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

Following THATCamp Texas, you can continue to pursue fun with multimedia by attending the SYZYGY, New Music at Rice concert at Rice’s Wortham Opera Theatre – Alice Pratt Brown Hall from 8-9 p.m.

Details:

SYZYGY, New Music at Rice
A concert of electronic and computer music featuring live performance on acoustic and electronic instruments, surround sound, and video. Featured works include those by Art Gottschalk, guest composer Russell Pinkston, and premieres by Chapman Welch and Kurt Stallmann with collaborator and guest filmmaker Alfred Guzzetti.

Guest faculty performers include Leone Buyse and Michael Webster.
8:00 p.m., Wortham Opera Theatre

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.

We’re looking forward to THATCamp Texas, which is now just a few days away. Before everyone arrives, we wanted to give you some information about logistics. Please forgive the length, but we’ve got a lot to cover!

1) Where to Go, When to Get There

BootCamp sessions will run on Friday from 9 until 4:30, with breaks for sustenance and socializing. If you’ve registered for the first BootCamp session, please arrive at the Digital Media Center, Herring 129 (home base for Friday), by 8:45 a.m. Except for the sessions on Simple Augmented Reality, Regular Expressions, and Arduino Micro-Controllers, all BootCamp sessions are full—in fact, they will probably be a little crowded, but we wanted to accommodate as many people as we could. On Friday, we probably won’t be providing food until lunchtime. (Unless you’ve made other arrangements, we’ll be having banh mi sandwiches on Friday. Yum!). We plan to end around 4:30.

THATCamp Texas will kick off at 9 a.m. on Saturday with breakfast. We’ll congregate in the Kyle Morrow Room in Fondren Library, which is on the third floor of the building. Anyone who does not have a Rice ID will need to enter on the east (Central Quad/ Willy’s Statue) side of the building.

Not sure where Fondren Library and Herring Hall are? Check out the THATCamp Texas map, available as a PDF or Google Map.

2) Where to Park

You have several options for parking, including:

• the Central Garage, the most expensive option ($1 for every 15 minutes, with a maximum of $11/day), but closest to THATCamp events
• the West Lot ($1 for every 30 minutes, with a maximum of $11/day), about a five minute walk from THATCamp events
• the Greenbriar Lot, which costs $1/day and is about 15 minutes away from THATCamp events

3) What to Do Before THATCamp Texas

To get the most out of THATCamp Texas, we strongly encourage you to:

a) post a brief session proposal to the THATCamp Texas blog, texas2011.thatcamp.org/ (you should have already been sent login info, but let us know if you have any trouble)

b) read and comment on session proposals contributed by your fellow THATCampers. Some exciting ideas are being shared on the THATCamp Texas blog, so we encourage you to dive in (if you haven’t already.)

c) follow thatcamptexas on Twitter. We hope that THATCampers trade ideas and build community via Twitter, and we encourage everyone to use #thatcampTX for THATCamp-related exchanges. If you’re new to Twitter, see chronicle.com/blogPost/blogPost-content/26065/ for a useful introduction.

4) What to Bring

a. A laptop, particularly if you plan to participate in a BootCamp session. (We will have a few laptops available for the BootCamp sessions.) If you’re not from Rice, you should be able to connect to the wireless network as a visitor; see docs.rice.edu/confluence/display/ITTUT/Connect+on-campus

Remember, if you have signed up for the TEI workshop, you should download and install the trial version of Oxygen from www.oxygenxml.com/download_oxygenxml_editor.html

Likewise, if you will be participating in the ggplot2 workshop, please install Rstudio (www.rstudio.org/), and then inside Rstudio run the following R code: install.packages(“ggplot2″).

b. A powerstrip/ extension cord if you’ll need to recharge your laptop battery

c. Business cards to pass out to your new friends

d. Brochures and other hand-outs related to your project(s)

e. Questions, ideas and energy

f. $20 or so, if you are able to chip in to help cover the costs of THATCamp Texas.  (And thanks again to our sponsor, Fondren Library’s Center for Digital Scholarship.)

5) What Will Happen During THATCamp Texas

What distinguishes THATCamp is that its participants set the agenda. During our first session on Saturday at 9:30 a.m., we will collectively determine the schedule based on the session proposals that people have contributed to the blog, as well as new ideas that come up during the discussion. For more on how this will work, see thatcamp.org/plan/during/scheduling/ We hope that people who have proposed sessions will agree to serve as facilitators for them, which means that they will be responsible for initiating the conversation, moderating the discussion, and keeping time.

