It was a quiet Friday morning in August when we met with Nicolò Dell’Unto to learn more about his work and passion related to Open Science. Nicolò is a Professor of Archaeology at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Lund University, and a member of the Open Science Champions. Furthermore, he is the manager of DARKLab, a national infrastructure for digital archaeology and digital heritage. In short, DARKLab offers state-of-the-art online collections and 3D visualizations of digitized artifacts, excavations and monuments – accessible to anyone who is interested, for the sake of research, teaching or just to ease general curiosity.
It just so happens that the day before our meeting, a brand-new digital platform for 3D models and cultural heritage was launched. With a huge smile (and clearly that feeling of “Finally!”), Nicolò explains that this new resource can support researchers and teachers in a more versatile way, and that the development of the platform has been carefully calibrated with the needs and interest – but also the knowledge and digital savviness – of the researcher audience.
He continues: “Technically speaking, we can digitize anything, but the tricky bit is to understand how best to go about it to meet the needs that are out there. The first question always is: ‘why do you need this’? Once in place, users then need to learn how to take full advantage of the resource, and only then the results will come.”
Dynamic Collections Plus
So, what can one practically do with this new platform – called Dynamic Collections Plus – that one
couldn’t with the original platform? First of all, Dynamic Collections Plus is more accessible than its predecessor; a responsive web design with multi-device adaptation allows for the user to have full access to the resource – even when on a smaller tablet while doing fieldwork.
Nicolò points out that users will recognize the core concept: the views, the option to use of grids or adjust light and color, use tools for measurements and plane sectioning, see material attributes, etc. is all there just like in the original platform (but refined of course). The main profit however is the contextualization aspect: for each artifact, you get immediate access to relevant statistics, the retrieval site and site of conservation respectively via OpenStreetMap, an archeological report, the possibility to embed videos and images, and more. There is also the option of creating your own collection of artefacts or recording your work with the 3D models, i.e. the different manipulations made while investigating an artifact, and share this with a fellow researcher or a group of students.
Preserving, exploring and interacting with our cultural heritage – in the spirit of Open Data and the FAIR-principles!
Another substantial benefit – fully in line with the principles of FAIR-data* – is that trusted museums now are able to themselves upload, manage and make available 3D models, and by doing so taking control of their own digital heritage. In fact, the whole platform is constructed on an Open Science foundation: it is all about openness with not only results but also research data and research methods, encouraging collaboration and sharing knowledge and ideas. The platform supports the possibility to link the displayed artifacts with trusted repositories via DOIs, enabling users to download the raw data generating the 3D models, all in harmony with the FAIR principles.
Nicolò stresses that the dream scenario would be one where the code could be fully shared and adopted by various institutions.; not only sharing research data, but cooperating on system improvements and maintenance, as well as with funding.
When we ask Nicolò why working from the principles of Open Science is so important, the answer comes swiftly and passionately: “Because it will result in better research!” He explains that he considers it a purer way of doing science, and that collective efforts and working as a community opens possibilities to make advances in a way that has not been possible before. It’s a long way to go, as some remain hesitant or uncertain about sharing data. But things are definitely changing in the direction of openness.
It is clear that Nicolò has given this many hours of thought, since he also argues that with a passion comes risks. While creating databases for – for example – cultural heritage research and teaching, one has to mind the power of algorithms and what will be lingering and evolving online decades from now. Because of this, it is essential to gather and present diverse perspectives in data and research, ensuring that algorithms are trained to recognize and incorporate them.. Ending up with a scenario were only one side of a story, one part of society, or one culture is represented would be bad, to say the least.
* FAIR = Findable, Accessible, Interoperable och Reusable
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DARKLab is supported by the Birgit och Sven Håkan Ohlssons Foundation, Thora Ohlssons Foundation, Crafoord Foundation, LMK Foundation, Einar Hansen Foundation and the Swedish Research Council.