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== In their own words: linking lived experiences of the First World War ==
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= Site now read-only =
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'''This site is now in 'read-only' mode - no further edits can be made. The project that inspired this site finished in 2014, and the last substantial contributions were some time ago now. Read-only mode makes it easier to maintain the site without worrying about spam bots. As the site represents the work of several other people, keeping the content available means the data is available to build upon and re-use.'''
  
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The Centenary of the outbreak of the First World War has lead to an increased interest in the lives of soldiers and others in WWI. However, it can be difficult for novice researchers to find their way through military jargon and structures and to get a sense of what life in the Great War was like for a particular person at a particular time - where were they, and what did they experience? Sometimes rich personal accounts have survived, but in many cases, you only have a name, and perhaps a service number or regiment or battalion name.
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'''- [http://miaridge.com/ Mia], March 2019'''
  
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This project aims provide context for an individual's experience of WWI by linking to narratives written by people in the same situation. At the end of this project, someone who wants to research a soldier in WWI but doesn't know a thing about how armies were structured should be able to find a personal account from someone who was in the same place at the same time that gives a sense of their lived experiences of WWI.  
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== In their own words: collecting experiences of the First World War ==
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This project aims to provide context for an individual's experience of WWI by linking to personal narratives written by people in the same situation. By the end of this project, someone who wants to research a soldier in WWI but doesn't know a thing about how armies were structured should be able to find a personal account from someone in a similar role written at about the same time and place. We'll never really know what it was like for those who experienced the First World War, but we can come closer to understanding it by collecting the words they left behind.
  
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The challenge is to link these personal accounts by creating links from the individual who wrote them to their military unit. To populate this dataset, personal accounts (diaries, letters, etc) need to be linked to specific soldiers, who can then be linked to specific units. Linking published accounts such as official unit histories to pages would also help. Once these personal accounts are linked to particular military units, they can be linked to higher units - from the battalion, ship or regiment to brigade, corps, etc - and to particular places, activities, events and campaigns.  
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Our aim is find a personal narrative - a diary, letters, memoirs or images - for each military unit in the British and allied armies. Populating the lists of battalions and linking the numerous personal and official diaries, letters, memoirs, etc already online is a huge task and it can only be done with your help.  
  
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In this phase of the project, the aim is find a personal narrative - a diary, letters, memoirs or images - for each military unit in the British Army. Can you help?
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The Finnish WarSampo project has a similar vision to ours, and this [https://pro.europeana.eu/page/issue-7-lodlam#warsampo-publishing-and-using-lod-about-wwii write-up, WarSampo: Publishing and Using Linked Open Data about the Second World War, is a great overview of how and why linked data can help us understand world wars].
  
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Anyone can [http://collaborativecollections.org/WorldWarOne/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&type=signup&returnto=Main+Page sign up to this wiki] (but not you, spam bots!) to help out. Specifically, you can help populate or check the list of military units, or add to the list of personal and official diaries, letters, memoirs, etc.
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== <s>Have you got a few free minutes to take on a small research challenge?</s> ==
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Getting started is easy:
  
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== Project task list ==
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# Take one of the [[Lists of personal diaries, letters, memoirs|personal diaries, letters or memoirs listed]]
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* Populate list of military units: [[Australian divisions in World War I]], [[British divisions in World War I]], [[Canadian divisions in World War I]], [[Indian divisions in World War I]], [[New Zealand divisions in World War I]]. A list of battalions is needed to form the basis for the collecting process. (I'm starting with a list of divisions because I can get it from Wikipedia, but I know this is problematic)
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# Match its author with a regiment or battalion.
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* Collate [[lists of personal diaries, letters, memoirs]] that can be linked to units through their authors
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# Send in the results [https://mia2.typeform.com/to/dkhC4B via this form] or edit the wiki directly to add their diary to the relevant battalion or regiment page
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* Collate lists of [[official unit diaries and histories]]
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* Create a sample battalion page as a demonstrator
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You can see the difference that contributors so far have made on pages listed in [[:Category:units with personal narratives|units with personal narratives]].
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Anyone can [http://collaborativecollections.org/WorldWarOne/Special:RequestAccount request an account for this wiki] (but not you, spam bots!) to help out. If you get stuck, just [http://www.miaridge.com/contact/ drop me a line]; I'm [http://twitter.com/mia_out @mia_out] on twitter.
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Use the links on the left for:
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* [[World_War_One:About|More about this project]].
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* [[FAQ and help|Frequently asked questions and site help]]
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* [[How you can help]]
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* Direct links to specific armies' battalions and regiments
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You can find more pages by drilling down through these categories:
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* [[:Category:Units|Units]] arranges units by type.
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* [[:Category:Places|Places]] arranges pages geographically. You can find units by the [[:Category:countries|countries]] they belonged to.
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* [[:Category:Themes|Themes]] arranges pages by other themes, such as women's history.
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* [[:Category:Sources|Sources]] is about documents you can use or that need linking to units.
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* [[:Category:To do|To do]] lists pages that give details of things that need doing, and sub-categories of pages that need specific improvements.
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* [[:Category:Help|Help]] pages give more information about how to use the site.
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These are some example pages that show what you can do here and how useful the site can be (but they still need some improvements):
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* [[1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, British Army]]
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* [[2nd Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers, British Army]]
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* [[1/5th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, British Army]]
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* [[Australian and New Zealand Army Corps]]
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== Thanks and recent contributions ==
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[[User:VLeachman|VLeachman]] has done lots of work adding documents to NZ unit pages, and found some great connections.
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[[Special:Contributions/Jasonmarkwebber|Jasonmarkwebber]] worked on the [[3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, British infantry]] page.
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[[Special:Contributions/B3rn|B3rn]] has been doing great work on Australian units, particularly medical units which weren't previously listed.
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Huge thanks to various New Zealanders who sent me lists of units from the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces! It's been an immense help with [[New Zealand battalions in World War I]].
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Finally, [[Special:Contributions/GavinRobinson|GavinRobinson]] has done brilliant work, not only contributing information about specific battalions but also helping work out the requirements for structured data about battalions, regiments and other military units in the British Army, and most recently on importing records for hundreds of US infantry regiments.  
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Someone suggested a document via the [https://mia2.typeform.com/to/dkhC4B form]  which was part of correspondence between two men, so their suggested added personal accounts to an Australian and a British battalion with just one link! Thanks to them pages for the [[1/4th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment, British infantry]] and [[5th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force (AIF)]] now exist and have links to documents created by a soldier in each battalion.
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You can also [http://collaborativecollections.org/WorldWarOne/index.php?namespace=0&title=Special%3ARecentChanges view pages recently edited on this wiki].
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[[Category:Help]]
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[[Category:To do]]
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http://www.cendari.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/header_logo.png This project is part of a Transnational Research Fellowship with the [http://www.cendari.eu/research/first-world-war-studies/ CENDARI project] at Trinity College Dublin's [http://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/ Long Room Hub]. Further information is available on the [http://collaborativecollections.org/WorldWarOne/index.php?title=World_War_One:About 'about' page of this wiki].

