THATCamp Southern California 2012 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org The Humanities and Technology Camp Wed, 19 Sep 2012 16:48:38 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.12 Folder for Google Docs http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/15/folder-for-google-docs/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/15/folder-for-google-docs/#respond Sat, 15 Sep 2012 22:02:35 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=664

If you created a Google Doc with collaborative notes on a session, please share it with info@thatcamp.org. I’ll add them to the public folder at j.mp/socal2010.thatcampnotes. Thanks!

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Evaluate THATCamp SoCal 2012 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/15/evaluate-thatcamp-socal-2012/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/15/evaluate-thatcamp-socal-2012/#respond Sat, 15 Sep 2012 21:48:16 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=657

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Please tell us what you thought of THATCamp SoCal by filling out the anonymous survey at j.mp/thatcamp-eval. Only two fields required: which THATCamp you went to and how useful you rate it on a scale of 1-5, though there’s also plenty of space for more in-depth comments.

If you like, you can read evaluations from other THATCamps at j.mp/thatcampresults.

Thanks, all!

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Session on Local DH collaboration (live-blogging) http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/15/session-on-local-dh-collaboration-live-blogging/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/15/session-on-local-dh-collaboration-live-blogging/#comments Sat, 15 Sep 2012 20:50:09 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=629

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Claremont received a grant for local DH collaboration:

Meeting at Oxy to Welcome Bard College to DH

Building on DHSoCal website out of the very first THATCamp SoCal (outdated profiles and content–needs to be updated)

Could there be a central meeting space?  Would it be possible to create a mobile lab?  Something like a foodtruck that could be setup in different places?

What we need more than equipment is travel grants (and legitimate academic funders so we can take time off of our academic positions to do DH work)

Sharing a twitter account to broadcast local events occurring on our campuses (maybe Daniel will take this on)

In addition to THATCamp, host another collaboration that could be like a summer institute and possibly garner NEH grants.

How about a SoCal Research Slam along the lines of what’s been done at UCSB for the past 5 years?

  • What about the model of bringing in judges from other campuses to evaluate student projects?

humanistica.ualberta.ca/ as an example of collaboration–possible local chapters of 4Humanities?

  • Do a documentary about what DH’ers are doing in SoCal (as support for a regional hub and also to explain to our colleagues what we do in DH)
  • At CSUN 4Humanities is a student organization, sponsored by the Center for the Digital Humanities
  • Use students from other institutions as labor for DH projects?  (as interns, perhaps?)

Monthly Google Hangouts, perhaps?  To get to know each other and our projects and to collaborate regularly.

First meeting: Friday Oct 12, 11am.  Liz Losh (@lizlosh) will organize the event.  Send her a note if you want to join in the call.

Scott Kleinman and Daniel Chamberlain will setup the regional twitter account (@DHSoCal)

 

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Session Notes: Text Mining Session 2 w/ Scott Kleinman http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/15/session-notes-text-mining-session-2-w-scott-kleinman/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/15/session-notes-text-mining-session-2-w-scott-kleinman/#respond Sat, 15 Sep 2012 18:25:11 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=587

Notes we put together from the 2nd Text Mining Workshop, led by Scott Kleinman. Feel free to add and edit.

 

bit.ly/PF92yx

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Session on Academic Technology (live-blogging) http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/15/session-on-academic-technology-live-blogging/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/15/session-on-academic-technology-live-blogging/#respond Sat, 15 Sep 2012 18:13:04 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=573

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How do we help faculty become more tech-savvy?

Ideas:

  • going into the departments to do trainings (instead of campus-wide trainings)
  • sending out emails via Faculty Development Center (but do faculty even look at all of their emails anymore?)

The biggest hurdle is communication, such as having problems getting approval to post on the Faculty Portal

  • doing infomercial videos for technology services (Colleen will post some links to the ASU’s Academic Minute), perhaps posting these to departmental facebook page

To reach faculty, address their specific needs.   Make sure they know that they’ll learn something that will make their jobs easier (or make them look smarter)

  • Show academic examples if you’re teaching a technology like Facebook
  • Develop SoftChalk and Camtasia video tutorials that they can access anytime

Is it school culture or generational that some faculty prefer F2F interaction and some prefer self-paced tutorials?  Or perhaps discipline-specific?  Is it easier with newer faculty members?

