Digital Public History

Abstract

The Digital Turn in history has reformulated our documentation processes, transformed the ways we archive, treat and access information and has sometimes anticipated new epistemological questions together with new tools created to respond to them. Yet there is still no systematic methodology developed to critically approach these new digital tools, to analyze the transit of "big data" and understand the new public capaity to deal with the past. All this change deeply affects the relationship between historians and their public, their approaches to new digital sources and, finally, the written recording of history. This disturbing digital turn questions professional historians globally and raises uncertainties as to the future of traditional historiography and narratives of the past for diverse publics. The narratives of (public) digital history require that professional methods and codes be rewritten and reinterpretated and that new practices be mastered. The digital world has deeply influenced  the presence of the past in our societiesand favours new public perceptions of the passage of time in history as well as the presence of memories. The digital domain allows for the creation of new interconexions between the past, our present, and our future. Thus we might ask ourselves if, given the public dissemination of new interactive digital technologies, we must deeply review the current relationship with the past, our memory and our history. Methodological changes in historians' craft are such that we should dedicate more time to them and analyze what (public) digital history, or history in digital media, now means for academic history and related professions.