Amanda French here, THATCamp Coordinator. It sounds like THATCamp Texas went very well indeed — many thanks to everyone who contributed their time and talent to organizing and teaching, especially Lisa Spiro, Andrew Torget, and Anita Riley.

If you could, please take just a moment to evaluate THATCamp Texas. Note that there are only *two required fields*: which THATCamp you went to (Texas!) and a rating of how useful it was for you on a scale of 1 to 5. Answer those two questions alone, and we’ll evaluate you as “hooray.” Answering the other questions is optional, but I’ll read the responses with interest and with an eye to improving upcoming THATCamps.

You can write me at info@thatcamp.org with any questions or comments. Cheers, and thanks.

Dr. John Garrigus and I took both took notes on the Text Mining session, led by Andrew Torget and Caleb McDaniel during the final session timeslot at THATCamp Texas. Here is the link to the editable Google Doc that includes both mine and Dr. Garrigus’ notes. Feel free to add additional thoughts, hyperlinks to resources, etc.

Thanks again to Lisa, Andrew, and Anita for organizing an outstanding THATCamp!

Check out who presented what projects as part of THATCamp Texas’ Dork Shorts session.

After THATCamp Texas wraps us, please help us know what went well and what could have gone better by filling out a brief evaluation form.  Thanks!

Check out the THATCamp Texas schedule here.

THATCamp Texas on Twitter: #thatcamptx

I’m interested in networking with folks who might help Holocaust Museum Houston reconfigure our existing Curriculum Trunk program into a more digitally oriented framework.

www.hmh.org/ed_cur_trunk.shtml

One of THATCamp’s signature events is Dork Shorts, where you get 2-3 minutes to give an “elevator speech” about your project. You can make fellow THATCampers (and those following along on Twitter) aware of your project and even find possible collaborators. We’ll probably start the Dork Shorts around 12:30 on Saturday, after everyone has had a chance to grab lunch.  Sign up now to nab one of the earliest slots!

Since we don’t have a lot of time for the Dork Shorts, it’s best to keep things simple, but let one of the THATCamp Texas organizers know if you need to load up a PowerPoint on the PC in the Kyle Morrow Room or have any other needs. Please take care of this by 12:15 on Saturday.  Thanks!

If you’ve signed up for the first session of BootCamp, please arrive at the Digital Media Center (DMC in Herring 129) between 8:30 and 8:45 on Friday the 15th.  We’ll give you your name tag and direct you to the location of the workshop.  We’ll have coffee and fruit, but not a full breakfast. If your first BootCamp session starts later in the day, please drop by the DMC for your nametag.

Curious about where your BootCamp session will meet?  Print your own copy of the schedule.

I am interested in discussing how GIS mapping technology can help visualize cultural transformation in specific communities. Ideally, I would be able to show this change at the local and international border levels. My dissertation research compares the development of Mexican American transborder communities on the Texas-Mexico border with Franco American transborder communities on the Maine-Canada border. I focus on intermarriage and language practices at the turn of the twentieth century. I have some experience using GIS mapping technology in the classroom through creating interactive mapping activities (U.S. Southwest module of sacarcims.sac.alamo.edu/default.htm) and in conjunction with service-learning projects. Most recently, I have used it to create maps to illustrate my research.

I am currently working with census data and hope to learn new ways of visualizing information from a variety of sources:

* I am using census data to track intermarriage based on nativity, how language practices changed over time, and gender differences in those practices. At this point, my maps reflect the locations of towns, the growth of railroads, and act as backdrops for pie charts.

* I would like to learn new ways to use GIS to visualize changes in language practices (who spoke French where and when) using census data, the distribution of French/Spanish language newspapers, photographs and/or distribution of public signage, and the impact of school language policies

* I would like to find new ways to visualize intermarriage practices, if possible.

* I am also intensely curious about possible ways to visualize migration and settlement patterns. On the international level, I would like to show changes in border crossing traffic in response to stricter immigration policies and border enforcement. This could include points where border crossing stations or international bridges appeared, and hopefully more. At the city level, I would like to see how the ethnic makeup of town neighborhoods and rural areas may have changed. I’ve seen where later twentieth century census data can be mapped to a detailed local level. I’d like to do the same with data from the 1860s to 1930s – and still hopefully be able to finish my dissertation before the turn of the next century.

These are some of my initial ideas and I am completely open to suggestions. I look forward to discussing your ideas and projects. Thank you.

We still have a few spots available in the “Art, Hackers and Arduino Microcontrollers” BootCamp workshop, which promises to be one of the most fun, fascinating sessions of THATCamp Texas.  Curious about what’s involved?  Check out these recent Wired Magazine articles about the “DIY Revolution.”

• How Four Makers Mastered Their Medium
• Q&A: Open Source Electronics Pioneer Limor Fried on the DIY Revolution
• Your Guide to 21 Awesome DIY Projects

Perhaps the best way to describe my session idea is to provide some detail information on my current project.  This project is an article that concerns lucidity in communication and derives from my advanced composition class.  It concerns the comparison of the internet as an iconic text with canonical (or iconic) literature from the twentieth century.  The article focuses on using the internet along with literary material to teach composition and rhetoric, particularly to help college students identify how icons are formed in contemporary western culture and how that formation imbues objects with meaning.  It begins with a discussion with students over iconography and ideas of physical space on the internet.  For example, how one displays his or her facebook or myspace page identifies images or styles that can actually be numerated as icons.  With myspace, one can enumerate what font (Helvetica, Times New Roman, etc…) is predominantly used and why.  Also, with the rise of twitter, subject matter creates new communities of people communicating together.  The internet basically establishes a democratization of icons at a certain level that previous media did not.  Finally, the utilitarian aspect of the internet as a form of individual communication drives western iconography away from a postmodern concept of detachment, freeing the student of the disengagement demanded of icons of postmodernism.  Keeping up with the technological advances in communication allows for a more cohesive community, especially when that community is marginalized.  Therefore, I would like to have a discussion session concerning how icons and memes over the internet can not only strengthen marginalized communities, but also propel those communities into popular culture.

Recently I attended the OAH conference in Houston. One of the sessions, “Texas Textbook Controversy” (which I live-tweeted: twitter.com/#!/search/txtxtbk) continually returned to the topic of engaging the public in what historians do.