As the semester starts to conclude, the spring season of travel and chaos descends. Between now and the summer ESIP meeting, I will only be home for a few short breaks (to do laundry). This series of trips starts April 23-27 with the Society for American Archaeologist Annual Conference in Austin, TX and ends with the ESIP summer meeting in Frisco, CO. (There is a month long detour in the middle for field research in Alaska.)
Society for American Archaeology (SAA) Annual Conference (April 23-27, 2014 – Austin, TX)
This year marks the 79th anniversary of this continental scale conference and will include more than 3,000 archaeologists. The SAAs is an international community of professional, student and avocational archaeologists numbering more than 7,000 (Exhibitor Prospectus). This conference has gotten so big. In addition to the normal 8am to 5pm (or 6pm) sessions on most days, this conference has sessions from 8 am until 10pm on Thursday, April 24. Of course, I present and chair a session that will end after 9pm (Alaska during the Pleistocene).
I always enjoy this conference. It is one where I always meet up with colleagues that I haven’t seen in years and make new friends. The regions discussed range all over the globe. The topics will range from analysis of a specific artifact from a specific site to global migrations. It is a plethora of information jammed into a few days. I expect it won’t take long to reach information overload… I look forward to touring around Austin, Texas.
Then…
Almost immediately after the SAAs I get to go up to Vancouver Island to test field equipment. I will be in Alaska for about a month between mid-May and mid-June (details are still coming together)… But some of it will involve a boat and some of it will involve camping in the Coastal Temperate Rainforest of Prince of Wales Island.
ESIP Summer Meeting (July 8 – 11, 2014 – Copper Mountain Resort, Frisco, CO)
As a student fellow, I get to attend the summer ESIP meeting again this year. I’m looking forward to the beautiful drive up to interior Colorado (still looking for people to come in my car). I loved attending this meeting in Madison, WI in 2012. This was my first introduction to ESIP meetings; I learned a lot. I look forward to seeing everyone. As usual, the documentation cluster will have several sessions at this summer’s meeting (Design and Implementtaion of ISO Metadtaa in Science Data Products and a metadata Hack-a-thon).
Metadata Hack-a-thon
The metadata hack-a-thon is an idea that came out of our January telecon to better engage the ESIP community. This is being organized by Anna Milan from NGDC, NOAA with assistance from Ted Habermann, Ed Armstrong, and me. The idea is that people can bring their metadata in the format they usually use (FGDC, ECHO, THREDDS, or …) and the group will help you convert your metadata using the ISO standards. People can also bring the stories and challenges so the group can help. I think this will be a great, interactive, and loud session… not sure how the note taking will go through this one!