Cousett put together this map of all the participants’ locations. Man, some of you travelled a long way.

View THATcamp 2012 All Schools in a full screen map

As we break our way into digital humanities, we run into more and more computer code. But do I need to know what it means? Or, better yet, how much of it do I need to know?

This has been a hot button question lately – do digital humanists need to know how to code? My take is that the answer is pretty nuanced and idiosyncratic. We must know how to understand some of the simple parts of the language that we use the most. And I think that we should know how to do some simple html/css – it’s too ubiquitous.

I’d like to see a session that talks about a few different things

1. What kind of code do I need to know for what I do?
2. How do I learn it?
3. What don’t I need to know? How can I tell?

We’d like all of the THATCamp LAC participants to post any ideas for sessions that you’d like to see happen during the conference to this website.

Remember that a THATCamp is based on 2 different types of activities.
1. Workshops – skills based sessions where an expert teaches you new software, new tricks with existing software, or new digital humanities strategies.
2. Sessions – discussion based sessions most akin to a round table at a conference.

The four workshops are already planned. But we have a number of open slots for sessions. You, the participants, get to determine what those sessions are.

Saturday morning, our first task is going to be determining what the session schedule is going to be. To help us out, we’d like you to post ideas for what you would like to talk about. Note that you do not have to be an expert on the topic. If the idea interests you, and if you think others may be interested in it, that qualifies as a valid topic.

Some ideas to get you started:

• Do digital humanists need to know how to write code?
• How can we use GIS technology?
• What role does the library play in digital humanities?
• Are we ready to start using e-textbooks?
• How does copyright affect what we do?

When you post your idea, write up a couple hundred words describing what you’re thinking and why it interests you. If you can link to some background reading, that would be fantastic!

Go to this page to post your idea. Note that you’ll need to log in. You should have gotten a username and password with your acceptance email. If you’re having problems logging in, contact Ryan.

The USB drive freebies have showed up! All you’ve got to do to get your’s is show up Saturday morning.

We’ve finalized the workshops to be held.

ARIS Video Games

Have you ever wondered how to make an educational game for your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch?  ARIS games offers a free platform that you can use to design immersive, interactive, mobile experiences.  Come join this workshop and learn the basics about how to use this application to create games on the iOS platform.  Participants will learn about what is possible with ARIS, play ARIS games and work in teams to create a simple, mobile-based game.  See: arisgames.org/ for more information.

Taught by: Jason Rosenblum, St. Edward’s Emerging Technologies R&D

 Ebook Authoring

Take your manuscript from Microsoft Word to the Kindle, Nook, iPad, and other eReading devices in a few easy steps.  In this session, you will learn to create PDF and EPUB eBooks using the free Calibre eBook creation software.  No experience required; we will provide example materials to use and a variety of eReading devices to try out.

Taught by: Eric Frierson, Head of Library Systems and Kady Ferris, Collection Development Librarian

Beyond Wildcards: Fundamentals of Regular Expressions

Regular Expressions are a basic part of most textual technologies, and are built into most editors, programming languages, and frameworks. Though cryptic, they’re a powerful tool for anyone who needs to perform complex searches on text or clean and manipulate textual data. This workshop will explain the fundamental concepts behind regular expressions and provide hands-on examples of how to use them. A computer capable of running Flash is required for running through some of the examples.

Taught by: Ben Brumfield, Software Engineer (and back by popular demand)

Fundamentals of Teaching with Social Media

From Twitter to Facebook to Pinterest, everyone seems to be talking about social media tools and what role they should play in the classroom. In this workshop, we will experiment with a wide variety of social media applications, but rather than focus solely on how to use these tools, we will consider why and when you might want to introduce new approaches to social media in your classes. Come ready to share your favorite social media tools and discuss specific pedagogical problems that might be resolved, in part, by trying a new tool. We will focus on browser-based applications, so no special software is needed to attend this workshop.

Taught by: Quinn Warnick & Drew Loewe, both St. Edward’s English Writing faculty

We’ve reopened registration.

