There is now a Google Drive space just for us, and everybody should be able to access it by clicking that link. You will need to sign in to Google and click the “Add to Drive” button. Then you’ll see the “THATCamp New Orleans 2013” folder among all your other Google Drive folders and documents.

In addition to the session schedule that we create Friday morning, this will be a space where we can post session notes, dinner and event sign-up sheets, “digital dork shorts,” or anything else you might imagine now or in the future.

We hope this is a good way for all of us to keep in touch during the day and long afterward.

Hello, THATCampers. Here is a general schedule for the day. The content of the sessions is up to you, so be sure to propose a session (or several) if you haven’t already. Keep an eye on this blog, too, since most news about the event will go here. Get ready, get excited, it’s almost Friday!

THATCamp Schedule of Events

8:30- 9:00  THATCamp Registration

9:00-9:15 Welcome to THATCamp

9:15-9:45 Last-Minute Proposals and Session Selection

9:45-10:00 Session Scheduling

10:00-10:55 First Session

11:00-11:55 Second Session

12:00-1:30 Lunch and Dork Shorts (1:00-1:30)

1:30-2:25 Third Session

2:30-3:25 Fourth Session

3:30-4:00 THATCamp Reflections and Closing Remarks

In case you haven’t seen Michael’s e-mail, it’s time to start thinking up amazing things for us to talk about when we descend upon the CBD next week. There are some ideas and suggestions over on the Sessions page, but these are more guides than rules. As the Rebirth Brass Band would say, “Do Whatcha Wanna.” We’ve got a few up already, so take a look at them for inspiration, and comment on the posts to get the conversation going!

We’ve also got a Twitter account up and running at @tcampnola2013. Follow it if Twitter’s your thing, and if it’s not, now’s a good excuse to give it a try!

It’s also as good a time as any to think about after-THATCamp plans. There’s always a ton going on around town, and next weekend is no exception. Feel free to post any events you hear about that you might want to share with fellow THATCampers in the comments, and I’ll compile them later. Bayou Boogaloo begins Friday evening (with Rebirth Brass Band!) and runs through Sunday, but there’s also the new Star Trek movie, countless amazing restaurants, city tours, and more.

Excited yet? Start posting!

I have been fortunate to attend a few THATCamps connected to academic conferences for historians, and I have wanted to work with others to create a THATCamp (and, we hope, a series of unconferences) rooted in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region. UNO and USM folk from various backgrounds started to collaborate on digital projects several years ago via content development for the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank, whose project funding birthed the precursor to Omeka. Therefore, we sought to begin the process of making connections and building a community that transcends the typical borders separating people engaged in digital projects.

One of the best features of THATCamps is their ability to facilitate interdisciplinary exchanges. The conversations that take place when librarians, archivists, museum curators, graduate students, K-12 faculty, public historians, humanities faculty, and others gather together are invaluable. I hope our first gathering will help us to develop a supportive community. I had the pleasure of teaching history and writing classes in a computer classroom starting in 1993 and presenting at Computers & Writing in 1997, so I know how much good comes from getting out of disciplinary ruts or sinkholes.

Maybe we will come up with some solutions to a few of the common problems facing most who work on noncommercial digital projects in the Deep South:

*lack of funding and/or the constant threat of losing meager funding sources;

*lack of administrative support, including attention to key issues such as time & labor & technical support; and

*lack of interest and/or respect for non-commercial digital work, regardless of whether it’s presented as “digital humanities” and if DH’s time as the latest academic fad may seem to have come (and gone).

The arrival of Gena Chattin and Jennifer Jackson on UNO’s campus in concert with the long-term interest shown by Jeanne Pavy and others at UNO as well as Jeanne Gillespie and Diane Ross on USM’s campus have served as the catalyzing energies that have allowed us to move forward. More recently, UNO’s History Department has partnered with Vicki Mayer in Tulane’s Communication Department for a mobile history (ios and Android or Google Play) project using omeka known as neworleanshistorical.org.

Let’s begin to collaborate to build a more effective DH community.