This paper discusses the differences in the way historians and programmers tend to think about data, showing how these differences create difficulties for digital historians. The paper explores examples from a large digital infrastructure project, including 1) building a linked data infrastructure, 2) structuring historical information, and 3) standardizing date forms. The paper proposes that the main difference between these two modes of thinking rests on the acceptance or rejection of deterministic and reductionistic expressions. Where coders require precise and rigid expressions that eliminate ambiguity, historians work in realms where precision is often impossible and ambiguity flourishes. Historical context, in particular, is extremely difficult to incorporate into the mechanistic and algorithmic infrastructure of the current digital environment. Context is not impossible to deal with, however. The article indicates that the two realms of thinking are not incommensurable but, instead, that they simply require significant work by both coders and historians in order to produce good digital history infrastructure.
...MoreBook Itala Maria Loffredo D'Ottaviano (2015) Crossing Oceans: Exchange of Products, Instruments, Procedures and Ideas in the History of Chemistry and Related Science.
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