I’d love to compare notes among people who are using mapping for DH research projects. I’m particularly interested in moving away from GIS (e.g. ArcGIS or QGIS) and GIS-in-the-browser (e.g., CartoDB) to using the various libraries that let us create our own custom maps. For me that looks like the leaflet and lawn (an R wrapper around Turf.js) packages for R, tied together with the Shiny web framework. But I’d like to know what everyone else considers the state of the art in mapping for DH, and how they are using it.

As a part of that, this session could also include people showing the projects that they’ve worked or otherwise admire, and talking about next steps for coming up with meaningful conclusions from DH mapping data.

Or we could just talk about how awesome Shiny is.

An iron law of DH software is that it is easier to use than to install. Philip Guo has memorably identifed the problem in a post titled “Helping my students overcome command-line bullshittery.” I’d like to talk about ways teachers, whether at the undergrad or the grad level, use to overcome this problem. How do we get students into the real work (necessary complexity) while avoiding as much as possible the unnecessary complexity of installing and configuring software? Or, in some cases is there pedagogical value in understanding how computers really work, such as by dealing with the Unix command line?

I can explain what I’m planning to do with my graduate class using RStudio Server this semester, and I hope that others have their own techniques.

If you would like to give a three-minute lightening presentation during our opening session, please leave a comment below with you name, the subject of the presentation, and (optionally) a URL that you would like to be loaded in advance. You’ll have access to a web browser and our undivided attention.

Schedule for THATCamp AHA 2016

THATCamp AHA 2016 will start in a few days on Wednesday, January 6. Here is the information you need to know about finding the location, the start time, and proposing sessions.

Schedule

We will begin at 9:00 a.m. by putting the schedule for the day together. (Please see the section on proposing sessions below.)

• 9:00 – 10:00   Welcome, voting, presentations, etc
• 10:15 – 11:45 First session
• 1:00 – 2:30 Second session
• 2:45 – 4:15 Third session

After the sessions are over, anyone who wishes is welcome to join us at Side Bar Atlanta
(79 Poplar Street, Atlanta, GA 30303).

Location

THATCamp will be held at Georgia State University, near the location of the AHA hotels (about 4 or 5 blocks). The sessions will be held in Student Center East and Student Center West. In the morning you should come to the Student Center East Auditorium and lobby (44 Courtland St NE, Atlanta, GA 30303).

To find the GSU Student Center East, click through to this map, which offers walking and public transit directions.

Proposing Sessions

There are two kinds of proposals we’d love to see from each participant. The first is for lightening presentations (sometimes called Dork Shorts). The idea is for you to give a three-minute presentation on some project, research, tool, etc that you want everyone to know about. You’ll have access to a web browser and three minutes of our undivided attention. These presentations will happen during our opening session. To sign up, please leave a comment on this post.

Second, we’d like to know what you want to talk about, build, or experiment with at THATCamp. You can propose as many hour-and-a-half long sessions as we like, and we will vote on them during our opening session. To propose a session, please log in to the THATCamp website using the credentials that we e-mailed. (Having problems? E-mail lincoln@lincolnmullen.com.) Click “Add a post” and write up your sessions proposal. There are more details here. You can see the sessions which have been proposed below.

See you in Atlanta in a few days.

THATCamp AHA 2016 will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday, January 6, 2016, the day before the beginning of the 130th annual meeting of the American Historical Association. The THATCamp will be held at Georgia State University, a short distance from the hotels and meeting site for the AHA proper.

Registration for THATCamp AHA is free and open now. Please fill out this form to join us.

Registration for the AHA annual meeting is not required to attend THATCamp AHA. But you may wish to consult the annual meeting website for hotel and travel information.