I posted my record of select sessions on FSU’s Digital Scholars WordPress blog. Here is the link: THAT camp Florida 2015

If a slot is still available for the afternoon session, I’d like to propose a session on how public projects can be a forum for capturing and highlighting the texture of cultural experiences. Video documentation works well online for documenting new immigrant groups with strong oral traditions. Narrated personal experience or choral performance can provide compelling ways to make global events more comprehensible.

Does the technology we use also tell its own story? In what ways do paper and video or onsite research and online access change the story told — and the story heard? How do we ensure that our projects operate in a way authentic to those who are telling their story, rather than just what is convenient to our institutions?

I can provide examples from my work with immigrant communities and archives (particularly Sheeko, with Somali youth: blog.lib.umn.edu/ihrc/sheeko/; Digitizing Immigrant Letters (European: www.ihrc.umn.edu/research/dil/Paikens/paikens.htm); and a choral performance of ethnic music: vimeo.com/76913574.

Others interested in this conversation?

In his book !# (pronounced “shebang”), Nick Montfort exhibits several short programs and the output of those programs. One program, PPG256-1 (Perl Poetry Generator 256, number 1) produces poetry from a dense Perl program of 256 characters.

In this session, we’ll look at PPG256-1 and how it does its magic, and perhaps talk about programming as both text and the creator of text.

PPG256-1:
sub b{@_=unpack"(A2)*",pop;$_[rand@_]}sub w{" ".b(cococacamamadebapanohamolaburatamihopodito).b(estsnslldsckregspsstedbsnelengkemsattewsntarshnknd)}{$_="\n\nthe".w."\n";$_=w." ".b(attoonnoof).w."\n" if $l;s/[au][ae]/a/;print;$l=0if$l++>rand 9;sleep 1;redo}

This workshop is designed for anyone interested in finding/sharing a do-it-yourself tool or platform that can be used to map the movement of people, culture, ideas, etc., across place and time. The presenters will include 11 University of Central Florida graduate students working with the Florida State Parks on the “Wish You Were Here” project, which focuses on six historic state parks that originated as private resorts/attractions in the roadside/auto-tourism era. A series of lightning-round presentations will address the following tools/platforms from the perspective (in most cases) of first-time or novice users:

• StoryMapJS (Callie Henson, Carly VanZandt)
• MapStory (Drew Fulcher)
• Google Earth (Marcus Berzon)
• Google Maps (Jim Poppino)
• RICHES MI (Mark Barnes)
• HistoryPin (Sarah Thorncroft, Porsha Dossie)
• QMedia/YouTube (David Morton)
• TripLine (Rebecca Schwandt)
• HistoryInMotion (Fernando Maldonado)
• MapScholar (BobClarke)
• Neatline (Bob Clarke)

Please join us and share your thoughts on finding the right mapping tool for your project.

Graduate students in the Department of History at the University of Central Florida have produced a local community based research podcast call A History of Central Florida. This video podcast is a 9,000 year chronological history of central Florida through the objects found in local area museums, historical societies and other public collections. The impetus for this project was to bring attention to the museums and their artifacts in the hope that people would view the podcast and take interest not only in the entire series but also the museums themselves.   The tag line of the project is “The Museum on the GO….GO to the Museum.” Ideally we want people to see the podcast and museum on their mobile devices and then that would inspire them to travel to the museum themselves to see the artifact in person.

This panel will discuss the process of going from the classroom to the greater public and creating a video podcast with a community outreach purpose. We will show samples from the series and students and professors engaged in the project will lead a discussion on this project.

People involved attending THATCamp:

Robert Cassanello, Associate Professor of History, UCF

Daniel Murphree, Associate Professor of History, UCF

Katie Kelley, Graduate Student, UCF

Bob Clarke, Former Graduate Student, now adjunct faculty UCF

A link to the series on iTunes is here.

THATCamp works best when registrants propose ideas for sessions prior to the day of the meet-up. That helps generate interest and excitement around particular topics, and facilitates the scheduling of concurrent sessions throughout the day.

This year’s event is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 28, which is just a couple of weeks away. If you haven’t done so already, please register now and propose a session here.

Flier for THATCamp Florida 2015

Welcome to the Fifth Annual THATCamp Florida website.  The History Department and the RICHES program at the University of Central Florida, in cooperation with the UCF Center for Research and Education in Arts, Technology + Entertainment (Create), and the Center for Humanities and Digital Research will be hosting a regional THATCamp on 28 February, 2015 in sunny Orlando.  The gathering will involve about 75 people drawn broadly from the Humanities and will include Professors, Librarians, Graduate Students and interested parties (writers, musicians, etc.) who are engaged in sorting through the many and varied ways that our broadly shared disciplines intersect with emerging technologies.  It is our hope that this one-day intensive meeting at Create will offer a stimulating and energizing atmosphere which will foster a fruitful exchange of ideas as well as collaborative work among attendees. If you are interested in attending this year’s THATCamp Florida you will need to register in advance. We also encourage you to begin thinking about what you would like to discuss at THATCamp and to submit a proposal for a session that is designed to address your interests/needs in the Digital Humanities, broadly defined. There is a length discussion of the proposal process on the page linked above.

We are excited to be hosting another THATCamp focusing on the Digital Humanities, broadly defined, and are looking forward to assembling a broad and diverse group of Campers from around the state.