Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Best Practices for Digital Field Archaeology - Ep 167
251 Plays4 years ago
We've got a guest from Wildnote on today to talk about best practices when going in the field with your digital forms. There is some Wildnote feature stuff in here, but, most of this is applicable to anyone using digital recording devices in the field.
Links
Contact
- Chris Webster
- Twitter: @archeowebby
- Email: chris@archaeologypodcastnetwork.com
- Paul Zimmerman
- Twitter: @lugal
- Email: paul@lugal.com
ArchPodNet
- APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
- APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
- APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
- APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
- Tee Public Store
Affiliates
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Sponsor Announcement
00:00:00
Speaker
We're excited to announce that our very own podcasting platform, Zencaster, has become a new sponsor to the show. Check out the podcast discount link in our show notes and stay tuned for why we love using Zen for the podcast.
00:00:19
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Archaeotech Podcast, Episode 167. I'm your host, Chris Webster, with my co-host, Paul Zimmerman. Today, we bring on Rachel Rodin from WildNote to talk about best practices when preparing to go into the field with digital archaeology. Let's get to it.
Digital Archaeology with Rachel Rodin
00:00:34
Speaker
Welcome to the show, everybody. Paul is not joining me today because he is having fun flying drones in Iraq and almost getting killed by Chinese drills. So follow him at Lugal on Twitter to see his adventures in Iraq. He's going to come back hopefully soon and tell us all about his travels over there and his drone flying and what he did and some of the other technological things that they did over there in Iraq. So looking forward to that.
00:01:02
Speaker
Today, however, I have a guest on from Wild Note. Wild Note, we talk about all the time on this show. Wild Note is a digital services provider, not just for archaeology, but for wetlands, biology, and with their form-building services, basically anything you want. If you're collecting data in the field on
00:01:21
Speaker
muffin top sizes, you can create a form to actually collect that information. Yeah. I mean, I collected information on cactuses one time for funsies. So yeah, whatever you want. So speaking right now is Rachel Rodin, who is for fans of the archaeology show. You know, this already is my wife, but she also is an archaeologist and also has used Wild Note extensively in the field, managing large field projects and is working customer service for Wild Note. So Rachel, tell us what you do at Wild Note.
00:01:51
Speaker
I work with customers basically to help troubleshoot problems and also to help set up their systems and make sure that they are going into the field set up for success. Because when you're using a digital platform, you got a learning curve there if you're brand new. And then even if you're not brand new, you got to make sure that you've got your forms exactly the way you want them so that when you go collect that data, you are collecting what you need.
00:02:15
Speaker
and you're going to get the data out of it in a way that works for your project. So there's a lot of optimization kind of stuff that we help customers with too.
00:02:24
Speaker
What we're going to talk about today is an article that you've got debuting as of time or release of this episode this week on the Wild Note website. It really is a little bit Wild Note-centric in how to set things up because it's a Wild Note article. However, this article, I looked at it and I was like, this actually works for anybody doing any digital platform. If you're doing digital fieldwork,
00:02:47
Speaker
You should be paying attention to all the steps that are here. This is really a best practices for doing digital archaeology. Paul and I have talked about before how we don't like the phrase digital archaeology anymore because all archaeology should be digital archaeology. We shouldn't have to qualify the statement. However,
00:03:03
Speaker
This is an appropriate time to qualify the statement because when you're setting up for a non-digital project, it's a very different setup. Very different. Yeah. There's a lot of the same initial things that you would do for both projects, but then the digital setup has extra things because you're bringing out extra equipment and you're doing different things. So that is what we are going to talk about. If you want to see the article, then head over to the show notes, arcpodnet.com forward slash archaeotech.
00:03:33
Speaker
Yeah, I think the reason that this all sort of came together the way it did is because I'm kind of uniquely poised to write an article like this because I work for you, for DigTech, for your company, as the crew chief... Project manager. Yeah, kind of like a... Field project manager. Yeah, field project manager.
Shifting to Digital Data Collection
00:03:54
Speaker
And I'm managing all of our digital collection in the field. And then I also work for Wild Note. So like I've kind of got my toes in both worlds there. So it just made sense for me to write this article and then for us to talk about it because it is really important to really shift your mindset from collecting on paper to collecting digitally because it is a different process to set up that project and then what you do with the data once you collect it.
00:04:17
Speaker
Right. Alright, so let's jump right in here. There's a lot of stuff you've got to do before you go into the field. Just like a non-digital project, you've got to get your pin flags together, make sure you've got vehicles, hotels, stuff like that. And then once you get all that sorted, you've got your employees sorted, well now you have to set up your data collection scheme basically, right? How are you collecting data? And if you're using paper, you're printing off reams and reams of site forms and site records and putting all those in three-ring binders and folders.
00:04:45
Speaker
People truly aren't doing that anymore, right? I mean, people are. There's other, gosh, I don't know. Honestly, people are still doing that. Some people do it possibly just for peace of mind. They want to have those hard copies just in case everything they bring in the field fails.
00:05:07
Speaker
Of course, as soon as Augusta Wind comes along and all those papers get blown off the mountain, you're done. Yeah, yeah. We've seen, what was it? There was a vehicle, I don't think we actually saw it, but we were in a caravan of vehicles one time, and the vehicles never actually caravan, but it's a bunch of vehicles going to and from a site in Nevada. And didn't somebody have a window open, like a back window open, and they're
00:05:30
Speaker
Oh, paperwork was just like flying out of it. Flipped over, like opened and paperwork was just like flying out of the back window of the truck. Yeah, that definitely happened. Definitely, definitely happened. Yeah. Now tablets and trimbles and things like that have been left on hoods of trucks as well. They're not impervious to destruction, but
00:05:48
Speaker
Yeah, so anyway, your pre-fieldwork setup is going to include two different things. One of them is going to be setting up your forms, and the other one's going to be making sure you have the right hardware. So let's talk about setting up your forms first. Now, a lot of this is going to be applicable to WildNote, but whatever form service that you're using, whether it's as low as Google Docs or even fillable PDFs all the way up to Collector or some other thing, a lot of these steps are going to be the same. Some of them might be a little bit
00:06:17
Speaker
specific to WildNote because of their features and capabilities, but a lot of these things are gonna be the same. Yeah, I would imagine they all have these features and functions, and honestly, if they don't, they should, and you should come talk to me because you need WildNote if you don't have this. But anyway, okay, that's my plug. I'll stop now. Rachel at wilderact.com. Right.
