Intrasis... the best there is?

[kevin wooldridge]

I use it on a day by day basis here in Norway.....It's not as great as people would make out, but I am hopeful that the integrated input and analysis version due out next spring will solve some of the problems in the programme. Whether it is the best archaeological GIS is a matter of debate, there is that Spanish/Oxford thing.......the important thing to my mind is that it is a GIS.....Could I do the same thing using ArcGIS or QGIS? Um...yes with a little bit of thought. It is difficult to see that Intrasis itself will provide an adequate archiving format as its coding system uses local language settings and therefore is not interchangeable across borders......it can produce datafiles and vector mapping data compatible with lots of other formats i.e Access, shp, DXF files etc. The million kroner question is do you need to spend ??? per year for a programme whose output usefullness can be achieved by many other cheaper programmes..... That said it is intended to become the Norwegian national recording methodology for field excavation from next year. So we have to live with it and learn to love its eccentricities...

And just to correct David's intro (and perhaps the blurb from the Swedish web-site) Intrasis is used by a number of archaeological organisations in Sweden, BUT NOT ALL ORGANISATIONS!! Agree with Trowelfodder...it was fun using it at EH, but that had more to do with the nice people running the system than the system itself.....!!