What distinguishes letters from emails? How did information become an object that defines an era? Since when has data existed? Can historical software be stored? Can machines read?

Universities are institutions that produce, offer and delete knowledge. Wikipedia pursues similar goals. The seminar aims to intensify communication between the two infrastructures of knowledge. To this end, recent publications on the history of technology will be selected and curated for the editing of Wikipedia articles.

The curation of knowledge is undergoing change. The seminar covers the history of institutions such as archives and Wikipedia and asks how they curate knowledge and how they present the history of politics, economics, architecture, culture, and nature since the 19th century. Participants edit Wikipedia using research literature and sources from the ETH's Archive of Contemporary History.