THE ASHWELL PROJECT: CREATING AN ONLINE GEOSPATIAL COMMUNITY

Abstract

Background:

As the world becomes increasingly digital, so too must the way in which archaeologists engage with the public. This was particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, and many outreach and engagement efforts began to move online. One such project was The Ashwell Project (TAP). Within TAP, it combined aspects of participatory GIS and crowdsourcing of datasets, with Progressive Web App functionality of geolocation and navigation to disseminate community-collected photographs and narratives. The project’s main area of study was how to disseminate anecdotal datasets within local heritage initiatives, and how to engage less technically competent users with inherently complex digital systems.

Subject:

The project aimed to function as a proof of concept, collating local narratives from the village of Ashwell, North Hertfordshire. The demographic of the village is a combination of an ageing population and commuter families. As such, it was vital to ensure the design considered the different needs of these groups. The project was created using the design thinking process of empathising with the users, ideation, definition, prototyping, and testing. The result was a free-to-access geospatial web application. The project was co-developed by Ashwell Museum and the University of York and aimed to capture previously excluded datasets in one digital resource, educating the public about local narratives, creating a digital community, and tackling the issue of isolation and community social health. The datasets within the project included anecdotal and intangible heritage alongside formal tangible heritage datasets, forming a ‘living digital record’. The application has since been taken down, yet several lessons can be learned from this project: the types of narratives individuals like to share, how to encourage older generations to use these applications, the potential of design thinking in encouraging wider participation with such technologies, and how progressive web applications can be utilised to increase the use of online heritage communities. From analysis of usage, the project was shown to be effective across a wide range of demographics, particularly those it targeted. It also revealed the diversity of narratives and stories individuals consider important, thus providing opportunities to increase the knowledge of locally significant heritage, working alongside Historic England’s Hidden Pieces initiative.

Discussion:

This paper notes interesting opportunities and lessons concerning the digital engagement of diverse communities. It considers how best to encourage the uptake of participatory GIS and crowdsourcing datasets, together with how users’ own devices can be utilised to increase engagement with tangible and intangible heritage. This paper argues that such approaches should be considered on a much wider scale, encouraging communities to engage with such platforms. The project revealed that the process of design thinking with its emphasis on empathy and iterative testing is imperative in designing successful heritage assets. Furthermore, it revealed how it is possible to engage the public with archaeology during a global pandemic.