We created a storify of the definitions we published via twitter from the session at #THATCamp #LAC 2012 on defining and distinguishing between Digital Humanities, Digital Teaching and Digital Pedagogy: storify.com/FrostDavis/digital-humanities-digital-teaching-digital-pedago

We, the #feralcats of THATCampLAC 2012, want to support the motto of more hack, less yack at THATCamps. To help THATCamp participants hack, we’ve compiled this More Hack Guide both as a handbook for hacking but also as an example of what four focused people can produce in 40 minutes after going rogue at a THATCamp.

Minus sermonis, operis plus! (Less yack, more hack!)

We created these guidelines in just 40 minutes.  Think what you could do in 75.

I created a THATCampLAC2012 Folder within the THATCamp folder in Google Docs.

There is an official folder to put google docs generated in our sessions.  Here is the main THATCamp folder.

One of the mottoes of THATcamp is Less Yack, More Hack. This means we focus on doing along with our talking, which distinguishes THATcamps from most other conferences. For example, DHCommons came out of a session at THATcamp Chicago 2010. This post is not so much a session proposal than a reminder to include a concrete outcome in your session. That could be anything from some coding to starting a new DH project to a blog post to a proposal for a Digital Scholarship Seminar. We are always looking for new topics for NITLE’s Digital Scholarship Seminars, so, if you have a great discussion and would like to take it further, consider proposing a seminar. Just write a title and description and come up with a list of potential speakers.

I’ve had a request for a Digital Scholarship Seminar on Womens Studies and DH. I’d love some help in planning this online seminar. Who would be a good speaker? Let’s write a description.

This could be combined with or complementary to Jacque’s suggestion for a Transform DH session.

Ben Brumfield led a great session on crowdsourcing at THATCamp Texas 2011.  I’d love to see that session again.  In addition to talking about it, we could try our hand at one of the many crowdsourced manuscript transcription projects.

Let’s crowdsource a glossary of digital humanities jargon.  One of the challenges for digital humanities newbies, is all the jargon. Help the DH community figure out what it’s jargon is. When you hear a term you don’t recognize write it on a sticky note (we’ll have a place for you to submit them) or add it to this glossary I’ve created in a google doc. If you are up on the jargon, please go to the glossary and help us out by adding the definition: Digital Humanities Glossary

Growing numbers of digital humanists don’t have access to digital humanities centers.  While they may get energized at a THATCamp, it’s hard to sustain that energy back on the home campus.  The vibrant online digital humanities community helps by keeping us connected via social media as seen in Digital Humanities Now.  I’m interested in exploring a more organized form of digital humanities development.

What would a digital humanities MOOC look like?  A MOOC is a massively open online course, where course materials and interaction take place online.  MOOCs thrive on networked learning; those participants  who learn collaboratively by networking around the material get much more out of such a course than those who take it in a silo.  Since the digital humanities community already has a strong ethos of online interaction, it seems ripe for participation in a MOOC.  Granted, such a course might not be truly massive like Sebastian Thrum’s course with 90,000 signed up, but I think we could get enough critical mass to generate some good discussion and interaction.  I imagine a target audience of faculty, grad students, advanced undergrads, librarians, technologists, museum professionals, and anyone else who is interested.

So, let’s get together and plan a MOOC.  Seriously.  My colleagues and I at NITLE plan to pilot this idea in the last two weeks of July.  This is your chance to request your choice of topics.

More and more faculty are offering Introduction to Digital Humanities courses.  What would a textbook look like for such a course?  What about an open intro to DH resource/textbook that would let you mix and match (or as Jeff McClurken suggested at THATCamp Kansas) even let your students decide where to focus in a given course.  What would you like to see in such a resource?

There are a growing number of resources and opportunities available to introduce academics to the digital humanities.  My colleague, Lisa Spiro has written an excellent piece for newcomers, “Getting Started in Digital Humanities“, which was selected for publication in the new Journal of Digital Humanities.  NITLE offers digital scholarship seminars which are intended to raise awareness of digital humanities at and for small liberal arts colleges.  THATCamps are another great option for plugging into this community.  DHCommons hosted a Getting Started in Digital Humanities pre-conference workshop at the 2012 MLA conference and will do so again at MLA 2013. I’ve taught a number of introductory digital humanities workshops, as have many others.

But, what’s the next step?  What kind of intermediate digital humanities professional development opportunities are out there?  (DHSI leaps to mind.)  What else would you like to see?  How can we help new digital humanists take the next step?  At NITLE we are exploring some ideas for filling in gaps for the intermediate digital humanist, especially at small liberal arts colleges or other places that lack the support of a digital humanities center.  I’d appreciate any input you have on what that should be.  To give us something to do in the session, I’d also like to develop a survey that I can send out to all those who’ve done those introductory events, like the digital scholarship seminars, to get a clearer idea of needs.