Everyone Has to Start Somewhere: Democratisation of Digital Documentation and Visualisation in 3D

Abstract Digital technologies have become a core component of archaeological and cultural heritage research and “born digital” data sets are now commonplace within the discipline. Yet, despite significant efforts within the digital community, there exists an increasing dichotomy between approaches that make information and data accessible to wide audience and user groups and those that require a significant depth of specialism to access. Broadly speaking, the latter fall into the data analysis and interpretation category, carrying a lag between innovation and wider adoption. Here, we discuss the value of “democratising” these processes. That is to say: how can we open complex digital approaches to as wide a user group as possible? Not in a way that undermines specialisms, but which increases the amount of digital data that can be analysed and interpreted in novel ways. Using the documentation and analysis of carved rock art as a case study, this article aims to stimulate a discussion about the value of democratisation within digital workflows. It defines key terminology and criteria that have an impact on the democratisation process and highlights the importance of self-reflection and “future proofing” in how we publish methods. Ultimately, this article argues that everyone benefits from a broadening approach to digital data capture, analysis, and dissemination and hopes to contribute to the ongoing discussions of “digital affect” and methodological curation within archaeological research.