00:06:34
Speaker
Now, so the first thing you can do that I found very powerful and admittedly forgot to do for our last project, and I'm kicking myself now because I'm going back and doing this individually by form, is default information. You always have questions on your forms, whether it's your site form or your
00:06:53
Speaker
tool collecting form or whatever form it is, there's always something that is going to be the same across the entire project. Project number, crew members, managing agency, whatever it might be. Some of those things are going to be the same. So just use default information and fill that in before you even go in the field. It's done.
00:07:12
Speaker
Yeah, and first off, what this means is when you open a new form, particularly in Wildown, any program that has default information, the field is already filled in for you. You can often edit that field if it's not read only. You can edit that field, but it's pre-filled for you. And the whole point, partly, of digital archaeology is to save you time in the field. So let's use the powers of those things and do that. Now, if you're printing out forms, I hope you're also doing default information.
00:07:39
Speaker
Oh God, I hope so. Yes, seriously, because nobody wants to see the forest service written out in six different ways. USFS, Humboldt Toyobi National Forest, just FS. There's so many different ways that people will write this in the field. And if you want consistency, you want it written the same exact way every single time, just pre-fill it, take that choice away from people in the field who are hot and potentially dehydrated and just don't let them make that decision.
00:08:04
Speaker
I prefer HTNF, ESX. Oh my God. Seriously, I have some like personal stuff going on here because I'm currently doing our site forms for the project over the summer. So if I sound a little intense, it's because of that. Right. So what's the next thing they can do?
00:08:21
Speaker
Next thing, and this is specific to Wild Note, but Wild Note has a thing called helper text. And what you can do with helper text is go into an actual question and type in anything you want there that can pop up for the field crew. It could be a reminder. It could be the required information for that question. It could even be a template.
00:08:41
Speaker
Like you always want the question answered in this certain format. You could give them a template right there if you wanted. Now they can't copy it. It's more of a reminder like, Hey, this is what we expect to see in this question. But that can be very powerful to help remind people how to answer the questions the way you want them in the final format.
00:08:59
Speaker
And this comes along the lines of documentation. It's helpful to, especially when in the age of digital archaeology, a lot of times you'll get crew members that have never collected data in this way, or perhaps they've never collected data on the particular program that you're using. There's a lot of options out there. And you might, as a field tech, go from one crew to the next and have different things that you're exposed to. And they're all a little bit different. Yeah, definitely. Basically the same features, but they're all a little bit different in how you interact with them.
00:09:28
Speaker
Text that you can add in that won't export to the farm But this is just text that you can add in that will say hey, here's the instructions for doing this It's a little bit of effort on your part But saves a ton of anguish on the other end when people read that and they put the right thing in rather than the wrong thing in
00:09:44
Speaker
Yeah. And that actually leads right into my next thing because training is a big part of this too. You can put all the helper texts in that you want, but people have to actually use it. They've got to click on the little I in wild note. It's a little I, you got to click on that to see what the helper texts said. And with training, you've got to train people to look for those eyes so that they do look at what you expect to see and they actually, you know, fill in the things the way that you want them to be done.
Best Practices for Digital Field Work
00:10:08
Speaker
Yeah. And while not the I just is information. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But there's other ways that you should be doing your training too. You should talk to your crew about certain things. Like this is a big one for me. CCS versus church. Anybody who's worked in the West will probably actually anywhere in this country knows about the debate between CCS and church. And I'm not even sure that like some people just really care about one versus the other. I don't think it matters. Just pick one and make sure your crew knows what you want it to be.
00:10:36
Speaker
It doesn't matter. CCS is Crypto, Crystal, and Silicate, and Chirt is a version of that. Your Crypto, Crystal, and Silicate may not be Chirt.
00:10:46
Speaker
Right. That's correct. Yeah. Cause like Jasper and stuff is technically... They're kinds of chert. They're also kinds of CCS. I mean, it's a whole thing. It's like getting into some geology stuff. My point is pick the one that you want for your project. Yeah. And part of your project setup though, is to make sure that if you have those sorts of things in a dropdown, that you put those things in a dropdown if you can. If they're typing this out in a sentence,
00:11:11
Speaker
then there's nothing you can do but tell them, hey, use this nomenclature versus this other nomenclature and use that in the sentence. But if you're picking different types, like if you have obsidian and quartz and CCS and a dropdown, make sure you pre-fill those things so that people can select from that rather than having to type something in, of course.
00:11:30
Speaker
Yeah, and a lot of the agency forms don't allow for drop downs there because there would just be too many options. So that's where the communication and training part of this come in is. You just need to talk to your people, make sure they understand what you're expecting them to use, what terminology. And it's other things too. Something that I had to really hammer home on this project last summer was that we need to be writing things in complete sentences.
00:11:55
Speaker
when you wrote your data down on paper, you could use shorthand, you could use abbreviations, you could do whatever you wanted to make it a shorter writing experience for you because somebody was just going to transcribe that into full sentences on a computer in the office. It is no longer like that. You are writing the complete sentence that is going onto the form in the field when you are collecting data digitally. It doesn't take that much longer to just write a complete sentence.
00:12:21
Speaker
And you might think, well, this is supposed to save time, but that takes me a longer amount of time. But you've got to think about, you're pulling from one bucket and adding to another for time rise. Because in the office, in the old days, you would, like Rachel said, write out these short hands into complete sentences and paragraphs. That's the part that we're now doing longhand, hopefully, in the field, behaving like scientists and writing down cohesive, coherent sentences.
00:12:47
Speaker
But the other stuff we no longer have to do, because in the field you would also fill out these paper tables, and that would have to be transcribed into a digital table and then entered into the site record, pulled in as a PDF or however you're going to do that. We no longer have to do that.
00:13:04
Speaker
So, take that time you're saving not doing that and write good sentences in the field, because it's all about accurate data collection in the field, and the only person that knows the most about that site is the one that's standing on that site. They're the ones that are more capable of explaining what they're seeing and taking the time to write a good quality sentence, even if that sentence may have to be rewritten.
00:13:27
Speaker
That's fine. Just write as good a sentence as you can and go to paragraphs as you can to describe. Do your data collection in your tables and you're saving that time so you can add time to something else. That's more important. Yeah, definitely. I mean, just try to think of it. And it helps if you've worked on the report preparation side of a project before, but even if you haven't, just think about writing the data and train your people to write the data in a way that would make sense to print on a form later for somebody to read. That's really the takeaway there for me.
00:13:56
Speaker
And there's other things to keep in mind when you're training. Obviously you need to make sure that everybody knows how to use the program too. And do know that there's a learning curve there. You need to take the time to have your people run through all the different form types or at least a couple examples of each form type. And I think this is true of any program you're using. Just make sure that they enter some data and that they understand what they're doing. It's really helpful to do that test before you go out in the field.
