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Archaeological resarch is poor, why make it poorer?
I think that there's only a couple of words more often approached to "Archaeology" than "pyramids": don't you know which they are?
If I say "lack of funds", don't tell me you're surprised!
Yes, in archaeological world almost everybody complains that the "Research has no funds", "that excavation can't go on because there are no money","the publication of finds is expensive, it's better wait to do it(?!?!): we're short of funds" and I can continue listing lots of phrases like these.
We all know that the funds for Cultural Heritage are not enough almost everywhere and there are no great hopes that in future things will get better.
However there are lots of funds that probably could be spent in a better way: I speak of software naturally.
In a world constantly lack of funds it's a real foolish act to go on choosing of spending lots of money in something you could get freely.
Yes, there are lots of good and very simple alternatives both about Operating System, thinking to one of Ubuntu's distributions, both about the most commonly used applications like office's ones and GIS' ones. So why only a few people in archaeology using OpenOffice, that you can find already installed with Linux systems, why there are people who goes on using very expensive GIS application, when there are so many and so good free(Grass, QGis)?
There could be someone who could say: "Linux is matter of programmers","free software geek's stuff". It's not true at all: it's above all a problem of habit! You think to know something(Do you really think to know it?Are you sure????) and don't want to go above the routine schemes.
Think about this when you must use a not free and, usually, very expensive software for which it could be a free alternative: "The money spent for this software could have payed my bills this month".
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Comments
YES !!!
I say YES to open source.. that's my philosophy behind GIS and many more areas where open source can win over closed source in a matter money, ideas freedom of sharing and freedom of making own functions because GIS in archaeology needs special functionality in order to fullfill the needs.. and possibilities are endless..
IMHO what should be brought to attention in a matter of financing is hardware, not software ! I cannot create pro like GPS with geodetic precision.. I cannot create 3D laser scanner by myself.. I can only try to find some funds and discounts for it..
anyway discounts for scientific use should be made more accessible.. otherwise we have a big problem to find such a big funds.. it's like a neverending loop story..
Michal
Also hardware..
It's worth noting that also hardware has its problems when it comes to customization freedom... it's true that you cannot create a 3D laser scanner by yourself, but a high-precision GPS is not impossible to assemble with some DIY, and you can even build a small quadrocopter or helicopter with camera and GPS to collect pictures of a whole archaeological site.
Also, don't forget that hardware makers are often software sellers (Leica for example) so they like to lock you with all their products... we need not only free/open software, but also open hardware (which means specifications and docs).
For me, free/open source software means in first place freedom to hack and develop new solutions for my problems.
I Agree with you two
Yes, I agree with both you. I perfectly agree with the idea that also hardware must be more accessible to every scientific aim! However the thing I'd like to underline is that it needs to use the free tools we already have for archaeology not to waste funds, it would be necessary above all because archaeology has its particular needs and we could modify and create open softwares according to our researches in a way other people could use and improve to have really good programs.
give an example..
I don't understand exactly.. you mean like e.g. if we are using Leica Total Station, we cannot control it over open source/free software tools ? or you mean handling the data taken from total station with free tools ?
Let's continue with Leica -
Let's continue with Leica - just an example of course. They sell you a device with a software that runs only on one operating system, and that means that, no matter which OS are you using, you'll need at least one computer with that OS installed.
We are developing a tool that could solve this specific problem: Total Open Station is a cross platform software since its inception.
And all of their software applications are meant to work together: if you buy a license, you'll probably end up needing other pieces of software in short time, because of non-standard formats that don't allow you to mix different families of software. This doesn't happen with free/open source software, that is designed with standards in mind (not all of it I admit though).