Can we use out of-the-box software to communicate our research findings and represent the fuzzy logic of the humanities?

Cartographers and artists have long made sentimental and subjective maps that portray the emotional states of individuals and communities. The Google N-grams viewer is another successful attempt at making subjective information visible to the broader public. These hijackings of the tools of scientific inquiry for qualitative research remain relatively rare and will not develop further unless they are adopted more broadly by researchers and in humanities classrooms.

This is a pity because there are so many simple tools like Google Fusion Tables and Tableau Public they are fun to play with. They could make for excellent teaching tools, or even make humanities research findings go viral in the way that scientific studies often do. But there is a big problem: visualization tools generally require precise locations and numbers, so we need to come up with new ways of thinking about data for qualitative research.

Which software packages have you used to visualize data in class? Have you come up with innovative ways to present qualitative research? Is there a body of qualitative research that you would like to see as a bar chart, map, or scatterplot?

Bring at least one idea for a subjective or emotional dataset. We will play with some online visualization tools, brainstorm uses for them, and execut a few small projects.

Finding the professional or academic conversations can be hard enough, but once you are keyed in, how do keep track of them and stay engaged?  On Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+, lots of people are talking, but how to do you listen?  I can show you what’s worked for me, but I would also like to know what works for you. Come ready to play around and share.

Prerequisites:  Helpful to have some accounts already set up on some of the following – Facebook and/or Twitter, Hootesuite or Tweetdeck or Bufferapp.com.  If you played with IFTTT.com then bring that account information with you too!

Difficulty level of session:  Introductory, but also dependent on the experience of folks who come to play.

I gave up keeping up with ALL the new apps and digital tools long ago. Still, there are some that I know I could not manage without. Do you have any like that? Feel like sharing?

How about a little “show and tell” session to share our favorite working tools? They don’t need to be the latest, greatest thing, just something you actually use everyday for keeping yourself on task, foster creativity, managing projects, teaching, learning, or research.

This session will have elements of teach and play.  Bring your favorite web-based text analysis tool (i.e., virtually, of course) and share what you like, what it does well, and what you wish it did.  I’ll start with Textal.

So my 15-year-old son and his friends attended a science camp this past summer. Their running joke was that they’d decided they could get away with nearly anything if they cried “For Science!” as they did the deed. I’m going to try it with one of my guilty pleasures–the digital knit and crochet community Ravelry.

Proposing a Ravelry session–for THATCamp!

I love this site. I refer to it every time that I think about beginning another knitting project. I look for patterns, yarn suggestions, and photos of other knitter’s projects. The site’s founders have done a brilliant job of identifying the different points during a project where one might want to consult a community of users. How might this site be used as a model for digital humanities projects or digital humanities support? What does the success of this site suggest about how we might construct digital support structures for our own communities? What other websites out there might we use as models for our work? Share your guilty pleasure, and let’s see if we can find some models for our DH work.

And, heck, bring your knitting or crochet projects along. You know you want to.

“Getting em up” at U.S.Naval Training Camp, Seattle, Washington. Webster & Stevens., ca. 1917 – ca. 1918 (Source: thatcamp.org)

Now that I have your attention…

Greetings THATCampers!

Now is the time to start thinking about what you’d like to do or discuss at THATCamp Alabama.

From now until our THATCamp begins on August 9, you should propose one or more session ideas by logging in to the site and posting your idea(s) as a blog post. Here’s how:

• Go to alabama2013.thatcamp.org/wp-login.php, and enter your username and password to log in.
• Select Posts > Add New.
• Tell us about your idea, select “Session Proposals” and any other appropriate categories, then click “Publish” on the right.

See Propose a Session for more information about making proposals- including example proposals from other THATCamps- and more explanation about why things work this way at THATCamp.

Once posted, the proposals will appear at alabama2013.thatcamp.org/category/session-proposals/. Please read and comment on the proposals, and use the “Favorite” button to indicate which sessions you’d like to see at our THATCamp.

We’ll be posting quite a bit of logistical information on this site in the coming days, so check back for updates about workshops, parking, food, wireless access, and more. We’ll also share updates on Twitter (@THATCampAL) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/thatcampal).

Write us at thatcampal@gmail.com with any questions. We look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks!