Monthly Archives: April 2009

Earlier this week I announced the creation of the Humanist Makers Summer Reading Group. With 15 people already signed up, it looks like a great opportunity to explore part of William Turkel’s Reading List for Humanist Makers, and provide focus to my summer reading.

What will the group do?
Each week we’ll have assigned readings to discuss.  We may decide to have someone leading the discussion, or to come up with a series of questions that we’ll respond to. These details are up for grabs, and the group will decide them once we get going.

Otherwise, it’s my hope that we’ll not only be reading, but also building at the same time. What will we build? Let’s find out! Do you have to build? Certainly not, but the whole idea is to create a lower barrier of entry for those who want to give it a try — we can help each other through the learning process.  Building and reading should provide to be synergetic, and many of the readings themselves have to how to build.

When does the group meet and for how long?
The group will officially start the third week of June, and last for 8 weeks.  At this point, everything is online. People have signed up across the country, but we may organize some physical meet up, especially for the builders among us.

What will the group’s outcome be?
That is yet to be seen. I’m viewing this as a summer experiment — thinking about new ways of organizing like-minded individuals by using the web to share information. I planned to read many of these texts over the summer on my own, so the ability to share ideas with others who are also reading should prove helpful.

How can I join?
There’s currently a Google Group that everyone has joined. We’ve started out by introducing ourselves, and we’ll soon begin discussing the reading list. If you want to follow-along but not participate, that’s OK. If you’re going on vacation and can only participate for a few weeks, that’s fine as well. I’m hoping that this can be a flexible and fun way to share ideas, so don’t hesitate to join in the fun.

I’ve been quietly experimenting with place-based computing since last summer, and had the opportunity earlier this month to present my pitch for a mobile history web service/application called HistoryPlot. While I’m not entirely sure on the trajectory of the project overall (which I aptly refer to as an experiment), I’m exploring different options to get it off the ground and overall learning a TON. Interested in participating and collaborating? Let me know.

For updates on my progress, follow HistoryPlot on Twitter. Below are the slides I presented at the American Association for History & Computing Conference, with audio recorded this afternoon to supplement the slides.