Greetings–

If you would like to load the software that we’ll be using in tomorrow’s GIS bootcamp onto your laptop, here’s the link to ESRI’s AEJEE GIS. This is a relatively large install, and it could take several minutes to download.

–Doug

I would really love to keep in touch with everyone I met at THATCamp!  Can you share  your contact info so we can continue the collaborations and conversations?

My details:

Email: janaremyATgmail

FaceBook: Jana Bouck Remy

Twitter:  @janaremy

History Blog & Podcast: makinghistorypodcast.com/

(I also blog bi-monthly at HistoryCompass)

Soloblog: www.pilgrimsteps.com

Apologies for the lateness of my post! I’m generally interested in GIS in the humanities. Have been working on a project called Litmap in conjunction with my dissertation, which attempts to map literature, and which you can see (partially) here. I’ve worked extensively on Hypercities (coding and conceptual development) and also some Nordic folklore mapping projects, for example the Danish Folklore Data Nexus.

Am very much looking forward to seeing what other people are up to in SoCal w/ regards to these areas and also other tech + humanities things, and would love to talk about collaboration. Very excited that THATCamp is coming to SoCal!

Electronic portfolios are becoming increasingly important in contemporary digital universities, but they raise fundamental questions about curatorial education and the politics of access and appropriation. I’ve offered to talk specifically about a genre that many on the job market are asked about: the teaching portfolio. I’ll also show a lot of examples for our discussion. But I think these issues are relevant to a range of situations from electronic portfolios for students to digital tenure review files for faculty.

Lately, as I plan an event in honor of the release of the Richard Rorty born digital archive with my UC Irvine colleague Erin Obodiac, I have been thinking about ways to theorize this in the digital humanities/critical theory conversation. I hope that THATcampers will attend the Rorty event on May 14th. The description of the event is here.

I’m working on two different topics: expert calibrated peer trust and developing a web-based application platform for digital humanities.

My primary work is a general-purpose, web-based digital humanities platform–essentially Lego for DH.  This platform is being developed to support four different DH projects this semester that together have a combination of bibliography, transcription, concordance, GIS, and general database tasks.  The goal is to develop a general methodology for mapping the traditional humanist “editorial statement” (within the context of a digital project) to an electronic description that can be used by the computer to help build the project. (I’ve started a tumblelog on the project for those interested in the nitty-gritty.)

The peer trust work is being done in the context of an instructional technology project, but it may be applicable in DH projects that employ crowd sourcing.

I am interested in talking about digital tools for climate change education, scientific visualization and engaging storytelling/presentation. In particular I’m looking for ways to use digital media to increase dialogue between scientists, artists, scholars, business people, government officials, students and the general public to explore climate solutions.

I’m also interested in remix pedagogy as I will be teaching a course next year where we’ll be remixing a documentary.

I’m interested in several topics. I am thinking of creating a prosopography of contributors to an 18th century medical journal, and I’m interested in ways/tools to develop this database. I’m would also like to investigate teaching practices using digital humanities, especially methods and tools.

I’m interested in the “vast narrative,” the “transmedia story,” or how different texts in various media can contribute to a larger cohesive narrative, and how these narratives can have particular relevance for activism or education (possibly for issues of labor and migration). These different media can include literature, film, television, graphic novels/comic books, digital sites, social media, etc.

I’d like to talk about digital pedagogy in higher education.  Like others I am also interested in Sophie, and other advancements in digital/technological humanities.  Additionally,  I’d like to talk about navigating between theory and practice in an academic setting.

I’m hoping to spend some time talking about mechanisms for transforming peer review practices and understandings via open social publishing systems.  In October 2009, I published a draft of my book, Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy, online for open review.  The process has been extremely productive, and I’ve gotten a lot of great feedback, but it’s left me with three key questions about how to transform something like CommentPress into a viable mode of open peer review:

(1) How do we create the drive within communities of practice to participate in these reviews?  I’m still amazed how many people contributed to mine, but it took a good bit of strategic planning at the outset.

(2) How can we ensure that the reviews we’re getting through a system like CommentPress don’t lose the real strengths of conventional peer reviews — the ability of a reviewer to think synthetically about the text as a whole? There’s at least the potential in a fine-grained commenting system of losing the forest in the trees.

