Computer Working Group (Informatique et Egyptologie)

Nigel Strudwick has announced that dates have been set for the 2006 meeting of the Computer Working Group of the IAE, better known as Informatique et Egyptologie. The meeting will take place in Worcester College, Oxford (UK) on 7-10 August 2006. IAE Computer Group Meeting 2006. the last formal meetig took place in Pisa in 2002. Further practical details will be compiled shortly, but the current plan is for the arrival of participants on Monday 7th August, with the meeting taking place on Tuesday 8th and Wednesday 9th, and departure on Thursday 10th. Nigel Strudwick describes the main themes as follows:

Themes
Now that most professional Egyptologists have access to IT and many technical problems have been solved or can be solved by colleagues or by others in their own institutions, I&E no longer needs to be so concerned with technical problems as it has been in the past. It is our aim to try and broaden the appeal of the meeting to encompass those who are doing important and relevant work to Egyptology, but who have until now shied away from our meetings, thinking perhaps that they are themselves not specialised enough to come, or do not have the relevant expertise. Computer technology now so all pervades our lives that most of us cannot exist without it, and the technology is being put to very interesting uses. The following four themes are suggested as the basis of the sessions:

Bibliography
One of the greatest potential contributions which IT can make to any subject is to make access easier to the ever-expanding amount of bibliography. The AEB, the management committee of which is hoped will be present at the Oxford meeting, has led the way for many years, and is presently its best approach in an Internet age. There are many issues in how such projects can be made available.

Museums and Archival collections online
Many Egyptological museums now have sections or substantial parts of their collections online. There are many issues as to how this should be done, and what standards and approaches can or should be taken.

The Internet-archiving, recommendation

The Internet has become a major element in the work of many Egyptologists in the past ten years, and with the greater access to high-speed technology, it promises to become more and more central to our lives. Many excellent sites have been set up, but many sites are plagued by occasional unavailability, or by the need to move service providers. Ways need to be adopted to control this. Also, the plethora of sites out there can be daunting to all, and we must remember that we are inevitably addressing ourselves to a wider public.Techniques need to be found to review and recommend sites to help those whose limited expertise may send them down the wrong path.

Projects
The meetings of I&E over the years have seen the launching of projects by many individuals. Individuals are invited to present projects which have a considerable IT component that will be of interest to participants. Presenters who have previously reported on their projects at these meetings are asked to present major changes rather than incremental progress reports.

Contact Information
Enquiries about the conference should be addressed to Diane Bergman at the
Sackler Library of the Ashmolean Museum (and NOT to Worcester College):
[email protected]

A web site for the meeting will soon be made available through the Egyptology Resources site in Cambridge (http://www.newton.cam.ac.uk/egypt).

Details for Worcester College can be found at:
http://www.worc.ox.ac.uk

Diane Bergman, [email protected]
Dag Bergman, [email protected]
Nigel Strudwick, [email protected]

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