I imagine that we all have faced challenges “selling” ideas involving digitally-based initiatives to peers, governing institutions, and staff members. There is an “Old Reich” that is either reluctant of technology or just doesn’t understand a great deal of it. It may be good to just have an open discussion of how to “teach old dogs new tricks” so to speak or just to make them comfortable with other people doing those tricks with their money/resources. We, at THATCamp, are the choir… how do we best evangelize this gospel of technology? Are there better/best practices for incorporating those that have interest but little knowledge? Does anyone know of any new-user-friendly resources that could be shared to introduce people to some of these applications without overwhelming them? Is there a “most trusted name in technology” that we can consult in generating proposals to help defending our cases for digital application to the powers that be? For instance, if I was trying to justify a Survey-Monkey or Facebook account to a skittish board, does academic/third-party research exist to support my case that isn’t comparable to a CNET review? I know the primary focus of THATCamp is the actual application of technology to the humanities, but it does little good if we can’t make the case to our respective check-writers and inevitable staff implementers.

I’ll go ahead and note off the bat that there is a danger in a session like this in opening the floor to a story-telling/venting session “My boss doesn’t know how to CC” and “This one time…” but if we start off aware of that danger, we might actually be able to avoid it and walk out with some objective results.