Ruins of the stone temple of Hercules (Herakles) in Amman, Jordan

Ruins of the great temple of Hercules (Herakles), constructed during the 2nd century AD, stand today at the site of the Amman citadel in the heart of the modern capital city of Amman, which during the Greco-Roman era was a Decapolis city known as Philadelphia.

To ensure that MEGA–Jordan met the real-world data entry and reporting needs of Department of Antiquities (DoA) staff and other stakeholders, a pilot implementation of MEGA–Jordan was conducted at the DoA's Amman office and at its regional office in Irbid in summer 2009. The primary purpose was to test all technical aspects of the system within the DoA's computing environment. Because MEGA–Jordan is a web-based system, the pilot implementation provided a realistic test of the DoA's computer network and internet service.

The pilot implementation confirmed that the MEGA–Jordan user interface can support the data entry, editing, and information retrieval needs of DoA leadership, archaeologists, inspectors, and administrative staff. Their feedback on the usefulness and capabilities of the system under real-world conditions of the prototype implementation was of the utmost importance.

DoA leadership and other personnel identified and requested changes to the system during the pilot implementation and testing effort. The process included collecting users' objective reactions (e.g., "I would like to digitize polygons with twenty vertices, but the system only allows ten") and subjective reactions to the application (e.g., "I don't like the colors of the interface"). The project teams worked with the consultant developer to prioritize the functional capabilities that required improvement based on users’ feedback.

Second Round of Testing

After the application was updated to reflect the issues identified, a second pilot-testing phase, conducted over several months, was undertaken to ensure that the system's functionality was acceptable to the DoA. The pilot implementation phase was complete when the design team deemed that all remaining user-requested modifications were no longer significant barriers to a full DoA deployment.

The pilot implementation also allowed the developers to provide system administrative training and technology transfer support to selected DoA staff members, targeting DoA technology staff for system administration training.

Training

In anticipation of the system's nationwide deployment, the Conservation Institute and Farallon team provided user training for selected DoA staff following a train-the-trainers approach, so that DoA staff may act as MEGA–Jordan resources for their colleagues. In April 2010 eight DoA trainers came to the Institute for three weeks of training on international heritage guidance, archaeological site assessment, GPS, and the use of MEGA–Jordan and QuantumGIS. Follow-up training was provided in Jordan to the same group of DoA trainers in summer 2010.

In June of that year, the final MEGA–Jordan code was completed and the system was configured for use throughout DoA offices across the kingdom. After adequate time had elapsed to ensure it was functioning correctly, the system was handed over to the DoA, and their technology staff became responsible for the day-to-day management of the system.

Launch

On April 12, 2011, in a ceremony in Amman, the DoA, the Institute, and WMF officially launched operation of MEGA–Jordan at a ceremony held under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan.

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