| Summary: | From blogs to crowdfunding, YouTube to LinkedIn, online photo-sharing sites to open-source
community-based software projects, the social web has been a meaningful player in the development of
archaeological practice for two decades now. Yet despite its myriad applications, it is still often appreciated
as little more than a tool for communication, rather than a paradigm-shifting system that also shapes the
questions we ask in our research, the nature and spread of our data, and the state of skill and expertise in the
profession. We see this failure to critically engage with its dimensions as one of the most profound challenges
confronting archaeology today. The social web is bound up in relations of power, control, freedom, labour
and exploitation, with consequences that portend real instability for the cultural sector and for social welfare
overall. Only a handful of archaeologists, however, are seriously debating these matters, which suggests
the discipline is setting itself up to be swept away by our unreflective investment in the cognitive capitalist
enterprise that marks much current web-based work. Here we review the state of play of the archaeological
social web, and reflect on various conscientious activities aimed both at challenging practitioners’ current
online interactions, and at otherwise situating the discipline as a more informed innovator with the social
web’s possibilities.
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