  • Is it discipline-specific?  Example: within the Humanities, it’s easier to get faculty on board who are in Languages, but not in English (they have the greatest resistance).

You have to do a lot of marketing to get the word out on the campus.

  • But Faculty will tune you out because they’re getting too much.  So they won’t listen to what’s most important.  Does anyone read their email anymore?
  • Ex: of iPad rollout to CSUF Faculty (had to attend orientation to get your iPad, but it wasn’t effective).  Had to identify key apps (i.e. notetaking) and create sessions focused on that rather than general trainings.
  • Open House hours for drop-in questions at the beginning of the semester, also weekly Office Hours for drop-in service. Or online using Adobe Connect, Google Hangouts, Blackboard Collaborate, Elluminate (some faculty will be resistant to using this technology, though).
  • Lynda.com tutorials for software (for faculty and students).

Give away free stuff at trainings to get a turnout (apps, iPad cases, software).

Code Academy (is it good or not?).  Good for dabbling, but not comprehensive.

How do we keep our skills fresh, how do we navigate different worlds?

  • Don’t use corporate language with academics (learn their jargon)
  • (Jana’s personal observation: there are all women in this session.  Really curious about what’s going on with that….)
  • Hard to communicate:  we’re too “techie” for our constituents.
  • library.csuci.edu website–> lovely website, but stagnant content, not interactive; www.library.ucla.edu, springshare.com/ (very responsive to library needs, a hosted solution); custom solutions are frustrating when they depend on one developer and aren’t well-documented
  • Paradox of being older chronologically, but being the youngest technology-wise?  The issue of being support staff or “para-professional” rather than TT.  Lack of authority to be able to explore and implement new things?  Also, being spread too thin because of wanting to try so many projects/possibilities.  Cyclical nature of busy-ness allows for us to keep up-to-date?  Also, what happens when your “office” is the reference desk?  Is staying abreast of emergent technologies part of your job description (i.e. do you get paid to play at work)?  Difficult to go from being staff to being faculty at the same institution–>you have to go somewhere else.  Similar problem with switching from contract to TT at the same instittion.  Do we care about TT?  Maybe not, but we want to be FT and have permanent positions.  TT get more funding, get sabbaticals.  PT faculty aren’t supported by campus services, aren’t invited to Retreats, aren’t getting technology rollouts (like iPads), aren’t getting Faculty webpages (then students can’t even find info about their professors).

 

 

 

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ePortfolios session http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/15/eportfolios-session/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/15/eportfolios-session/#respond Sat, 15 Sep 2012 17:21:41 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=568

We discussed Chapman’s Tenure ePortfolios built on WordPress and also the ePortfolio features available within various institutional LMSes.  Most of these are password protected so we don’t have links to share.  But anyone who’d like to discuss this more, can contact Jana (remyATchapmanDOTedu).

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Collaborative Notes from Omeka Workshop http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/14/collaborative-notes-from-omeka-workshop/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/14/collaborative-notes-from-omeka-workshop/#respond Fri, 14 Sep 2012 20:12:23 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=563

Here are the notes we put together from the Omeka Workshop, led by Amanda French. Feel free to add and edit.

bit.ly/U3cgN7

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Collaborative Notes from DIY Project Management Session http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/14/collaborative-notes-from-diy-project-management-session/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/14/collaborative-notes-from-diy-project-management-session/#respond Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:51:36 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=557

For those who were not able to attend every session at once, here’s a doc we put together from the DIY Project Management Session, led by Tim Stanton.

bit.ly/Q945LB

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Connecting to wi-fi http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/14/connecting-to-wi-fi/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/14/connecting-to-wi-fi/#respond Fri, 14 Sep 2012 14:46:39 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=530

To connect to the wi-fi, choose the network CSUF-GUESTS, launch a browser, and enter any e-mail address in the guest login field. You will be asked to re-authenticate every two hours.

