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Big Data and the Military: First World War Personnel Records in Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and British Africa.

The digitisation of a large number of First World War personnel files in different countries permits novel big data analyses that contribute in important ways to the histories of the British Empire and of individual countries including Australia. Mass digitisation is very recent; we are only beginni...

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Published in:Australian Historical Studies Vol. 47; no. 3; pp. 430 - 443
Main Authors: Inwood, Kris, Ross, J. Andrew
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Sep2016
Subjects:
Big data
Military records
World War II veterans
Information storage & retrieval systems
Social structure
Historians
Veterans
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Summary:The digitisation of a large number of First World War personnel files in different countries permits novel big data analyses that contribute in important ways to the histories of the British Empire and of individual countries including Australia. Mass digitisation is very recent; we are only beginning to realise the power of the new resources. In this article we highlight recent use of First World War datasets for non-First World War research questions as an example of the potential uses of big data for historians. Much of the new research considers aspects of living standards and health that are not accessible from other sources.