Last updated on January 30, 2017
A lighter day on my end – and in Denver, where the sun came out and I had a view of the Rockies from my window. Win.
A much more promising view to kick off #aha17 day 2! pic.twitter.com/QS4h9fAXJd
— Heather Bennett (@heatherlynnsg) January 6, 2017
My brain is pretty mushy from trying to figure out a bunch of digital history tools at the moment, but here’s the (briefer than yesterday) highlights:
Praise for a colleague
First and foremost, Jordan Reed, fellow Drew grad student and digital historian, was one of today’s most tweeted persons thanks to his presentation with SHARP (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing)! Woot!
#aha17 #s110: Collaborative Digital History
Great panel/roundtable from Stephen Robertson, Jim Clifford, Ian Milligan, Emily Merchant, and Myron Gutmann – and the audience, which was gain full of live tweeters. (Seriously – such a joy to tweet with other people!)
The takeaways for me:
Digital history can be learned as projects are in-progress.
.@jburnford learned GIS for diss – so glad to hear from someone who learned DH in process of research #aha17 #s110
— Heather Bennett (@heatherlynnsg) January 6, 2017
.@ashleystreet Advantages to doing #dighist alone allows for learning new skills, but doesn’t lend well to larger scale proj #aha17 #s110
— Heather Bennett (@heatherlynnsg) January 6, 2017
Woot! Every collaborator – even/especially grads and undergrads – deserves reward/credit for work
Important point about every member of the team needs to be able to produce materials. #Grad students need to be paid & publish. #aha17 #s110
— Julian Chambliss (@JulianChambliss) January 6, 2017
Tech training, publishing credit, “cold hard cash” ALL important for student collaborators. #aha17 #s110
— Jesse Draper (@JDraper_HNet) January 6, 2017
Because history is always-already collaborative – we just don’t tend to make that explicit
Great point from @ashleystreet: Recognize that historical research is already collaborative even if it isn’t co-authored #aha17 #s110
— Heather Bennett (@heatherlynnsg) January 6, 2017
Do need to take care as we consider how to treat student collaborators, though. What work should be public? What work should be withheld? How are we ensuring that students have a clear and respected say?
@heatherlynnsg @smrobertson3 Yes, & grt reminder in @miriamkp student collab bill of rights about having chance NOT to have work be pub.
— Ansley Erickson (@ATErickson) January 6, 2017
Odds and ends about who we write for and what digital projects mean for securing jobs and/or gaining tenure
Thanks @smrobertson3 for acknowledging it’s okay for historians just to write for historians #aha17 #s110
— Heather Bennett (@heatherlynnsg) January 6, 2017
.@smrobertson3 Demand for #dighist proj, dig diss is “enormous.” Not totally clear what that will mean for hiring/tenure yet #aha17 #s110
— Heather Bennett (@heatherlynnsg) January 6, 2017
#aha17 #s117: Digital Drop-In
Pretty much sums up how I feel about this session:
Dang. This #dighist community is so supportive! Thanks to @jmcclurken for organizing #aha17 #s117 & @ianmilligan1 for sharing resources!
— Heather Bennett (@heatherlynnsg) January 6, 2017
Digital history is still a new community for me – but it is a community as far as I can tell. And a remarkably supportive, interested, and creative one in which resources are made to be shared.
Jeff McLurken welcomed me at the door, listened patiently to my project description and skills needs, and then pointed me to two different digital historians/humanists who had great suggestions for tools to use for data analysis.
I had the chance to speak with Ian Milligan again and he kindly re-demonstrated some of the web scraping tools from yesterday (Voyant and DocNow). I’m still putzing around with these tools and figuring out how to make them work for my needs, but I’m feeling on firmer ground with the dissertation after the drop-in session.