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#THATCamp SoCal Workshop Preview: Historypin http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/11/thatcamp-socal-workshop-preview-historypin/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/11/thatcamp-socal-workshop-preview-historypin/#respond Wed, 12 Sep 2012 00:00:48 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=494

If you are attending our Workshop day this Friday, but haven’t heard of Scalar before, this video will give you a preview of what you’ll learn and work with in our Introduction to Historypin workshop!

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Update on parking & weather for #THATCampSoCal this weekend http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/11/update-on-parking-weather-for-thatcampsocal-this-weekend/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/11/update-on-parking-weather-for-thatcampsocal-this-weekend/#comments Tue, 11 Sep 2012 21:18:28 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=487

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Parking

Please note that our Parking page had an error, which has been corrected. Parking fees only apply on the Friday of THATCamp ($8.00 for a daily permit). There is NO charge for parking on Saturday.  Please check our Parking page for full details on where to park and where to obtain a visitor parking permit for the day.

Weather & Dress

Weather forecasts indicate that it’s still going to be pretty hot here in Fullerton this Friday and Saturday (mid-90s). Our venue contact has assured us that air conditioning will be on at a good strength both days in all of our venue rooms and spaces. If you’re the type that gets cold when A/C is on, please bring a sweater or sweatshirt.

Despite the promise of good A/C, you might want to dress for hot weather. THATCamps are casual unconferences. Please feel free to wear shorts. And in Southern California, flipflops and sandals are always appropriate dress code!

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#THATCampSoCal Workshop Preview: Scalar http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/10/thatcampsocal-workshop-preview-scalar/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/10/thatcampsocal-workshop-preview-scalar/#respond Mon, 10 Sep 2012 23:19:05 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=477

If you are attending our Workshop day this Friday, but haven’t heard of Scalar before, this video will give you a preview of what you’ll learn and work with in our Web Publishing with Scalar workshop!

Scalar Platform — Trailer from IML @ USC on Vimeo.

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#THATCampSoCal Workshop Preview: Omeka http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/10/thatcampsocal-workshop-preview-omeka/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/10/thatcampsocal-workshop-preview-omeka/#respond Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:51:16 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=471

If you are attending our Workshop day this Friday, but haven’t heard of Omeka before, this video will give you a preview of what you’ll learn and work with in our Introduction to Omeka workshop!

What Is Omeka from Omeka on Vimeo.

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Text Mining Workshop http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/05/text-mining-workshop/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/05/text-mining-workshop/#comments Wed, 05 Sep 2012 20:00:42 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=462

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The text mining workshop will take place on Friday, 14 September from 1:30-3:30 in Pavilion C (Main Room).

Workshop Description

This workshop will introduce the basic concept of text mining: the discovery of knowledge through the analysis of digital texts using computational approaches. The workshop will cover the stages of text mining from preparing the texts, to performing analyses, to visualising the results. We will focus on two emerging methods of text mining that are easy for the novice to learn but sophisticated enough to produce real results.

Lexomics is a method for clustering texts or parts of texts based on their word frequencies. The technique allows users to examine similarities and differences between texts in way that can point to interpretive insights or directions of further enquiry into the style, authorship, and origin of the texts. Topic modelling is a technique for using word frequencies to extract individual units of discourse (called “topics”) from texts so that texts can be compared based on the presence of certain topics or the proportion of certain topics can be traced across a corpus over time (or other criteria).

There will be a hands-on component to the workshop to allow participants to learn the software tools for exploring these methods. We will also have discussion about the epistemological and hermeutic issues raised by the use of text mining approaches to the analysis of texts in the Humanities.

Advance Preparation for the Workshop

No prior experience with computational text analysis is necessary. The tools for performing lexomics analysis are web based, so you do not need to download them in advance. These tools may be found on the Lexomics web site: wheatoncollege.edu/lexomics/tools/.

