How we do digital public history
Digital public history is a public-facing historical practice shaped by questions, evidence, interpretation, participation, ethics and form.
Story first.
Tool second.
The project’s organising rule is simple: begin with a focused question, audience, evidence and ethical plan. Choose technology only after the historical purpose is clear.
Choose a thematic track
Begin with a broad field of memory: difficult pasts, migration, place, testimony, archives, digital memory or another connected area.
Find the smallest meaningful centre
Centre the story on one person, place, object, photograph, testimony, event, document or digital claim.
Write the public-history question
Use a question that connects the historical case to visibility, memory, responsibility or participation.
Define a real audience
Local residents, learners, descendants, museum visitors, teachers or another specific public — not simply “everyone”.
Establish public significance
Explain why the story matters now without forcing the past into a present-day slogan.
Build the source base
Record provenance, creator, date, repository, reliability, limits, rights and citation details.
Identify missing or vulnerable perspectives
Ask whose voice is absent, mediated, over-exposed or spoken for. Do not invent a voice.
Complete ethics & rights review
Resolve consent, privacy, copyright, anonymity, community sensitivity and possible harm before publication.
Design the narrative arc
Move from hook and orientation through evidence, complexity and interpretation to a closing question or reflection.
Choose the simplest effective digital form
Story first, tool second: web story, map, timeline, audio, video, photo essay or another form that serves the evidence.
Prototype early
Test readability, media use, accessibility and technical feasibility before polishing.
Review, revise and publish
Check factual accuracy, source transparency, rights, accessibility, public clarity, design and technical function.
Sources are evidence, not illustrations
Photographs, oral testimony, official records, family objects, maps and digital traces answer different questions. They must be contextualised, compared and interpreted.
Provenance
Who created the source, when, where, for what purpose, and how did it survive?
Perspective
Whose voice or viewpoint is present? Whose is mediated, absent or structurally excluded?
Context
What historical circumstances shaped what could be recorded, said, photographed or preserved?
Limits
What can the source help us know — and what can it not tell us?
Rights & care
Can the source be reused lawfully and responsibly? What are the implications for living people and communities?
Interpretation
Distinguish the source itself from the claims and meanings historians construct from it.
Welcome Handbook
The programme handbook documents the training pathway, story-plan framework, source and rights requirements, formats, ethics, AI guidance, accessibility standards and publication review.