My alma mater, the University of Reading, is obviously thinking along the same lines I am (or is it the other way around?)

The Virtual Research Environment for Archaeology (VERA) project aims to produce a fully-fledged virtual research environment for the archaeological community. It will address user needs, enhancing the means of efficiently documenting archaeological excavation and its associated finds, and create a suitable Web portal that provides enhanced tools for the user community. VERA aims to develop utilities that help encapsulate the working practices of current research archaeologists unfamiliar with virtual research environments. […]

The VERA project is looking for archaeologists, from any stage in their career, to aid us in user testing of the VERA environment. If you would like to partake in usability workshops, feedback sessions, or to test any online system developed and give us comments remotely, then please do pass on your details. We look forward to hearing from you.