Open Context: Collaborative Data Publication to Bridge Field Research and Museum Collections 
Eric Kansa, UC Berkeley, School of Information, USA
Sarah Whitcher Kansa, Alexandria Archive Institute, USA
Open Context (http://www.opencontext.org) is an open source system that provides a cost-effective dissemination solution for field research and museum collections. The system offers common services and tools to link field research and museum collections with active discussions and creative reuses, making these collections a much richer and integral part of continued cultural and scholarly production. Open Context provides a Web-based tool for researchers and collections managers to upload, "markup" and publish diverse archaeological and museum collection datasets. Once published, users can browse, search, query, and analyze multiple field project and collection datasets. Citation features and editorial control encourage researchers to consider publication in Open Context as a valid form of scholarly communication. At the same time, Creative Commons licenses give explicit permissions for users to freely and legally use the material so long as they properly attribute the original creator and abide by a few other optional terms. The licenses help insure the availability of Open Context content for new creative and scholarly works.
Demonstration: Demonstrations [Close-Up]
Keywords: data integration, ontologies, folksonomy, collaboration, social software, data longevity
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