00:14:24
Speaker
All right, so what are some other helpful things that you can do?
00:14:27
Speaker
Well, with Wild Note specifically, you have the ability to upload reference materials. And you can do that in the project document section. You could put all of your different can forms, your bottle forms, your projectile point typologies, everything you need can go into that project document section. And the other thing you can put there are previously recorded site forms. And I found that very powerful in the field because they would be on my device. I didn't have to be connected to the internet to get those previously recorded site forms.
00:14:54
Speaker
on my device to look at when I'm trying to find that site in the field or I'm currently re-recording that site in the field or whatever it might be. Before WildNote, I was still using an iPad and I would use a program called iAnnotate, which is a PDF reader that would essentially
00:15:09
Speaker
look at my Dropbox where I had all my reference material, but I had the ability to look at that Dropbox and then save everything in iAnnotate. The problem with that, of course, is other crew members don't have access to that. I'd have to set them up with my Dropbox and then get iAnnotate on those devices and bring them down. If it's a company device, then you can certainly do that.
00:15:27
Speaker
But the ability to just add somebody to that project in WildNote and have them sync their device and then all that information just comes down to them is super handy. So there's other ways to do reference materials, but I think WildNote's really kind of killed it with the documents thing.
00:15:43
Speaker
Yeah, and you've got your little trick, too, for only having to do one reference material situation. Yeah, because it's weird to copy projects. That's not a concept most people can think of, because you would not really want to do that. You'd have to copy the setup, and that's a weird thing. So what I'm talking about is on a project in Wild Note specifically, there is the documents thing, like Rachel said. And normally what we would put there now is not reference material, but just the previously recorded sites and any common information, like overall site maps.
00:16:12
Speaker
field work authorization, health and safety plans, stuff like that. But in a separate project entirely, load up all the reference materials so you can add whoever you want to that project, and that syncs as a separate project that only has documents in it. So it's kind of a little pro tip there for not having to upload. Because I've got dozens, if not hundreds, of reference material items that I don't want to upload every time to every single project.
00:16:36
Speaker
Yeah, it takes a long time to do that. And then it takes a long time to sync that data to your device as well. So having all of it in a project that's just always synced to your device is really the way to go for that. Yeah, for sure. So project locations. This is another really powerful tool in
Using WildNote for Data Management
00:16:50
Speaker
Wild Note. And I imagine it must be similar in other programs. But basically, you can preload your locations into a dropdown menu so that your crews can just pick from them.
00:16:59
Speaker
And that's where you would wanna put your previous sites in there, your previous site numbers. You can also associate those previous site numbers with coordinates. And those coordinates will show up on a map view in WildNote. So now I know everybody has their mapping device out in the field as well as Trimble or whatever, but this gives the other crew members who maybe don't have the mapping tool on them, the ability to look at a map and say, okay, I'm walking around the datum of the previously recorded site. So it's gotta be here somewhere.
00:17:29
Speaker
On this point, everybody, before they go out into the field, comes up with temporary site numbers. They come up with a list and a nomenclature they're going to use for that. They may not actually have the list, but they may designate a methodology with which they're going to do that. Wildnet just takes that a step further and puts those in an actual drop-down so people don't screw it up and they know what to pick from.
00:17:48
Speaker
Yeah, and it has a dynamic project locations option as well. So if you don't want to preload them, because what happens when you preload is that you'll have a whole bunch of site numbers that don't get used. And if you don't like that, then you can do it dynamically and just make them as you go as well. Okay, in the last minute of this segment, let's talk about isolated fines.
00:18:05
Speaker
Yeah, so isolated vines can be recorded directly into WildNote. You can take the point directly into WildNote if you want, or you can enter the coordinates from your external GPS device, whichever way works for you, and depending on the accuracy that you need those coordinates to be at. But then you can export those coordinates directly out of WildNote in a KML file. And WildNote has a pretty good KML export now so that you can get the data
00:18:30
Speaker
out of WildNote that you need in order to plop it right into, I mean Google Earth if you just need to quickly view it, or also into your mapping program. So that's really helpful too. All right, well we're gonna take a break and on the other side we'll talk about your pre-field hardware setup back in a minute.
00:18:46
Speaker
Chris Webster here for the Archaeology Podcast Network. We strive for high quality interviews and content so you can find information on any topic in archaeology from around the world. One way we do that is by recording interviews with our hosts and guests located in many parts of the world all at once. We do that through the use of Zencaster. That's Z-E-N-C-A-S-T-R.
00:19:06
Speaker
Zencaster allows us to record high quality audio with no stress on the guest. Just send them a link to click on and that's it. Zencaster does the rest. They even do automatic transcriptions. Check out the link in the show notes for 30% off your first three months or go to zencastr.com and use the code ARCHEOTECH. That's A-R-C-H-A-E-O-T-E-C-H.
00:19:28
Speaker
Looking to expand your knowledge of x-rays and imaging in the archaeology field? Then check out an introduction to paleoradiography, a short online course offering professional training for archaeologists and affiliated disciplines. Created by archaeologist, radiographer, and lecturer James Elliott, the content of this course is based upon his research and teaching experience in higher education. It is approved by the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists as four hours of training. That's in the UK for those of you that don't know.
00:19:53
Speaker
So, don't miss out on this exciting opportunity for professional and personal development. For more information on pricing and core structure, visit paleoimaging.com. That's P-A-L-E-O, imaging.com. And look for the link in the show notes to this episode.
00:20:09
Speaker
Welcome back to the Archiotech podcast, episode 167, and we are talking with Rachel Rodin, customer service at WildNote and archaeologist about best practices when setting up for a digital field archaeology project, which should be every project. It should be. That's right. Who wants piles of paperwork anymore?
00:20:28
Speaker
So in segment one, we talked about your pre-field digital setup. How should you set up your digital life? It's not just about turning on the program and saying, let's go do archaeology. I mean, it could be if you have a pretty simple thing to go out and do. You're like a one person thing. But when you're setting up crews and things like that, there is stuff. So that's important. And it differs from state to state, which we didn't even get a chance to talk about. But you've got different forms for different states. And you might be needing to customize things based on the project. So there's a lot of things that need to go into the setup aspect of the forms.
00:20:57
Speaker
But once you get those forms all set in the way that you want them to collect data, what are you collecting that data on?
