The Making and the Sharing History of The City for a Human Digital Age

ICTs have made access to resources much easier also for historians. But the hybridisation of traditional research with digital technologies in urban history implicates new paradigms in research, the portrayal of knowledge and its use. The integration of GIS, 3D modelling and multimedia platforms into the world of research, education and museums is changing the way to tell the history of the city, making it possible to visualise the historical processes and fit them into spatial contexts. Moreover the digital environment influences interpretations and, on the other hand, it involves new users and introduces interaction with the world of the ‘community’. This contribution focuses on the pervasiveness and implications of the involvement of ICTs in the making and telling of history, presenting the experiences collected in the volume as a critical reflection on the potential and on the effects on the process and product of the research. Complexities, procedures in progress and real narrative forcefulness emerge as delicate aspects. Scholars also fluctuate between scepticism and passion for new technologies. This main subject finally also reveals a key to explore the close connections between history and memory, and the challenge for the history of cities, to become a pillar of the cultural heritage for a human Digital Age.