There are many tools for performing topic modelling, but we will use the GUI Topic Modeling Tool which may be downloaded at code.google.com/p/topic-modeling-tool/. Please download it in advance of the workshop. Note that in order to run the GUI Topic Modeling Tool, you will need to have Java installed on your computer. You can test whether Java is working and find out how to install it at www.java.com/en/download/testjava.jsp.

Please feel free to download the sample texts for use during the hands-on session.

Finally, please have a copy of Google Chrome or Firefox installed on your computer, as the lexomics tools have not been tested with Internet Explorer.

Background Reading:

Tools:

For convenience, here are some basic commands for operating the command-line version of MALLET. The first command imports the data and the second generates the topics:

 

bin\mallet import-dir –input data –output filename.mallet –keep-sequence –remove-stopwords


bin\mallet train-topics –input filename.mallet –num-topics 20 –output-state topic-state.gz –output-topic-keys filename.txt –output-doc-topics filename_composition

Update: A fuller set of instructions for using MALLET can be found at programminghistorian.org/lessons/topic-modeling-and-mallet.

Visualisation:

Still a challenge. I am working on a PHP-based topic browser that improves on the GUI Topic Modeling Tool output, but right now it only lives on my hard drive, so I can’t link to it. Elijah Meeks has made good use of Gephi, but it does not like my graphics card, so I haven’t tried it. It seems to be best suited to types of network analysis.

Right now, the easiest visualisation option seems to be opening CSV data for topic models in Excel and generating graphs there.

That said, I’m really impressed with Matt Jockers’ theme viewer, presented in anticipation of the publication of his book Macroanalysis: Digital Methods and Literary History (UIUC Press, 2013). It’s really just a combination of individually generated bar and line graphs, combined with word clouds, and stuck in a database, but it’s effective. Also worthy of mention is Elijah Meeks’ use of D3 to create a word cloud “topography”.

Workshop Presentation:

I’m going to re-work it into a blog post during the week after the conference. My blog is scottkleinman.net/.

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#THATCampSoCal – Camper UPDATE http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/05/thatcampsocal-camper-update/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/05/thatcampsocal-camper-update/#respond Wed, 05 Sep 2012 16:02:46 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=449

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Greetings, Campers!

We are just over one week away from THATCamp SoCal 2012, which takes place Friday and Saturday September 14-15, 2012 at Cal State Fullerton!

It has been months since most of you registered. If you are now unable to attend, *please email back to advise of your cancellation*. We still have some latecomers (students) on a wait list, who would like to move into your spot if you can no longer attend. And I would also like to adjust the catering count, if you can no longer attend, so that our generous food sponsors are not spending extra money. We hope you get to catch another THATCamp!

If you still plan to attend, please make note of the following items prior to arriving on campus next Friday.

Please make sure you regularly check our blog for last minute changes and info all next week (socal2012.thatcamp.org)!
PROGRAM

  • Our Schedule has been posted online (socal2012.thatcamp.org/schedule).
  • Most of our Friday Workshops have been finalized (socal2012.thatcamp.org/schedule/workshops). We still have room to accommodate extra workshops if there is a 1.5-2 hour topic you would like to teach.
  • Saturday’s unconference Sessions will get brainstormed and scheduled Friday afternoon at our 3:30pm Scheduling Session.

VENUE & TRAVEL

COMPUTING

  • Campers should plan to bring a laptop or tablet (with chargers); our venue is *not* set in computer labs with desktop computers.
  • Most of Friday’s Workshops require you to bring a laptop for the actual hands-on work. If you do not have access to a laptop, you will still be able to sit in on workshops to observe and take notes. A tablet won’t be able to accommodate the software used in most of the Workshops.

FOOD & DRINK

  • A continental breakfast and coffee will be provided each morning — sponsored by CSUF’s Pollak Library, and CSUF’s College of Humanities & Social Science!
  • Subway Sandwiches will be provided for lunch on Friday — sponsored by the Occidental College Center for Digital Learning & Research.
  • Roundtable Pizza will be provided for lunch on Saturday — sponsored by the UCLA Center for Digital Humanities.
  • Extra mid-day coffee provided courtesy of a THATCamp grant from Microsoft (yes, Microsoft).
  • Want more options? Check our campus dining (on your own) at: www.csuf-food.com/foodcourt/foodcourt.asp.
  • Join us Friday night for Happy Hour (on your own) across from campus at the Cantina Lounge across from campus.

