Many thanks Dael for getting the discussion going. I know there are other THATCamp participants interested in games and hope we can assemble a great session about that.

Meanwhile, at the risk of destroying my technical credibility before the conference begins, I wanted to “go public” with some technical glitches which may be keeping some people from participating.

1) The application page underwent a couple of editorial adjustments while it was up. I know of at least one applicant who thought he was registered, but wrote to me for confirmation and I did not have him in my database. New evidence suggests that there may be several more who submitted applications that did not make it to my database. I’m assuming that there is a connection between the editing of the page and the failure of some applications to make it to the database. Unfortunately, there is no way for me to reverse search for those people who applied and didn’t make it to the database. It could be one or two, it could be many. If you submitted an application and have not heard whether it has been accepted or not, assume that it got lost in that digital ether. E-mail me and I’ll enter you by hand.

2) For those of you who managed to run the gauntlet of getting your application through to the database, there was a second technical glitch. The plug-in that I used to generate invitations to log in to the website was balky. It successfully sent out about ten log in invitations, but was very idiosyncratic as I tried to re-submit those who didn’t get receive an invitation the first time. If you received an acceptance to THATCamp Jersey Shore, but never received log in information for the site, email me about that. And if you received multiple log in emails, my apologies.

There will be free wifi access at the Carnegie Library and, we hope, enough surge-protector outlets to keep laptops charged.

See you on April 4!

by  Mukumbura

Hi everyone:

Games and gaming ideas are everywhere these days – running through conversations about teaching, social media, law, and social justice. The ways conversations about games are happening seems to me to be interesting, too; hosts of popular gaming podcasts, journalists, and academic cultural critics are all part of the discussion in various ways — talking to each other, even —  something that strikes me as rare, if not unique, for a medium that is also a multi-billion dollar industry.

So I think it might be fun and productive to use some of our time at THATCamp to think with, and about, games.

There are bunch of different ways this kind of conversation could go. Are games good to teach with? That seems to be the philosophy beyond a recent spate of flash games sponsored by British cultural institutions on particularly nasty episodes in British history (Nelson at Trafalgar, the Opium War, the Battle of Hastings, etc). Can games change the world? That’s the question Jane McGonigal’s Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They can Change the World takes on. How should we critique games as cultural objects? That’s the theme that has launched a thousand podcasts and blogposts, as well as more explicitly academic projects like Kill Screen Magazine or The Brainy Gamer. In addition to these issues, the conversations around games seem to be engaging with a theme dear to the heart of digital humanities work: what’s the relationship (economic, political, emotional, or social) between creators and communities of users?

The thesis here is that games, and the communities and industries they sustain, are potentially useful tools to think with; and the themes of the developing conversation about games seem to be parallel or perpendicular to those happening in the digital humanities world. At least, I suspect they are – but I’d like to hear what other and wiser heads besides mine think about all this.

Anyone in?

A reminder that THATCamp Jersey Shore will be held at the beautiful Carnegie Library of Richard Stockton College at Pacific Ave. and Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd. in Atlantic City, NJ. This building is the original Carnegie Library for Atlantic City and has been listed as one of the “Top 150 buildings and places in New Jersey” by the American Institute of Architects.

Directions by car to the Carnegie Library are available here. Parking is in a lot of Pacific Avenue. If you will be driving to THATCamp, let me know and I will forward a parking permit for the Carnegie Library lot.

The Carnegie Library is about ten blocks from the NJ Transit rail station in Atlantic City. There is a regular casino shuttle, the Atlantic City Jitney, that connects the rail station with Pacific Avenue.

We have arranged for a great deal on accommodations for those of you staying over in Atlantic City. We have a block of rooms reserved at the Courtyard Marriott Atlantic City at 1212 Pacific Ave. for April 3-4 at $65 a night. The Courtyard is about four blocks from the Carnegie Library and one block from the Boardwalk.

An interactive map of Atlantic City can be found here.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in Atlantic City!

The “official” deadline for applications to THATCamp Jersey Shore will be March 15. After that date, we will continue to consider applications on a space available basis.

So register now. Here’s the registration link.

Looking over the site, I see that it is hard to figure out who to contact for questions about THATCamp Jersey Shore. Sorry. The central contact for THATCamp Jersey Shore is me, John Theibault, Director of the South Jersey Center for Digital Humanities at Stockton College. I can be reached on gmail using my first initial and full last name without punctuation or spacing. Stockton addresses all go to stockton.edu; mine begins with my first and last names separated by a dot.

Time flies!

In just over a month, THATCamp Jersey Shore arrives. We are still eager to get your application. We will have BootCamp sessions for relative newcomers to digital humanities, allowing for hands on immersion in programs and processes that are valuable for getting up to speed. If you are coming from a bit of a distance, I am pleased to remind you that through the generosity of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Kress Foundation, and the Council on Information and Library Resources, we have a small number of fellowships offering $500 to participants in BootCamp sessions. Too learn more about BootCamp fellowships and how to apply you can go to the central THATCamp homepage here. If you wish to be considered for one of these fellowships, you must fill in the THATCamp Jersey Shore application (available here) and the separate fellowship application (available here) by March 15. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by!

The fellowships are designed to help defray travel and accommodation costs, so are not designed for “locals.” Locals are, however, very welcome to attend all BootCamp sessions. We expect to have an assortment of 5-7 BootCamp sessions to choose from. If you are applying (or have already applied) and think that you could offer an excellent prospective BOOTCamp session, please let us know. We would be pleased to expand our offerings.

If you click on the Apply tab above, you’ll find an application for THATCamp Jersey Shore. I’ll start broadcasting the news soon, but if you are at this site and know you want to come, you can get your application in early. Hope to see you here.

Come join us in Atlantic City, New Jersey for THATCamp Jersey Shore.

When: April 4-5, 2011. The sessions will run all day, Monday, April 4, and until about noon on Tuesday, April 5.

Where: The Carnegie Library Center of Richard Stockton College, corner of Pacific Ave. and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Details to follow.