THATCamp Pacific Northwest 2010 will be held on the University of Washington’s Seattle campus on October 23rd and 24th, 2010. For more information please e-mail the organizers at THATCampPNW@gmail.com.

What’s a THATCamp?

THATCamp stands for “The Humanities and Technology (THAT) Camp”, where “camp” indicates it’s participant-driven “unconference”—check your papers and suits at the door, and just be ready to talk about the work you’re doing, the work you want to do, how you might collaborate with others, and how you can help and be helped by a community dedicated to the intersection and integration of the humanities and technology. THATCamp was created by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. You might also know CHNM as the institution behind Zotero and Omeka. CHNM has supported this and other regional THATCamps.

What’s an “unconference”?

The Wikipedia entry for “unconference” will give you a good idea what to expect. An “unconference” is “a facilitated, participant-driven conference centered around a theme or purpose.” These unconferences came up from the hacker world—see BarCamp—as a way to avoid high conference fees and sponsored presentations. Unconferences are not spectactor events, nor are they places to “be seen.” Participants are involved from the schedule creation to the wrap-up session, and actively present, discuss, and collaborate with fellow participants.

So, no suits, no papers…what do you do?

Show, tell, collaborate, share, and walk away inspired. Check out the THATCamp wiki for photos and session notes from June 2009, or read through the participant blog posts to get an idea of the types of things people discuss. But NO PAPERS. We’re looking for application demos, research and pedagogy discussions, project ideas, tutorials, and similar approaches to the humanities and technology.

Who should attend?

Anyone interested in studying, supporting, teaching, researching, creating or otherwise shaping digital humanities, new media, and allied fields. You can be a professor, a programmer, a student (grad or undergrad), a librarian, an independent scholar, or any combination thereof (as many of us are). You can be an expert or a newbie; as long as you have something to talk about and things you want to learn regarding the intersection and integration of the humanities and technology, THATCamp is a good place to be. The list of “who should attend” is as broad as the field of “digital humanities” itself.

How much?

Free! THATCampPNW 2010 is sponsored by a generous grant from the Simpson Center for the Humanities and Microsoft Research, with additional support from the Henry Art Gallery and the University of Washington Libraries, all of whom are committed to supporting the growth of digital humanities projects in the Pacific Northwest.