Many thanks to everyone who participated in the first THATCamp Pacific Northwest—look for links to the archives and roundups of discussions on this blog as soon as I (Julie) get my bearings!

Here’s to THATCamp PNW 2010 in…Seattle?

FYI, “official” live tweeters will be using the #thatcamppnw hashtag. It is QUITE likely that conference participants will be using #thatcamp more than #thatcamppnw, but we are archiving all of them for later.

I (Julie) completely forgot to mention the traditional “Dork Shorts”—three-minute presentations (lightning talks, elevator pitches, however you want to classify them) of your current projects or other ideas. These are even more informal than the sessions themselves.

We will have an area to sign up if you want to give a short presentation, and we’ll figure out the best time and place to do them during the opening scheduling session.

I’m hoping to hear from those who have used etext versions of primary texts in the classroom, either on the Kindle, Sony Reader, or ebooks downloaded from Google books or elsewhere.

My classes have used used blogs and wikis (and, in the past, listservs and student-created web pages) to create, annotate, or comment on texts, so I can share experiences about that, but this spring is the first time I’ve explicitly addressed etexts in the classroom as a primary component of the course.

I’m sort of between ideas lately, so figured I’d throw 3 things out there and maybe some nice intersections will emerge.

1. Pedagogy. How do we best teach students ‘technological literacy’ and what do we even mean by that?  Should our large-scale goals for humanities courses involve some element of production in order to foster this type of literacy? If so, what does that look like?  (purposefully vague questions…i just like thinking about teaching w/ technology)

2. How do the interfaces of Web 2.0 shape and limit the ways in which we represent ourselves? What is lost and/or gained in the template-driven models of Web 2.0? Who do we get to be in these spaces and why?

3. What happens when University diversity initiatives go online? How do Universities represent ‘diversity’ in digital spaces?

I am more than happy to talk about any of these areas. It will make my brain happy.

I was just thinking about this—I think Dave Lester and I (Julie) might be the only people at THATCamp PNW who have Google Wave accounts. I could be totally wrong about that, but if that is the case, and if anyone wants to see what it’s like in its preview (alpha) stages, track one of us down. Or at least track me down—I don’t want to volunteer Dave without asking.

If anyone else has a Wave account, please say so!

I am working on an article and book about Henry David Thoreau, and I want to immerse myself in his writings and writings about him and his times. In addition to reading print literature, I am reading him on the web, on an iPhone, and on a Kindle. All very useful. But my big break-through of the past few months has been listening to my sources on my computer and on my iPod. In a session I would explain various ways of converting text to speech, describe the evolution of different computer “voices,” and discuss ways of taking notes while, say, listening to Walden while taking a walk. Simplify, simplify!

There is a main reason social media is labeled SOCIAL. It is a place where people look to meet other people to find those like minded individuals in which they would like to associate.

This is the NEW way to shop for companionship as well, however, NO ONE seems to be looking at the whole situation that initially fueled this medium. What it is?… What it could be?… How best it should be perceived?

Seems that those that are most intelligent lose themselves in the immersion factor of the detached virtual environment and do things later referred to as stupid, so it gets shoved under the carpet or blasted over the media as another idiot who fell for…etc etc.  People pretend it does not exist. I offer ways to deal with the new found emotions and talk about what occurs in the development of these perceptions.

I have  presented on this topic at the Second Life Community Convention about my almost 3 yr investigation & the conclusions I have reached with the assistance of my 200 worldwide membership of the Roadside Philosophers.

Education covers it’s eye often to the hedonistic side of this medium instead of offering a way to deal with it. I wouldn’t mind again making that presentation. It was targeted at Second Life users but the process is applicable to all the computer mediated interactions.

Unfortunately due to a lingering  illness that I can’t seem to shake, I will be unable to attend THATCamp this weekend. I was very much looking forward to interacting and learning from all the other campers.

