Announcing THATCamp New Orleans! On Friday, May 17, 2013, we’ll gather in downtown New Orleans for an open meeting of the minds.
What is THATCamp? Short for “The Humanities and Technology Camp”, THATCamp is a user-generated “unconference” on digital humanities. Many THATCamps have convened across the US and internationally. This particular THATCamp will happen at the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, 938 Lafayette Street, New Orleans.
What is an “unconference?” To paraphrase Wikipedia, an unconference is a conference where the participants create and manage the content during the course of the event rather than delegate such work to organizers in advance.
Participants share their knowledge and actively collaborate rather than simply attend or read a paper. A frequent THATCamp attendee summed up the difference between a THATCamp and a regular academic conference this way: “[THATCamps] give all the good of traditional conferences and nix the endless PowerPoint presentations, sage-on-stage moments, and insane costs.”
Who should attend THATCamp? Anyone with energy and an interest in digital humanities. That includes faculty, students, librarians, archivists, computer programmers, museum curators, and you if you’re interested whether or not you fall into one of these categories!
What will happen at THATCamp? THATCamp sessions are looser, participant-generated gatherings, which will be collaboratively scheduled the morning of our THATCamp. At THATCamp NOLA, sessions could be a software demo, a discussion of research findings, discussion on digital tools in the classroom, discussion of digital research resources, and much more. It’s all up to you, the participants.
What’s my role in shaping these sessions? Using our THATCamp blog, you could propose a session before we meet in person or, alternatively, bring a session idea and propose it to the group during our scheduling session. Once you’re at THATCamp, you may also find people with similar interests to team up with for a joint session. Spontaneous sessions have been known to break out!
I’m in. Where do I sign up? Registration is open online at the THATCamp New Orleans website, nola2013.thatcamp.org/register/. Please register by Wednesday, May 1, 2013, if you plan to attend. Registration is first-come-first-served and is free, although a $20 donation is suggested to cover costs of the facilities and supplies at the end of the conference for those who are able to pay.
Thanks, and we hope to see you in May!
Krewe of THATCamp NOLA 2013
