Researching e-Science Analysis of Census Holdings
The All Hands Workshop, the first in the series, was held on Wednesday
14th June 2006. It aimed to ascertain how feasible, and indeed, useful
utilizing e-Science technologies to analyse historical census data would
be. Undertaking e-science analysis of historical census records may be
technically possible - but will it be useful to academic researchers?
The workshop brought together a wide range of interdisciplinary
expertise to ascertain the academic community's view of the benefit and
concerns in undertaking a full-scale research project utilizing
available historical census data and the Research Computing facilities
at UCL. Through various presentations and discussions, this workshop
explained the technological issues, and explored the historical
techniques which may be useful for undertaking research of historical
census material in this manner.
Results from this workshop contributed to the discussions held at the Technical and Managerial workshops.
Programme
09.30 | Coffee |
10.00 |
Welcome and Introduction - aims of the day Introducing ReACH Melissa Terras, DIS, University College London |
10.45 |
Research Computing at UCL - An Overview Clare Gryce, Research Computing, University College London |
11.15 |
Putting the Census Online: The National Archives' Perspective Ruth Selman, Knowledge and Academic Services Department, The National |
12.00 | Lunch |
13.00 |
Grid Enabling Population Datasets - the ConvertGrid and GEMS projects Keith Cole, Census Data Unit, National Dataset Services Group, MIMAS, The University of Manchester |
13.30 |
Linking Nineteenth-Century Scottish Records: Procedures and Practicalities Ros Davies, Eilidh Garrett and Alice Reid, Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure |
14.00 |
Coffee |
15.00 |
Discussion Session: e-Science Analysis of Historical Census Records: Feasible or Useful? In this discussion session all participants were asked their opinions of the potential research project. Will undertaking this analysis result in any new information of worth for the academic community? What potential pitfalls are their in undertaking this research? What type of results can be generated from the available datasets? Is undertaking a research project in this area worthy of the time and expense it will take to set it up? |
16.00 | Summary and Conclusion |
16.30 |
Close |