One of the shortcomings of many digital editions is that they replicate the hierarchical relationship between editors/academics and reader/enthusiast. How can a digital edition encourage productive editorial input (transcribing, encoding, tagging) from its users to produce a scholarly edition capable of evolving with the needs of its multiple users and user communities?

Edgar Allan Poe is a good example as his works are widely read by a global audience that includes professors, students, horror & science fiction fans, and general readers alike. How these users work together in constructive ways to produce a more usable and extensible version of the best known web site dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe – The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore?

This Talk session will explore the challenges, rewards, and logistics of global, digital collaboration on the editing of scholarly editions of literary texts.

How to integrate the existing formats of education in the humanities (e.g., examinations, assignments) with ongoing research projects?

In my teaching of theoretical courses at art colleges in Antwerp, I have experimented with both very strict forms (digital submissions, data collection) and more free-form methods (collaborative translation). Both, however, have distinct advantages and disadvantages.

My question for THATCamp Ghent is: how can research projects be integrated into conventional Ba and Ma courses? How to set up a digital system so that it enables students to collaborate in ongoing research, but at the same time facilitates student evaluation?

I would like to propose a THATcamp session where I discuss the versatility and useability  of TEI, by comparing aspects of three TEI-projects I was involved in: the Streuvels letters and the correspondence between Gust Gils and Paul Snoek (both in the Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies (CTB) of the Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature), as well as the DABNAP (Digital Archive of Belgian Neo-Avant-garde Periodicals) project from the University of Antwerp. With this, I hope to provide insight in the many ways in which TEI can be useful within a library context, as wel as provide some insight in TEI and markup language itself.

If scholarship is constantly changing as a result of new digital tools, resources and methods, why shouldn’t academic education evolve along? This session will concentrate on the usefulness of integrating digital tools and digitised (re)sources in academic trainings and courses (Bachelor and Master). By way of introduction, some applications that already serve as a pedagogic tool within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities will be clarified and discussed.

Subsequently both lecturers and instructors, students and other participants will be invited to share their own experiences about the opportunities and limitations they are faced with during their digitally supported teaching and learning process, and to take part in the discussion on the expectations, needs and requirements for the development and management of digitally based educational support in general, and virtual learning environments in particular.

We hope to meet you on Tuesday,
Els and Nina

Recently I was lucky to get a bursary to attend a specialist training at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin in codicology, the study of manuscript books as material objects, and the use of TEI-conformant XML to record and analyze codicological data. Having studied editorial science in the past at FU Berlin, when this technology was still in its beginnings, I was deeply impressed by today’s possibilities of TEI-conformant XML for editing, archiving, and analyzing all kinds of documents. I think this is the future of editing.

In this session I would like to share my impressions on TEI from the workshop in Berlin, show you Oxygen, a program which helps you to program TEI-conformant XML, and show some websites which feature digital editions made with this technology. As I am far from being a specialist in this area, but more like an enthusiastic newcomer, I invite everybody who just wants to get a glimpse of the impressive possibilities. Those who know more and are willing to share their specialist knowledge are very welcome.

In the past, the role of the library was clear: if you needed a book or access to a database, the library was the place to get it. But what can the library do for the digital humanities?

In this session, I can talk about the services and tools our library currently offers. Other may have examples of what they’ve seen elsewhere.  But most of all, I want to hear what you would like us to do. Should the library offer consultancy? Tools? Hosting for project websites? Or maybe you just want a space where your group can meet and work together.

A little background: our library (at Utrecht University) calls itself “Partner in science”. We have already developed some tools that our researchers can use, but we are always looking for new things to offer. And we believe that the best way to find out what scholars need, is to ask them. So if you ever thought “I wish the library would do X”, then this is your chance.

Spatial and graphic technologies including GIS, spatial and graphic network analysis, georeferencing and data visualization in general are increasingly used in the arts and humanities. In this session we will focus upon graphic network analysis (graphic SNA). We will discuss the programs that can be used (eg. Netdraw, Gephi,..), but also the data-requirements and methodological challenges. Where and how can we learn working with this software? Does graphic SNA require different scholarly publication platforms and strategies? What are your experiences? Why do(n’t) you consider using digital tools for the analyses of presentations of (part of) your research?

See you on tuesday,
Hans en Christophe

Together with some colleagues I set up an International Network for Theory of History (INTH) which aims to foster collaboration and the exchange of ideas among historical theorists worldwide. After having talked about it for a long time, we started intensively preparing the establishment of the network in 2011 and finally launched it early 2012. Because our research field is very fragmented — with many scholars working in different linguistic and academic traditions, often at the periphery of long-established academic disciplines and frequently in relative isolation — we wanted our network to be as inclusive as possible. We figured it was best not to define in advance what should be considered as historical theory and what not. Rather we wanted to take a community-based approach in which potential participants would identify themselves, their/our field and its main problems and potentialities.

It was clear to us from the start that we would need a wide range of digital tools: we definitely needed a website, we wanted an online community-based bibliography for which we used Zotero, wanted a worldwide directory of researchers for which people could make their own member-pages, we wanted a news function based on a blog-structure to which people could freely contribute, etc.

Yet, the very openness and community-based character of our network and its digital tools also posed some challenges: mainly evolving around the question how we could guarantee a certain qualitative standard and a certain thematic coherence to our network. A lot of dilemmas, some of which we think we solved, while other remain on the table. I would like to share our findings and am very interested in any of your ideas on how to solve particular problems concerning a community based research network.

What are your favourite tools when it comes to scholarly networking and collaboration, pedagogy, data analysis, text mining, data visualization, information management, etc?

I will provide a brief summary of basic tools and resources to initiate the discussion.