OGHAM: Silchester Roman Town: A Virtual Research Community
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Project title
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Silchester: A Virtual Research Environment for Archaeology (OGHAM)
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Start date
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Nov 2004
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End date
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Nov 2006
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Lead institution
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University of Reading, Department of Archaeology
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Partner institutions
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York Archaeological Trust
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Project manager & contact details
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Professor Michael Fulford m.g.fulford@reading.ac.uk
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Project web URL
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http://www.silchester.rdg.ac.uk/vre
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Overall description
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Name of VRE solution/s
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OGHAM
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Description of VRE solution/s
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The Silchester VRE builds on the functionality of the Integrated Archaeological Database (IADB) to provide a closely integrated research environment for all those working on the project.
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Primary user group/s
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The primary user group includes archaeologists and archaeological specialists working on the project in both the excavation and post-excavation stages, ie: the full project team.
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Functionality
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The solution provides for the creation of a number of independent (but possibly overlapping) research domains within each IADB project. Each research domain will normally address a single research process, for example, the production of an interim report, or the development of a web publication. Each research domain will typically contain a number of Research Topics normally represented by (initially blank) documents (eg: stratigraphic report, finds reports, etc) which project workers are required to complete, together with a selected range of IADB Key Resources (eg: site plans, stratigraphic matrices, views, etc) which will assist with the completion of the documents. Functionally, the solution provides a rich HTML editing and messaging environment with full access to all IADB project resources.
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Benefits
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Improved efficiency in the process of archaeological post-excavation research, together with closer integration of project workers, particularly those geographically remote from the project base (Reading) or involved with the project on a part-time basis.
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Current level of maturity
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The IADB has developed over more than ten years, informal version two of the VRE solution was deployed in spring 2006.
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Target level of maturity at end of project
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Formal version two.
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Design & technical implementation
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Technical implementation
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The IADB (including the VRE solution) is a web application running on an HTTP server. It is implemented in the PHP scripting language accessing a MySQL database.
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Architecture
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This is described under functionality above.
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Standards compliance
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The IADB and VRE are built entirely on open source software standards including Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP (commonly known as the LAMP framework).
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Software availability
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The VRE solution is available to all IADB users. The provision of a hosted web service is under consideration.
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Documentation
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A wiki based IADB and VRE documentation project has recently been established at http://www.iadb.co.uk/i2/i2_wiki.php
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