In lieu of not being able to attend, I wanted to contribute to the conversation in some small way,  so I am going to share a resource that some colleagues and I created which provides a survey of some of the digital collections found in the Pacific Northwest.  This guide contains links to digital collections as well as guidelines, standards and other resources.
It is available via this link: guides.boisestate.edu/digital

Two other items of interest are posters which were recently presented at the 2009 Pacific Northwest Library Association (PNLA) conference in Missoula.

1.  Corralling Digital Collections From Across the Region: A Survey of Digital Collections in the Pacific Northwest
Authored by: Amy Vecchione, Boise State University, Erin Passehl, Boise State University ,R A. Stoddart, Boise State University.
Link to Abstract — Link to Poster

2. Collection & Motivation for Digital Success: The Western Writers Series Digital Editions @ Boise State University
Authored by: Erin Passehl, Boise State University & R A. Stoddart, Boise State University
Link to Abstract — Link to Poster
I hope everyone has a great camp.  Travel safe.  Stay well. Learn a-lot!

— Rick Stoddart – Reference Librarian @ Boise State University

I am loving the THATCamp vibe.  Some good mojo happening as each topic suggested so far seems like something I’d want to attend.

I am interested in discussing the importance of playing with technology.  In my research I keep coming across this idea that those on the cutting edge of technological development have to create and solve their own problems. Many times there are no precursors.  What is created, I argue, is an autotheoretical text – something that may only have value in being a trace of its own production.  This can also, curiously, be a definition of a product of any type of play.  Artists are constantly producing this type of work.

I am also interested in the production of autotheoretical texts as a cognitive act – a form of reasoning. It makes sense to me that understanding this type of engagement with technology is really what we seek to teach our students in the digital humanities.  I am very curious how others view/use play in the digital classroom.

Howdy campers, my name’s Dave and I work at George Mason University‘s Center for History & New Media as the Omeka Developer Community Coordinator. I also help organize our annual THATCamp at GMU with other talented folks at CHNM.

Here are two topics that I’m itching to discuss with others:

Mobile Digital History
There have been several blog posts recently about mobile digital history, including Larry Cebula’s post “The Promise of Mobile History” and Cameron Blevins’ “The Mobile Historian.” I’ve been working on a research project of my own called HistoryPlot [slideshare presentation online] that aims to connect digital artifacts geospatially, and deliver them via both a mobile and web interface.

I’d like to address larger ideas and projects about how we could use mobile devices to connect archives, libraries, scholars, and the public. Augmented Reality? Social applications? What do you think the future looks like?

Digital Humanities Tool Building
I know a few coder/hacker-types will be at THATCamp PNW, and I’d love to chat about anything relating to digital humanities software development and tool building. What are people working on, how are they organizing their code, sharing it with others? What kind of unit test coverage do you have? Do you know what unit tests are? Do you keep your code under version control?  What’s your favorite text editor?  You use vim, really?  I think this type of knowledge sharing is critical, and what better place than a THATCamp to discuss!

Unfortunately, I’ll probably have to scoot out immediately after the sessions end on Saturday and can’t make dinner with the group, however I hope to have the chance to meet you all in person. I’m also staying in Seattle from Thursday through Monday if anyone is interested in a pre/post-thatcamp meetup there.

Hello! I’m Hannah Palmer, a writer and web designer from Atlanta.

I am working on my MFA thesis in Creative Nonfiction. For the first time, I’m trying to write a long-form, research-heavy manuscript– in other words, a book!  Considering my background in publishing and e-books, it’s no surprise that I’ve become completely sidetracked by the technologies available to help writers like me assemble and interact with our research.

I’ve found that archiving methods mirror the idiosyncratic writers themselves. The legendary New Yorker scribe John McPhee teaches an old school method that involves binders of logged and tagged material. Tech guru Steven Johnson is convinced that he can no longer write without the semantic connections provided by his archive in DevonThink. I’ve met writers that swear by Scrivener, others that stash notes in Tumblr. I’ve played with creative writing software that breaks the process down into a set of formulas, personal databases (Bento, Evernote, and now defunct Google Notes) and the hilarious segment of programs dedicated to making your PC feel more like a typewriter.

