005 - Digging Into the Data with Leslie Warden

00:59 – Introducing today’s guest, Leslie Warden
01:36 – The moment Leslie knew she wanted to become an Egyptologist
04:03 – Leslie speaks to some of the excavations she’s participated in
08:21 – A non-glamorized look at archeology
10:53 – The primary goal of archeologists
12:26 – How archeologists piece together the past from broken objects
15:32 – Collecting, documenting and analyzing data
18:57 – The incredibly vast amount of data that Leslie and her colleagues collect
20:39 – How business intelligence can help in the collection, classification, and analysis of this data
22:34 – Challenges Leslie has faced incorporating business intelligence into her excavations
30:18 – Modifying the business intelligence dashboard to include classification and input functions
33:32 – Other benefits Leslie has experienced with the dashboard
35:27 – Leslie speaks to the reaction other specialists have had to the dashboard
38:19 – Next steps for Leslie’s use of business intelligence in archaeology

EPISODE QUOTES

“Looking back on it, it was just the whole kit and caboodle, if you will, right? Animal-headed gods! What’s not to like about animal-headed gods?” (03:10)

“We just move so slowly because we’re reconstructing ancient life based on the little bits and pieces that are left for us. And, if I’m just digging for the showy complete objects, I’m actually wasting 98-99 percent of what’s actually remaining.” (10:53)

“And then for the analysis, you’re left with a bit of a challenge because there is clearly far too much data from any excavation to be entirely analyzed and entirely published.” (17:08)

“What I have found to be my personal challenge is learning the language of the tech and the tech team and them learning the language of the archaeology so that we can actually have productive conversations.” (25:46)

“It [the dashboard] took that three-step process and made it into a seamless and beautiful one-step process, which of course limits human error.” (31:15)

“I’m a huge advocate for getting people from the tech world and from the computer world involved in excavations because there’s so much that we have to share with each other.” (41:08)

LINKS MENTIONED

Limitless BI Website

Leslie’s LinkedIn