When the grant funding for the THATCamp project runs out at the end of March 2014, my position as THATCamp Coordinator will also end. I personally am not too worried about the future of THATCamp: it’s already sustaining itself very well, and to some extent I think that even if people cease to organize or go to THATCamps, it won’t be a tragedy — the spirit of THATCamp cannot die, and I think THATCamp has already had some highly laudable effects.

So it’s getting near the time when we’ll need to give the THATCamp community an even greater degree of ownership than it has already. I’m proposing a session here to figure out how to set up a THATCamp Coordinating Council to take over the (very few) tasks that I’m currently performing as THATCamp Coordinator. Let me make one thing clear: I don’t want to use this session to actually *appoint* said Council; I want instead to use this session to figure out the best *process* for setting up such a Council. Should I call for volunteers and appoint the people I think would be best, or should we hold some kind of elections? How would we hold such elections? And if that turns out to be an easy decision, then we can also talk about what the demographics and duties of such a Council should be. I want this to be a highly-tweeted session as well, one that involves the virtual #THATCamp community as much as possible.

I did think about pre-scheduling this session at THATCamp Leadership, by the way, but I was actually worried that planning a particular session about the THATCamp Coordinating Council would be, well, un-THATCampy. So if you have ideas about how this should go, please comment here, tweet @thatcamp, and/or (if you’re coming to THATCamp Leadership) speak your mind in person during the initial scheduling session tomorrow.

I’ve got a very very drafty set of thoughts about the demographics, duties, and processes of the THATCamp Coordinating Council, which I will create a Notepad for and attach to this post. Anyone with an account on thatcamp.org (not just this site) can log in to edit that document. To get a THATCamp account, go to thatcamp.org/signup.

DC is a bit of a shutdown town right now — it’s a little hard to think of anything else. And the shutdown means that THATCamp Leadership next week may well be deprived of the insight and company of some of our friends and colleagues from the NEH, NARA, the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian. Nevertheless, because THATCamp Leadership is an unconference whose agenda hasn’t been set yet, at least we now have the option of putting discussions of the shutdown on said agenda if we so choose.

Even if you don’t want to talk about the shutdown, though, you can still say what you would like to talk about — or make, or learn, or teach, or play — and your saying will help determine what we do next Thursday. There are two session proposals already up at the THATCamp Leadership site, one (mine) proposing a discussion of Purdue’s “Signals” software and one from Ryan Cordell on “THATCamp Hierarchy,” and you can read more about proposing sessions on the Propose page at leadership2013.thatcamp.org/propose/.

Remember that to propose a session, you will need to log in to the site at leadership2013.thatcamp.org/wp-login.php (click “Lost your password?” on that page if need be) and go to Posts –> Add New.

 There you will be able to write a brief description of a session you’d like to facilitate. You can also add categories from the right-hand side, including the category “Session Proposals.” If all that sounds like too much, don’t worry: you can always suggest something on Thursday morning.

You can read through (and “favorite”) proposals in the coming days, and we’ll also post them around the Mason Inn on the morning of the unconference. If you’d like to get the proposals by email, go to the “Entries by email” link on the front page at leadership2013.thatcamp.org.

Looking forward to foregathering next week. See you online before then, and see you in person soon.

I was very interested to read a story in last week’s Chronicle of Higher Education about “Signals,” a piece of software developed at Purdue that gives students feedback about how they’re doing in a course: chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/purdue-u-software-prompt-students-to-study-and-graduate/46853 The data on the software’s effect on student retention was truly astonishing. Signals seems to be tightly integrated with Blackboard, but it sounds reminiscent of the promise of MOOCs to improve “learning analytics”: online.stanford.edu/news/2013/04/11/learning-analytics-stanford-takes-huge-leap-forward-moocs, even though the analytics it presents are available to students. We talked about the Signals story a bit on our podcast, Digital Campus, but I’d love to look into it even more, and to get different perspectives. It did make me wonder whether MOOCs even have the right approach to learning analytics, since mostly what I’ve heard about them suggests that such analytics are only provided to faculty and administrators rather than to the students themselves. It also made me wonder whether software like Purdue’s could be adopted and customized by universities themselves using in-house developers.

Hi all — I’m so glad you’ve agreed to come to THATCamp Leadership. For some of you, this will be only one of many THATCamps you’ve attended (or organized): for others of you, it will be the first THATCamp and probably the first unconference you’ve ever attended. I’m writing this in order to give you more information about the purposes and processes of this special event.

First, a bit about purpose. THATCamp Leadership will

• introduce academic leaders such as yourself to THATCamp and to the unconference model;
• carve out some retreat-like time for discussion of and work on issues related to the humanities and technology; and
• begin the process of creating a THATCamp Coordinating Council to administer the THATCamp project.

“That’s all very well,” you may be saying to yourself, “but how on earth does one approach this ‘unconference’ animal? What is expected at THATCamp Leadership, what will happen there, and what am I to do?”

Here, then, is a bit about process. To prepare for THATCamp Leadership, you should

• pack your business casual clothes,
• bring a laptop (or a tablet, though I advise a laptop),
• have an idea for a session (optional, but strongly recommended), and
• show up.

That’s all, really. The essence of an unconference is that it is participant-driven, and therefore those who attend will collaboratively decide what the agenda will be in the first session of the first day. What will happen on Thursday, October 10th, 2013 at THATCamp Leadership is therefore mostly to be determined — by us. Most people propose a session (or several) a week or two before the event begins, but you can also chime in with an idea as we work together to set the schedule at the beginning of the day on 10/10/13.

You can learn more about the principles and processes of THATCamp at THATCamp 101, and you can read further about proposing sessions and see examples of session proposals at leadership2013.thatcamp.org/propose/. I will also email you about October 1st to encourage you to propose something and to explain the process further.

Tomorrow I will add all participants to the THATCamp Leadership site as users; you will receive your username and password (if you don’t already have one) by email. This will allow you to log in to the site at leadership2013.thatcamp.org/wp-login.php and edit your profile (which will be listed on the Participants page) and/or write an early proposal. Don’t hesitate to write me at info@thatcamp.org if you have questions. I’m looking forward to unconferencing with you all.

THATCamp Leadership is an invitation-only unconference for digital humanities scholars, university deans, heads of museums and libraries, and executive directors of scholarly associations and state humanities councils. Its purpose is to introduce leaders in the humanities to the benefits and structure of THATCamp in particular and unconferences generally. It will take place from 8:00am to 3:00pm on Thursday, October 10, 2013 at the Mason Inn Conference Center at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, and will be followed by a meeting of THATCamp Organizers for the purpose of creating a process for electing or appointing a THATCamp Coordinating Council. THATCamp Leadership is funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

THATCamp is The Humanities and Technology Camp. See thatcamp.org for more information.