THATCamp is meant to be collaborative, informal, productive, non-hierarchical, inter-professional, transdisciplinary, small, open, cheap and, most of all, fun (see thatcamp.org/about/ for a more complete explanation.) There won’t be any formal presentations; instead, we will engage in open conversation and hands-on play.

During lunch on Saturday, we’ll hold “DorkShorts,” where you will have the opportunity to give a two or three minute “elevator speech” about a project.

6) What Will Happen After the BootCamp and THATCamp Texas

After spending an intense day at the BootCamp and at THATCamp Texas, unwind with fellow THATCampers. On Friday, April 15, we plan to assemble outside of Valhalla, Rice’s graduate student bar around 4:30 (weather permitting). If you prefer coffee or soda to cheap (and I mean cheap) beer, grab a beverage at the Pavilion and join us. Look for me.

After we wrap up THATCamp Texas on Saturday around 6:15, we’ll head over to the Rice Village, which is about a 15-20 minute walk away (or you can park in the Village or in the Greenbriar lot). We haven’t made reservations anywhere, since we don’t know how many people to expect. However, we’ll probably end up at the Ginger Man, a local favorite. For those seeking food, check out:

· Pasha or Istanbul Grill: Turkish

· Patu’s: Thai

· D’Amico’s: Italian

· Yum Yum Cha: dim sum

· Shiva: Indian

· Ruggles: sandwiches, salads, soups, pastries

· the Chocolate Bar: ice cream, pastries and more

· Salento: coffee

A little pricier:

· Café Rabelais: French

· Benjy’s: New American

· Prego: Italian

See also Yelp and the Rice student restaurant guide.

7) Who to Contact

If you need to get in touch, feel free to contact:

· Digital Media Center (Friday): 713-348-3635

Also, keep your eyes on the THATCamp Texas web site.

Please let us know if you have any questions, comments or concerns. We look forward to seeing you in a few days!

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

With THATCamp Texas just three weeks away, we wanted to give you some updated information and make a couple of requests.

1) BootCamp registration is now open! We’ve got some terrific workshops on topics such as data visualization, building digital collections, creating GIS maps, and even crafting your own simple electronics project. Unfortunately, we can only accommodate 10-15 people in each workshop due to space restrictions and our desire to make the sessions as interactive as possible. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis, so please register ASAP. You can access the registration form and read descriptions of the workshops at texas2011.thatcamp.org/bootcamp/

2) The conversation has already begun on the THATCamp Texas blog at texas2011.thatcamp.org/, as THATCampers have posted and commented on some outstanding session ideas. If you haven’t done so already, please create your profile (using the login that you were sent last week) and submit a brief session proposal. So that we can group all of the proposals together, use the category “Session Ideas.” We encourage you to comment on posts by other participants, particularly those related to your own interests. The conversations on the THATCamp blog lay the foundation for a successful unconference by fostering the exchange of ideas and the building of relationships, so please participate!

If you’re unfamiliar with WordPress, no sweat—see codex.wordpress.org/Writing_Posts or get in touch with us with any questions. A quick overview: To post to the blog, login at texas2011.thatcamp.org/wp-admin/ You’ll reach a dashboard. Click ‘Add New Post’ to post your session idea. To change your THATCamp Texas profile, click ‘Edit my Profile’ under your user name on the upper left hand corner of the page.

3) Check out texas2011.thatcamp.org/logistics/ for information about hotel options close to Rice. Rates range from $79-$130 (hotels that are closer to Rice typically cost more.) You’ll likely be able to receive a discount if you ask for the “Rice rate.” Also, you’re welcome to post a roommate request to the THATCamp Texas blog; use the category “Roommates.”

4) Don’t forget to follow THATCamp Texas on Twitter at thatcamptexas. We’ll probably be releasing some information about THATCamp Texas on Twitter first.

Let us know if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you in a few weeks!

Announcing THATCamp Texas!   Apply to be part of the excitement on April 16 on the campus of Rice University, as we gather folks interested in digital humanities for the best one-day “unconference” you’ll ever go to!

And for those interested, we’ll also be holding a BootCamp at Rice on April 15, offering a series of workshops on honing new digital skills. Both THATCamp and the BootCamp are free, although we’d appreciate it if participants could toss in $20 to help cover refreshment costs.

Faculty, grad students and postdocs in the humanities, librarians, archivists, and art museum professionals may apply for a $500 BootCamp Fellowship to help defray travel expenses for attending THATCamp Texas and its BootCamp. (We understand that the funding for fellowships for librarians and archivists  has been exhausted, but doublecheck with the THATCamp Coordinator at info@thatcamp.org.)

Read more about THATCamp (and other THATCamps) at thatcamp.org.