I’d like to have a working session to pick the brains of other campers on ideas for overhauling NYU’s Literature, Arts, and Medicine database. The database has thousands of annotations on various works of literature, art, theater, and film that relate to the practice of medicine, and it’s very much in need of an overhaul. Specifically, right now the database is very much in a pre-social web format, and I’d like to discuss ways to integrate and engage user participation to move the site away from a “static repository of information” model and towards an active, dynamic, collaborative platform for showcasing the combined efforts of humanists, medical professionals, artists, and developers. I’d also like to discuss sustainability and how to make the database a self-supporting entity that doesn’t rely on grant funds. I would love to hear from anyone who is involved or has been involved with similar projects, or knows of anyone doing something similar that I might be able to learn from.

From Roger Panetta:

• What are the best platforms for developing semester-long collaborative class projects?
• What are the best ways to engage the public in the development and use of archives?
• For an interdisciplinary history of the Hudson River, what are some models of a multimedia e-textbook?

1. Student Digital Projects
Find a consistent and effective platform for the development of semester long collaborative class projects.

Upgrade the organization and programming to develop projects that are more fully digital.
Review past projects to establish a base line for moving forward in a more dynamic format.
See the following

South Street Seaport

Hudson-Fulton Celebration 1909

SS Normandie: Paris and New York

Lincoln Center and Lincoln Square

Not the Hudson River

2. Discuss the state of eArchives and ways to engage the public in their use and development.

See DigitalHudson

3.  Models and support for the creation of an eText for an interdisciplinary history of the Hudson River.

How can blogs best be incorporated into the college classroom and can they build a bridge with the broader online community?  Jane Carr and I have been considering this question while launching a new blog, Archive Notebook, where we share and write about our unused archival research in hopes of fostering productive discussion with other scholars. In the longer term, we aim to make this forum a pedagogic tool that will facilitate qualitative crowd-sourcing within and beyond the university, the institutional archive, and other traditional repositories. We are in the early stages of our own work on these topics and would love to share ideas about digital collecting, curating, and archiving as scholars and with students. We are currently using a Tumblr format but we welcome discussion of other tools and interfaces as well ideas on how to maximize engagement with formats like our own.

Topics might include:

• Thinking critically about the “commons” online – how to share public resources and participate in a collaborative cultural sphere
• Evaluating the efficacy of standard academic blogging practices within existing institutional frameworks
• Probing the line between documentation and analysis in digital writing. How can we — and our students — become skilled at the art of description as well as critical evaluation
• How we can build audiences and learn how to be better audiences online? What sorts of users tend to be rewarded within the digital commons?
• How can we continue to explore the relationship between the visual and the verbal? What exercises might facilitate various forms of new media literacy?
• How do we teach archive-related digital writing while remaining mindful of the distinction between material archives and born-digital data?

Hi everyone – Tatiana clued me in to a great idea for a session proposal – “dork shorts” is a short series of 7-10 minute presentations of ideas or in progress projects that presenters is are interested in receiving feedback on or finding collaborators for (especially emphasizing ‘teachable moments’).  I’d like to present on an Omeka project for rare books I’ve been involved with for the past year – looking to expand in terms of interactivity, visualizations, and eventually linked data.  Anyone else interested in joining in for a Saturday session?