Please feel free to contact me if you have additional questions or concerns.

We look forward to learning and networking with you next week at THATCamp SoCal!

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Session on using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count? http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/01/session-on-using-the-linguistic-inquiry-and-word-count/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/01/session-on-using-the-linguistic-inquiry-and-word-count/#comments Sat, 01 Sep 2012 16:18:37 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=387

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If there is interest, I would be happy to walk folks through an exciting new software tool, the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (abbreviated ‘LIWC’ and pronounced ‘Luke’)–whether as a workshop or a session. Its developer, James Pennebaker, has made some headlines with his fascinating recent book The Secret Life of Pronouns, which offers Humanities scholars lots of food for thought on how to use data from texts to understand mental health. If there is interest, I would probably plan on: 1 Introducing LIWC, 2 Describing its original purposes (for psychologists and clinicians) and 3 Describing its use for DHers.

The second part is pretty exciting since he’s found, for example, that people who use certain sorts of pronouns more frequently than others have a very significant probability of being clinically depressed. The third part would take up the most time and would mainly involve walking folks through my collaborative project to answer core questions in genre theory by compiling several million words in a database partitioned in three genres, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Mystery. In my opinion the most interesting thing about the DH use of LIWC is that it allows us to do much more than develop fun visualizations of word trees–it allows us to test hypotheses.

If there is interest for a workshop or session on this, it must not conflict with Scott K’s text mining workshop.

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#THATCampSoCal hotels added! Marriott block rate expires 8/30! http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/08/21/thatcampsocal-hotels-added-marriott-block-rate-expires-830/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/08/21/thatcampsocal-hotels-added-marriott-block-rate-expires-830/#respond Tue, 21 Aug 2012 22:14:58 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=351

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If you are planning to book lodging for THATCamp SoCal 2012, our fabulous Logistics Coordinator Laura has pulled together a handful of hotels and motels close to campus that are willing to offer a CSUF (California State University, Fullerton) discount.  Please refer to our Lodging page for all of the details.

And please note that the closest hotel — The Marriott, located adjacent to campus — is holding a block of 10 THATCamp rooms at a discounted rate ONLY through August 30th.

We have noted, under each lodging option, the distance from our THATCamp venue, to help give you an idea if a particular hotel or motel is walking distance from the venue. Both days of THATCamp will finish up while it’s still daylight, so you will not have to walk in the dark. The two options that seem closest walking distance are the Marriott and the Holiday Inn.

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Session: Writing for Broad Audiences http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/08/21/session-writing-for-broad-audiences/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/08/21/session-writing-for-broad-audiences/#comments Tue, 21 Aug 2012 20:31:59 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=348

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We had a session at THATCamp Prime called Public Scholars Unite! The discussion touched on a lot of interesting ideas and questions about how and why scholars should (or shouldn’t) connect with broad audiences via mass media, blogs and social media.

I’d like to facilitate a discussion more specifically about writing. A lot of the really amazing websites and programs THATCampers create benefit greatly from really good writing. I want to discuss how scholars might better communicate their ideas, especially those who work on contemporary issues, outside their fields.

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Intro to Omeka workshop http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/08/09/intro-to-omeka-workshop/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/08/09/intro-to-omeka-workshop/#comments Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:32:36 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=337

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If there’s any interest, I’d be more than happy to teach an Introduction to Omeka workshop. For those of you who don’t know, Omeka is a simple web publishing system designed for putting collections of primary source material (images, audio, video) online in a scholarly way, with all the information scholars need, and in accordance with established archival standards. Here’s a description of what we’d do in the workshop:

Omeka is a simple system used by scholarly archives, libraries, and museums all over the world to manage and describe digital images, audio files, videos, and texts; to put such digital objects online in a searchable database; and to create attractive web exhibits from them. In this introduction to Omeka, you’ll create your own digital archive of images, audio, video, and texts that meets scholarly metadata standards and creates a search engine-optimized website. We’ll go over the difference between the hosted version of Omeka and the open source server-side version of Omeka, and we’ll learn about the Dublin Core metadata standard for describing digital objects. We’ll also look at some examples of pedagogical use of Omeka in humanities courses and talk about assigning students to create digital archives in individual or group projects.

