TY - JOUR
T1 - Socially reconstructing history
T2 - the Social History Timestream application
AU - Fawns, Tim
AU - Bayne, Sian
AU - Ross, Jen
AU - Nicol, Stuart
AU - Quayle, Ethel
AU - Macleod, Hamish
AU - Howie, Karen
N1 - Funding Information:
Initially funded by the University of Edinburgh Challenge Investment Fund, the pilot phase of this project (which began in January 2012) is designed to explore the potential of the Timestream application. So far, the project has involved a 4-month design phase, followed by a period of development and testing. This has involved building the application, populating the database with data for three research projects (see Use Cases section), and building a visualization interface to display these data. Currently, having consulted with members of the research project teams, some further development work is being carried out in response to their feedback.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the University of Edinburgh’s College of Humanities and Social Science Challenge Investment Fund for funding the Timestream project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Taylor & Francis.
PY - 2015/7/4
Y1 - 2015/7/4
N2 - For centuries, print media controlled by powerful gatekeepers have played a dominant part in the recording and construction of history. Digital media open up new opportunities for the social construction of historical narratives that reveal personal and situated viewpoints. In January 2012, work began at the University of Edinburgh on the design, development and distribution of a web-based Social History Timestream application for social history research projects across a range of disciplines. The application enables researchers to establish dynamically generated timelines (divided into days, months, years, decades, etc.), to which researchers and members of the public can post photographs, textual descriptions and other media. With the addition of meta-data such as tags and locations, the resulting timelines provide a way to compare thematically related events across time. A primary aim of the application is to provide opportunities for researchers to discover serendipitous time-based connections between topics and events that might not previously have been considered. Key to the project's success will be an engaging interface that allows visitors to see public imagery (e.g. items from the news) alongside personal imagery (e.g. what a given person was doing on that day), organized by themes (e.g. geography, health, politics or media). Among other things, the interface will allow comparison of mainstream versions of particular themed histories with the personal accounts of those who experienced them, or to visualize the development of ideas, technologies and social categorizations over time. At the time of writing, the Timestream application is still in development and is being piloted with three research projects. This paper will focus on one of these - a History of Photography Practices - to describe emerging theoretical and methodological design considerations, demonstrate the interface and offer insights into the process of using the Timestream application.
AB - For centuries, print media controlled by powerful gatekeepers have played a dominant part in the recording and construction of history. Digital media open up new opportunities for the social construction of historical narratives that reveal personal and situated viewpoints. In January 2012, work began at the University of Edinburgh on the design, development and distribution of a web-based Social History Timestream application for social history research projects across a range of disciplines. The application enables researchers to establish dynamically generated timelines (divided into days, months, years, decades, etc.), to which researchers and members of the public can post photographs, textual descriptions and other media. With the addition of meta-data such as tags and locations, the resulting timelines provide a way to compare thematically related events across time. A primary aim of the application is to provide opportunities for researchers to discover serendipitous time-based connections between topics and events that might not previously have been considered. Key to the project's success will be an engaging interface that allows visitors to see public imagery (e.g. items from the news) alongside personal imagery (e.g. what a given person was doing on that day), organized by themes (e.g. geography, health, politics or media). Among other things, the interface will allow comparison of mainstream versions of particular themed histories with the personal accounts of those who experienced them, or to visualize the development of ideas, technologies and social categorizations over time. At the time of writing, the Timestream application is still in development and is being piloted with three research projects. This paper will focus on one of these - a History of Photography Practices - to describe emerging theoretical and methodological design considerations, demonstrate the interface and offer insights into the process of using the Timestream application.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84938199898&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10304312.2015.1051802
DO - 10.1080/10304312.2015.1051802
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84938199898
SN - 1030-4312
VL - 29
SP - 522
EP - 533
JO - Continuum
JF - Continuum
IS - 4
ER -