Applied Archaeology and Social Media

Consider a job description this specific: skinny scientists with caving and climbing experience who could fit in a space spanning 18 cm, with no claustrophobia, don’t panic easily, work cooperatively under difficult situations, with experience in archaeology, paleoanthropology, physical anthropology, ophiology, or evolutionary bio mechanics who can be ready to travel to South Africa within the next 3 weeks. Describes half the population of any major university. Right?

The writer of the job description, Professor Lee Berger of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa figured there might be 100 people in the world who could approach the qualifications, but how to get the message of need into their hands? In this particular case the intended audience was already connected Berger as members of his Facebook page. Social media has created avenues of connect that us with people of like interests. In Berger’s world his Facebook page isn’t used for sharing family pics or cat videos, it’s dedicated to forwarding the science of Anthropology and as a rock star in the world of rock research, he already had the people he needed. He just needed them to come forward.

Within 10 days of posting the position 57 people applied, within a week of that he had 6 people, all women, hired and heading to South Africa. The specific task was to access a chamber some 90 meters down a cave that contained thousands of bones which turned out to be a previously unidentified species fitting somewhere in the early hominid category.

The story is fascinating and can be watched at http://video.pbs.org/video/2365559270/ . As a fan of science I love this stuff, but being the technology field what struck me as most fascinating is the way this expedition utilized social media like Skype and Facebook to keep the rest of the community up to date on the project.  Live reports were shared directly to classrooms around the world as this wondrous new discovery unfolded. An opportunity for students and teachers not able to be there to participate in the experience to learn right along with the onsite scientists. How can you innovate technology in your teaching today?