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Confessions of an impatient historian
This document summarizes the journey of an impatient historian over time from 1984 to 2011. It discusses how in 1984, the historian had to follow strict rules to access archives and secrets, but by 2011, with new digital tools, the historian is able to hack, connect, and transform archives in new ways. The three wishes of the impatient historian are to let them play with data, connect different sources, and transform archives into new forms like stories and collaborations with others.
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Confessions of an impatient historian
- 1. Confessions of animpatient historian Tim Sherratt (@wragge) NAA: A1200, L43305
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- 3. In 1984... I waslooking for secrets
- 4. CR ET P SE TO NAA: A6457, P214 NAA: A 6455, RC597 Part 3
- 5. ‘As I hopeyou will understand, this delay is due not so much to bureaucratic secretiveness or overdoses of red tape, as to a very real concern to prevent nuclear proliferation and to fulfil the UK's commitments under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Some of those documents may contain details of the design of nuclear weapons.'
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- 7. In 2011... what haschanged?
- 8. Some things arestill slow...
- 9. But some thingsare very, very fast... 22 million images!
- 10. ...and even fasterwith Zotero!
- 11. But it's notjust about speed...
- 12.
- 13. Before After
- 14. • item metadata(shock!) • print a whole file (wow!) • and...
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- 16. Archives as you'venever seen them before...
- 17. In 1984 • I was a client • I had to learn the rules • I had no choice
- 18. In 2011 • I can hack • I have the tools • I can change things
- 19. The rise of digitally enhanced the impatient historian! NAA: J2879, QTH490
- 20. 3 wishes ofan impatient historian • Let me play • Let me connect • Let me transform
- 21. Let me play NAA: A12111, 1/1955/22/86
- 22. Fred Gibbs ‘...there canbe great value in playing with historical data. By that I mean quickly searching, scanning, and visualizing data to see things that are otherwise impossible to notice. Of course visualizations are hardly new, even in history. But what is new, is our ability to take arbitrary data and see it from multiple perspectives with relatively little time, effort, and technical wizardry. The discoveries that come about from such quick and dirty inquiries isn't meant to be revolutionary, but to raise questions that wouldn't have emerged otherwise.' http:// historyproef.org/blog/digital-humanities/playing-with-data/
- 23. But where arethe playgrounds?
- 24. Search and find... but play? http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper
- 25. So what's animpatient historian to do?
- 26. Perhaps... harvest some data,
- 27. save in ahandy format,
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- 32. In the wild... http://libraryhack.org/2011/06/07/newserve-an-apps-entry/
- 33. Let me connect NAA: A11016, 736
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- 35. Beware the silosof the LAMs.
- 36. Tim Hitchcock ‘what reallyneeds to break down is the silo that suggests that information itself is something to be consulted and collected; that it is an unchanging object of study, rather than a pool of constantly changing stuff that can be interrogated from any angle, and pursued along any trajectory.' http://historyonics.blogspot.com/2011/04/towards-new-history-lab-for-digital.html
- 37. So what's animpatient historian to do?
- 38. Let me introducemyself...
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- 44. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain15002/ foaf:depicts http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-961082
- 45. But where dothe links go?
- 46. Linked open datais easy • Give your things their own URL • Link your things to other things • Be nice to machines
- 47. Let me transform NAA: A1200, L22702
- 48. Amanda French What Iwonder is whether instead we can begin with the data, or with a datum, and simply watch for what it may tell us, even if what it tells us is simply a story. What I hope is that all our data will bring forth a new age of humanistic induction, induction that can but need not necessarily rely on statistics and visualizations. http://www.scribd.com/doc/50066437/In-Praise-of-Humanities-Data
- 49. • 'White Australia' •Thousands of forms • Thousands of people
- 50. Thousands of lives... Stories Pauline Ah Hee, 1906-c1950
- 51. So what's animpatient historian to do?
- 52. Imagine something new... http://invisibleaustralians.org/
- 53. Crossings & transformations images forms people data identities stories
- 54. More than adatabase...
- 57. Crossings & transformations institutions individuals repository researcher provider consumer
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- 59. Let me workwith you NAA: C2829, 1
- 60. • Not justclients NAA: ST84/1, 1907/321-330
- 61. • More thancrowds NAA: A1200, L57987
- 62. • Collaboration • Co-creation •Common ground
- 63. So what's animpatient historian to do?
- 64. Offer help... http://wraggelabs.com/emporium/
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- 68. 'A Political Inconvenience': AustralianScientists at the British Atomic Tests, 1952-3 http://discontents.com.au/words/articles/a-political-inconvenience
- 69. and in thearchive...