Thanks so much, Ashley! Order your photos now at smugmug.

himandherphoto.smugmug.com/Events/ThatcampDC2014/

There are numerous examples of crowdsourcing transcription websites with a variety of functional depth to them. How should we approach oral and videohistories in order to achieve a similar or better degree of success? Is there a means to make the output immediately accessible to researchers beyond a static transcription.

For this session, I’d like to brainstorm about building a resource to introduce digital humanities to DH newbies. This would be part of a wider conversation about how to introduce the topic to people who perhaps feel overwhelmed by the technologies the DH community is using.

The idea for this session came to me a few months ago after attending “Toolkit for THATCamp newbies, Dreambook edition” at last year’s THATCamp Prime at GMU. During that session, several campers kept asking basic questions about how to get started in the digital humanities. There were excellent, well informed answers from campers who have experience with coding and know about resources that are common to the DH community. Why don’t we continue the conversation and come up with a list of tools and technologies that everyone interested in DH should know?

Here’s my proposal idea, it’s an educational platform where people can study together online based on hashtags.  Meaning users “enroll” by picking an interest ( academia, arts, science, sports etc) and then they will get a social media syllabus that will direct them to content about their interest.

For example, Sally picks Academia as top interest and wants to focus on the women’s rights movement. She will be asked to type in hashtags that are connected to that topic ( ex. #suffrage #womensright) and articles, books, videos and photos will pop up. She will then get assigned “homework” such as writing a short response on one of the videos. She will be able to share her responses on the platform as “homework” with others enrolled in her “hashtagged course.”

I’ve been experimenting with this concept on social media platforms such as tumblr and instagram and would love to hear some feedback.

– Kwasi

Hey THATCampers — We will be so happy to have you at THATCamp this Saturday whether you propose to lead a session or are just enjoying the conversations, but if you are interested in taking the lead on a topic, feel free to post it now. That way we can have a few sessions to put in the first column so we can all get to work/play that much quicker.

We will be using whiteboards to make the chart and then taking pictures using WhiteBoard Cleanup by Ricoh Innovations. We will post the pictures at dc2014.thatcamp.org (here) and then you can pull them up on your smart phones. Look under the page called Schedule.

Each proposal should have a clear title with just a few words of explanation. Entice the reader to your lair. Topics should be of somewhat broad interest. You need not be a subject matter expert in order to propose and host a session! There will be plenty of wisdom to go around. If you do have expertise, please offer a session! If there aren’t enough topics proposed, we can at least host sessions called Q&A on Digital Pedagogy, Digital Publishing, Digital Cultural Heritage, and the Future of the Humanities.  Sunlight Foundation (founder of Transparency Camp) will be leading us off with a special session on the use of digital technologies to connect government with constituents (improving accountability and transparency) and will be sharing data visualization techniques with us. We are so pleased to have them sponsoring this event sunlightfoundation.com/. Another delightful sponsor is Tech Cocktail, a company that puts on exciting meetups in many cities including DC and publishes a blog on trends — check them out here: tech.co/about-tech-cocktail. Gelman Libraries, the Provost’s Office, Cuentos the humanities magazine of GW Internal Medicine faculty, and the GW Digital Humanities Institute are our internal sponsors. Volunteer labor provided by HIST3001: Digital Humanities & the Historian. When you see these undergrads, do let them know about career opportunities, internships, and offer informational interviews and tours if you can. Thank you!

— Diane H. Cline

The newly convened/extant THATCamp council met this week! I’ll give a couple minute overview of the council, why it exists, and what we’re hoping for it and creating future THATCamps!

thatcamp.org/about/council/

thatcamp.org/forums/forum/thatcamp-council-business/

Welcome! After browsing around you may  register here at dc2014.thatcamp.org.  You may need to register first with thatcamp.org. You can then propose a session by adding a post, or coming with an idea to share on April 26. Keep checking back to see what’s new. The schedule is subject to change. We look forward to unconferencing with you!
Diane Cline
THATCamp lead coordinator

drcline at gwu dot edu

If you are interested in how technology is changing—or can change—the work of scholars in the Humanities and Social Sciences, then we invite you to attend the first ever THATCamp on Saturday, April 26th at the George Washington University. THATCamp, or The Humanities and Technology Camp is an international phenomenon, bringing students, scholars, librarians, and technologists of every skill level together to learn how to integrate digital technology into their teaching and research and explore ways to see their work differently. Topics covered may include academic blogging, social media in the classroom, digital research methods, web-based class projects, digital portfolios, quantitative humanities, scenarios and gaming, 3D modeling, primary source digital repositories, coding, crowd-sourced transcription, data visualization, activist-archivists, and online publishing.

THATCamp is an “un-conference” where participants propose sessions and the agenda is prepared in the first hour. If you want to host a workshop on a tool or platform, or run a session on Wikipedia to correct or create entries, or participate in crowd-sourced transcription projects, that is fine. You may wish to propose sessions to talk about challenges and opportunities for new scholarship, to reflect on recent experiences, to share tips on using new media or tools effectively, to exchange methodologies for interdisciplinary innovation, or discuss the digital divide and social justice issues related to open source or internet access. Reading long papers out loud is not permitted, but you may sign up to present your project in 3 minutes during the “Dork-Shorts” session in the morning. The THATCamp agenda is participatory and created on the spot, so come prepared to pitch an idea for a session to TALK, MAKE, TEACH, or PLAY, or propose one in advance on our blog.  THATCamp is free and open to everyone, but participants must register at dc2014.thatcamp.org by April 19.  We are particularly interested in undergraduate and graduate student participation.

We’re currently accepting applications from students, faculty, librarians, technologists, museum professionals, archivists, and anyone else who is interested in the digital (and the) humanities (in the broadest sense of the word, including social sciences). We’d appreciate it if you’d pass this message on, and post the attached flyer if you can.

Event Date: Saturday, April 26, 2014, from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm

Location: The George Washington University, Funger 108 and 207-210

To Register:  dc2014.thatcamp.org/register/

• What is a THATCamp?
• What are the Ground Rules?
• I’m curious – show me some examples of sessions.

I’m in – now what? Check our website for more details on our THATcamp on April 26.

AGENDA:

8:30-9:15 Registration and breakfast in Funger Hall 108

9:15-10:15 Plenary: Proposals and agenda-building

10:15-11:00 Dork Shorts (lightning round open-mic talks) while we build the board.

11:15-12:00 Session 1 in Funger 207, 208, 209, and 210

12:15-1:00 Session 2

1:00-1:45 LUNCH

1:45-2:30 Session 3

2:45-3:30 Session 4

3:30-4:00 Group Debrief and Closing in Funger Hall 108

Financial support and co-sponsors include the GW Digital Humanities Institute, the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Stephen Ehrmann,  and the Office of Karim Boughida, Associate University Librarian for Digital Initiatives and Content Management. A hearty thank you. If your department or unit would like to contribute and co-host, please contact Prof. Diane Cline, History Department.

Organized by the students of HIST 3001 Digital Humanities and the Historian, Spring 2014.

read more about the THATCamp movement and browse other THATCamps at thatcamp.org.

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