Looking forward to coming to THATCamp SoCal the Third!

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Zotero as a Platform http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/08/07/zotero-as-a-platform/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/08/07/zotero-as-a-platform/#comments Wed, 08 Aug 2012 07:11:04 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=333

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I’ve been working with Zotero for several years, and I’d like to guide interested participants through the Zotero ecosystem as it currently exists, but more vitally, I’m interested in working to find new ways for people to mash Zotero’s many-faceted world up with other tools, from annotation to textual analysis to archival research to writing tools, to whatever you bring to the table.

As I understand it, the beauty of Zotero is its capacity for extension and growth, and I would love to share what can be done by ambitious and creative people. My own small experience started by extending and maintaining the translator library that maintains compatibility between Zotero and web sites, import formats, and search engines, and proceeded to include the development of a Zotero mobile client for Android. This has all been a thrilling experience, yet the extant documentation isn’t really sufficient to get a good foot in the door of the deeper Zotero world and I believe a session, a couple of hours with interested minds and some mild expertise, would do much to spur new and unexpected new developments.

The concrete content of the session will necessarily depend on the desires of the participants, but I’m hoping to steer the discussion away from the basics of setting up accounts, formatting references, and the like, so that we can devote time to the more arcane and possibly transformative elements of the Zotero project.

Resources

  1. Zotero itself, www.zotero.org/
  2. Contribution to Zotero, www.zotero.org/getinvolved/. The plugin, translator, and API information is particularly relevant.
  3. API implementations, www.zotero.org/support/dev/server_api. There are open-source API implementations in Python, PHP, JavaScript, Obj-C/iOS, and Java/Android.
  4. Zotpress, wordpress.org/extend/plugins/zotpress/. A WordPress plugin that neatly demonstrates the potential of using the Zotero API in new places.

 

I would also be more than happy to offer an introductory workshop on either site translator development (i.e., making sites work with Zotero and Zotero work with sites; www.zotero.org/support/dev/translators) or basic API usage (i.e., making Zotero data show up in program/place X). Please let me know in the comments or on Twitter (@ajlyon) if people have any interest in such introductory workshops

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Calling for #THATCampSoCal workshop proposals and requests! http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/08/01/calling-for-thatcampsocal-workshop-proposals-and-requests/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/08/01/calling-for-thatcampsocal-workshop-proposals-and-requests/#respond Wed, 01 Aug 2012 20:05:34 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=322

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We are now one and a half months away from THATCamp SoCal! We would like to be able to offer a good selection of hands-on workshops the first day of Camp (Friday, September 14th) to mix in with all the fun impromptu sessions that we’ll plan out that same first day….but we need your help.

Can you teach a workshop?

Workshops are formal-ish (aka “pre-planned”) hands-on sessions that last anywhere from 1 to 2 hours, introducing a topic or tool, or teaching “next steps” to more advanced users.

So far, we have an excellent workshop on Text Mining Tools planned.

If you have a topic in mind to propose, please log in and post a workshop proposal to the blog by going to Posts –> Add New. If you have trouble with that, please Comment on this post, and we’ll get in touch with you.

What workshops would you like to attend?

THATCamps encourage that people be able to lead or teach a session or workshop that they propose, but we have a lot of new Campers at THATCamp SoCal 2012, so we’d like to put out feelers to find out what workshops (what technologies, tools, or topics) you are interested in learning?  We’ll do our best to find a workshop instructor for this topic.

Please post your interests as a Comment to this blog post.

Thank you!

