond to me off-list. The final abstract for the
session will be written after individual paper abstracts have been received,
and will reflect the themes to be explored in individual papers. Therefore,
if you have an idea for a paper that addresses different aspects of the
overall topic than the preliminary ideas listed below, please let me know.

BEYOND THE BELLS AND WHISTLES: A CRITICAL LOOK AT CONTENT AND MEANING ON
ARCHAEOLOGICAL WEB SITES

This session will attempt to move past the usual discussions of
technological issues associated with Internet web sites to discuss how (or
whether) archaeologists can use the Internet to create new forms of
discourse with each other, and with our publics. Papers will explore issues
of content and meaning on a number of levels - some of professional concern
within the discipline, and some relating primarily to communication with our
publics. Some possible topics might include:

What considerations apply as we choose content for the Net? How does using a
multi-linear textual form change what we can say, and how we can say it?
Does it change how we communicate about this data with our publics, and each
other? What are other challenges associated with presenting archaeological
arguments on web sites? Can the net's multi-linearity change our ways of
thinking about and interpreting our data? What level of understanding should
we already have about our data before we present it in this sort of forum?
How "raw" can it, or should it, be? Can our content choices allow more
openness with each other, and the public? If so, what are the ramifications
of this openness? How do we decide, in this open-access environment, what
audiences we want to reach, and how to reach them? How do we deal with
issues like authorship and intellectual ownership? Are web site discussion
forums a productive way of discussing archaeological data on the Internet,
with each other or with our publics?

For more information on the meetings, go to the SHA web site at
http://www.sha.org, or write me off-list. The deadline for session proposals
to SHA is May 31, so please let me know ASAP if you are interested, and we
will communicate further about submission details.



%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%