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.

1. Confessions of an impatient
historian
Tim Sherratt (@wragge)
NAA: A1200, L43305

2. In 1984...

3. In 1984...
I was looking for secrets

4. CR ET
P SE
TO
NAA: A6457, P214
NAA: A
6455,
RC597
Part 3

5. ‘As I hope you 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.'

6. In 2011...

7. In 2011...
what has changed?

8. Some things are still slow...

9. But some things are very, very fast...
22 million images!

10. ...and even faster with Zotero!

11. But it's not just about speed...

12. Before

13. Before After

14. • item metadata (shock!)
• print a whole file (wow!)
• and...

15. Archives in 3D

16. Archives as you've never 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 of an 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 can be 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 are the playgrounds?

24. Search and find... but play?
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

25. So what's an impatient historian to do?

26. Perhaps...
harvest some data,

27. save in a handy format,

28. and play?

29. Take some snapshots...

30. Or better yet...

31. ...build something!

32. In the wild...
http://library hack.org/2011/06/07/newserve-an-apps-entry/

33. Let me connect
NAA: A11016, 736

34. Historians join stuff up.

35. Beware the silos of the LAMs.

36. Tim Hitchcock
‘what really needs 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 an impatient historian to do?

38. Let me introduce myself...

39. http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-479364

40. http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-479364

41. http://wraggelabs.com/identities/person/612109/

42. http://wraggelabs.com/fmtc

43. http://www.flickr.com/photos/8623220@N02/4627034718

44. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain15002/
foaf:depicts
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-961082

45. But where do the links go?

46. Linked open data is 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 I wonder 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 an impatient historian to do?

52. Imagine something new...
http://invisibleaustralians.org/

53. Crossings & transformations
images
forms
people data
identities
stories

54. More than a database...

57. Crossings & transformations
institutions individuals
repository researcher
provider consumer

58. A fourth wish...

59. Let me work with you
NAA: C2829, 1

60. • Not just clients
NAA: ST84/1, 1907/321-330

61. • More than crowds
NAA: A1200, L57987

62. • Collaboration
• Co-creation
• Common ground

63. So what's an impatient historian to do?

64. Offer help...
http://wraggelabs.com/emporium/

65. Start a conversation...
http://trove.nla.gov.au/forum/forumdisplay.php?3-Digitised-newspapers-and-more

66. Give back...

67. In 1984...

68. 'A Political Inconvenience':
Australian Scientists at the British
Atomic Tests, 1952-3
http://discontents.com.au/words/articles/a-political-inconvenience

69. and in the archive...