TED: Frederic Kaplan: How to build an information time machine - Frederic Kaplan (2013)

Summary: Imagine if you could surf Facebook ... from the Middle Ages. Well, it may not be as far off as it sounds. In a fun and interesting talk, researcher and engineer Frederic Kaplan shows off the Venice Time Machine, a project to digitize 80 kilometers of books to create a historical and geographical simulation of Venice across 1000 years. (Filmed at TEDxCaFoscariU.)