An Introduction to Timelink

Timelink is computer tool specially developed to support micro-historical research with a strong emphasis on network analysis and prosopography.

Timelink provides a data models and procedures to go from historical sources to network analysis, convering the transcription of sources, record linking, reconstitution of biographies and network inference.

Timelink is unique in that it bridges a source-oriented approach with a person-oriented approach.

This document provides a quick overview of Timelink.

The Problem

How to reconstruct individual biographies from diverse historical sources and from those biographies infer networks of relations between people?

Points of interest:

• Few apriori choices on who is relevant.

• Focus is on network analysis: relations between people are as important as individual attributes.

• Great diversity of sources (anything with personal information can be used).

• Linking references to the same persons in different sources is essential (record linking).

Aims

Data input close to the original source

• Information about persons should keep the original context, so that at latter stages of research each item of information is traceable to the original source.

• Original source structure and sequence of information should be preserved so that a clear representation of the original sources is possible at any moment.

• Decisions implying loss of information should be postponed, requiring an expressive and efficient method of data entry.

Late and reversible record linking

• Decision on who is who should be made when all available information is available.

• Record linking should be reversible (mistakes happen).

Flexible interface for complex information

Find ways to show the complex information of biographies and networks in a comprehensible way.