Devices for Field Data Collection
00:21:05
Speaker
Well, most people are collecting that data on tablets. I'm a huge advocate of using phones, but let's talk about that. Yes, let's talk about that. Let's talk about that first, because I feel the same way. And in fact, one of the most common questions I personally get through either email or just messages on Facebook and stuff like that is, hey, are companies thinking about doing digital archaeology? What kind of tablet should we buy? And I'm like, don't you already have a phone?
00:21:32
Speaker
Yeah, so here's our controversial opinion. And I think that we're basically the same on this given our experience.
00:21:39
Speaker
It is completely okay for data to be recorded on people's personal devices in the field, especially with a program like WildNote. There's securities in place where you take the data away once they leave the company and they can't do anything, they can't mess with it. It's not on their device anymore, right? So there's nothing wrong security wise with having people use their personal devices. And I would argue it's almost better because everybody's gonna have their phone on them anyway
00:22:07
Speaker
So why are you going to ask them to carry both a tablet and a phone at the same time? To me, it just seems natural for people to use their phones. Also, I will say this because I work at Wild Note and I don't just work with archaeologists. I work with biologists, wetlands biologists, like lots of different people. They all use their personal devices. It is expected when you become a field biologist for one of these companies using Wild Note that you will be using your personal phone in the field to collect data.
00:22:36
Speaker
Now, let me just take the company owner perspective here for a second. One of the problems with that, of course, is that somebody is using their phone, they're looking down at it, they trip, they fall, they face plant their phone, they put their hand out, just like you do a tremble. Almost everyone who's used a tremble has cracked a screen on one. Or seen a screen. Or known somebody who did. Or seen one cracked, yeah.
00:22:56
Speaker
Because you put your hand down and it's just going to get cracked. Now if that happens in the field, then the right thing to do as a company owner is to buy them a new phone or have it repaired, right? And you might be thinking, yeah, but that's going to cost me $1,000. It's like, well, OK, but you're going to spend money on tablets, too. And unless you buy good tablets, you're probably going to buy cheaper tablets, which you're going to replace more often. And also, your insurance should probably cover that.
00:23:24
Speaker
If you have that, I have what's called a tech rider on my insurance, and if any of my company-owned pieces of technology fails, then I have a $500 deductible and they will replace it for free. They'll want some evidence and maybe see if it can be repaired. Of course, it's an insurance company, so they're going to get away cheaply.
00:23:42
Speaker
But that's the way it is. And I think in the long term, phones are more robust these days. It's just easier than managing your own devices. People already have one. But have devices handy if somebody shows up with a Nokia flip phone or something like that, or they've got an Android running a software that's 15 versions back.
00:24:02
Speaker
or an iPhone 3G, like if they show up rocking one of those things with a four gigabyte memory capacity, then yeah, hand them a tablet. Yeah. And that is the problem is that I hate to generalize, but archeologists do tend to have androids and often not new androids. No, you got a plan for that. Yeah. You do have to have a backup plan for somebody whose phone just simply won't be capable of running Wild Note and have something for them.
00:24:26
Speaker
But that's the good thing. I think in my experience, I've noticed people like to use their own devices once you give them that opportunity. And I don't necessarily tell them that I'll replace it, but if they ask, I'll say it. So don't really offer that up, because you will get somebody that's just like, oh, my phone broke. Oh, it broke. What? I don't think people are generally that... Gonna take advantage. Yeah. That, you know, dishonest about it. But some people would be. So I don't offer that information.
00:24:53
Speaker
Yeah, you gotta treat your people right. So anyway, that's our argument for phones over company tablets. The other thing is people are constantly upgrading their personal devices, but if you buy tablets for your company, you know what you gotta do? Upgrade all of them. Yeah, I mean, we are constantly upgrading our devices. Again, I'm not sure. Yeah, okay, true.
00:25:10
Speaker
I don't know, there's a lot of archaeologists that are constantly getting the new phones too. Yeah, maybe. I'm just thinking about my personal experience helping various archaeology customers with Wild Note, and I can think of four companies I've worked with off the top of my head who've made the decision to purchase iPads.
00:25:26
Speaker
for the company or Android tablets for the company. And while it works fine if you want to do it that way, it definitely brings up a host of other issues. So I don't know. I guess you just got to look at your own personal situation, decide what works best for you. But if you do make the choice to buy tablets for your company, please do this one very important thing. Make sure it has an antenna in it.
00:25:52
Speaker
A cellular antenna. A cellular antenna. If for iPads, this means it must be the cellular plus GPS version, meaning that you can add a cell plan to it if you want to. You don't have to. You don't have to pay for that cell plan, but it must be capable of it because that means it has the antenna in it. And why do you need this antenna?
00:26:09
Speaker
Cause that is how you get the accurate coordinates. I just was talking with the customer who didn't realize they needed to buy the iPads that are cell enabled. And they're like, our iPad coordinates are saying they're like 60 meter or they're comparing, they were comparing the coordinates to their sub meter device. And they're like, the coordinates on the iPad are 60 meters off. And I'm like, well, what kind of iPad do you have? And then they told me, and I was like, that's because there is not an antenna in that iPad. You will not get accurate coordinates.
00:26:35
Speaker
If you don't have an antenna, the iPad tries to find Wi-Fi and won't, or it'll look at other devices around, because if you've got the Wi-Fi and the Bluetooth turned on, it uses its own little mesh network to look for other devices and make an accurate determination of where it's at. Or, if you're literally in the middle of nowhere,
00:26:53
Speaker
the next time you open your forms on WildNote and you're back at camp, it will sort all your points to that location. Yeah, yes. That's another personal experience I have. Paul, your co-host who is off in the wild excavating, he and I didn't realize that his iPad didn't have an antenna and he was just off taking points throughout the day and then we got back and I was like, why are all your points at the campground that we're camping at?
00:27:19
Speaker
And it was because there was no antenna, so we had to go redo those. So, yes, lesson learned by both me and somebody else I know, so just get an antenna. Now, of course, if you are the company that has external GPS's, which we'll talk about in a minute here at the end of this segment, if you have the external antennas, then you can buy the non-cellular GPS versions, right? Yeah. Because it's not going to do any good. The system is going to bypass that if you're using an external antenna.
00:27:46
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah, we can talk about those next. External GNSS device, external antenna. They are really powerful and work really great with your devices, but there are some things to consider when you are using one.
Enhancing GPS Accuracy
00:28:00
Speaker
First of all, if you're a WildNote user, Trimble R1 and EOS Aero are the only ones that are supported right now. We want to add more and we plan to add more. It's just that we have to get our hands on the actual device for testing. And supported doesn't always mean doesn't work. Exactly. Yeah.
