Digital Media and Sacred Text – Registration Now Open

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Francesca Benatti
Day 252: Reading the Bible from My Phone by Old Shoe Woman. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Day 252: Reading the Bible from My Phone by Old Shoe Woman. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

DIGITAL MEDIA AND SACRED TEXT

Monday 17 June 2013, Open University

Camden Town, London, UK

9am – 6pm

Registration is now open for this one-day conference, organised by Tim Hutchings, Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change, The Open University. The conference will bring together academics interested in the study of digital sacred texts and religious e-reading, including sociologists, anthropologists, media scholars, computer scientists, historians and digital humanists. We also welcome religious practitioners and publishers engaged in creating digital sacred texts.

We are delighted to announce that the keynote speaker will be Professor Heidi Campbell (Texas A&M University).

Attendance at this event will cost £20. Thanks to generous funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, 30 free places are available for the first delegates to register.

A full programme and online registration page can be accessed here: http://www.mediatingreligion.org/events/digital-media-and-sacred-text

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Digital Humanities and the First World War Videos Now Available

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Francesca Benatti
Germans Marching, by The Gronkster from Great War Archive Flickr Group. CC BY-NC 2.0
Germans Marching, by The Gronkster from Great War Archive Flickr Group. CC BY-NC 2.0

Did you miss our seminar on Digital Humanities and the First World War on 24 January 2013?

Follow these links to watch the presentations from speakers Adrian Stevenson (MIMAS) and Jerry Jenkins (British Library).

A recording of Alun Edwards’ presentation is also available to OU staff and students only.

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Join the OU’s multimedia story-making walk in Manchester

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Francesca Benatti
By Heather Scott. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

By Heather Scott. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

The Open University’s fifth workshop on digital story-making skills takes place at Manchester’s Cornerhouse, an international centre for the visual arts and independent film, on Friday 3 May from 11 am to 2 pm.

From pitching ideas in the office to posting holiday snaps to our favourite social places, we use stories in every area of our lives.

This series of workshops hosted by The Open University in a number of cities across the UK, is a chance to sharpen your story-making skills for home, for fun or for professional use.

Participants will be using today’s tools and platforms for documenting and sharing, connecting and curating.

Bring your mobile (smartphone) or tablet and join us on a story-making walk where you will get the chance to make and share a story of your own. The workshop will show you how to:

·         Use a range of story-making tools and apps

·         Take better photos with your mobile device

·         Record and share audio

·         Capture and share video

·         Geotag your location

·         Integrate all the elements into your story

·         Use tags to make your story visible

·         Curate and share your content online

The workshops are led by Christian Payne, aka Documentally, a mobile media maker specialising in social technology and connected platforms. Read more at http://documentally.com/

Assisting will be Jane Matthews, formerly Head of Stakeholder Engagement at the OU.

There is a limited number of places on each workshop, which will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Follow this link for more information about the workshop, and to book a place.

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Seminar: Digital Resources in the Humanities, 25 April 2013

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Francesca Benatti

The Digital Humanities Thematic Research Network at The Open University is pleased to announce the following event in its Digital Humanities in Practice seminar series:

Digital Collections in the Humanities

Date: 25 April 2013

Time: 11.00am-1.00pm

Venue: Arts Music Studio, Perry D, Milton Keynes, The Open University

Speaker: Prof. Lorna Hughes, National Library of Wales and University of Wales

Digitisation initiatives in libraries, archives, museums and educational institutions have created a ‘deluge’ of data in the humanities that has transformed the information landscape and the way it is navigated for research and teaching. The use of digital collections for scholarship – using ICT based tools and methods – has been the basis of transformative and innovative research across the disciplines, allowing enhanced access to materials, and supporting new modes of collaboration and communication.

This presentation will discuss the research programme in digital collections at the National Library of Wales. This is developing an evidence base for the use, value and impact of the digital collections of Wales, and investigating the relationship between impact and the long terms sustainability of digital collections.

A sandwich lunch will be provided. To book a place, please email Heather Scott heather.scott@open.ac.uk by 22 April 2013.

For more information on Digital Humanities at The Open University, please go to the Digital Humanities website http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/digital-humanities/

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Read Mia Ridge’s presentation for Women’s History in the Digital World Conference

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Francesca Benatti
Women’s History in the Digital World conference logo

Women’s History in the Digital World conference logo

Mia Ridge, PhD researcher in Digital Humanities with the Department of History, The Open University, has published on her blog the presentation she gave at the inaugural Women’s History in the Digital World conference, held on 22-23 March at Bryn Mawr College.

Entitled “New challenges in digital history: sharing women’s history on Wikipedia”, Mia’s talk examined the opportunities and challenges of using Wikipedia as a public history platform for women’s history, focusing on both its visibility to the greater public and its perceived lack of relevance in academic circles. Mia also highlighted outstanding issues with Wikipedia’s requirements for “notability” and “reliable sources” that can especially affect articles on women’s history.

Despite the resistance against writing for Wikipedia among academics, and against women’s history among Wikipedia editors, Mia concludes that

it’s also clearly up to us to make a difference. If it’s worth researching the life and achievements of a notable woman, it’s worth making sure their contribution to history is available to the world while improving the quality of the world’s biggest encyclopaedia.

Read Mia’s full presentation notes on her blog Open Objects.

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