Fichoz.hypotheses.org provides a meeting point for those
interested in Fichoz databases, be they readers or contributors of new data.
Procedures, manuals, instructions, discussions and learning material will be
available on-line, as well as direct links to relevant bibliography. On-line
material will change fast, new items appear, as well as new versions of old
items. Every new user brings new problems, and helps to develop new techniques,
to discover or to understand better new concepts and standards. Basically, the
published material consists of .pdf files and screenshots.
Fichoz is at the same time a set of rules to build historical
databases, and a set of structured thematically wide-ranging databases, from
Pompei propaganda paintings to French movies industry of the inter-war period,
including among others biographical data of Spanish civil servants of the
XVIIIth and XIXth century and a complete list of all ships who sailed French
seas in 1787. Some of these databases have been published online, either such
as they are, either in a simplified form.
Fichoz.hypothese.org presents a
technical introduction to them all, instructions for connexion to those
published, theoretical writings about data processing, a bibliography of works
based on Fichoz, tutorials, analysis of debatable issues, etc.
Nevertheless,Fichoz.hypothese is not only a meeting point for a community of
users. It describes problems poised by historical documentation, possibly one
of the most difficult to cut to database standards; it suggests solutions –
better said clues – to transform raw data provided by historical documents into
structured elements tailored for research and analysis. Many Fichoz principles
may be transposed to any other database system, independently of packages and
purposes. Fichoz.hypothese must be seen as an incentive to reflexion and a
guide based on experience. In no way as a collection of ready-made solutions.