00:28:14
Speaker
Yeah. So if you have something right now and you're like, well, I wanted to try wild note out, but I have this other device. I mean, try it. It might actually work because of the connection between the device and wild note is just a software connection. And sometimes those pathways are similar. It just maybe not read the same way. Yeah.
00:28:31
Speaker
It will not work with an iPad, though. It will only work with an Android, because there's security issues. You basically have to get permission to connect through an iPad with that device. But you don't need those same permissions on an Android. Of course not. Android will connect and do anything. Right, exactly. So your best luck with a device we don't support is Android. Yeah.
00:28:53
Speaker
But then if you are using a device like that, you've got to decide how you're going to use it. Is this going to be your primary mapping device? If so, you will probably find that you cannot use WildNote on the same device that is your primary mapping device.
00:29:10
Speaker
That's what we found this summer on our project. I had one crew member off doing all the mapping work, and then the rest of us were using WildNote to record the artifacts and things. And now this case study, by the way, is Nevada-centric. So we're talking pedestrian survey with multiple crew members recording the different types of artifacts and features at the same time on the same site. And then one person is doing the mapping. So it's kind of that structure of site recording.
00:29:35
Speaker
And yeah, that's what we found. So we did have the external device. We had an arrow hooked up, but only the mapper was using that. So here's the thing to think about when you're using an external antenna.
00:29:49
Speaker
One person will be mapping and everybody else will be using WildNote to collect the descriptions and the data about the artifacts. That means that you can drop a coordinate on those artifacts, on those bi-faces, on those projectile points and features, but that point will only be as accurate as the device that is taking it. And if you only have one external antenna and it's with the mapper, then your coordinates aren't going to be accurate enough for submission to the agencies with WildNote.
00:30:19
Speaker
Now, you could, if you wanted to, take those points in WildNote as a backup. You could. You could. But know that they're going to be different than the ones that are going to be in the official GIS data. So you'd have to take those points from the GIS data and then transpose those back into WildNote just for the site form export. For like, photo logs and things like that in Nevada, California, they have coordinates on them.
00:30:42
Speaker
So that's, if you are working in an area or a place that doesn't have the coordinates on the actual site form for all those individual points, it's just in the GIS data or on the map, then you're fine. Then you're fine. Yeah, don't worry about it. Take the, take the wild note point as a backup just in case you lose all your GIS data. Maybe you'll, you'll have that. And you can always enter the coordinates manually. Like if you want to get up with your GPS person at the end of the site and have them read off all the coordinates, you can type them in manually into wild note too.
00:31:09
Speaker
Okay, so those are some of the limitations with having one external antenna and you can get around that by having multiple. If you give everybody an external antenna, then you don't have a problem and everybody can take their own points.
00:31:22
Speaker
All right. So next thing I would like to talk about is cases because people are always concerned, especially with tablets. They're like, Oh, I just spent $500 on an iPad mini. How do I protect it? Because it's got this glass, you know, cover on it. It's got this glass front on it and it's got this, you know, metal back. How do I protect it? So cases are always a really big deal. Depending on where you work, you might need a waterproof case.
00:31:45
Speaker
Well, Lifeproof makes really good. Lifeproof and Otterbox, which are the same company now, they just maintain their individuality. Do they? I didn't know that. But they maintain their own individuality, but yeah, they're the same company. But they make some really great cases, and my suggestion is always to get one that's A, doesn't have a screen protector on it. I hate screen protectors.
00:32:06
Speaker
The glass screens on tablets, especially iPads these days, are actually really good. Now if you face down your iPad into the rocks with all your weight on it, I don't care what kind of screen protector you have on it, you're going to break it. It's going to crack it, yeah. And that's just a fact, right? So you're going to spend more time just trying to peer through that screen when it starts to get crazed and it starts getting bad. Now screen protectors are really good these days, especially the ones built into cases. So do what you want to do. But I would take a look at some of those life-proof ones that
00:32:34
Speaker
seal around your device, make it waterproof, but also don't cover the screen. Yeah, I can say that we had a very good time with the one that we had. There was never a problem. I probably even dropped it. I'm so clumsy. I'm sure I dropped it a couple of times, never straight down onto the rocks, but the edge was fully sealed all the way around. It was totally protected, but the screen was open and it made it really easy for typing into and using.
00:32:58
Speaker
The other thing to remember about waterproof, and that's an IP67 or 68 standard, I think it is. The other thing about waterproof versus water resistant is waterproof also means dustproof. They don't really promote that too much. I mean, you might see that as a listed item, but if water can't get in, dust can't get in either. And sometimes, we don't really need waterproof working in Nevada, but we need dustproof because that dust will get in. It will get into the ports and then you'll try to put in your charging cable and it'll just go,
00:33:27
Speaker
Yeah. Oh God, that gritty sound, you know, that gritty sound terrible. I'm willing to bet tablets aren't going to have charging cables before too long, but while they still do, it's, it's an issue for sure. So, so definitely work on that.
Device Management in the Field
00:33:42
Speaker
Speaking of cables, make sure you throw some cables into the vehicle too. You just want to have cable. What's that for? Hook it up to your external batteries. Yes. Yeah. So a lot of archaeology happens in the summertime, right? People work all year round in some places, but a lot of people work, almost everybody works in the summertime.
00:33:57
Speaker
And the summertime can have some pretty high temperatures. And one of the most common problems with tablets and phones is overheating. Overheating from not only constant use of the battery, when you have your screen on all the time, that screen is probably one of your biggest heat generating sources when it's not plugged into anything. And then if you've got sun on the screen, it's just a recipe for disaster, right? So always try to shade your screen while you're using it. That'll help keep the heat down. But also,
00:34:23
Speaker
If you're going to plug it in to an external battery, I've done this a lot of times when it's really hot out. You have the battery in your vest or something and you've got your cord coming out and you're using it. The best practice is to only plug it in when you are transiting from one side to the next, when you're surveying and you don't need to have it out to look at coordinates. Maybe somebody else does and you're bouncing off of them.
00:34:44
Speaker
and when you're at break and things like that. The reason is when the screen's on and it's plugged in, it's generating even that much more heat. And Apple devices in particular will go into this low vis screen mode that's really hard to see. You can't see anything. Yeah, you've probably seen it if you use your phone as like your GPS in your car and it's up in the window. When that screen goes dim and you go to your brightest settings and it's all the way up, the screen went dim because it's trying to reduce the heat in the phone. And that's just a constant problem. So if you think about that heat and how that's being produced,
00:35:13
Speaker
and think about ways to reduce that. If you're just recording a site for hours and hours and hours, and you've got to have your phone up, I would say, especially with something like Wild Note, hit the Save or Save and Exit on that form if you entered some data, and then close your screen as you're walking from one point to the next. Even that couple minutes of being closed will help keep the heat down.
