We just held a workshop on Adobe Photoshop the other day and discussed colors, capture and display devices, and the potential problems in the beginning of the session. Seeing that the internet is a little confused about the color of a dress, here’s my answer to that problem: the dress is blue and black. Continue reading
Misc.
A Practical Use of the 3D Printer
A see-through version of the tripod mount.
Although we have a lot going on in the ADHC, sometimes it’s faster to build from scratch. Armed with Autodesk’s 3D Studio Max and a 3D Printer, I created this tripod mount for our webcam after a few challenging videoconferencing sessions trying to prop up the camera. Continue reading
Come visit the ADHC!
If you’ve never visited the Alabama Digital Humanities Center before, come take a look virtually via Microsoft Photosynth (Silverlight plugin required). We’re located on the first floor of the Gorgas Library room 109A, near Java City and behind the multimedia computer cluster.
UA’s Digital Humanities Conference: Announcing Digitorium!
Update! We are very happy with the responses to our CFP, but have had requests to allow some additional time for submissions. We are delighted to do so, and have extended the deadline to Monday 2nd February 2015. Please share this with your colleagues!
Event: Digitorium Digital Humanities Conference
When: Thursday 9th April – Saturday 11th April 2015
Where: University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
We are delighted to announce that in April 2015, we will be hosting Digitorium, the inaugural Digital Humanities conference at the University of Alabama. Digitorium is being made possible through the generous support of the University Libraries and the Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies in the Department of English, and we hope to welcome as many of you as possible to participate and attend. We seek proposals on Digital Humanities work from researchers, practitioners, and graduate students which showcase innovative ways in which digital methods have brought scholarship and scholarly communities to life, whether locally or globally. Our plenary speakers Professor Elizabeth Maddock Dillon (Northeastern University) and Professor David Lee Miller (University of South Carolina) will anchor our program of events, reflecting our main focus on digital methods and the communities which these can forge, as well as our subject-specific interests in American studies and Early Modern studies. We especially welcome proposals which discuss the use of digital methods and their novel results for research, pedagogy, and public scholarship.
On Thursday 9th April 2015 we will host a pre-conference day-long series of hands-on workshops, whilst the main conference, including plenary speakers, panels, poster and digital exhibit sessions, will take place on Friday 10th April and Saturday 11th April 2015.
The deadline for submitting abstracts is 2 February 2015. For full details, and the official Call For Papers, please visit our conference website:
http://apps.lib.ua.edu/digitorium
THATCamp Alabama
Hard to believe it’s been over two weeks since the first THATCamp Alabama. What a superb success that was! Thanks go to all of the planners from throughout the state and to all of the participants who made the time together productive. And to our sponsors.
While the spirit remains high, I want to share that a number of us think this should become an annual event. The UA Libraries is prepared to continue to support this effort as an ongoing effort to promote DH work in Alabama.
Discussion on Graduate Student Engagement
Here are resources we looked at during yesterday’s brown bag discussion on graduate student engagement with the ADHC. Thanks to all who came to discuss UA’s particular graduate students and programs and brainstorm some new approaches.
The Praxis Network: a coalition of programs that train students in digital work with a variety of goals and structures (for both graduate and undergraduate student)
http://praxis-network.org/
“Outside the Pipeline: From Anecdote to Data” from UVA’s Scholarly Communication Institute. Early results from SCI’s study on perceptions of career preparation in humanities graduate programs: http://www.scholarslab.org/announcements/outside-the-pipeline-from-anecdote-to-data/
“On (Actually, Really, Digitally) Supporting Humanities Graduate Students.” Blog post by Josh Honn, Digital Scholarship Fellow at the Center for Scholarly Communication & Digital Curation, Northwestern University: http://joshhonn.com/?p=2456
Resources from Metadata Brown Bag
Thanks to Mary Alexander and Nathan Humpal for presenting at our May brown bag on “Metadata & Digital Projects”! Their talk led to a great discussion with lots of attendance! They have also shared these resources for people who missed it and/or want to learn more:
NISO’s Understanding Metadata: http://www.niso.org/publications/press/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf
Seeing Standards: A Visualization of the Metadata Universe
http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/~jenlrile/metadatamap/
Its companion, Metadata standard glossary, pamphlet form
http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/~jenlrile/metadatamap/seeingstandards_glossary_pamphlet.pdf
DH Grad Seminar Tool Reviews
Check out these thoughtful tool reviews produced by members of David Ainsworth’s “ENG 500: Digital Humanities” graduate course. Visit the course website’s “Work” drop-down menu for interesting project reviews and theory reviews as well (http://digitalhumanitiesseminar.ua.edu/). Feel free to leave comments!
Dropbox by Dallas Merritt: http://digitalhumanitiesseminar.ua.edu/work/tool-reviews/dropbox-tool-review/
Prezi by Cassandra Nelson: http://digitalhumanitiesseminar.ua.edu/work/tool-reviews/prezi-tool-review-nelson/
Edmodo by Rebecca Fil: http://digitalhumanitiesseminar.ua.edu/work/tool-reviews/rebecca-fil-edmodo-tool-review/
Zotero by Joseph Santoli: http://digitalhumanitiesseminar.ua.edu/work/tool-reviews/santoli-zotero-review/
Twitter by Alex Pieschel: http://digitalhumanitiesseminar.ua.edu/work/tool-reviews/twitter-tool-review-alex-pieschel/
Google Scholar by Lauren Liebe: http://digitalhumanitiesseminar.ua.edu/work/tool-reviews/google-scholar-review-liebe/
Register for THATCamp Alabama!
Registration is now open for THATCamp Alabama, a statewide event happening on August 9-10, 2013, at the University of Alabama. Organized by representatives from Alabama colleges, universities, and libraries, THATCamp Alabama (http://alabama2013.thatcamp.org/) is an “unconference”— a space to share skills and experiences with technology and humanities and brainstorm ways that we can work collaboratively on digital projects within our institutions and beyond. We are looking for technologists and humanists at all levels and hope to host a diverse group representing researchers, teachers, librarians, curators, archivists, and others. All participants play an active role in setting the event agenda by proposing sessions that reflect their interests.
If you or your colleagues would be interested in attending this event, please spread the word and visit our website: alabama2013.thatcamp.org. To sign up for this free event, please visit our registration page. Space is limited.
Hope to see you at THATCamp Alabama!
Topic Modeling the “Great Unread”
Here are the slides from Peter Leonard’s March 7 talk, “Topic Modeling the ‘Great Unread.'” He has done fascinating work with funding from Google on the Scandinavian Literature in the Google Books corpus. Topic modeling is also one approach to text mining worth knowing about. His talk includes many links and references to similar projects.