THATcampDC

This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending THATcampDC at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The weather was beautiful, the cherry blossoms were blooming, the conversations were stimulating, and I am so grateful I had the ability to meet so many interesting people who also were passionate about DH!

After meeting up in the morning and deciding on a schedule of sessions for the day, based on what people were interested in discussing, the ~75 attendees went off to pursue our respective fields of interest. Excluding an hour set aside for "Dork Shorts," in which attendees were given 2.5 minutes to talk about their current passion projects, the day was broken into 4 hour-long sessions. Based on my interests, I attended sessions on using Wordpress.com in academic settings, DH training and support for librarians, as well as a much-needed session on DH tool sharing.

What impressed me more than anything about this day was how people were open to discussion and willing to share their knowledge. As a total newcomer to DH, I walked in knowing the bare minimum but wanting, desperately, to learn. In the morning idea generation session, I expressed the desire to learn about distance reading in particular and, although a session wasn't formed, two kind individuals offered to help me out and I was able to make valuable connections.

I left GWU with a list of tools to check out, as well as the email addresses of a few people who seem absolutely wonderful. It was a fantastic experience, and I would be excited to attend another THATcamp in the future!