Big Data and History: How Web Archives Will Challenge, Complement and Enhance the Historical Profession

Who: Ian Milligan, Assistant Professor of Digital and Canadian History at Waterloo University

Where: BAC 132, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia

When: November 28, 2014, 3:15PM-4:45PM

Title: Big Data and History: How Web Archives Will Challenge, Complement and Enhance the Historical Profession

Abstract:

"Big Data and History” argues that we need to understand the implications of the arrival of new archives: web collections. These collections of websites aggregated into single files necessitate a rethinking of how historians will approach their professional standards and trainings, with particular implications for historians studying topics involving the 1980s onwards. While historians are normally accustomed to not having enough information about their topic, the problem for many is now shifting towards having far too much data. How can humanities-based researchers begin to grapple with these problems?

Bio:

Ian Milligan is an assistant professor of digital and Canadian history at the University of Waterloo, working on how historians can engage with web archives. He serves as a founding co-editor of the public history website ActiveHistory.ca, teaches in the area of historical methodologies and postwar Canadian history, and contributes extensively to the Programming Historian (programminghistorian.org) project.