Dear All,
There has recently been a small rush of new people joining the list, so I
should begin by welcoming them. This is fairly clearly mainly the result
of the list getting a little publicity on the H-HISTGEOG list, which began
with someone concluding that a list in the field of historical GIS was
needed! This e-mail is an invitation to both newcomers and the long-silent
to post information about themselves and why they are interested/involved
in historical GIS, but also to simply start asking questions. It also
raises the possibility of moving the list to another host.
The person who thought a new list was needed has apparently gone ahead and
set one up, but it is hosted on their own university system, rather than
one of the main hosting bodies for academic lists. This episode does make
me wonder whether we should move this list from JISCmail to H-NET: given
that most of the list membership is outside the UK, would its international
status be more obvious if it was hosted by H-NET? We are in fact breaking
the JISCmail rules, as lists on that system are supposed to have at least
50% of their membership in UK universities, and we are below 30%, although
no-one from JISCmail has ever complained.
Of course, part of the reason someone on H-HISTGEOG was unaware of this
list was that it has been pretty quiet recently. The GBH GIS project will
be making more announcements in the coming months, as our new web-based
system starts to go live. However, what gets discussion going is not
announcements but people asking questions, very definitely including "dumb"
ones. Having been through the membership list recently, it may be worth
pointing out to newcomers that just about all the major historical GIS
projects in the world are represented on this list. For example, if you do
a Google search on "historical GIS" 6 of the first 10 hits today are linked
to the GBH project, 3 are to do with the China HGIS (both of whose
principals are members) and 1 is Bob Schwartz's Victorian railways site at
Mt Holyoke (hi, Bob). The list also includes a couple of well known map
historians, so there are also people who know about sources.
Obviously, this is not a promise by myself or anyone else to answer
questions, but my general experience is that when questions get asked on
the list answers will turn up. The last time there was much traffic was
when I myself asked a question, about GISs based on geo-referenced scans of
historic maps.
Best wishes,
Humphrey Southall
(List owner)
====================================
Humphrey Southall
Reader in Geography/Director,
Great Britain Historical GIS Project
Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth
Buckingham Building, Lion Terrace, Portsmouth PO1 3HE
GIS Project Office: (023) 9284 2500
Home office: (020) 8853 0396
Mobile: (07736) 727928
Web site: http://www.gbhgis.org
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