Digital Humanities and THATCamp 2009

So I have an overdue post due from DH09 and THATCamp09. Maybe I should first explain what those are.

Digital Humanities 2009 Conference

Digital Humanities is the web conference for those involved in (wait for it…) digital humanities. This was the first academic conference I’d been to, adhering mostly to 1.5 hour sessions with three papers each, with people generally reading a paper with bullet point slides in the background. This is in contrast to the library conference I’d been to, which generally had less paper reading (though the bullet points, unfortunately, seem to be a staple everywhere).

Many of the sessions I attended had to do with data visualization and tool discussions. In both of these types of presentations, I found myself wishing that the presenters would start with the demo and then go on to talk about it, especially as many weren’t available on the web. Some of the groupings didn’t really make sense – that is, two of the talks would have a lot to do with each other and the other didn’t really.

The first two days I was at DH I felt very out of place- more than I felt at my first ALA, bot in that case I was staying with a close friend who is also a librarian, so that helped. I felt acutely my lack of an overarching “research interest.” Also, I didn’t know anyone in person and though I knew a few people from Twitter, I always saw them while they were talking to someone else so I didn’t introduce myself. In hindsight, this was probably my biggest mistake.

By day three, I felt more at ease, and this was also the most interesting day of presentations for me, so that helped. I was finally starting to get the hang of things when DH ended- but I did introduce myself to several people the last day.

I don’t know for sure if I will attend future DH conferences. My position does not get any travel funding (even if I were to present, and I’m not at all sure what I would present on anyway) and this was the last year I could get student pricing.

THATCamp (The Humanities and Technology Camp)

THATCamp Twitter Word Cloud (photo by ghbrett)

On the opposite end of the cost spectrum, by contrast, was THATCamp which is donation only. I attended THATCamp last year, so I knew a little more what to expect, and I felt more at ease right away. I’m not sure exactly why that is, but I think it has to do with the informality and the mix of people. It’s not that I don’t like hanging out with academics, but my job just doesn’t allow the time to think about the academic-y research questions, and THATCamp addressed some of the more, shall we say, down to earth aspects of digital humanities such as: how can we make this all work? While DH seemed attended by the scholars who told someone what to do, THATCamp seemed to be attended by more of the techies (I don’t consider that term a put down, BTW) themselves, and scholars who took more active roles in the development of their projects. Again, maybe my impressions are completely off, because it has all to do with  the sessions attended.

THATCamp, for those who don’t know, is (mostly) an unconference, though with a little more structure than many unconferences. The structure comes in the form of a blog, where people can post their ideas ahead of time and others can comment. The first day of camp we signed up for sessions, and the organizers grouped these logically.  I like this idea, but in practice a bunch of people posted on the blog the last day, when I didn’t have time to read them all before the camp started, and stuff was grouped together that maybe should have been seperate. I think either a 24 hour suggested deadline for the blog might be good, or some of Daniel Chudnov’s great suggestions for improving on THATCamp.

Oh, that's me on the left (photo by ghbrett)

Last year when I attended THATCamp, I did not know how to program, was still getting my Master’s degree in library science, and was a lowly assistant at the CDRH- so while I found everything very interesting, I had a hard time putting things in context and I really couldn’t implement anything I learned as my job was centered around setting meetings and taking minutes. Still, I felt like a part of the crowd and accepted even then, and this was true even even more (if possible) this year. Now, I am a graduate with a degree in library science, and working as one of the developers (visual resources designer) at the CDRH. I have also started down the programming road thanks to Steve Ramsay’s class taken last school year. This meant that this year’s THATCamp filled me with ideas I could actually implement, which is a Very Good Thing. I hope more of my co-workers can attend in the future.

THATCamp was notable for being my first conference where it seemed like almost everyone was on twitter. Tweets came fast and furious, and at some point I couldn’t keep up anymore. But it was a great way to make connections between sessions. Since THATCamp ended, the “#thatcamp” tag has been used to continue discussions started at camp, and to start discussions about regional THATCamps- an idea that just may be the best thing to come out of THATCamp. Travel money is unlikely to get any looser in the next few years, and regional unconferences are a great way to get together at a minimal cost and share ideas. Hopefully more centers and universities will be able to sent their staff to a regional get togethers if nothing else. (More on that, probably, in a later post.)

Both DH and THATCamp were enormously beneficial, and I am glad I went. I am a little sad to miss out on ALA this year, but buying a new house (before selling the old one) has limited my funds somewhat. Maybe next year. Int he meantime, both conferences have given me a lot to think about and (hopefully) blog about.