The second Blogging Archaeology session is in the bag. Well, it’s in the digital file that the SAA people have for reviewing and printing into the programs. For those of you that don’t know, the first Blogging Archaeology Session (page 19) took place in 2011 at the Annual Meeting in Sacramento. I attended the session and my online life was forever changed.
That session had a bigger impact on me than any conference presentation I’ve ever seen. First, there was a screen showing the #SAA2011 hashtag for the conference. I wasn’t even on Twitter yet. I signed up right then and there. Instantly I was connected to the behind-the-scenes twitter conversation being held between conference participants and those watching virtually through Twitter.
The bloggers that got up to speak also affected me. After the session I went back to my hotel room and started this blog. Now, almost 200 posts later, I’m still going. I don’t blog on a regular schedule like I’d like, but, I get the information I want to relay out there often enough.
I really should have organized another blogging session for last year but I didn’t know if I’d be able to make it to Hawaii. Well, this year I’m going to Austin even if I have to hitch hike there and sleep on the street. So, I decided, with the help of a lot of other bloggers, to create this session. We have eight presenters and one discussant. It’s going to be a great session! If I can swing it, I’m going to have another screen with a Google Hangout running and the Twitter stream for the conference showing all the tweets from #SAA2014.
Here is the abstract for the session:
Blogging and social media have become indispensable tools for archaeologists in recent years. Academic and cultural resource management projects are utilizing blogging and social media for outreach and in classroom settings. The sharing of archaeology news and information by archaeologists and journals is a primary source of up to the minute information for many. A number of blogs are aimed at providing the public with information on either a single topic or a range of related topics. With all of these benefits to blogging and the use of social media in archaeology there are still issues to overcome. The problem of relating site and project information to the public while maintaining anonymity of the parties involved and keeping site locations confidential is something that every social archaeologists struggles with. In this session we will examine the ways archaeologists use social media and blogging and how problems related to the use of social media can be overcome.
Come join us if you can! If you can’t, follow us on social media. The after party is apparently going to be “epic”. John Lowe over at “Where The Hell Am I?” (@archaeocore) is hosting the party and promises a good time. Details to come as the event approaches.
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the field...or online!