Professor Niels Brügger

KEYNOTE

The variety of European web archives — potential effects for future humanities research

The aim of this keynote is to open up a discussion of how the great variety of European web archives may affect future humanities research based on the archived web as a source. The keynote is divided in two main sections. First, the different web archiving forms in Europe are briefly mapped with a focus on which countries do have a web archive, archiving strategies, and access conditions. Second, it is discussed how this state of affairs may affect transnational research projects, spanning more web archives. The case of the national Danish web domain is used as a stepping stone to evaluate to what an extent such a study can be replicated in other European countries, thus enabling transnational comparisons.

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Niels Brügger is a Professor in Media Studies, Head of NetLab, part of the Danish Digital Humanities Lab, and head of the Centre for Internet Studies at Aarhus University in Denmark. He is a Coordinator of the European network RESAW, a Research Infrastructure for the Study of Archived Web Materials, and the managing editor of the international journal Internet histories: Digital technology, culture and society.

Professor Brügger has initiated the research projects “Probing a Nation’s Web Domain — the Historical Development of the Danish Web” (2014-) and “the history of dr.dk, 1996-2006” (2007-), and co-initiated the research infrastructure project NetLab (2012-17) within the Digital Humanities Lab. His research interests are the history of the Internet as a means of communication, and Digital Humanities, including archiving the Internet as well as the use of digital research tools. Other interests include media theory, the Internet, and the relation between the two with a view to (re)evaluating the status and relevance of existing media theories and methods.

Recent publications include: