EHNE: the Digital March of History

A digital encyclopedia developed at Sorbonne University is making university history accessible to everyone: this is the challenge, and artificial intelligence (AI) will soon play a role. In 2012, the Laboratory of Excellence (LabEx) project "Writing a New History of Europe" (EHNE), led by Paris-Sorbonne (now Sorbonne University), began with a budget of 6 million euros as part of the Investments for the Future scheme. Under the direction of Eric Bussière, professor at the former University of Paris-Sorbonne, it was organized into seven teams, six in Paris and one in Nantes-the Research Center for International and Atlantic History. When it was launched in 2013, one of its objectives was to create an online encyclopedia, which took the name of the LabEx and was based on the work of each of the seven teams. This task was carried out by the researchers and doctoral candidates until the end of the LabEx in 2020. At that time, the EHNE offered just over 200 academic texts, translated into English, and had some 500 visitors per day. "At the time, it was considered an important tool, but one like any other LabEx," explains Olivier Dard, who led the team focused on the political history of Europe before taking over the project's direction when Éric Bussière retired, shortly before the LabEx ended. The new director then chose to focus the remaining funds on the digital encyclopedia by grafting it onto the Intercultural Europe Initiative (see below) and by betting on the potential of the young European 4EU+ Alliance, which Sorbonne University helped create in 2017. Continuity in Change. The first decision taken was to change the name of the project.. well, not quite: EHNE now stands for Encyclopedia of Digital History of Europe. A digital history or digitalized history?