Les chronologies numériques entre héritages et innovations: quelques implications méthodologiques et épistémologiques
Résumé
This paper aims to review the visual conventions upon which timelines are usually built and to discuss the promise of a revolution that most digital tools claim to bring into historical practices today. After replacing digital timelines into the long history of timeline-making, we will explore in a critical way a few examples of the digital tools available to anyone on the web today. The ultimate goal of this study will be to evaluate the extent that these digital software transform “traditional” methods in the creation of timelines. Do they really change the way professional historians experience and visualize time? Can historians rely on them for scholarly purposes or do they have to design their own tools suited to their specific needs? Finally, the paper will seek to draw some guidelines for designing timelines in the digital era, combining “traditional” skills with the new possibilities offered by digital tools.