00:35:34
Speaker
Yeah, take every opportunity to basically shut that thing down so that it's not overheating. Wild Note and any mapping app you might use, they just use a lot of power. So you're going to have to be plugged in to an external battery for a lot of the time. Do you have any recommendations on external batteries that are great for taking in the field?
00:35:53
Speaker
I've used the Zero Lemon brand for a long time, and they are just phenomenal. We bought two of the 30,000 mAh batteries that have four ports on it, so you can charge four devices. When you're thinking about batteries, 30,000 mAh is like the gas tank. That's the big thing that holds all the gas. Your device, its gas tank, is anywhere from 5,000 to 8,000 mAh. If you look at that,
00:36:19
Speaker
you can charge up. If you're using a phone that's, say, 5 or 6,000 mAh, and you can see this in the device settings or on the info page on the website for that phone, if it's, say, 5 or 6,000 and you've got a 30,000 mAh battery, that's five full charges. So, you're probably not even going to use that during a day, unless you've just got one and you're charging everyone's device up at lunch or something like that. But then again, the Zero Lemon has a couple of fast charging ports and a couple of regular charging ports. So, they're going to charge at different rates if that's the case. I would say charge the
00:36:48
Speaker
the power-hungry devices like tablets on the fast ones and charge the phones on the lower ones. But either way, you've got to be careful these days, too, because the new 30,000 mAh zero-lemon we bought, because one of them finally, the batteries gave it up this summer after five or six years, actually, of use. I bought them in 2015, which is phenomenal. But the new one has the wireless charging on the top of it, in addition to the four ports.
00:37:13
Speaker
But you're going to have to be careful with that. You might want to get the wireless, but you're not going to want to hold that battery the whole time. You're going to want to cord. And I'm not actually sure. I think a battery case is going to be the best option when we go to the pure wireless standard because phones are going to lose their ports within the next couple of years. Yeah. And you're not going to be able to plug that in and charge it. That's true. Is there a rugged battery case?
00:37:37
Speaker
Does that exist? Mophie probably makes one, and a few others probably make them. Do you need rugged these days? It should be a little bit waterproof if you're working in a humid area or a place that could rain, but I don't know. It's going to be a concern, and hopefully it's something that manufacturers solve before we have that problem.
00:37:56
Speaker
Anyway, there's a lot of stuff there. Go check out the article. We're going to talk about in segment three your best practices for fieldwork now that we finally set up your fieldwork. So for that, come on back and we'll be back in a minute.
00:38:11
Speaker
You may have heard my pitch from membership. It's a great idea and really helps out. However, you can also support us by picking up a fun t-shirt, sticker, or something from a large selection of items from our tea public store. Head over to arcpodnet.com slash shop for a link. That's arcpodnet.com slash shop to pick up some fun swag and support the show.
00:38:31
Speaker
Welcome back to the final segment of episode 167 of the Archeotech Podcast. If you're following along, check out the article that we're discussing from Wild Note over at archepotnet.com forward slash archeotech forward slash 167, or just look down at your phone or whatever you're listening to on and click the link. It's right there.
00:38:50
Speaker
We're going to talk about fieldwork next because we just spent the whole time setting up your fieldwork project, getting the right hardware, making sure your forms are set, all that stuff is ready to go. Now, what are some of the best practices that we can look at once you actually get in the field?
00:39:05
Speaker
Yeah. And this is where collecting your data digitally really diverges from the old ways of paper or even less connected programs that you might have used in the past, like Google forms and stuff like that. But once the fieldwork begins, you have immediate feedback ability, the immediate ability to start looking at the data that's being collected.
00:39:26
Speaker
And making sure that you're happy with it, that it's the way it should be, nobody's messing one particular thing up. Because people are still people and you can throw a whole bunch of training at them on day one, but things get forgotten. And this immediate feedback though, it allows you to look at it and tell them right away to fix this or that or whatever.
Digital Systems Advantages
00:39:47
Speaker
And I mean, I know we've all been on projects where you have to go back and revisit something like a month later because you forgot to do this or you didn't do that right or whatever. So hopefully with this, this ability to look at the forms right away, you can stop that kind of waste of time later on.
00:40:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That's really important because in a lot of cases you can't actually go back into the field and do it. Like for example, this project we did over the summer, if there's anything we needed to go back and collect, it wouldn't be until June. It's under snow. Yeah. Yeah. Totally under snow right now. So you really got to set this up so that you have everything you need when you're going into the winter and you're writing these reports. Yep. Yep. And that is one of the, I think most powerful aspects of this is the ability to immediately look back at this. Not only
00:40:29
Speaker
say the crew chief, once everybody sinks their data at the end of the day, which we'll talk about, but the crew chief can look at that information, like you said, and then make corrections immediately. And not only that, but people in the office can take a look at the data as well. Anyone with a connection to the system can be like, hey, can we get some more photos of that feature? I mean, you might have to drive a few extra miles or even an extra hour to get back to that site because you won't come back there, but you don't have to drive an extra 10 hours to get out there, rent a hotel room.
00:40:56
Speaker
And just to go take a picture of a feature, it's immediate, let's go do this right now because we would like a little more data. For sure. And one of the ways that you can communicate to people when they need to do things differently or when they've done well and everything is good is through the use of something WildNote calls survey status. And what survey status is, is a way, is a setting for the form that indicates what level of completion it's at.
00:41:23
Speaker
basically. Or just what status is in it. Or what status it's in, yeah. So there's draft, submitted, reviewed, open issues, rejected. Exported. Exported, yeah. So those are the wild note words for status. I would assume other programs have similar ways.
00:41:38
Speaker
I particularly like to use draft to mean that me and my field crew are still working on it and we're not ready for feedback yet. Submitted means that the field crew is done and they're ready for the project manager or the principal investigator or whoever is reviewing to go in and take a look at it.
00:41:56
Speaker
And then reviewed means that the manager did do that and that they approve it and everything is good. So it's almost like a wordless communication back and forth. Like, okay, I'm done. Okay. I've reviewed it. Okay. We're good to go. You know?
