Planning for Cincinnati Conference

[ahunker]

@ebeshero @setriplette @brookestewart @jonhoranic @gabikeane @bsf15 Hello everyone! So the 2018 STD conference is coming up soon and we should probably start to plan our roundtable. I have uploaded the accepted proposal if you want to check it out and refresh your memory. For those who have not attended conference or have not been a part of a digital roundtable before, here are the general points we touch on:

• What is XML?
• Our digital projects (We will be focusing on The Hamilton Project and I believe Gabi's project(s) involving Victorian ghost stories and imperial newspapers, but we can talk about other digital projects)
• Audience participation activity (usually coding a snippet of text from one of the projects)
• Discussing what advantages and disadvantages come from coding (Eg. a distant reading versus a close-up reading)

In the proposal, Dr B also suggested several discussion questions that relate to the theme of the convention, "Seeking Freedom":

• What patterns in literary texts can we mark and study with computational tools?
• Does computer markup constrain interpretation? Or, can markup be written to expand possibilities for interpretation?
• What dimensions of literature are plottable on maps? Or how does our use of maps change when they are connected to literary texts?
• What new narratives can we tell about literary texts when we code them for sharing on the public web?

Another thing we do is create a website that assists us and the audience in our presentation that has examples, definitions, and links to materials we discuss.

What we need to do is decide what exactly we will be talking about, the order of the discussion, who will talk about what, and what each person needs to prepare for the presentation. If you have any ideas or preferences, comment below!

[ahunker]

Well, since nobody seems to want to start, I will. I know @brookestewart has offered to help generate discussion questions during the presentation and that @bsf15 and myself will be talking in-depth about The Hamilton Project. We do have a map plotted we can talk about as well as some network graphs concerning characters and a line graph tracking themes. We are currently working on identifying fact vs. fiction within the piece, which may turn into a bar graph, and plan on generating a timeline for the musical. @jonhoranic, would you be interested in explaining what XML is or leading the audience participation activity? I know your Graveyard Project involves mapping, is that something we can bring to the discussion as another example? @gabikeane, what projects are you currently working on and what aspects of those projects are you hoping to talk about during the presentation? Conference is less than a month away everybody and we really need to start planning this roundtable.

[ebeshero]

Everyone! I just realized I was replying on a Github repo--perfect! Here's a timing question: We've reserved some time and space just after Spring Break for rehearsals of Sigma Tau Delta material for the conference. These are rehearsals to which we're inviting other students to come and comment--and I hope we'll have a few profs about, too.

1) The Frankenstein panel wants to do its rehearsal at 7pm on Monday, March 12 (the Monday after we return from Spring Break). 2) We've reserved the Hempfield Room on M 3/12, T 3/13, and W 3/14 from 11:30am - 1pm for practice sessions of any kind for Sigma Tau Delta. Shelby and I are about to advertise all these sessions on a poster or circular to be distributed to the Village and student lists so we may get a "live studio audience" to help us out. 3) The DH panel should choose a session time--and the sooner you can do so the better! Can you all agree on one of those times to pull us together? @gabikeane, if you can make it to Greensburg campus, great--but if you can't we can bring you in over Google Hangouts (which is what we're doing with the students from other campuses for the Frankenstein practice session).

[ebeshero]

Here's a Google Doc that @ahunker and I started just now to make it easier for everyone to free-write some ideas for the panel! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zaThXFIi3Xi91_v1j3UPvYva9uRrffMkMeM7xSynj5c/edit?usp=sharing

You should all have edit access to this.

[ebeshero]

@ahunker Old page for the DH Panel from previous years: http://www.pitt.edu/~upgstd/2016Convention/index.html

Becca's repo for our Sigma Tau Delta chapter site (which could really use an update!) You can probably just fork this and keep going with it: https://github.com/RJP43/STD_UPG

She linked the DH panel pages from that chapter website (and I can give you access to that site if I haven't already)...she just didn't add them to the site menu. (I think we may want to add a link to the chapter site menu to an area for DH Panel materials, since this is something we tend to keep doing and updating from year to year!)

Last point: I'm out of town next week during Spring Break, but I think/hope the DH panel is planning to get together if everyone else is around and about). Traditionally to launch this panel, we've gotten the group together for an afternoon maybe around a coffee shop or over pizza and just sketched out some ideas. If you meet sometime when I'm not in transit, between Wed. and Saturday of Spring Break, bring me in over Hangouts if you like! Greg and I are going to Mexico City for an actual break (and not for a conference or anything serious), so I should be able to join you for a bit if we schedule this when I'm at a good network connection. I'll just be one hour earlier than you.