(3) What kinds of technological or social additions can we imagine to such a system that might help review committees, publishers, provosts, etc., of the value of open review?

I’m certain that there are more questions to be asked, but these are the ones that have been most persistent in my mind.  I’ll look forward to talking with you all about these things, and more!

I’m interested particularly in the use of technology for teaching and learning language and culture, but also in educational technology in more general terms. I have been trying to put together a curriculum for a certificate program on Technology in the Humanities for graduate students at UCI. I would like the program to provide an overview of how technology can be used in research, teaching, and publication (including multimedia), and get them started on building a professional digital portfolio. Lately I’ve been trying to learn more about mapping software and using it in conjunction with digital storytelling.

I’m looking forward to listening a lot and participating in some interesting conversations!

I’m in the early stages of a massive research project about Katherine Dunham, an african american dancer and anthropologist, and the aim is eventually to create a rich-media resource about her work.  In an ideal world, I’ll be able to build some of the project into a course for advanced students.  Sophie is looking like a good platform for this someday-resource and I’d like to explore and get a stronger feel for the options it presents and the ways it can be creatively integrated both into scholarship and teaching.

My proposal for THATCamp centered on the role of libraries and librarians in supporting Humanities research and teaching via Virtual Worlds. Actually, I’m interested in Virtual Worlds in the broadest sense.

I’d also be interested in discussing digital mapping/GIS and their intersection with the Humanities.

I’d like to talk about a project called Synaptic Crowd that enables online participants to conduct remote interviews by nominating and voting on questions. The project can also be deployed in the reverse — so that the collectivity nominates and votes on the answers rather than the questions of an interview. I’m interested in thinking about this project in relation to the future of the real-time web and in thinking through the intersections between spectacle and democratic process.

I’d like to talk about a free, open source software application called Sophie, which is designed to support media-rich authoring. I’d like to do this in the context of a broader discussion/viewing of online texts that consider design, kinetic typography, database aesthetics, interface and motion graphics as forms of – potentially – scholarly communication. Finally, all of this relates to Sophie, and notions of composing in spatial and temporal modes, where the book meets video…

I’m interested in discussing Social Media, particularly as a means of facilitating scholarly collaboration and conversation.  I would also like to talk about mapping tools.

Note to the Blog Admin: Can you change the settings so comments don’t go into moderation–I think that will stymie the conversations that will evolve on our posts. Thanks for taking care of this!

I am interested in talking a number of topics.  One subject that would be valuable and timely for me would be to talk about open-access publishing, as I am involved in both a publishing platform at Occidental, <a href=”http://scholar.oxy.edu”>OxyScholar</a>, and in a nascent electronic journal designed to consider to powerful work being done in special collections around the country.  Aside from this conversation, I also hope to talk about multimedia student projects, both how to encourage and evaluate such work; I am also more specifically interested in projects that incorporate multimedia and mobility, especially when they connect classrooms and field research.

My focus is more on pedagogy and learning design than on computing as a “pure” research tool. So my key interests are as follows.

‘Extended’ notions of literacy (beyond prose writing): so multimedia literacy/production, ‘numeracy,’ programming even.

Online course design, pedagogy in the context of distance learning, graphic and conceptual models of course design.

Design as a model for critical thinking and course design.

Using mashups of GIS along with other forms of scholarly production to examine historical change in the Southwest.

We have a few spaces left, and it seems like THATCamp SoCal might be a decent venue to pick up some of the conversations from the DML conference, so please feel free to apply by sending a brief note (describing who you are and what you would like to discuss) to socal2010.thatcamp@gmail.com

We will be accepting applications until February 15th, 2010 – but don’t wait too long because we can only accept 50 or so attendees.  For now, to apply just send a message to socal2010.thatcamp@gmail.com explaining who you are (name, website, twitter handle, institutional affiliation) and a brief (a paragraph or two) description of the topic you would like to talkabout at THATCamp SoCal.

Anyone with energy and an interest in digital humanities or allied fields should apply.  That includes academics, librarians, archivists, cultural activists, curators, students (grad or undergrad), educators, developers, and professionals in all fields where technology and the humanities collide.

Contact socal2010.thatcamp@gmail.com with submissions or questions.

Look for more news soon.  Follow @socal2010.thatcamp for the latest, or write directly to socal2010.thatcamp@gmail.com