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#THATCampSoCal 100% full — now wait-listing applicants http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/07/02/thatcampsocal-100-full-now-wait-listing-applicants/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/07/02/thatcampsocal-100-full-now-wait-listing-applicants/#respond Mon, 02 Jul 2012 17:21:03 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=305

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Greetings,

We have reached (really, exceeded) our 100 person Camp capacity, and are now putting a handful of Pending, and all New, applicants on to a wait list, which will be processed on a first come, first served basis if Camper spots open up before the event. There is always the possibility of registered Campers having to bow out due to previously unknown schedule conflicts.

Thank you for your interest in attending THATCamp SoCal 2012!

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Workshop on Text Mining Tools http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/06/01/workshop-on-text-mining-tools/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/06/01/workshop-on-text-mining-tools/#comments Fri, 01 Jun 2012 15:42:38 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=271

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Update: The proposed workshop went ahead. Details can be found at socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/09/05/text-mining-workshop/.

Would anyone be interested in a workshop on easy text mining/computational analysis? I would happy to run a workshop focusing on one or both of two approaches: Lexomics and Topic Modelling. Both can be used by literary and linguistic scholars, as well as for historical and cultural analysis based on texts or text corpora.

Lexomics is a technique (and a suite of tools) for comparing texts (or chunks of texts) for similarities based on word frequency analysis. The tools allow you to divide texts or groups of texts into chunks and then perform hierarchical clustering on the chunks to compare word frequencies. The output is a tree diagram (dendrogram) which displays similarities between chunks. Here is an example of a dendrogram comparing the Old English poems Daniel and Azarias. It reveals that chunks 4-6 of Daniel have a marked similarity to Azarias (the result, it turns out, of a common source).

Lexomics is easy to learn and easy to teach to students.

Topic modelling uses a more complex algorithm to arrange words found in texts into thematic “topics” so that the frequency of these themes can be compared in different texts or different parts of texts. A good account of the technique can be found on Ted Underwood’s blog (and see the links supplied there).

Below is a list of examples of topic modeling taken from Clay Templeton’s Topic Modeling in the Humanities: An Overview:

Synchronic approaches (Unit of analysis is not time bound)
Matthew Jockers’ work on the Day of DH blog posts (2010).
Elijah Meeks’ work on self-definitions of digital humanists (2011).
Jeff Druin’s work on Proust (2011).
Travis Brown’s work on Jane Austen’s Emma and and Byron’s Don Juan (2011).

Diachronic Approaches (Unit of analysis is a time slice)
Cameron Blevins’ work on Martha Ballard’s diary (2010).
Robert K. Nelson’s work on the Richmond Daily Dispatch corpus (2011).
Yang, Torget, and Mihalcea’s work on Texas newspapers (2011).

My own students’ work on the Middle English poem Havelok the Dane is another good example of the technique (especally in a pedagogical context).

The easiest way to do topic modelling is with the Machine Learning for Language Toolkit (MALLET). There is a convenient GUI version which allows you to run MALLET without having to install MALLET (though that also is not very difficult).

Very little prior knowledge is needed for the workshop, other than basic manipulation of text files and Microsoft Excel. Everything else can be picked up pretty quickly. Access to a laptop will allow participants to download and experiment with the topic modelling tools (the Lexomics tools are web-based).

I could probably cover both Lexomics and topic modelling quickly in an hour, but two would be preferable to address both theory and method, as well as to allow people to get some hands on practice with their own texts.

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Analog Remix Lab (aka, the Craft Cabin at ThatCamp SoCal) http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/05/31/analog-remix-lab/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/05/31/analog-remix-lab/#comments Thu, 31 May 2012 17:08:46 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=257

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Making a collage, THATCamp SoCal 2011

Making a collage, THATCamp SoCal 2011

I’ll be attending THATCamp SoCal 2012 to organize another “craft cabin” activity, like we had at THATCamp SoCal 2011.  I wrote up the nitty-gritty of the activity’s set-up, here; Marta Rivera Monclova wrote more reflections on the craft table as a participant, here.  If participants want to bring any materials of their own to include in the mix, that would certainly be welcome!  I’m also wondering if there’s any interest in creating a group zine during the two days of THATCamp.  If so, I can set up a table specifically for that project, too.

