Everythingpast

Everythingpast is a hypothetical or proposed digital knowledge project that seeks to aggregate and present comprehensive information about past events across time. It emphasizes verifiable sources and contextual notes, distinguishing itself from general encyclopedias by focusing on provenance and temporal coverage.

Content includes historical events, archeological findings, cultural histories, biographies, and environmental records. It uses a structured data model with entities such as events, places, people, and artifacts, linked by provenance metadata, confidence scores, and time ranges. Multidimensional facets allow users to drill down by date, location, or topic.

History and development: concept introduced by a coalition of archivists, historians, and computer scientists in the mid-2010s. Prototypes and pilot catalogs launched in 2018–2020, with public beta releases and community governance designed to reflect scholarly standards and open data practices.

Access and tools: offers a web interface, an API, and data dumps under an open license. Features include advanced search, temporal visualizations, and citation-ready references. Interfaces support researchers, educators, and developers building time-aware applications.

Governance and licensing: emphasizes transparent curation, explicit provenance, and community moderation. Data licensed under permissive terms to encourage reuse, with attribution requirements and periodic quality assessments.

Reception and challenges: praised for ambition and potential as a research aid; critiques focus on data quality, bias, gaps, and the risk of overgeneralization. The project continues to evolve with partnerships and standards work.