1. vera.rdg.ac.uk The VERA Project Virtual Research Environment for Archaeology. A JISC funded collaboration. Building on VRE 1 project. Developing computer-based tools for archaeologists. VERA took part in the 2007 Silchester excavation. It rained a lot!

2. vera.rdg.ac.uk The aims of VERA Enhance the means of documenting and archiving archaeological excavation data. Create a suitable Web portal that provides enhanced tools for the user community. Develop tools that work with existing practices of research archaeologists unfamiliar with VRE. Test these tools out in the field with the archaeologists.

3. vera.rdg.ac.uk VERA is a Collaborative Effort CS: School of Systems Engineering, University of Reading. Archaeology: Department of Archaeology, University of Reading and The York Archaeological Trust. User Testing: School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, University College London.

4. vera.rdg.ac.uk VERA at the 2007 Silchester Dig The testbed is the Silchester Town Life project. Now in its eleventh season. The excavation site is a portion of what was once a large, bustling Roman town. The aim of this dig is to trace the site's development from its origins before the Roman Conquest to its abandonment in the fifth century AD.

5. vera.rdg.ac.uk Gathering Data with Digital Pens Logitech IO2 digital pens. Look and write like normal pens on what looks like normal paper. A camera inside the pen records what has been written.

6. vera.rdg.ac.uk Digital pens for Context Cards Context cards describe what the archeologists have discovered. At the 2007 Silchester dig VERA used digital pens for all finds in the south east corner of the trench. The pens and paper survived the weather, the mud and the archaeology students.

7. vera.rdg.ac.uk Docking the Pens The pages are imported and interpreted by software. Text is converted using hand writing recognition software and diagrams are saved as images.

8. vera.rdg.ac.uk Importing the Data After checking for spelling and archaeological errors, the text is copied to the clipboard and pasted into the VRE (1) portal.

9. vera.rdg.ac.uk The Digital Pens were a Success Simple training. Robust (weather, mud and student proof). Speeds up post-excavation work (context cards must be transcribed). Encourages legible handwriting. Paper master copy created in the trench in case of computer related disasters (unlike a PDA for example).

10. vera.rdg.ac.uk Context Cards with Nokia N800s The Nokia N800 Internet Tablet is a hand held Internet Browser. PDAs have been used in the past to record context cards directly into the VRE portal, VERA tried again this year. Computer equipment does not like sunlight, rain, dust or mud. The system relies on a stable WiFi link (Silchester gets Internet access from a barn down the road).

11. vera.rdg.ac.uk N800s for Complimentary Data Digital pictures of finds can be taken and uploaded from the trench, VERA tried this when the weather permitted. Skype can be used to bring a remote expert into the trench for advice.

12. vera.rdg.ac.uk Silchester 2007 Dig Summary Rain stopped play for nearly 50% of the dig The digital pens were a storming success VERA documented the digging process using diaries to gain insight into the archeological processes VERA gained first hand experience living and working with the archeologists in the field

13. vera.rdg.ac.uk Plans for the 2008 Silchester Dig Follow up on the success of the digital pens. Wireless camera monitoring of the dig, where do the archaeologists work? A bigger generator for all the technology.

14. vera.rdg.ac.uk VERA Portal The current VRE 1 portal is a bespoke PHP application, VERA is porting this to JSR- 168 portlets. We are using Gridsphere for the portlet container. The prototype VRE 2 portal will use a portal-bridge to consume the VRE 1 portal. VERA will develop generic portlets for use in other VREs.

15. vera.rdg.ac.uk VERA Website A standard-based Web site with an integrated Wiki and public Blog. Follow the progress of the project by subscribing to our RSS feed. For more information and contact details see the website. http://vera.rdg.ac.uk/