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#THATCampSoCal is 70% full by end of 1st week of registration! http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/05/30/thatcampsocal-is-70-full-by-end-of-1st-week-of-registration/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/05/30/thatcampsocal-is-70-full-by-end-of-1st-week-of-registration/#respond Wed, 30 May 2012 23:11:24 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=250

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After just one week of open registration (including over a long holiday weekend), THATCamp SoCal 2012 is just shy of  70% full!  Technically, we’re 68% full (not counting me).

Still undecided? Or too busy to apply?

Don’t delay too long, we do expect this event to fill up fast due to our proximity to so many institutions of higher learning and heritage institutions.

Hop on over to the Registration page and apply for your Camper spot now.

Don’t miss your chance to network, learn, and just hang with a group of highly talented innovators who share your professional interests and challenges. And for FREE, while well-fed!

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#THATCampSoCal 2012 registration 50% full in less than 48 hours! http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/05/25/thatcampsocal-2012-registration-50-full-in-less-than-48-hours/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/05/25/thatcampsocal-2012-registration-50-full-in-less-than-48-hours/#respond Fri, 25 May 2012 17:38:06 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=237

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After less than 48 hours of open registration, THATCamp SoCal 2012 is now 50% full!

Still undecided? Or too busy to apply?

Don’t delay too long, we do expect this event to fill up fast due to our proximity to so many institutions of higher learning and heritage institutions.

Hop on over to the Registration page and apply for your Camper spot now.

Don’t miss your chance to network, learn, and just hang with a group of highly talented innovators who share your professional interests and challenges. And for FREE, while well-fed!

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#THATCampSoCal 2012 registration 25% full after just 24 hours! http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/05/24/thatcampsocal-2012-registration-25-full-after-just-24-hours/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/05/24/thatcampsocal-2012-registration-25-full-after-just-24-hours/#respond Fri, 25 May 2012 01:16:01 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=203

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After just 24 hours of open registration, THATCamp SoCal 2012 is 25% full!

Still undecided? Or too busy to apply?

Don’t delay too long, we do expect this event to fill up fast due to our proximity to so many institutions of higher learning and heritage institutions.

Hop on over to the Registration page and apply for your Camper spot now.

Don’t miss your chance to network, learn, and just hang with a group of highly talented innovators who share your professional interests and challenges. And for FREE, while well-fed!

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New to THATCamp? Find out why you should attend, and what a THATCamp is like! http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/05/23/new-to-thatcamp-find-out-why-you-should-attend-and-what-a-thatcamp-is-like/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/05/23/new-to-thatcamp-find-out-why-you-should-attend-and-what-a-thatcamp-is-like/#respond Wed, 23 May 2012 20:59:26 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=179

We’re selling this message via Storify since video, photos, Tweets, and testimonials tell it best.

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Registration for THATCamp SoCal 2012 is now open! http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/05/23/registration-for-thatcamp-socal-2012-is-now-open/ http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/2012/05/23/registration-for-thatcamp-socal-2012-is-now-open/#respond Wed, 23 May 2012 19:52:32 +0000 http://socal2012.thatcamp.org/?p=31

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THATCamp Registration

Photo courtesy of Flickr user finnarne.

We are pleased to announce that registration for THATCamp SoCal 2012 is now open!

This year’s THATCamp SoCal is hosted by California State University, Fullerton in beautiful sunny Orange County, California.

  • Camp dates are Friday and Saturday, September 14 and 15, 2012.
  • Hands-on workshops (preregistration required) will take place on Friday.
  • Unconference sessions (open to all Campers)  will take place on Saturday, with topics crowdsourced first thing Saturday morning.

As we secure workshop topics, instructors, and times, we will open those workshops up for Camper preregistration.

Be sure to follow our blog, and/or our Twitter feed for ongoing updates.

Not familiar with THATCamp?…Check out our About page.

Got a particular workshop or session idea in mind? Submit a Proposal!

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