World War One:About - Revision history

Mia: /* Further background on this project */ tweaking text

2014-12-03T16:52:44Z

‎Further background on this project: tweaking text

Mia: Removed Project task list so it can live on the front page, added a list of posts for further background

2014-10-29T18:02:54Z

Removed Project task list so it can live on the front page, added a list of posts for further background

Mia: /* Project task list */

2014-10-28T14:52:46Z

‎Project task list

Mia: Added red links to get things started

2014-10-28T14:50:22Z

Added red links to get things started

Mia: /* In their own words: linking lived experiences of the First World War */

2014-10-28T14:49:10Z

‎In their own words: linking lived experiences of the First World War

Mia: Added project task list

2014-10-28T14:44:35Z

Added project task list

Mia: Created page

2014-10-28T14:35:32Z

Created page

New page

== In their own words: linking lived experiences of the First World War ==

The Centenary of the outbreak of the First World War has lead to an increased interest in the lives of soldiers and others in WWI. However, it can be difficult for novice researchers to find their way through military jargon and structures and to get a sense of what life in the Great War was like for a particular person. Sometimes rich personal accounts have survived, but in many cases, there's only a name, and perhaps a service number or regiment or battalion name.

There are lots of personal accounts of the war online, whether on large sites like [[Europeana 1914-1918|http://europeana1914-1918.eu/]], national libraries and archives, or individual diaries transcribed and posted online through small local projects.

This project aims to bridge the gap and provide context for an individual's experience of WWI by linking to narratives written by people in the same situation. At the end of this project, someone who wants to research a soldier in WWI but doesn't know a thing about how armies were structured should be able to find a personal account from someone who was in the same place at the same time that gives a sense of their lived experiences of WWI.

The challenge is to link these personal accounts by creating links from the individual who wrote them to their military unit. To populate this dataset, personal accounts (diaries, letters, etc) need to be linked to specific soldiers, who can then be linked to specific units. Linking published accounts such as official unit histories to pages would also help. Once these personal accounts are linked to particular military units, they can be linked to higher units - from the battalion, ship or regiment to brigade, corps, etc - and to particular places, activities, events and campaigns.

In this phase of the project, the aim is find a personal narrative - a diary, letters, memoirs or images - for each military unit in the British Army. Can you help?

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 == Further background on this project ==
-This project came out of a research proposal and subsequent visiting Transnational Research Fellowship at Trinity College Dublin with the CENDARI project. For reference, my proposal was [CENDARI Visiting Research Fellowship: 'Bridging collections with a participatory Commons: a pilot with World War One archives'].
+This project came out of a research proposal and subsequent visiting Transnational Research Fellowship at Trinity College Dublin with the CENDARI project.
 [http://www.cendari.eu/research/first-world-war-studies/ CENDARI] is a 'research infrastructure project aimed at integrating digital archives for the medieval and World War One eras' which 'aims to leverage innovative technologies to provide historians with the tools by which to contextualise, customise and share their research'.
-As the definition of the overall project is still subject to change, it might be best to link to previous writing/thinking:
+Various updates about the scope and goals of the project have been collected at [http://www.miaridge.com/cendari-visiting-research-fellowship-bridging-collections-with-a-participatory-commons-a-pilot-with-world-war-one-archives/?usp=sharing&utm_source=wiki&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=wiki CENDARI Visiting Research Fellowship: 'Bridging collections with a participatory Commons: a pilot with World War One archives'].

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 In this phase of the project, the aim is find a personal narrative - a diary, letters, memoirs or images - for each military unit in the British Army. Can you help?
-== Project task list ==
+== Further background on this project ==
-* Populate list of military units: [[Australian divisions in World War I]], [[British divisions in World War I]], [[Canadian divisions in World War I]], [[Indian divisions in World War I]], [[New Zealand divisions in World War I]]. A list of battalions is needed to form the basis for the collecting process. (I'm starting with a list of divisions because I can get it from Wikipedia, but I know this is problematic)
+This project came out of a research proposal and subsequent visiting Transnational Research Fellowship at Trinity College Dublin with the CENDARI project. For reference, my proposal was [CENDARI Visiting Research Fellowship: 'Bridging collections with a participatory Commons: a pilot with World War One archives'].
-* Collate [[lists of diaries]] that can be linked to units
-* Create a sample battalion page as a demonstrator
+[http://www.cendari.eu/research/first-world-war-studies/ CENDARI] is a 'research infrastructure project aimed at integrating digital archives for the medieval and World War One eras' which 'aims to leverage innovative technologies to provide historians with the tools by which to contextualise, customise and share their research'.

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 == Project task list ==
-* Populate list of military units in the [[Australian]], [[British]], [[Canadian]], [[Indian]], [[New Zealand armies]] - a list of battalions is needed to form the basis for the collecting process
+* Populate list of military units: [[Australian divisions in World War I]], [[British divisions in World War I]], [[Canadian divisions in World War I]], [[Indian divisions in World War I]], [[New Zealand divisions in World War I]]. A list of battalions is needed to form the basis for the collecting process. (I'm starting with a list of divisions because I can get it from Wikipedia, but I know this is problematic)
 * Collate [[lists of diaries]] that can be linked to units
 * Create a sample battalion page as a demonstrator

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 == Project task list ==
-* Populate list of military units - a list of battalions is needed to form the basis for the collecting process
+* Populate list of military units in the [[Australian]], [[British]], [[Canadian]], [[Indian]], [[New Zealand armies]] - a list of battalions is needed to form the basis for the collecting process
-* Collate lists of diaries that can be linked to units
+* Collate [[lists of diaries]] that can be linked to units
 * Create a sample battalion page as a demonstrator

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:44, 28 October 2014
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	In this phase of the project, the aim is find a personal narrative - a diary, letters, memoirs or images - for each military unit in the British Army. Can you help?		In this phase of the project, the aim is find a personal narrative - a diary, letters, memoirs or images - for each military unit in the British Army. Can you help?
		+
		+
		+	== Project task list ==
		+	* Populate list of military units - a list of battalions is needed to form the basis for the collecting process
		+	* Collate lists of diaries that can be linked to units
		+	* Create a sample battalion page as a demonstrator

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 The Centenary of the outbreak of the First World War has lead to an increased interest in the lives of soldiers and others in WWI. However, it can be difficult for novice researchers to find their way through military jargon and structures and to get a sense of what life in the Great War was like for a particular person. Sometimes rich personal accounts have survived, but in many cases, there's only a name, and perhaps a service number or regiment or battalion name.
-There are lots of personal accounts of the war online, whether on large sites like [[Europeana 1914-1918|http://europeana1914-1918.eu/]], national libraries and archives, or individual diaries transcribed and posted online through small local projects.
+There are lots of personal accounts of the war online, whether on large sites like [http://europeana1914-1918.eu/ Europeana 1914-1918], national libraries and archives, or individual diaries transcribed and posted online through small local projects.
 This project aims to bridge the gap and provide context for an individual's experience of WWI by linking to narratives written by people in the same situation. At the end of this project, someone who wants to research a soldier in WWI but doesn't know a thing about how armies were structured should be able to find a personal account from someone who was in the same place at the same time that gives a sense of their lived experiences of WWI.
@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 In this phase of the project, the aim is find a personal narrative - a diary, letters, memoirs or images - for each military unit in the British Army. Can you help?
 == Project task list ==