00:42:09
Speaker
The cool thing is, you can assign whatever value you want to those server statuses. You can't really change the names yet. That's not something that's dynamically available. I imagine in any program, that will be a way in the distant future, probably. Always evolving, sure. So dropped points. We talked about this a little bit with the different antennas that you can use versus the antenna that is in your mobile device. So basically, you've got to decide
00:42:37
Speaker
When you're taking a point, how you're putting that data into Wild Note. If you drop a point, remember that the phone or tablet that you're using probably only has a three to five meter accuracy. That's what they come with naturally, right? If it has an antenna. If it has an antenna, yes. We've already discussed. All your devices have antennas. And then if you have a sub-meter accuracy external antenna, then of course you're going to get the sub-meter coordinates from that.
00:43:05
Speaker
But what you need to decide is what device is collecting what points and at what accuracy. That's where things can get a little bit confusing because you do need consistency between WildNote and then the device collecting your GIS data, your mapping device. So you might want to just pull the coordinates from your mapping device directly into WildNote. You can type those in manually if you do it that way. You can also drop the points in with WildNote if your external antenna is hooked up to that. You've got both options.
00:43:33
Speaker
So, thinking about a best practices scenario here, you've really got two scenarios. You have one sub-meter device, or you've got multiple sub-meter devices. So, if you've got one sub-meter device, like what Rachel said back in the last segment was, you basically have somebody that's doing mapping, and they're using some other mapping program. We like TouchGIS for Apple, but they're using some other mapping program to actually just do all the mapping on the site. And any points you take in WildNote,
00:43:58
Speaker
are essentially backup points or non-submeter required points, like feature photos, photo points that aren't artifacts, diagnostic artifacts. Because diagnostic artifacts, you usually use the submeter point for the photo point. But site overviews, feature photos, since you're usually backed away from the feature taking the picture anyway, those don't have to be submeter in most states. So you can use those as the actual GIS data if you're mapping those onto a map.
00:44:24
Speaker
Now, if you've got more than one submeter device, then think about it smartly. Each person is basically collecting mappable GIS data while they're recording in WildNote and or using the other program, the third party application for doing the rest of the mapping. And the way I would do it is whoever's got the mapping program, they'd basically just be doing polygons and diagnostic artifacts. Well, no, just polygons. Just polygons. Yeah, just polygons. Sorry, this is confusing.
00:44:52
Speaker
It is. So they'd be just doing polygons. And lines. And lines. Things that you can't do by just dropping them points. Because Wild Note is not a spatial data collection program. It just does points. Now, everybody knows that two points make a line, so you could kind of do lines, but that takes some wizardry. Anyway. Yeah. You have to be very careful with your naming of points. I made a form doing that one time.
00:45:11
Speaker
Anyway, so you're collecting polygons with the one device and everybody else who's using WildNote, those diagnostic points, datums, everything else can be used. So the mapper doesn't need to go to those points. Save the time. Have the person that's actually taking the photo, writing the description and taking the point. They just did all three of those tasks for that one thing on one device in one program.
00:45:34
Speaker
I know, I'm gonna basically demand that you buy us a second external antenna for our project next year. Because that would have made our lives so much simpler. Just thinking of an actual case study of one site where we did this, we had a site with like 10 diagnostic artifacts on it.
00:45:51
Speaker
No features, but a bunch of natural features, because it was right where a couple of drainages were coming together, and there was a road too. So we just had a whole bunch of line features to map, as well as the polygon for the actual site boundary. And then our mapper, after doing all of that, had to come and find all of the diagnostic tools that I and our other crew member had been recording while we were doing our debitash counts as well.
00:46:17
Speaker
And that just was a lot. It was the end of the day. And I don't know, if we had just been able to take our points straight into Wildno with the external antenna, it would have been a much more efficient recording process. Yeah. Matt from Anatom Geomobile Solutions is listening.
00:46:33
Speaker
the person from which you should buy all of your GIS mapping devices in the field. And we can highly recommend the Arrow. It works so well for us. We got our Arrow from him, and I'll probably get the next one from him. And I'm pretty sure we can rent packages from him too, because if we are running other crews, I'm not going to want to buy like three of these things. I'll buy another one, but I'll probably want to rent the others just for the project.
00:46:56
Speaker
Anyway, I just can't imagine how much better that scenario would be, because the way it did work was that I had to go in and manually type in all the UTMs for the diagnostic coordinates later on. So that was not ideal. All right, so let's talk about syncing real quick. This is going to be somewhat wild-note-centric, so we don't spend too much time on it, because each one of your programs that you're using are going to have syncing issues in different ways.
Field Data Syncing and Editing
00:47:19
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, the biggest thing that we run into is poor cell service and poor wifi causes your sinking to fail. It just, it just does. And then as a customer support person for a while, no, I get all kinds of panicked calls like nothing sinks, nothing sinks. And I'm like, I understand you have to just keep trying. It's bad cell service. It's bad wifi. Sometimes there's an error and I'll definitely look into that. But if you know, keep trying because those two things will just ruin your sinking. Yeah.
00:47:46
Speaker
And with Woutnow specifically, you want to try to single-sync each data form one direction. And that would be the little circles next to each individual form. You want to sync those each individually. The best practice is, if you have decent cell service and a cell-enabled device in the field, go ahead and sync.
00:48:04
Speaker
Yeah. Using whatever your program's best practices are, right? Yeah. Go ahead and sync, because that gets your data out of the field and into the cloud. So not only is it safe and protected now, but other people can start processing it at the same time. This is another benefit of using a phone, right? Yeah, totally. Phones are always connected, right? Phones are always connected. Well, if you have service. If you have service. We had better service in the field than we did at the campsite, so we were syncing in the field constantly last summer. Well, you were 2,000 feet higher. Exactly, yeah.
00:48:29
Speaker
And then the other thing to remember, too, is that you do need to do a two-way sync at some point to bring the changes back down to your device that have been made. So do that in the morning. Give everybody a chance to sync overnight. And then in the morning, pull down changes back to your phone with a project sync. Yeah, to save time and to save data, if that's a concern.
00:48:47
Speaker
It's usually a one-way sync during the day, and even at the end of the day, it can be a one-way sync back to the servers. In the morning, it's a two-way sync, like Rachel said, just to bring down. When she says changes, she means any changes. Maybe there were some changes made to your actually collected data, and you need to see that. If your survey status was changed and you got other things to do, open issues, things like that.
00:49:09
Speaker
Or, it's possible it's unlikely, and hopefully it doesn't happen too often, but it's possible the forms themselves change, like something was added based on what you're collecting. If it's not an agency form, then the office can make changes to those forms and make updates. Okay, so you've collected all your data in the field. You're ready to start crunching those numbers.
