Don’t code? You’ve got plenty to offer at #GovHack.

Helen Ensikat recently described GovHack as “a weekend for people with ideas” and I couldn’t agree more. When I first heard about the event – an opportunity to get creative with government data – I was excited. But what could I offer? As a marketing manager I had worked with digital creative agencies, but never directly with developers.  As a History PhD student I had experimented with digital humanities tools, but I had never built one myself.  In fact, the closest I had got to code was embedding YouTube videos in my blog.  Was there a place for me at GovHack?

Absolutely! If you get excited about sharing knowledge, technology and creativity - and are not afraid to be pushed out of your comfort zone - you’ll have a lot to offer at GovHack.  If you’re a practitioner or a researcher working in a museum, library or university you’re likely to have valuable insights into real life issues and research problems. Janice Chan (@icecjan) has written a fantastic blog post about why librarians should attend GovHack and her insights resonated strongly with me. Non-programmers can shine in roles such as concept development, research, project management, copywriting, user testing, video production, design, and writing submission documentation.

Convinced to sign up for the 2014 event? Here’s how I prepared.

1. Explore the Govpond
GovPond is an index of Federal and Western Australian data compiled by Helen Ensikat (@HelenEnsikat) and Keith Moss (@kevin_rudds_cat). It is an extraordinary resource! I spent several hours exploring data sets, noting down what information was available and thinking about ways to combine this information to create meaning. If you begin to feel overwhelmed, don't panic! Take a break and then try to narrow your search to a specific topic or research problem.

2. Develop some concepts
A week before Govhack I spent a sunny Sunday afternoon brainstorming ideas and sketching out concepts visually.  I tried to ground ideas in research problems and insights into specific public audiences.

3. Use social networks to reach out for collaborators
I had never been to a hackathon before and I had no idea what to expect. The organisers of the Perth event held drinks on the Friday night prior to GovHack where I was able to meet some of the organisers, attendees and ask some questions. I also used social networks to share my ideas and find potential collaborators, posting ideas on our Facebook Page and tweeting to #GovHackPerth.

4. Research stand-alone tools available to hack government data
You don’t need to code to hack government data. There are literally hundreds of fantastic tools available to help individuals undertake digital humanities research – from text mining and visualisation to dynamic maps. I explored repositories such as Bamboo DiRT and the Stanford University Portal, Tooling Up for Digital Humanities, to get an idea of what was possible. 

5. Then let it all go!
I had done a fair amount of preparation before the event, but when I walked in the door I let it all go.  Sure, it would be nice to work on one of the ideas I had started thinking about, but I was just as open to working on someone else’s project or even working solo.  People pasted their ideas on the walls and we walked around discussing concepts and forming teams.  It was all really informal and friendly and it was amazing how organically people came together. I was lucky to find a group of extremely talented people who just happened to be interested in developing a similar concept as mine.

6. And enjoy the process!
The outcomes from GovHack Perth were breathtaking but for me it was all about the process. It was a huge buzz to watch a bunch of creative, passionate, smart people work together solve problems. I learned an incredible amount in 48 hours and was blown away by the generosity of my fellow hackers. For me, the weekend epitomised the spirit of creativity and collaboration and I was thrilled to be part of it.

And while I’ll never be a professional developer, the event has certainly inspired me to improve my digital literacy.

It’s true.

I’m joining Rails Girls.

And it's all to Team Pixtory. Thanks a million guys!

Dave Adams @solutionsmith - Project manager / Information architect
Andy Hope @AndyyHope - iOS Developer/ Designer
Darcy Laycock @Sutto - Developer
Matt Didcoe @mattman - Developer
Dave Newman @DaveJamesNewman - Information architect


Project update! (Thurs 6 June, 2013) We are thrilled to announce that Pixtory won two national prizes at GovHack 2013, 'Most innovative transport project' and 'Trove Prize' - in addition to the local 'Spirit of GovHack' Award. Incredibly proud of our team.

Why should historians attend #GovHack?

Because it makes you feel like this.



GovHack is a 48 hour national hackathon where teams compete to create mashups, visualisations and apps using government data.

Our team created Pixtory - an iPhone app that allows users to uncover the hidden history around them. Pixtory collects and exposes geo-tagged historic photos from the State Library of WA's photographic archive. The result is an immersive experience that facilitates meaningful encounters with Perth's history and heritage.

We were incredibly proud to win the 'Spirit of GovHack' Award for the Perth event - a prize awarded to the team that demonstrated what GovHack is all about.

Vote for Pixtory in the GovHack People's Choice Awards!
You can vote up until Wednesday night (5th June 2013). All you need to do is register on the site, then log on, visit our team page and vote using the flames.

What is linked open data and what does it do?

"It's a powerful tool for connecting previously unconnected resources and stories”
Out of the Trenches : A Linked Open Data Project

"We are familiar with traditional narratives. The web – especially the semantic web – offers something else. It is a work in progress, not fully formed, but that only makes it more exciting to explore."
Mosman Library (NSW): Doing our Bit 1914-1918, Local History Project




I've been trawling through historical datasets today in preparation for GovHack next weekend and my mind is reeling with possibilities. Or perhaps it is just reeling! Thinking about history through data is a new experience for me. It's a brand new way to engage with historical sources and I'm excited.

