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For years now, microhistorian have brought computers with them to the archives. Their research has produced a great lists of names, but for the most part, each historians' data set exists in solitude from those of other historians. History's local turn has been accompanied by a transnational turn, and here too researchers have struggled to share and aggregate their data.
This project aims to offer a tool that will accomplish this goal. Prosop will combine a highly flexible database of names and demographic information with a user friendly, customizable, opensource interface. It will put the best features of social networking applications, collaborative wikis, geotagging, and data search and filtering at the service of social historians. Prosop is designed to meet the disciplinary requirements of professional historians, while remaining attractive to amateur historians and genealogists.
With generous funding from the NEH Office of Digital Humanities, Prosop will convene content creation workshops in 2013; see our call for participants. In the meantime, if you are interested in the project, and/or possess a large database of historical names, please contact the project director, Will Hanley (Florida State University). |