00:49:30
Speaker
Yeah, let's make some site records. Yeah, let's make some site records. So of course you've got editing to do. There's no way that you're going to come out of the field and not have to do some at least minor editing to the forms. You're going to have to add data that wasn't done in the field because you didn't know it. You don't always know your map reference and stuff like that. I have the heat stroke almost every day and my thumbs can't spell.
00:49:49
Speaker
Yeah. A lot of typos, especially in, um, well with wild notes, specifically in the photo caption, cause it's a smaller field and it's, I don't know, just a lot of typos in that particular spot. So, so you're going to be editing obviously. And what I like to do is go back to that status thing that we were talking about in the field.
00:50:11
Speaker
as a way to communicate with your field crew, well, you can reset all of those statuses to draft or whatever status you choose, and then you can start working through them and editing them, and you'll know which ones you've done and which you haven't done by that newly set status.
00:50:27
Speaker
Yes, that's a really cool thing to do. I love having some sort of really obvious label that's searchable and visually appealing. WildNote itself has a thing called the dashboard where you can see all of your survey statuses for a given unit of time.
00:50:42
Speaker
And you can tell the progress of your project that anybody who has access to that can look in and say, your project manager or your principal investigator can log in and say, hey, you're out of the field, why do you, and it's been a month now, why do you still have 70% of your surveys in draft format and not submitted or reviewed? And three months later, why are only four of your records exported out of 150? Get to work.
00:51:07
Speaker
Yeah, it is a great project management tool there. And the one limitation is that they need to have actually created the forms in order for you to track what level of completion they're in. And something we didn't talk about before, but you could put required fields on those forms so that they're at least filling out the data that you need them to fill out in the field. Pretty much any form creation program is going to have a required fields flag.
00:51:33
Speaker
Yeah. In fact, it's kind of annoying sometimes. Like in touch GIS, I have a couple of required fields and I'm like, oh, I don't want to fill this in right now, but it makes me. Just be careful in some programs. If your intent is to make every field required, they may not be able to save that form and actually come back to it later, which is a good thing. You want to just be able to save it in a, I guess, a different status than
00:51:57
Speaker
Completed status. Yeah, you know when it's required actually with wild note now you can save in draft Format without filling in the required if your survey status is set to draft. Yeah, then you can save it. You can say that's a good idea Yeah, that way won't let you because in our use of those survey statuses this summer draft was what it shows up normally That's the default draft and then when the field crew member feels like they have finished that form to their best of their ability They change it to submitted. Yeah
00:52:25
Speaker
And then when we've looked at it from, again, a field standpoint, we changed it to reviewed or open issues if they were open issues. So that's really cool that you can save it now because you didn't used to be able to do that in the draft format if there's required fields. That's why when I made a lot of those forms early on in Wild Note, none of the fields were required because there's times when you just need to exit the form and come back to it later. Yeah, especially if you're doing multiple types of forms on the same device.
00:52:50
Speaker
Or you're bouncing around the site and you're filling something out here and now you're filling something out over here and you need to go around. Yeah, it's just crazy. Yeah, you gotta be able to get in and out of those forms. So what about editing real quick in the last couple of minutes here? How does WildNote help with editing? And hopefully your own program as well, whatever you're using.
00:53:06
Speaker
Yeah, so Wildo has this thing called the editable grid. And it's kind of in the baby stages still. It's got a lot more to go as far as functionality. What I found it great for right now, though, is a really quick view of what data is missing. So you can scan your columns and see. It's kind of like a tabular view almost. So you get like a column view of all your different questions and the answer to them. Now the problem comes in when you have a huge paragraph.
00:53:34
Speaker
An answer like a site description because then you can't it's not tabular anymore. It's like a huge it takes up your whole page So yeah, I prefer to use it for the not site description questions just the single line quick answer questions just to see what's missing what's needed and you can go through and and you can type your answers right in right there as long as it's text and number entry, so
00:53:56
Speaker
The key thing to remember here, especially with something like Wild Note, is things are in a constant evolution and that whole experience is going to get better. It will. It's really good right now. It's a huge time saver when you get, say, the Shippo sends back all of your site numbers and you need to go in and quickly change them for every site. Type them right in right there. Bring every site record up simultaneously like you're looking at a spreadsheet and just update all the site numbers. That's super helpful. Really, really helpful.
00:54:23
Speaker
Yeah, and also it opens your form into an editable, if you do decide you need to get into the form itself, it opens right up into an editable form. For the whole form itself, yeah. Yeah, for the whole form itself, which is handy. Yeah, there's a link to it, so. Yep, hopefully whatever program you're using does that. If not, rachelatwildnaughtapp.com again, so. Right.
Data Exporting and Conclusion
00:54:44
Speaker
And finally, in the last 30 seconds here, exporting. And again, each program is going to do this differently, but if you are using Wild Note, then there's a number of different exports you can use. If you're in one of the states that we currently support, that doesn't mean we don't support your state. We just haven't gotten to it yet. Or, Wild Note hasn't gotten to it yet. I say we. I'm still a consultant for Wild Note, so I think of it as a we.
00:55:04
Speaker
Anyway, you can export your agency-specific site forms, you can export your tabular data, you can export your KML files, and you can do this at any time. You can do it midstream, you can do it whenever you want. That's pretty much it. If you want to check out that article, like I said, check out arcpodnet.com forward slash archaeotech forward slash 167. It will take you to the article on the WildNet website. They do have a free trial, so go check it out. They'll help you set up that free trial.
00:55:33
Speaker
get some data collected so you can try it out. So, thanks Rachel for coming on to the show. Well thanks for having me, it was fun. And next time, hopefully, we'll have Paul back on, fresh from Iraq, to talk about all his fun experiences out there. See you guys next week.
00:55:54
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the Archaeotech Podcast. Links to items mentioned on the show are in the show notes at www.archpodnet.com slash archaeotech. Contact us at chris at archaeologypodcastnetwork.com and paul at luval.com. Support the show by becoming a member at archpodnet.com slash members. The music is a song called Off Road and is licensed free from Apple. Thanks for listening.
00:56:20
Speaker
This episode was produced by Chris Webster from his RV traveling the United States, Tristan Boyle in Scotland, DigTech LLC, Cultural Media, and the Archaeology Podcast Network, and was edited by Chris Webster. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chris at archaeologypodcastnetwork.com.
00:56:47
Speaker
Thanks again for listening to this episode and for supporting the Archaeology Podcast Network. If you want these shows to keep going, consider becoming a member for just $7.99 US dollars a month. That's cheaper than a venti quad eggnog latte. Go to archpodnet.com slash members for more info.