Creating 'Living Documents' with ArcGIS' Geodatabase Structure
What is a living document? It is a data set that meets what I like to call the four -able's (mentioned throughout this website), they are:
Accessible
Integratable
Updatable
Documentable
I believe that each of these conditions must be thought about and breached when creating archaeological GIS. This is increasingly true as GIS becomes a foundation of archaeological research. The use of GIS for map-making, inventory control, analysis, and various forms of publication is growing at an amazing rate in archaeology. Unfortunately, many archaeologists who make use of GIS only have the most basic understanding of its functions and abilities. This is a series problem when an archaeological GIS is created without addressing the four -able's (I know, accessible actually has an -ible).
A living document, in a nutshell, is one that remains usable and useful after its initial creation. In relation to the four -able's above this means that the GIS is: (1) accessible by more than one person, (2) will integrate with other types of data such as natural science data (this usually means that the archaeological features have real-world coordinates), (3) the GIS can be updated quickly and easily with future research, and all of this is supported by (4) the creation of accompanying documentation.