Again and again, I’ve landed on the blog as the cheap, democratic, no-brainer CMS for compiling research in a networked environment, but it doesn’t offer the semantic connections or the freedom to remix data. Weighing the advantages and disadvantages of all these options, when it comes to true synthesis and the hard work of actual writing, what do any of them offer over the Remington or Microsoft Word?

So what do I do with my piles of research– interviews, clips, photos, maps, and quotes? How do I create an archive that is as meaningful in its creation as the completed book? I love these questions because it’s a practical illustration of how technologies enhance and interfere with the creative process. If we view the writing process (blog, archive, etc.) as just as critical as the final product, we redefine “book” as the thing by which we move big ideas around.

I’m no expert, but if other people want to talk about these issues, I would be happy to facilitate a discussion. I’m looking forward to learning from y’all on this and many other subjects.

I would like to have a discussion about how we can collaborate to advance digital scholarship in the Northwest. How can we share and aggregate ideas, expertise, content, and tools? And, looking beyond the development of particular projects, how can we sustain and preserve our work over time?

As a resource manager, I am interested in developing sustainable programs. Northwest libraries and archives have an impressive record of collaboration (e.g., the Orbis Cascade Alliance (www.orbiscascade.org/) and the Northwest Digital Archives (nwda.wsulibs.wsu.edu/). How can digital scholarship achieve similar success and scale in the Northwest?

In the interest of time, I’m taking a moment to add some bullet points of ideas for sessions that come from the information people submitted with their applications. We’re off to a good start with the extended descriptions of session ideas, below, and please take a moment to jot down something about a session you’d like to lead, or a session in which you’d like to have the floor for a time. Or, if you just plan to participate in the discussion from the audience (or just listen), give a thumbs up in the comments section of blog posts.

I noted in a comment that I can see an entire track (3 sessions) devoted to tech tools and pedagogy—a session on implementation issues (e.g. access issues, student buy-in, etc), then one on sort of common tools (LMSes, GDocs, blogging), and one on building new tools. But that is but one idea of many. Although I will say that it is a tremendously popular common theme…

Additional session ideas:

• gaming: gaming cultures, rhetorical analysis, teaching w/ & through games (and virtual worlds)
• library collaboration with students, instructors and the community; role of libraries in digital age
• uses of mobile technologies; extended to issues of embodiment and identity in mixed reality spaces, implications for research and teaching
• technology and social justice
• technology and the creative process
• career paths related to Digital Humanities and New Media
• the importance of play with regards to digital tools
• technologies that allow for the discovery and access of great collections

Hello, everyone!  Looking forward to this weekend!  My name’s Jentery, and I’m a PhD candidate in English at the University of Washington.

For the purposes of organization and aggregation, I’ll keep things broad.  I’m generally interested in chatting about:

• data visualization tools for literary and cultural history, and
• the use of DIY technologies in courses/projects that collaboratively create and/or contribute to authoring platforms for public knowledge.

I will echo Larry and Julie and say that I, too, am curious about questions and inquiries such as these:

• I want to teach a course on the history of one-room schoolhouses. I want my student to gather oral histories, collect documents and photographs, survey the current condition of the sites, and create little web projects for each school. How do we present that information to the public?
• Or, I could discuss a tool that I am creating, which is designed to involve students in the investigation of literary genres through folksonomy.

While both of those examples stress pedagogy, I’d also like to hear from others on what data visualization tools (e.g., ManyEyes and SIMILE) they are using in their research and to what effects.

I’m happy to speak, or I can facilitate a conversation.  Just let me know what you need!

(On a different register, I can also speak to my recent involvement in HASTAC’s forum on “Democratizing Knowledge.” )

Again, looking forward!

I work with texts that present imaginative interpretations of economic principles and systems in 18th and 19th century England so, for example, Addison’s Vision of Public Credit, Shelley’s Mask of Anarchy and Queen Mab, and a variety of works by William Blake. But it can be very challenging to tease out these interpretations: sometimes they are obvious, and at other times, it’s very challenging to see one individual against the panorama of the rest — the poverty-stricken, the wealthy, and the millions in between.