I'm a GovHack newbie so I've been spending my Sunday doing a bit of research to get a better idea of what is possible and came across a marvelous case study of linked/open data (above) via WraggeLabs. It's a huge project of course - far outside the remit of a 48-hour hackathon - but it really highlights the power and potential of data to reveal new insights about the past. If you're interested in the idea of a semantic web, you can check out a summary of a session on linked data and meta-data that Digital Antipodes ran last year, hosted by UWA's own Toby Burrows.

The Out of the Trenches project aims to optimise WW1 digital historic records by allowing computers to understand complex relationships between data.


[This is a cross-posting from the UWA Digital Antipodes blog]

I'm cheating on my blog with two other blogs.

I do love a side project. Maybe it's a hangover from my days working in advertising where I would often work for several clients at the same time. Or perhaps it's simply the product of an overactive imagination (or the inadvertent outcome of a short attention span). Whatever the reason, working several projects at the same time seems to help keep me feeling inspired, engaged and productive. An unfortunate side effect of this intellectual promiscuity has been the neglect of historypunk, a shortcoming I am determined to rectify with a series of new posts. And in the meantime? Here's what I've been doing over the past few months...

The Digital Antipodes

In September 2012, I co-founded the Digital Antipodes, an interdisciplinary Digital Humanities reading group at UWA, with my colleague James Smith. Since this time we've built a small but enthusiastic network of digital humanists and had some fascinating conversations. Professionally, it's been a great way for me to structure learning about digital humanities outside of my PhD thesis (which is not a dedicated DH project). I hope to blog about the process of building this network soon to assist others who may like to launch a similar group.

Exhibit A: The Digital Antipodes.

The History Diaries

I've also been teaching WA History and Heritage alongside Prof. Andrea Gaynor which I have been enjoying immensely. We recently launched an online platform where our students can express their ideas and analysis during the semester. They're working in four publishing teams to contribute to a class blog -  The History Diaries. This curriculum development project is an adaptation of a previous assessment which required individual students to hand in a 'Diary' at the end of the semester containing their reflections on heritage site visits. So many great ideas. We wanted to share them. We're encouraging our students to become critical thinkers and the aim of the project is to 'make thinking visible'. Students are not only required to blog, but to read and comment on each other's work. It's a way to extend thinking and learning outside of the classroom and engage our wider community. And once we're done, the blog will become a permanent archive of class conversations. My pedagogical approach benefited greatly from reading about the experiences of others who have attempted similar projects and I hope to contribute to this conversation soon with a blog post outlining the mechanics of the assessment in more detail.

Exhibit B: Our class blog,  The History Diaries

Of course, my day job is still my PhD thesis. At the beginning of the year I spent six weeks in Canberra conducting archival research at the National Archives of Australia and am currently writing my second chapter.  It's looking to be an action packed year!

Why is military history so popular?

Gallipoli (1981 film)

Storytelling about war is an ancient form of historical writing. Stories of war feature prominently in the oldest recorded histories and earliest known examples of literature in the western world: for example, Homer’s Illiad. These stories tend to celebrate the achievements of military commanders and marginalise the efforts and suffering of soldiers and civilians: a trope that remained dominant for thousands of years.

The development of social history in the 1970s revolutionised the ways in which stories about war were told. In Australia, historians wrote new military histories that illuminated the experiences of ordinary soldiers. Titles such as The Broken Years: Australian Soldiers in the Great War (1974) by Bill Gammage and The Anzacs by Patsy Adam Smith (1978) drew heavily from soldiers’ diaries and letters, injecting the historical genre with new life.  They also provided a foundation from which to create new fictional works. Peter Weir has cited The Broken Years as a key text when writing the 1981 blockbuster film, 'Gallipoli’, hiring Gammage to work on set as a historical consultant.

Over the past twenty years, Australians have developed an insatiable appetite for all things Anzac. Military history is big business. Australians read books about Anzac history, watch documentaries and films, visit museums and overseas battlefields, and attend commemorative events such as the AFL Anzac Day Clash. Few of these projects involve academic historians. Why?

Popular narratives of war are beset with intense human drama and emotion, yet tend to fall into comfortable dichotomies of right and wrong. The heroes and villains of past wars are easily recognisable, offering reassurance in a world comprised of shades of grey. While exposing us to the worst of humanity, perhaps we also feel it celebrates the best? Bookshelves and cinemas are dominated by stories of heroism and sacrifice. Do tales of risk and adventure hold a particular appeal to those who wish to escape the sanitised and structured boundaries of modern life? Paradoxically then, the search for ‘authenticity’ leads consumers into imagined worlds. The terrible dichotomies of war provide us with a satisfying catharsis, allowing us to express anger and grief, yet ultimately entertains us - offering a range of exciting and compelling stories.

