臺灣歷史人物傳記資料庫(Taiwan Biographical Database, TBDB)的建置計畫,源自中國歷代人物傳記資料庫(China Biographical Database, CBDB)的啟發,期望能提供臺灣歷史人物傳記資料的文本探勘、社會網絡分析工具及相關軟體服務,梳理錯綜複雜的人際網絡,開拓臺灣史的研究視野。基於建置者對資料的掌握度及著作權的取得,建置團隊首先選擇四位人文學者成員共同編纂的《新修彰化縣志.人物志》做為文本來源,其體例統一、考訂嚴謹,含括各時代、各類型人物,是TBDB良好的試金石。除了借鏡CBDB,建置TBDB的重點在於依照臺灣的時空環境,設計符合臺灣歷史的人物屬性類別。目前初步完成檢索服務、人物地域分布及社群關係分析等功能,開放學界利用以除錯優化,未來將朝提升資料的量與質以及開發新工具努力。
The idea of developing Taiwan Biographical Database (TBDB) was inspired by China Biographical Database (CBDB) project, and aims to provide digital tools, such as text mining, social network analysis, and other related tools, for analyzing complex social networks and broaden research visions in the study of Taiwanese history. Considering the participants' knowledge of texts and the ability to acquire copyright, the team chooses the "Treatise of Historical Figures" of the New Edition of Changhua Local Gazetteer, compiled by four of the team members, as the base text. There are several advantages of this choice. First, the biographies in the Treatise are written according to the same format; second, the biographies are rigorously verified; third, they include people from all periods and all walks of life. Therefore, they should be a good starting point for the TBDB project. Besides learning from CBDB's model, the emphasis in developing TBDB is to build attributes for historical figures that are suited for Taiwan's historical contexts. Currently, we have built initial versions of basic search functions, a map which shows the geographical distribution of historical figures, and social network analysis tools. They are now open to the public in order to optimize and debug. In the future, we will continue to increase both the quality and quantity of the database and also develop new analysis tools.