14 Matching Annotations
  1. May 2019
    1. .  I try to publish open access as frequently as possible and share that work online.

      It's clear that digital history is a passion of hers. Here she displays how open data can actually work

    1. The commodification of ideas as currency in academia means that writing is often concealed until publication,

      I really appreciate the way the author has articulated this. This statement comprehensively encompasses the issue with data or notes that are not open while also explaining the need for open data particularly in appreciating and enriching the writing process.

    1. it’s our data, we collected it, and if somebody else wants the data, they should collect it themselves.

      I think this is a huge sentiment that historians and scholars in all fields should and will begin to overcome for the benefit of all by adding convenience to research, increase efficiency, and encourage engagement in the community.

    1. Sharing is something that tends to make scholars, qua scholars, happy; presumably it’s why we are in the business of writing, speaking, and teaching in the first place.

      While the idea of an "open notebook" seems scary it certainly furthers academic exchange. Especially as a student, the opportunity to learn from other scholars notes, methods, or failures would greatly contribute to the learning and teaching process.

    1. otherwise change how they do their work?

      This is an important insight that is not really expanded on throughout this article, as it exceeds its scope. However, I think that increasing "openness" could certainly change the way historians do their work whether it be more careful, or simply making research easier. The work of the historian will look very different.

    2. you are only a click away from scans of many of the declassified primary sources Suri used to develop his argument.

      This is very new and important development in research today. Not only does it allow the reader to better understand the sources behind a historians argument but also to view the actual source being referenced from their own point of view.

    1. By measuring trends, ideas, and institutions against each other over time, scholars will be able to take on a much larger body of texts than they normally do. For example, in applying Paper Machines to a hand-curated text corpus of large numbers of bureaucratic texts on global land reform from the twentieth century, it has been possible to trace the conversations in British history from the local stories at their points of origin forward, leaping from micro-historical research in British archives into a longue-durée synthesis of policy trends on a worldwide scale.

      The increase in big data allows for historians to have a better look at trends and patterns rather than moments events

    2. Big data tend to drive the social sciences towards larger and larger problems, which in history are largely those of world events and institutional development over longer and longer periods of time. Projects about the long history of climate change, the consequences of the slave trade, or the varieties and fates of western property law make use of computational techniques, in ways that simultaneously pioneer new frontiers of data manipulation and make historical questions relevant to modern concerns.

      This is significant as it changes the nature of questions historians may pose or seek to answer

  2. www.themacroscope.org www.themacroscope.org
    1. Computational skills may be increasingly viewed as akin to language requirements: in some cases, a nice-to-have, and in other programs, a rote requirement.

      Another emphasis on the increasing requirement for historians to adapt to the increasing digital sources

    2. Historians must be open to the digital turn, thanks to the astounding growth of digital sources and an increasing technical ability to process them on a mass scale

      Discussing the digital world and history in the same thought has never really occurred to me. This is an interesting and important statement made by the author as it points to the importance of technology for the historian and the historians work. While the digital world brings great opportunities for vast and expansive research, it also brings challenges for historians whose sources are now drastically different than before.

    1. . A blogging platform is a good way of doing that. FYI, here’s mine: Electric Archaeology; I’ve tried another variation on the model here.

      I am a bit confused about the blog post thing. Are we supposed to create a blog post every week? and where/how?