My students have a similar problem. When I teach works like Jane Eyre, and Mansfield Park, I can almost guarantee that all the references to money will go straight over my students’ heads. And who can blame them for not understanding the significance of what someone’s annual income or salary? Even I find it difficult to keep straight in my head, not having lived in 19th-century England.

What I want to discuss, then, is a tool that I’m working to build: a website to collect data on prices listed in both literary and non-literary sources, arranged by region, chronology, and source. Ideally, a user would be able to search for a price, a source, a region, or a range of dates, and the result would be a list (or a visual representation) of the prices mentioned — from greatest to least expense, or vice-versa. Perhaps a student reading Jane Eyre, seeing that the tuition at the charity school where Jane is sent is 15 pounds per annum, would be curious about what else cost 15 pounds in 1847, or between 1847 and 1850.

Each entry would provide a quote with the relevant price data, but the quote would need to be minimal, in order to stay within the bounds of fair use. It would also provide bibliographic data, so that a user could seek out the original document.

Part of the beauty of this tool is that it could be useful to several disciplines: literature, history, economics. I’m also confident that it’s a tool that can be built by crowdsourcing — highly experienced scholars can contribute, but so can graduate students and undergraduates, with minimal training. In this regard, it would work in the same way that Open University’s Reading Experience Database works — by providing a form that users can fill out to submit data. Though I work with primarily 18th and 19th century English lit, I’d like to make this a database that could encompass a much larger time-span — say, from 1300-1965, and encompassing multiple countries. It will have to start small, but I want it to be able to grow.

Obviously, there are challenges. Getting a body of data, checking the accuracy of data as it is submitted by other users — developing the code to produce graphic representations of search results. They don’t have to be fancy, but I’d like them not to scream “this website was built in 1997!”, either. But I think the rewards could be very great. It will become possible to look at an author who writes about specific costs/income in his/her letters or diary, and see them in the context of a year, or a range of years. It will be possible to see mentions of price in Our Mutual Friend against a similar backdrop. I think that once I have a framework in place, and a body of data, it might be possible to approach electronic collections like ECCO and EEBO and see about using a data detector to extract price data from their sources. Or it might not.

What I’d like to hear from THATCamp participants is:

1) how this site could be useful as a resource to you, in terms of your own research, or teaching
2) ideas that you might have about specific sources, or groups of sources, that ought to be included (whether involving a specific author, or group of authors, or people)
3) challenges and potential problems that you think this resource might face. This way, I can think of solutions to overcome them.
4) questions, and anything else that you think might be relevant. If you also work with any sort of large scale quantitative data, I’d love to hear about your experiences.

Looking forward to seeing all of you — and thanks in advance!

As I wrote in my application blurb, I would be interested in getting information on how to write successful grant proposals for digital humanities projects and find sources of funding. Also, I am interested in seeing models of collaborative, multi-institutional projects in digital humanities scholarship and/or teaching.

I coordinate the Public History program at Eastern Washington University and am Assistant Digital Archivist at the Washington State Digital Archives.

Right not one of my big questions is how to present local history on the web in a way that is collaborative, open to the community, has a low technical barrier, and takes advantage of mobile computing.

Example 1: I want to teach a course on the history of one-room schoolhouses. I want my student to gather oral histories, collect documents and photographs, survey the current condition of the sites, and create little web projects for each school. How do we present that information to the public?

Example 2: I would like my students to create podcast tours (with audio and images) of historic sites in the region. I want people taking a stroll at, let’s say, Spokane House to be able to pull out there smart phones and have the phone say “I see you are at Spokane House. EWU has created a historic tour of the site with 7 stops. Would you like to see a map of the stops? Would you like to do the tour?” What technology platform do we use? I want to create a database of such podcasts that can grow over the years and that will be accessible to any smart phone–I don’t want to create an iPhone app.

