Work on nodegoat started in October 2011 when Joep Leerssen approached Pim van Bree and Geert Kessels to develop a visualisation of a set of historical letters. The first version of this visualisation was a diachronic spatial data visualisation built in JavaScript. This visualisation still runs at http://projects.lab1100.com/labmap/.

Based on this project, Pim van Bree and Geert Kessels founded the company LAB1100 to continue to work on data related topics within the realm of the humanities.

Since 2011 LAB1100 has developed an online research environment that is able to host research data as well as provide various modes of analysis and visualisation. This online research environment was initially called the 'Chrono Spatial Research Platform'. In 2013 its name changed to nodegoat (which is now a registered trademark in the EU and US).

From 2012 onwards, free individual hosted accounts have been provided to scholars who want to use nodegoat to host, analyse, and visualise their data. These accounts can be requested here. We currently provide over a thousand of individual scholars with a free personal research account. You can explore a number of use cases here.

Visualisation of a set of historical letters, compiled by the Study Platform on Interlocking Nationalisms. Developed in 2011 by Pim van Bree and Geert Kessels

LAB1100 provides many universities, research institutes, and museums with their own nodegoat installation. Since 2011 nodegoat has been used in institutional configurations by the University of Amsterdam, Huygens-ING, the Dutch Royal Institute in Rome, the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the University of Leiden, the University of Luxembourg, the Corts Foundation, Maastricht University, Ghent University, NISE, GRIMMWELT, Utrecht University, the Open University of Catalonia, Colorado College, Bern University, the Allard Pierson Museum, the University of Western Australia, the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the New University of Lisbon, and the University of Padova. Thanks to the support of these institutes, LAB1100 is able to continuously develop and maintain nodegoat.

Go to nodegoat.net/products to learn more about using nodegoat in various institutional configurations.

nodegoat runs on the open-source web application framework 1100CC. 1100CC has been created and is maintained by LAB1100. 1100CC provides a front-end web and communication interface with a back-end management system that manages 1100CC's core functionalities and content. 1100CC can be used to run straightforward websites as well as complex web applications like nodegoat.

The source code that allows you to run your own nodegoat instance can be found at the nodegoat Release page.