Latest revision as of 14:36, 26 March 2019

Site now read-only

This site is now in 'read-only' mode - no further edits can be made. The project that inspired this site finished in 2014, and the last substantial contributions were some time ago now. Read-only mode makes it easier to maintain the site without worrying about spam bots. As the site represents the work of several other people, keeping the content available means the data is available to build upon and re-use.

- Mia, March 2019

In their own words: collecting experiences of the First World War

This project aims to provide context for an individual's experience of WWI by linking to personal narratives written by people in the same situation. By the end of this project, someone who wants to research a soldier in WWI but doesn't know a thing about how armies were structured should be able to find a personal account from someone in a similar role written at about the same time and place. We'll never really know what it was like for those who experienced the First World War, but we can come closer to understanding it by collecting the words they left behind.

Our aim is find a personal narrative - a diary, letters, memoirs or images - for each military unit in the British and allied armies. Populating the lists of battalions and linking the numerous personal and official diaries, letters, memoirs, etc already online is a huge task and it can only be done with your help.

The Finnish WarSampo project has a similar vision to ours, and this write-up, WarSampo: Publishing and Using Linked Open Data about the Second World War, is a great overview of how and why linked data can help us understand world wars.

Have you got a few free minutes to take on a small research challenge?

Getting started is easy:

  1. Take one of the personal diaries, letters or memoirs listed
  2. Match its author with a regiment or battalion.
  3. Send in the results via this form or edit the wiki directly to add their diary to the relevant battalion or regiment page


You can see the difference that contributors so far have made on pages listed in units with personal narratives.

Anyone can request an account for this wiki (but not you, spam bots!) to help out. If you get stuck, just drop me a line; I'm @mia_out on twitter.

Use the links on the left for:

You can find more pages by drilling down through these categories:

  • Units arranges units by type.
  • Places arranges pages geographically. You can find units by the countries they belonged to.
  • Themes arranges pages by other themes, such as women's history.
  • Sources is about documents you can use or that need linking to units.
  • To do lists pages that give details of things that need doing, and sub-categories of pages that need specific improvements.
  • Help pages give more information about how to use the site.

These are some example pages that show what you can do here and how useful the site can be (but they still need some improvements):

Thanks and recent contributions

VLeachman has done lots of work adding documents to NZ unit pages, and found some great connections.

Jasonmarkwebber worked on the 3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, British infantry page.

B3rn has been doing great work on Australian units, particularly medical units which weren't previously listed.

Huge thanks to various New Zealanders who sent me lists of units from the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces! It's been an immense help with New Zealand battalions in World War I.

Finally, GavinRobinson has done brilliant work, not only contributing information about specific battalions but also helping work out the requirements for structured data about battalions, regiments and other military units in the British Army, and most recently on importing records for hundreds of US infantry regiments.

Someone suggested a document via the form which was part of correspondence between two men, so their suggested added personal accounts to an Australian and a British battalion with just one link! Thanks to them pages for the 1/4th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment, British infantry and 5th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force (AIF) now exist and have links to documents created by a soldier in each battalion.


You can also view pages recently edited on this wiki.


header_logo.png This project is part of a Transnational Research Fellowship with the CENDARI project at Trinity College Dublin's Long Room Hub. Further information is available on the 'about' page of this wiki.

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