Sharing historical geodata through a WebGIS. A Web application for History researchers

GIS have become a very powerful instrument supporting a wide range of applications based on geo-referenced data, i.e. data which are connected with specific positions on the Earth surface. However, in Italy GIS have not yet been widely exploited in the field of Humanistic disciplines, although there are to-date many examples of applications in other Countries. Following the GIS technology, WebGIS applications are very useful means of sharing data through the Web. In the course of a project aiming at the development of specific GIS tools supporting the digital archiving and analysis of historical Medieval data (Southern Italy, XIII-XV century) a WebGIS has been designed and implemented in order that History researchers can share and query data via the Internet. All software components are FOSS. The system is hosted on a server at Politecnico di Milano and is undergoing assessment tests.