Web of Lies? Historical Knowledge and the Internet

Scholars in history (as well as other fields in the humanities) have generally taken a dim view of the state of knowledge on the Web, pointing to the many inaccuracies on Web pages written by amateurs. A new software agent called H-Bot scans the Web for historical facts, and shows how the Web may indeed include many such inaccuracies--while at the same time being extremely accurate when assessed as a whole through statistics and algorithms that are alien to the discipline of history. These mathematical methods and other methods drawn from the computational sciences offer the possibility of new techniques for historical research in an age in which an increasingly significant portion of the past has been digitized. Professors Rosenzweig and Cohen will offer a short overview of their findings before we open the room for general discussion. The paper on which their remarks will be based is available here.