The GLOBALISE AMH Datasprint, held at the University of Amsterdam on May 15, 2023, focused on identifying and geolocating historical places within the VOC (Dutch East India Company) archives, which document two centuries of events across the Indian Ocean and the Indonesian archipelago. The sprint addressed the complex challenges of pinpointing these locations, often complicated by spelling variations, evolving place names, and ambiguous references.
The event brought together historians, heritage professionals, and data scientists to collaboratively create a comprehensive dataset of these historical locations. The datasprint featured sessions on georeferencing early modern maps, extracting relevant data, and curating new datasets. Key resources included the 4.VEL Leupe collection from the National Archives, which was prepared using IIIF Manifests and Collections. Additionally, a link was established between this collection and contextual information from the Atlas of Mutual Heritage, modeled as Linked Open Data. The outcomes of the breakout sessions, including the developed scripts and data, were also incorporated into the dataset.