ACL Use Case

Project, Website and Documentation Management

Ian Johnson, Archaeological Computing Laboratory

August 2005

Websites

       Archaeological Computing Laboratory

       Living with Heritage Project (ARC Linkage)

       Greater Angkor Project (ARC Discovery)

       Job tracking system (internal/password)

       iShperes documentation (public wiki)

       Archaeology Image Collection (internal/public)

Summary

The ACL staff work cooperatively with shared access to data, calendars, job lists, project web site editing, bibliographic data etc. Almost all ACL knowledge resources are centralised on the ACL server (and backed up nightly), either as files in a well-understood hierarchichal project-based file structure or as MySQL databases accessible through PHP front-ends. Web sites are maintained through a CMS which allows additions and editing with a web browser. Documentation, currently file-based, is being moved to a Wiki to allow consolidation in one place, flexible editing, more rapid update and cross-linking.

Centralisation of resources and web-accessible databases allow us to manage a multiplicity of projects, tasks within projects, web site pages and documentation in a way that would be impossible without the Internet. Our staff are scattered/mobile (including a key contributor who lives in Russia!) and work irregular hours, so allocation of tasks and access to information is often through web tools/databases rather than face-to-face. The major benefits are efficiency, security and sharing of information without redundancy and versioning problems.

Infrastructure/Tools Used

Databases

We have developed a PHP-based templating system which allows new web-editable databases to be constructed almost as simply in MySQL as in Access, with all the advantages of worldwide accessibility and a single copy rather than the redundancy and versioning problems of desktop databases. Having all databases in MySQL allows a variety of applications to cross-link information, such as tasks with staff time or photographs with site and bibliographic information.

Websites

Our web sites are all maintained in the Mambo Open Source CMS (based on MySQL and PHP), allowing multi-user web page editing, addition of news items and even site redesign from anywhere through a web browser. We have been able to incorporate additional tools such as a calendar, and customise the code to maintain parallel sites with shared content and different menus and styles.

Project Tracking

ACL staff work across a wide range of projects, with no one staff member devoted to a single project. Using email it became impossible to keep track of what needed doing and with what priorities, and to pass tasks from one person to another. A central database was the obvious answer.

Using PHP and MySQL we developed a database which centralises our list of tasks, allows allocation and prioritisation, allows tasks to be passed to someone else, stores documentation about completed tasks for later incorporation into user manuals, and records the amount of work done on different projects for budgetary purposes and filling in of casual timesheets. The same database stores asset data, budget data, mailing contacts and a range of other management data, and is being extended as we see additional streamlining of routine operations.

Why did we develop the system? We had the programming skills and it gave us the flexibility to customise it to our exact needs. We have control over the backend database formats so we can share data between different functions (eg. job tracking and time recording). Today we might take an Open Source project management product and customise it, or not.

Image Management

Archaeologists collect lots of photographs, either through fieldwork, lab/museum work or as teaching resources. Resources were scattered, endangered, inaccessible to other members of the department, duplicated, undocumented and unusable except by the individuals. By centralising all digital images on our server, indexing them in a MySQL database and providing front end tools in PHP for discovery and use in teaching, we are turning a bunch of personal files into a valuable departmental resource.

The application developed, ArchImage, has been generalised for use by other departments under the name iSpheres Image, and is currently being installed by Architecture, Botany, Medicine.