Category Archive: Session Ideas

I would like to talk about various options for mapping and georeferencing. We have dabbled with Google maps and Hypercities and are exploring other options. I would like to have a better understanding of what open-source software will work well enough and when the more advanced features of commercial software are needed. I would like to learn what software people have been using for what projects and the level of expertise required for the software.  I would also like to talk about open-data in mapping projects and also having data in open formats to archive (even if the data is not openly shared).

I’ve never actually managed to get this idea off the ground at THATCamp but I thought I’d try it one more time.

This is a totally half baked idea but it keeps popping up in my little head and maybe you all can help me deal. I’m basically thinking about the challenge of applying my humanities-trained mind to data driven projects.

The challenge isn’t that I am skeptical of quantitative stuff but that I know how easy it is to make mistakes with it if you don’t know what you’re doing or get easily confused by big numbers (I am guilty of both). I also know how easy it is to be dazzled by big numbers and beautiful visualizations (no offense Hans Rosling).

I started thinking about this while reading the first of the New York Times stories about digital humanities. Patricia Cohen wrote:

Members of a new generation of digitally savvy humanists argue it is time to stop looking for inspiration in the next political or philosophical “ism” and start exploring how technology is changing our understanding of the liberal arts. This latest frontier is about method, they say, using powerful technologies and vast stores of digitized materials that previous humanities scholars did not have.

The idea of a “data turn” in the humanities has been tossed around but it is not as if data are somehow a-political or outside of ideology, right? In this session I want to hear people’s ideas about strategies for approaching Big Data. On the one hand, the idea of being able to search for patterns across vast sets of historical and cultural data is very exciting. On the other hand, I can’t unread Foucault (or Marx for that matter). I know all of this data exists in a context but I don’t know how to keep that in perspective when I’m dealing with Big Data.

Anyway, this is just a thought on the table. I would love it if someone wants to pick it up and build an actually coherent session proposal out of it.

Stewart

(full disclosure: I totally copy-and-pasted that from another THATCamp blog post I wrote over the summer)

(Proposals and areas of interest from participants as indicated on the THATCamp registration form.)

* Our library is beginning to support digital humanities projects and I want to learn more about what people are doing, what people need to know and what support is needed.

* One of my jobs at Emory is managing the DH center we are building in the library so I am looking forward to talking with attendees about the kinds of projects they want to work on and possibly identifying new tools for working on them. In particular, I want to hear more about text mining and strategies for managing collaborative work. I am also deeply – and selfishly – interested in talking through strategies for sustainability and preservation or possibly rethinking what we mean when we use those terms. Does everything need to be sustainable? Do we have to preserve all of it?

* I was just hired into a new position librarian position at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa library in August. Part of my new responsibilities will be managing the digital Arts and Information Gallery located within the library. The purpose of the gallery is to showcase the work of OU-Tulsa students, faculty, and staff and to promote collaborative learning across campus. THATCamp Kansas will be provide an excellent opportunity to interact with and learn from other professionals involved in digital learning.