In so far as possible I want to use open-source or at least free technologies (think Flickr, Google Maps, etc.), and harness crowdsourcing and user feedback to prevent any bottlenecks in the content review and delivery.

I have a few different ideas for things I can definitely talk about in session format, although I honestly don’t know if I should since I’m organizing this event and will be running around making sure you’re all happy—and I want all of you to have as much time as possible to talk about the things you want to discuss. As seen in the topics I write about for Prof. Hacker, I can talk about specific tools for use in the classroom, developing new tools, and the place of programming in one’s life/scholarly work.

I could revisit the subject of a presentation I did at another conference, on Google Docs and student responses, or the different ways one can implement Google applications in general in the classroom. Part of that discussion would be the myth of the digital native and the roles that instructors must play in the classroom if integrating technology is going to work.

Or, I could discuss a tool that I am creating, which is designed to involve students in the investigation of literary genres through folksonomy. I just developed it in my head the other day, and it will form part of my dissertation plus hopefully be presented in prototype form at a conference in May 2010. In other words, I don’t even have a digital wireframe although I could draw it out on the whiteboard, but I could talk about what it is and what I hope to achieve with it (and have students achieve with it).

This blog will now turn into the space in which THATCamp participants post and comment on session ideas. All participants should have received a username and password for the blog, as well as a ton of information about the event in general.

If you are an already-accepted participant and you did not receive an e-mail with the subject “THATCamp PNW: Everything You Need to Know (plus two things WE need to know)” then please e-mail us.

If you wanted to be a participant but didn’t gt your application in, please email THATCampPNW@gmail.com and we will do our best to find a space for you.

We will be taking applications for the next week or so, but by the end of this week the 40 of you currently on the participants list will receive your username and password so that you can begin posting session ideas on this blog. Pre-circulating session ideas will help streamline the scheduling process that occurs at the beginning of the conferece.

Note: for participants looking for ride share/hotel share information, check the comments on the location page.

Just a quick note to say that I just updated the participants list again—I do this every few days as applications roll in.

The list of participants is amazing. I see good things coming out of this (un)conference.

We will still accept applications from interested folks for another ten days or so, so please spread the word!

For participants looking for ride share/hotel share information, check the comments on the location page.

In only ten days, we have amassed a diverse group of people and reached 50% of our (minimum) expected number of attendees. We expect more applications to come through in the next several weeks, and have “verbal commitments” from numerous people in several different geographic regions.

Additionaly, George Kennedy, Chair of the WSU Department of English, and Jay Starratt, Dean of the WSU Libraries, have pledged financial support for THATCamp PNW. Their support will enable us to provide WSU-catered food and beverages during registration and throughout the day, as well as additional technology and supplies for use during the discussion and presentation sessions. These additional supplies will allow us to have interactive Twitter streams in each room, in addition to the presentation media already available to
participants. In coordination with the WSU Digital Technology & Culture program, we will also have a few dedicated students acting as “official” live Tweeters during each session.

Check out the current list of participants and, if you like what you see (we do!), apply now!

This is just a note to say that if you have already applied for THATCamp PNW, we will be sending the first round of acceptance notices on Monday, 9/14.

If you haven’t applied yet, there’s still time!

Please feel free to copy and distribute this text as appropriate! For more information, see the “About” page.

Greetings!

The first THATCamp event in the Pacific Northwest will be held on Saturday, October 17th, 2009 on the campus of Washington State University in Pullman, WA. Apply now at bit.ly/TCPNWApp.

THATCamp, or “The Humanities and Technology” camp, is an “unconference” originally organized by the Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at George Mason University in 2008. CHNM is the organization behind the research tools Zotero and Omeka, among others. Following the success of THATCamp 2009, regional THATCamp events such as ours have already happened or are in the planning stages: University of Texas, Austin hosted a THATCamp event in August, and organizers are planning events in the Great Lakes and Southwest regions.

