This is both a Talk and Play session proposal.  Wikipedia has a wealth of content and STEM seems to be the focus.  The entries related to the humanities are often not as well developed.  For a talk session I propose to discuss efforts we are making (or want to make) to improve Wikipedia in the areas related to the humanities.  For a play session, I propose we actually have a small, impromptu edit-a-thon.  It is a chance for new people to learn more about editing.

I have an active project underway that could benefit from a burst of great minds working together. Case method teaching (done at HKS, HBS, HLS) requires students to ‘prep for a case’ by close reading and reflection on a written case. Yet, at the core, a great case is about storytelling, in this case a story about the ethics of public officials who are navigating their response to a Supreme Court ruling. Can we turn a PDF text case into a more engaging digital format while retaining the complexity and nuance found in the words? We’re not replacing the words but building enhancements for them. We might look at the rough prototype I’ve started Creatavist.com (in beta), tear it apart, build it back up, think of ways to make it work with interactive timelines, images, video(?) and then publish it. We might think of how the digital format can be used to draw (not distract) from student focus, comprehension, self-direction…. Want to roll up sleeves and hack on the prototype with me?

I would love to be part of a session where people trade stories of success and failure at collaboration. I’m thinking especially of collaboration between technology-skilled people and those focused on humanities teaching or research. I have been on both sides of this divide, sometime trying to get help from people with much more tech-savvy, but at other times trying to help people with tech who understand less. If you’ve been in either situation, what have you learned that others could learn from?

In an increasingly interdisciplinary academic climate, students working across majors are collaborating and creating DH projects. During this talk, I’m interested in exploring the following questions:

• How are students first introduced to the concept of DH? How do we foster an organic adoption of DH for students?
• What are some representative DH student projects that you’ve seen around? Have you been a part of a DH student project? If so, share yours!
• What are some ideas for DH student-driven projects that you’d like to see in the future?
• How can we inform students across majors/concentrations that DH is even an option?

AFTERNOON WORKSHOP

Amy Benson and Amanda Strauss will lead a session in which users hack the Library’s EAD-XML finding aids to design new, flexible, and dynamic ways to present and use research collection inventories and descriptions. Currently, the Library’s finding aids are presented as static text documents, but we think this data could be repurposed in new formats to allow reordering, filtering, annotation, and imaging to support new insights into archival materials.

The program will begin with a brief introduction to finding aids, the EAD XML schema, and existing repurposing options for the metadata. Participants will be provided with live Lib Guide pages to host and test results. Participants will be encouraged to explore ways to remix and re-imagine existing finding aid data into more flexible and dynamic research tools using technologies and systems commonly available to libraries.

There are very few project-based courses in the humanities compared with science, engineering, and the social sciences. Does that put digital humanists at a disadvantage when it comes to building teams for projects? What are some good techniques for pulling disparate groups (scholars, undergrads, coders, artists) together to tackle an innovative problem in the digital humanities? What are the roles of the traditional university units and activities (e.g., the library, a freshman seminar, an art exhibit, academic computing) in helping to hatch such collaboration? Come contribute a case study (of success or failure), lessons learned, a new project looking for partners, your best source for developers willing to explore new fields, or any other thoughts and experiences that bear on this topic.

Ann Whiteside and Jud Harward

Music is a multidimensional experience. How can we encode this experience into the web?

I am interested in music visualization and the development of music related software for research and pedagogy. This began with the creation of the Cyclochromatophone, a personal project and non-notational teaching tool for music by combining elements of proportion and synesthesia. Since then I have begun two new projects in music visualization: a jazz teaching tool collaboration with a faculty member in the Harvard Department of Music, and an interactive website called quoModo that will teach the musical modes.

I propose this session in an effort to discuss, brainstorm, or even code with other music enthusiasts who are interested in music visualization and software, and to gauge interest in the creation of a local music visualization/software developers group. I encourage anyone to join in the discussion regardless of technical skill level, and if there is enough interest I will cater the session around the interests of the group.