<h1 id="week-seven-oct-13-2025"><a aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1" href="#week-seven-oct-13-2025"></a>Week Seven: Oct. 13, 2025</h1>
<h3 id="defining-data-dark-data-and-identifiers-the-politics-of-data"><a aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1" href="#defining-data-dark-data-and-identifiers-the-politics-of-data"></a>Defining Data, ‘Dark’ Data, and Identifiers: The Politics of Data.</h3>
A Note on This Week: This week is demanding. We are engaging with three dense academic articles and moving from a conceptual understanding of "data" to the practical, political act of creating it. Digital archaeological and historical work is time-intensive, and this week reflects that reality. The rigorous work you do now—structuring your notes with care—will make the research and production of your final project vastly more manageable. This week is about problematizing the very idea of data. There is no single correct answer to "what is data?" Instead, we will explore how the data we can record versus the data we cannot see ("dark data") impacts how historical narratives are produced. As the Kansa and Kansa (2022) note, "new studies may create additional data that relate to content already documented and published in prior investigations. Thus, identifiers need to be both globally unique and persistent.” (5). Thus, labelling an artifact as late Roman or "Byzantine," for instance, is an interpretive, even a political act that repositions our understanding and can create its own form of dark data.
Key Learning Goals: By the end of this module, students will be able to:
<ul>
<li>Critically analyze the concepts of Linked Open Data, data quality, and structured vs. unstructured data.</li>
<li>Use YAML/Properties to add structured metadata to their notes.</li>
<li>Understand how their choice of identifiers (metadata) impacts data interpretation.</li>
<li>Use the <code>Bases</code> plugin to query and view the structured properties of their notes.</li>
<li>Reflect on the concept of "dark data" within their own research practices.</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<h3 id="checklist-for-week-7"><a aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1" href="#checklist-for-week-7"></a>Checklist for Week 7:</h3>
<ol>
<li>
[ ] The Conceptual Framework (Readings):
<ul>
<li>Reading 1: Meghini, C. (2022). “Linked Open Data &#x26; Metadata." In The Handbook of Digital Public History, De Gruyter Oldenbourg: (381-389).</li>
<li>Reading 2: Kansa, E. C., &#x26; Kansa, S. W. (2022). ‘Promoting Data Quality and Reuse in Archaeology through Collaborative Identifier Practices’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(43). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2109313118">https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2109313118</a></li>
<li>Reading 3: Hacıgüzeller, P., et al. (2021). ‘On the Emerging Supremacy of Structured Digital Data in Archaeology…’. Open Archaeology, 7(1), 1709–1730. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2020-0220">https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2020-0220</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
[ ] The Core Workflow (Practice):
<ul>
<li>For each of the three readings, you are required to create:
<ul>
<li>One (1) Literature Note</li>
<li>Three (3) Atomic Notes</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>This makes a total of 12 processed notes for the week. All new atomic notes must be woven into your vault by meeting the standard of at least three <code>[[wikilinks]]</code> and two <code>#tags</code>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
[ ] New Skill: Structuring Notes with YAML/Properties:
<ul>
<li>At the very top of each Markdown note, you can add a block of text between <code>---</code> markers. This is the YAML Frontmatter, which Obsidian now calls Properties. This is where we add structured metadata—or "identifiers"—to our notes. The <code>Bases</code> plugin we've already installed can then read these properties and organize your notes automatically.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
[ ] The Main Activity: Structuring Your Notes with Properties:
<ul>
<li>Step A: Re-assess Your Existing Notes.
<ul>
<li>Go through the notes you have already created that are directly related to your final project (e.g., notes about your historical figure, key events, primary sources).</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Step B: Add Structured Properties.
<ul>
<li>Your task is to reassess the YAML/Properties block to a minimum of ten different notes and add a YAML property to these notes. Think of a property that may benefit your research.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Step C: Visualize Your Structured Data.
<ul>
<li>Now, use the core plugin <code>Bases</code> plugin to create a new database view. Configure it to pull in all notes that have the <code>type</code> property. You will see your notes instantly appear in an organized, sortable table. This demonstrates the power of the metadata you just added.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
[ ] Weekly Reflection (Ungraded):
<ul>
<li>In a new journal entry, reflect on your notes and what could be considered "dark data." What other "dark data" might exist in your vault or your research process? Now, consider the "Roman" vs. "Byzantine" example. How might the identifiers you chose for your <code>type</code> property (e.g., labeling an event as "Religious" vs. "Political") be creating your own form of dark data by hiding other interpretations?</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>

Welcome

1. Course Description

2. Learning Outcomes

3. Course Schedule

4. Evaluation

5. Course Communications

6. Common Regulations

6. Contact the Professor

how the course tech is built; how the course came to be

7. Colophon

8. Reuse

Orientation and Digital Setup

Week 1

Personal Knowledge Management and Linked Thinking

Week 2

Thinking about the “Craft” of Digital History

Week 3

Crusading into the Digital Age of LLMs

Week 4

Consolidation & Check-In Week

Week 5

Digital Excavation

Week 6

Defining Data, 'Dark' Data, & Identifiers

Week 7

Fall Break

Week 8

Seeing the Past?

Week 9

Week 10

Authority and Positionality in Your Digital Research

Week 11

Publicly Crafting a Historical Argument

Week 12

Open-Access Notebook Workshop

Week 13

Exit Ticket

Week 14

1 Setting up your vault

2 Create your first note

3 Templater Plugiin

4 What Goes into a Note?

5 Properties

Hypothesis

The Simplest Online Memex Worfklow

How To Read An Academic Article

FAQ for Common Tech Issues

Where to Find help

Text Formatting

Introduction to your vault

index note

Atomic Note

Literature Note

Process Note

Weekly Journal

Topic Proposal

Weekly Work & Tasks

Consolidation Reflection

Open Access Notebook/Memex

Benchmarking Your Memex

Exit Ticket/Final Project

1 Welcome to Crafting Digital History Transcript

2 Obsidian User Interface (UI) Guide

3 Templater and Hotkeys Setup

4 How to use PDF++

5 Canvas Core Plugin Introductory Tutorial

6 Hypothes.is and Annotating the Web

7 Omnisearch Plugin for Obsidian

8 How to Use Process Notes for Digital Research Projects in Obsidian

9 Properties, Identifiers and Data Management with Obsidian Core Plugin Bases

1 Welcome to Crafting Digital History

2 Some Logistical Updates

3 Welcome to Week Two

4 What is Digital History?

5 Crusading into the Digital Age of LLMs

6 Week Four Exercise Example

7 Using Obsidian for Digital History Research and Note-Making

8 Reflection Feedback Update and Hypothes.is

9 Week Five Update

10 Consolidation Reflection Submission

11 Module Two Wrangling and Critiquing

12 Week 7 Update

13 Week 9 Welcome Back

14 Consolidation Week Number 2

1. Course Overview

Module 1 Contextualizing

Module 2 Wrangling & Critiquing

Module 3 Arguing & Communicating

2. Schedule

01  memex help

8. Course Files

3. Tutorials

4. Assessment

5. VideoTutorials

Crafting Digital History

News