Day of Digital Humanities – 2010

Dear humanities computing folk, I am writing to invite you to participate in the second “Day of Digital Humanities 2010.”

On March 18, 2010 individuals working or studying at the intersection of the humanities and computing or related professions will document the events of their day. We would like to invite you to participate.

See the link for more info. Looks interesting!

via You are invited to participate – Taporwiki.

Academia.edu – social networking for scholars

At last week’s New Media Consortium leader’s meeting in Austin, there was some buzz and activity around Academia.edu. This is a social networking platform designed for scholars and researchers at the graduate level and beyond. It works like any other online social network — set up a profile, add your own research interests from a vast taxonomy of user-generated topics, follow people who share your interests, find people you know and follow people they follow, and so on.

There are currently 1,278 people with the research interest  ”Digital Humanities.”  More focused interests have smaller groups. “Library as Place,” for example, currently has 83 members.

Positive features of academia.edu include
- structure that reflects institutional affiliation as well as research interests. This makes it useful for finding potential collaborators in your own department, in other departments on your own campus, or worldwide
- highly international and diverse representation
- strong participation by grad students and post-docs
- ability to post a CV and copies of your publications
- high visibility in Google, with e-mail alerts when someone searches and finds your profile.

The main disadvantage is that it’s one more social network.  How many can we handle, anyway?

Facebook Friends, You Tubers and the Twitterati: Digital Communities in Web 2.0

Digital Scholars Works-in-Progress 2010

Facebook Friends, You Tubers and the Twitterati: Digital Communities in the Web 2.0 Era

Friday 2/26 noon – 1:30          McKenzie Collaboration Center

Harsha Gangadharbatla and Kim Sheehan (School of Journalism & Communication)

Harsha Gangadharbatla

“Are you on Facebook?” “Will you follow me on Twitter?” Everyone, it seems, is joining and participating

in online Social Network Sites (SNS).  While motivations of college students have been examined, motivations beyond the campus have received little attention. Additionally, how motivations change as an individual spends more time on an SNS (and as more applications are made available to individuals) has not been examined. Kim and Harsha will present preliminary results from an online study of motivations from adults 18-64 to join SNS.

Kim Sheehan

Using the traditional media approach of Uses and Gratifications, they examine why users join these sites initially, and how their motivations change over time. Results indicate that motivations for Facebook and Twitter are different, both for initial adoption and for usage over time.  The limitations of ‘traditional’ research paradigms in the study of new technology will be highlighted.  Additionally, they examine the barriers seen to participating in SNS, and the role information privacy plays in the presentation of one’s self at the SNS. Finally, they will explore implications for future SNS development, as well as theory development, in the Web 2.0 world. Harsha and Kim conducted this research with support from the Oregon Community Credit Union Research Fellowship.

ATDH Summer Institute: Broadening Digital Humanities

Interested in “Broadening the Digital Humanities,”  a monthlong ODH Summer Institute at USC’s Center for Multimedia Literacy, and perhaps getting your project published by Vectors?

This institute for multimodal scholarship takes place July 19-August 12, 2010. Read the call for proposals here: http://vectorsjournal.org/pdf/NEH_CFP_Summer_2010.pdf.

They are “especially interested in collaborating with those who are working with video or with photography, sound, or other graphic elements.” This institute will fill up fast—there are 15 slots for participants, from senior faculty to graduate students. If your research fits their call, don’t delay applying. Priority consideration goes to applications received by March 24, 2010.

Digital_Nation/PBS Frontline

PBS Frontline last week aired Digital_Nation, a 90-minute program (plus plenty of supplementary material) examining the digital revolution via the following topics: Living Faster; Relationships; Waging War; Virtual Worlds; Learning.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/

Here’s a link to one of the extended interviews, this one with Sherry Turkle, who directs MIT’s Initative on Technology and the Self, and is the author of Simulation and its Discontents, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, and The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/interviews/turkle.html

Helen De Michiel, National Alliance for Media Arts & Culture, 2/12 noon

Helen De Michiel, co-director of the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture will give a lecture on “Creativity & Connection: Changing Arts Participation in the 21st Century”  on February 12 at noon in 249 Lawrence Hall. Helen will report on the changing landscape of new media technologies and discuss how artists, arts and media organizations, community practitioners, and citizens are finding new ways to connect, collaborate, and co-create across disciplines and borders.