One of the projects in the Digging into Data Challenge is entitled Digging into the Enlightenment: Mapping the Republic of Letters
It traces the flow of correspondence between intellectuals in eighteenth-century Europe, thus helping giving an indication of the flow of ideas from writers such as Adam Smith, David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
This YouTube video, featuring Dr Dan Edelstein from the US side of the team at Stanford University, is a useful introduction to the project, and reveals some of the general aims of the broader Digging into Data programme. Also involved in the project are Dr Chris Weaver from the University of Oklahoma and, in the UK, Robert McNamee from the University of Oxford.