Due to overwhelming demand and a very benevolent Dean (thanks, Lou!), we’ve added 25 more slots for THATCamp LAC participants. That’s a grand total of 100 digital humanities geeks coming soon to St. Ed’s.

They’re going like hotcakes, so if you want to come, apply today

We’ve hit our absolute cap for attendees! Registration has been closed.

Thanks to all those who registered. You’ll be getting some more information in about a week.

We’re announcing a few new updates to the schedule.

Dinner has moved. We’re now going to Hill’s Cafe, an Austin landmark.
We’ll be having a chicken fried steak buffet (yum!) with some other options.
The cost will be < $10 – we’ll have more details on that soon.

The workshop schedule is almost finalized. You’ll have a chance to attend

• Regular expressions – extremely powerful text querying and mining
• Authoring ebooks and ejournals – create your own easily with open source software
• Creating iOS video games with ARIS – a free system for real world-based games with pedagogical possibilities
• Social tools in the classroom – an introduction to social bookmarking, wikis, photo sharing, and other social media

Didn’t have a chance to get your application in by the March 1st deadline?

Not to worry!

We’ve extended the deadline until March 23rd.

That’s 3 more weeks for you to put together that stunning application and join us in beautiful Austin for a great weekend of geeking out.

We’re rapidly developing the schedule for THATCamp LAC. And it’s looking like you’re going to have access to some great opportunities!

Saturday night

Dinner at Stubb’s Barbeque

It’s an Austin landmark on 6th Street.
You’ll have a chance for some darn good brisket, ribs, or smoked quail.

Workshops

We’re planning out the workshops that you can attend. No absolutes yet, but it’s looking like:

000000;">Regular Expressions: Take your text searching beyond simple wildcards. Learn some serious text querying possibilities from a seasoned pro.

Publishing e-books and e-journals: Learn how to create your own e-books and e-journals for a variety of platforms, all with opensource software.

Create iOS5 games: Learn the basics of creating a digital scavenger hunt game for the iOS platform using easy and intuitive software.

Social tools in the classroom: Discover power tips for using social media in the classroom. We’re not talking Facebook and Twitter – we’re talking social bookmarking, wikis, browser extensions, website overlays, and more!

Sessions

And, as always, we’ll have on-the-fly sessions about anything and everything you’ve wanted to know about technology, liberal arts, and the digital humanities.

Come ready to talk about

• social media for education
• e-book and paperless classrooms
• student-driven research
• digital humanities research in SLACs
• collaboration between institutions, departments, and non-academics
• whatever else may interest you about the digital humanities

From June 1-3, St. Edward’s University will host the 2012 THATCamp for Liberal Arts Colleges.

If you’re interested in the humanities, technology, or liberal arts colleges, you should attend.

But is THATCamp LAC right for you? Are you:

• A humanities professor who uses new technologies in your classes or research?
• A humanities professor who would like to try using new technologies?
• An IT professional at a university who works with humanities faculty and staff?
• A librarian who works in the humanities?
• A non-traditional humanist who is interested in new technologies?
• An IT professional in industry who is interested in the humanities?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, THATCamp LAC is right for you.

This particular THATCamp is titled for Liberal Arts Colleges. But that’s a bit of a misnomer. While we will primarily be academics at LACs, we will also be librarians, IT professionals employed by universities, IT-related professionals in industry, and people doing humanities work in non-academic settings. And we won’t all be tech savvy. Yes, a lot of us live and breathe through our iPads and Linux boxes. But a lot of us will be just starting into the technological realm. If you’re interested at all in using technology, you qualify to join us.

At THATCamp LAC, you’ll get to participate in an “unconference” where you can chat with others like you. The dynamic schedule, voted on by attendees, will let you decide what you want to talk about, and let you change those topics on the fly. As the main THATCamp site puts it, “An unconference is to a conference what a seminar is to a lecture; going to an unconference is like being a member of an improv troupe where going to a conference is (mostly) like being a member of an audience.”

At THATCamp, you’ll also have the opportunity to attend workshops – training sessions where you can learn new software, strategies, and theories.

For more information on THATCamps, visit the main THATCamp page at

thatcamp.org