The Architect of Arch-L

The ARCH-L archive is a wonderful resource in and of itself. Did you realize from the start how rich a resource it was going to be?

The archive is built into listserv so it is just a matter of turning it on. Unfortunately, we lost the archives from the early years when the list switched over. But we do have them back to 1992. The switch from the VM (IBM mainframe) version of listserv to the UNIX version of listserv has been aggravating in many ways, but the handling of the archive is much better. You still need to use arcane commands to search across months, but the web interface makes browsing the archive much easier.

I thought the value of the archive would be historical (what did they talk about back then?) and a good way to retrieve something you accidentally deleted or something you didn't think you needed when you first saw it, but now you need it. I hoped that the archive would help to keep us from going back over the same issues over and over again, but that hasn't really happened. Partly, I suppose because the archive is still unfamiliar territory to many people. Also because everybody thinks they have a slightly different (and better) way of making the same point.

As with many electronic discussion groups, ARCH-L has struggled with issues of freedom of speech versus slander and libel. When this happened a few years ago, you developed a "netiquette" for ARCH-L, and after warning the transgressors, removed them from the list. Could you talk a little about that? Are you happy with the outcome?

I am pleased with the outcome and surprised that things quieted down so quickly. I really thought that open lists were only as disrupt-able by single individuals as the other list subscribers allowed them to be. I thought that getting rid of a single individual would just be a temporary fix until someone else came along to disrupt the list if the subscribers did not learn how to deal with hostile postings. The list has been relatively quiet for a year now so I was apparently wrong (knock on wood).

I often lead people to read your FAQ on becoming an archaeologist. What prompted you to start it, and how has it developed over time?).

I was the Secretary-Treasurer of the Society of Professional Archaeologists (SOPA) a few years ago. One of my duties was to answer mail from people who wrote to SOPA asking about career information. We had a small brochure, but it was not very detailed so I began copying other stuff and putting it in file folders. I still get mail from school students in Michigan every spring who have to research different careers. I figured that if I put everything together on about 5 pages, I could just send out copies. One of my students went to work at the Illinois State Museum and was building their web page. He offered to convert my handout to a web page. To keep the address stable, we still maintain it there. In 1996 it was getting 32 hits/day (just under 12,000 for the year).

Last fall, while getting things together for my classes I decided to start another web page that you may not be aware of. I used to clip news articles about anthropology and post them on a set of bulletin boards outside my office. I no longer do the bulletin board, but I now have a web version linked to our departmental web pages. It provides links to news items from the last 2-3 months. It's a good way to keep up with changes in the discipline and the latest finds. The links are mostly popular press things so the detail is not that great. It was the May Site of the Month on Archnet. It has also been selected for the interNIC Academic Site List (whatever that is). In May it was getting 70-100 hits/day, but I haven't checked it lately.

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