Treść książki
Przejdź do opcji czytnikaPrzejdź do nawigacjiPrzejdź do informacjiPrzejdź do stopki
HumanitiesandBigData.ExploitingDigitalArchivesintheAgeofAbundance
25
Teprojectmentionedaboveillustratesthepowerofvisualization.Graphi-
calmethodshavebeenusedmanytimesinvarious“bigdata”analysisprojects,
confirmingtheproverbial“onepictureisworthonethousandwords”argu-
ment.Perhapsoneofthemoststrikingexamplesofthevalueofsophisticated
datavisualizationisStanfordORBISproject(Scheidel,2012).Inthisproject
variouspiecesofinformationregardingtravelconditionsinancientRoman
timeswereintegratedwithinonesystem,modelledafermodernmappingand
navigationapplicationssuchasGoogleMaps.Whilethesourceinformation
isnotnewhere,onlyitstransformationtodigitalformandlaterintegration
ina“bigdata”systemallowedcreationofauniquetoolthatgivesnewinsight
intooneofthemostimportantaspectsofRomaneconomy.Itisonething
forascholartoreadwhatweretheshippingchargesintheMediterranean,
andanother–andtransformativeone–tobeabletorouteajourneybetween
RomeandConstantinople(seeFig.5)andexperience“firsthand”howdińe-
rentthetravelconditionswereinancienttimes.
Fig.5.StanfordORBISmap,showingroutinginformationbetweenRomeandConstantinopolis
5.CONCLUSION
Withoutdoubt,weareonlyatthebeginningofthetransformationfrom
traditionaltofullydigitalhumanities,atransitionthatwasinitiatedbyhumble
archivinganddigitizationprojectsofthepasttwodecades.Withtheevergro-
wingamountsizeofdigitalarchivesandthenewavailabilityofdataanalysis
toolsthatcanbeexploitedbyhumanistsinordertoanalyzethecontentsof
thesearchives,wemightriskastatementthatthegoldeneraforthehumanities
