Serving the city: an automatic information extraction for mapping Amsterdam nightlife (1820-1940)

Abstract

This paper discusses how automatic information extraction and linked data can facilitate long-term socio-spatial analyses in urban history, using as a case study a long-term spatial analysis of the development of urban nightlife and entertainment industry in Amsterdam. We demonstrate how automatic information extraction of civil and trade registries can corroborate and validate information found in these sources, using duplicate information from the sources themselves as well as other published corpora that contain overlapping information. We present a technique that greatly reduces the need for manual revision of the data.