If you are interested in studying, supporting, teaching, researching, creating or otherwise shaping digital humanities, new media, and allied fields, either in your role as a professor, an archivist, a programmer, a student, a librarian, an independent scholar, or any combination thereof, you are cordially invited to participate in this regional THATCamp event. You can be a technology expert or someone curious about integrating technology and the humanities for the first time—everyone is welcome, as long as you are ready to discuss with and learn from others.

Some notes on the event format:

• An “unconference” is a facilitated, participant-driven conference centered around a theme or purpose. In this case it’s the intersection and integration of the humanities and technology.
• There are no conference papers. Instead, come prepared to talk about the work you’re doing, the work you want to do, how you might collaborate with others, and how you can help and be helped by your fellow participants.
• Participants are involved from the schedule creation through the wrap-up session, and actively present, discuss, and collaborate with others throughout the day.

For more information on the conference format, location, and schedule, please see www.thatcamppnw.org/

If you are interested in learning more about the topics, discussions, and people who have attended previous THATCamps, visit the “campers” pages at bit.ly/TCCampers (for THATCamp ’09) and bit.ly/TCACampers (THATCamp Austin ’09).

**** Apply now for THATCamp Pacific Northwest 2009 at bit.ly/TCPNWApp ****

We will accept participants on a rolling basis at least through October 5th, but please apply as soon as possible both to assure your spot and also so that we can plan accordingly for the exact number of participants.

Please do not hesitate to e-mail THATCampPNW@gmail.com or follow @THATCampPNW on Twitter if you have any questions at all about the format, scope, or logistics of this event. Your conference organizers are Julie Meloni (Dept. of English, WSU) and Lorena O’English (WSU Libraries).

We hope to see you in Pullman in October!

The results of our planning survey are in, and we have scheduled the first (of many, we hope) THATCamp Pacific Northwest regional unconference.

THATCamp PNW 2009 will be held on the campus of Washington State University in Pullman, WA on Saturday, October 17, 2009.

For more information, visit the schedule and location pages, e-mail the organizers at THATCampPNW@gmail.com, or just…

»»APPLY NOW!««

First, thanks to everyone who completed the planning survey for THATCamp PNW ’09. We got a great response from a diverse group of people (and from several different regions of the Northwest) and are now in the final stages of confirming dates and times.

We hope to send out a call for participants within the next week or two, so keep an eye on this blog, your e-mail accounts, your Twitter accounts, and so on. If you have any questions please e-mail THATCampPNW@gmail.com or follow and contact @THATCampPNW on Twitter.

We are very excited and we hope you are as well!

First, great thanks to everyone who has shown support and completed the planning survey thus far. We are going to keep the survey open one more week before we finalize the plans THATCamp PNW in Pullman, WA. Please spread the word.

After we finalize plans, we will put out a call for participants; by that time THATCamp Austin will be over and we will be able to point to their success as an indicator of what we can do with the regional THATCamp model. We continue to be grateful to the Austin folks and those at CHNM for their support and suggestions.

Here’s a sneak peek at the current trends in the planning survey:

• Most popular available date: Sat, Oct 17th (second most popular: Sat, Oct 31)
• Regarding sessions per time slot: most people have no preference, but of those who do, 2 sessions per slot is the most popular response
• Most popular start time: by far, the most popular start time is 10am (end approximately 5pm)
• Amenities: almost everyone wants water and coffee throughout the day, which makes sense to us. Snacks at registration and throughout the day are also popular. Very few people indicated branded THATCamp swag is important to them, which certainly helps the budget.
• Travel to Pullman: most respondents are local or within a 2-hour drive. This reponse make sense because we haven’t really publicized the survey outside of our local area. However, we also have people prepared to fly a very long distance, and drive up/over from Corvallis, OR. Hooray!
• Post-unconference get-together: the most popular response is a 5 on a scale of 5, 5 being “yes, let’s do it!”

These are all great responses and allow us to estimate our budget quite precisely even this early in the game. Please continue to publicize the survey and put “THATCamp PNW” in the minds of your friends and colleagues.

If you have any questions please e-mail THATCampPNW@gmail.com or follow and contact @THATCampPNW on Twitter.