History and Computing 

About: History and Computing is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Population & Comparative historical research. Over the lifetime, 110 publications have been published receiving 788 citations.

Linking Historical Censuses: a New Approach

Abstract: This article describes a new initiative at the Minnesota Population Center (MPC) to create linked representative samples of individuals and family groups from the censuses of 1860, 1870, 1900 and 1910 to the 1880 census. This set of linked samples will provide new opportunities for researchers to carry out individuallevel analyses of social and geographic mobility and family transitions. This study differs from past efforts to link persons across census years in one key respect. The central goal of previous studies has been to maximize the proportion of the population linked. Our primary goals, however, are to minimize selection bias and maximize representativeness of the linked cases. To achieve these goals, we are prepared to sacrifice a significant number of demonstrably valid links. The project takes advantage of an extraordinary new data source, a complete transcription of the 1880 census of the United States. We will also capitalize on recent advances in record linkage technology.

Geographical Information and historical research: Current progress and future directions.

Abstract: Information about places is ubiquitous in the study of history, events occur, people live, and phenomena flourish in more or less identifiable locations. To a greater or lesser extent, all historians make use of geographical information. Potentially, there is a great potential for the use of Geographical Information System s (GIS) in the discipline. However, GIS with origins in the earth sciences and the way that those disciplines model the world, is still based largely on the traditions and requirements of these fields. This means that while there are many advantages to using GIS in historical research, these technologies and analytical approaches must be applied with caution, based on the characteristics of historical data and the traditions of historical scholarship. In this paper we define GIS and explain why it is relevant to historical research. We then use a wide variety of examples to illustrate the ways in which historians are beginning to use GIS. Finally, we discuss how existing software and methods for working with geographic information need to be improved to make it more applicable to historical research. Our aim is to demonstrate that GIS, if properly used, is not only applicable to quantitative, scientific historical paradigms, but is also extensible to the more humanities-driven, qualitative areas of the discipline.

Hacking Europe: From Computer Cultures to Demoscenes

Abstract: Hacking Europe traces the user practices of chopping games in Warsaw, hacking software in Athens, creating chaos in Hamburg, producing demos in Turku, and partying with computing in Zagreb and Amsterdam. Focusing on several European countries at the end of the Cold War, the book shows the digital development was not an exclusively American affair. Local hacker communities appropriated the computer and forged new cultures around it like the hackers in Yugoslavia, Poland and Finland, who showed off their tricks and creating distinct demoscenes. Together the essays reflect a diverse palette of cultural practices by which European users domesticated computer technologies. Each chapter explores the mediating actors instrumental in introducing and spreading the cultures of computing around Europe. More generally, the ludological element--the role of mischief, humor, and play--discussed here as crucial for analysis of hacker culture, opens new vistas for the study of the history of technology.

The classification of occupations in the 1881 census of England and Wales

Abstract: This article discusses the importance of classifying occupations both to the original collectors of the occupational data contained within the late-nineteenth century censuses and to present-day historians with particular reference to the 1881 censuses of England and Wales. It describes the method by which occupational data was collected and prepared for classifiation in 1881. It shows that the classifications of occupations in the 1881 were remarkably similar to a present-day recoding exercise and concludes that the rules laid down by the Census Office in 1881 for the tabulation of occupations were acted on as well as possible by the contemporary clerks. The final section demonstrates these results and explains why differences might have occurred.