Crowdsourcing – THATCamp Digital Writing 2014

Talk Session: Handwriting – What we can we learn from it, and how can we use it in a digital age?

David Kaminski — Fri, 02 May 2014 02:57:25 +0000

The distinction and dividing line between pre-history and history is the written word. Handwritten materials still exists from millennia ago, and these handwritten works give us great insight about nature, civilizations, commerce, literature, and personal communication, as well as information about the person who wrote it down.

-How and what can we learn from handwriting, one of the oldest and most important forms of communication?

-How has handwriting been preserved, saved, and lost over time? What can that teach us about our data?

-Should we try to preserve our remaining handwritten material?

-What efforts are underway to save handwritten material?

-What collections of handwritten material exist?

-Are collections of handwritten material public or private, and how are they shared?

-What efforts are there to transcribe handwritten material?

-Does the latest trend away from teaching the reading and writing of script endanger understanding of the last 500 years of material in English?

-Will only specialists and archivists be able to read handwriting in the future?

-Will computers and software alone be able to read and interpret handwriting?

-How can we create sets of data and linked data with existing handwritten work?

-Should we continue to create handwritten work?

-Should we try to create a personalized hard copy with digital enhancements so that the fuller meaning of our words, emotions, and character that exist in normal handwriting can be expressed digitally, preserved digitally, and archived digitally?

-What is lost if we only use computers, their fonts, and either hardcopy or a digital copy?

-How does the move away from handwriting affect all languages, cultures, and their futures?

-How will born-digital handwriting and writing transform our cultures, literature, and perceived identities?

-How is born-digital writing best preserved for future generations, and how will it be perceived or understood in thousands of years?

-Will born-digital writing outlast and remain viable longer than works on paper or other materials?

Talk Session: Editing Wikipedia, Inspired by Adrianne Wadewitz

elizabethcornell — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 18:53:39 +0000

As many of you have heard, May has been designated as a month for groups around the world to come together to edit Wikipedia in honor of Dr. Adrianne Wadewitz, who was a Mellon Digital Scholarship Fellow.

For this session, I propose that we discuss good practices and strategies for editing Wikipedia, as well as approaches for editing Wikipedia in a classroom setting. Or (and?) the session could be used to edit Wikipedia entries.

This session is for experienced Wikipedians and for people who want to learn more.

Read about the Wadewitz Tribute Edit-a-thon and find resources.

Propose a session for THATCamp Digital Writing!

amanda.licastro — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 16:48:22 +0000

THATCamp Digital Writing needs your session proposals!
>>Scroll down to see current proposals<<

To do that, log into this website and start proposing. If you see a session you like, please comment on it. Share your ideas about projects, tools, assignments, concepts and ideas you’d like to discuss and make with others on Saturday, May 2.

For more information about this process, read the description on the Propose page. Read a general description of this event here.

All proposals must be made by 12:00 PM, Friday, May 2nd. You can continue to make comments throughout the duration of THATCamp.

On May 2nd, online voting will take place. By Saturday around 9:30 AM, we’ll have the sessions posted. Look for the Google form for voting form on May 1 in your email.

Registration is from 8:00-10:00 AM on Saturday, with a light continental breakfast. Lightning Talks, in which speakers describe a current project for 5 minutes, take place from 8:30-10:00.

Interested in signing up to give a Lightning Talk? Send us an email to ThatCampDW@gmail.com with your name, a title and 1-sentence synopsis of what you’ll talk about.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Elizabeth Cornell
Fordham University
&
Amanda Licastro
The Graduate Center, CUNY