Approach and methodology

The project involves integrated development and research in two very different domains: data management systems and cultural heritage interpretation. Research associated with the development of Matchbox, the software, will take place iteratively, as application elements are produced. It will be documented in the specifications and implementations that emerge from each phase of the software development. Research associated with the development of thesauri and taxonomies will be partially undertaken as technological research, documented in requirements, specifications and software products, and partly as ethnographic research, reported and disseminated in academic papers and presentations.

Research of the use of cataloguing as a cultural resource discovery instrument for an enriched approach to cultural documentation will follow standard ethnographic methods. It will not be possible to provide comprehensive or longitudinal research reports on some aspects of the Project given the short time frame. Nevertheless, long-term research strategies will be developed, observational data will be collected, and interim reporting will be undertaken. Ongoing research activities will be identified and funding will be sought to continue the research into the future.

The following phases of research and development have been identified for the software development (see Gantt chart below):

1. Formal business analysis and planning — analyse needs and competition, plan deployment/marketing, business and finances, management and deployment strategy. Note this component of the project was separately funded and undertaken in 2000.
2. Project team, location and facilities establishment and management activities
3. Schedule and commence introductory and tri-monthly advisory committee meetings
4. Metadata acquisition and authoring — create new and acquire/convert existing metadata
5. Requirements research and analysis — gather and analyse documents, identify actors, document use cases, create use case model, document non-functional requirements
6. Software development — develop architecture, design, construct, test, deploy user acceptance test, installation and maintenance (incl. training), and provide on-going deployment support. Note the build/test /modify and user acceptance cycles will be short and iterative throughout the software development process to minimise risk and maintain close contact and agreement between the software developers and the future users of the system.
7. Creative design — develop graphical user interface and universal content accessibility
8. Taxonomy and thesauri research — a modified version of use case modeling was tried in the 2000 Rock Art Taxonomy Project and will be refined and adapted for use in 2001
9. Rollout and implementation — setup permanent facilities including networks, software and hardware; populate and test and report system and hypotheses; hand-over and go live.

Time frame (current expectations)