Not only have the types of stories we tell about war changed, we have developed new ways to tell them.  Television, documentaries, film, publishing and tourism convey history with vivid realism, employing evocative imagined sights and sounds. Alison Landsburg argues that “the modern marketplace has developed an unprecedented ability to create and disseminate evocative, hyper-real, representations of the past to large numbers of people who did not experience these events for themselves”(1). 

Military history is the best-selling genre of historical writing in Australia, yet remains unpopular with historians, many of whom feel uncomfortable with the kinds of narratives disseminated by consumer culture. Michelle Arrow has recognised that “the sense of emotional connection popular histories aim to evoke – the idea that the viewer can know what those in the past thought and felt – runs counter to most historians’ notions of historical understanding”(2).

Today, most best selling military histories are written by journalists and amateur historians, yet professional scholars have shown signs of re-entering this territory. In 2012, historian Bruce Scates published On Dangerous Ground: A Gallipoli Story, a fictional account of the Gallipoli campaign based on robust historical research. With the Anzac Centenary looming, I hope others follow his lead.

Footnotes:
(1) Alison Landsberg, Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance in the Age of Mass Culture, New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
(2) Michelle Arrow, 'The Making History initiative and Australian popular history', Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice, Vol 15, No. 2, 2011, p.154.

Digital humanities and the future of universities

Are we really going to let accountants
decide the future of universities?

It's been an eventful few weeks in Australian higher education. The Conversation launched a series of articles exploring the future of higher education, culminating in a symposium on Tuesday 22 October in collaboration with the Office for Learning and Teaching.

The same day, the federal government announced a midyear budget that included cuts of around $1 billion dollars to the university sector.

On Wednesday 23 October, an apocalyptic Ernst & Young report investigating the University of the Future decreed that "over the next 10-15 years, the current public university model in Australia will prove unviable in all but a few cases".

The report was immediately critiqued by academics and policy makers, many of whom argued the conclusions were not based on robust evidence - noting the lack of depth and omission of several previous studies - and questioned the motivations, bias and vested interests of a large accounting firm. Australian senator and higher education spokesperson, Lee Rhiannon, slated the report as a "gloom and doom picture designed to grease the way for the private sector to profit from universities" insisting that the "the challenges facing public university education in Australia can be best met by increased government funding to restore decade long cuts".

There is no doubt that Australian higher education is in dire need of new business models. A real commitment to change and innovation is required to meet the challenges facing the  sector.  But are we really prepared to let a large accountancy firm dictate this future?

The new digital economy requires new ways of thinking and the creation of new spaces within universities to facilitate this at all levels. In the midst of this I came across a new article in DH quarterly that outlined the small but important contribution that digital humanities departments can play in creating spaces within which to generate debate and discussion from the ground up. 

"Over the last couple of years, it has become increasingly clear that the digital humanities is associated with a visionary and forward-looking sentiment, and that the field has come to constitute a site for far-reaching discussions about the future of the field itself as well as the humanities at large. Based on a rich set of materials closely associated with the formation of the digital humanities, this article explores the visions and expectations associated with the digital humanities and how the digital humanities often becomes a laboratory and means for thinking about the state and future of the humanities. It is argued that this forward-looking sentiment comes both from inside and outside the field, and is arguably an important reason for the attraction and importance of the field."

Patrik Svensson, "Envisioning the Digital Humanities", Digital Humanities Quarterly, vol. 6, No. 1, 2012.

While I would never suggest that digital humanities departments should lead change within the sector, the article eloquently articulated the kind of culture that is being nurtured in these departments -  one that I think needs to develop within all faculties and schools. A culture of openness, innovation and dialogue - rather than fear, silence and nostalgia for a long gone status quo.

"Tell your story": Blogging & social media strategy for academics

There is nothing that gets me more excited than empowering creative thinkers to spread good ideas. The complex global challenges of our time necessitate new ways to harness academic innovation and connect critical thinkers with public audiences - and technology offers new opportunities for digital storytelling. Luckily for me, I happen to work at a university where I am continually surrounded by incredible talent.

I always enjoyed working in advertising and marketing and the decision to pursue a PhD in Australian history was not an easy one. But here I am, 6 months into my PhD, and I am constantly surprised at how my previous career impacts upon my thinking and practice. Indeed, I can hardly call it my previous career at all - such is the way that it informs my approach to scholarship every single day.

This year, I have been thinking a lot about communication strategies to help academics articulate their research to communities that matter and I was thrilled to be able to present some of these ideas to a group of UWA postgraduate students this week. You can view the presentation on slideshare. It was a fantastic experience - we had some thought-provoking conversations and I think I learned just as much as the students did. I'd love your thoughts on the pilot session!

A few additional resources (added on 1 October, 2012):

1. Fantastic video: Noam Chomsky on "concision" (From "Chomsky and the Media", 1992).
2. Ideas have value. They are not 'free'. We spoke a little about the ways in which technology has acted to devalue creative outputs. If you're interested in different perspectives on "freeconomics" check out this Wired Magazine article by Chris Anderson 'Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business'. You can also check out Anderson's book Free: The Future of a Radical Price.
3. UWA does have a social media policy and you can read it here. You can also read UWA's web policy (draft) here.