We are planning to hold several workshops at THATCamp AHA. Rather than discussions or working sessions, these will be training sessions on the traditional model, with a wise instructor at the front of the room introducing attendees to a practical skill. We recommend that you bring a laptop (not an iPad or other tablet) if you plan to participate in the workshops, since workshops may require notetaking or working with non-mobile software and tools.

Introduction to Blogging

Instructor: Dan Cohen
Prerequisites: None
In this workshop, Professor Dan Cohen of George Mason University, the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, and dancohen.org will explain why historians should blog and will go over the difference between a hosted blog and one you build yourself, introducing participants to such platforms as WordPress.

Introduction to HTML and CSS

Instructor: Miriam Posner
Prerequisites: None
Ever wondered how a website goes from an idea to the Internet? In this workshop, designed for absolute beginners, we’ll explain what HTML and CSS are and show you how you can get started making your own website.

So, You Want to Teach a Digital History Class?

Instructor: Jeffrey McClurken
Prerequisites: None
This workshop will be aimed at working through the practical and pedagogical choices about creating a digital history course. We will explore sample syllabi, discuss potential projects, survey various tools, and identify obvious and not-so-obvious pitfalls to constructing a class that engages students in the scholarship and practice related to digital history.  Google Doc for this session with rough agenda and related links can be found here.

Beyond Wildcards: Fundamentals of Regular Expressions

Instructor: Ben Brumfield
Prerequisites: A computer capable of running Flash is required for running through some of the examples
Regular Expressions are a basic part of most textual technologies, and are built into most editors, programming languages, and frameworks. Though cryptic, they’re a powerful tool for anyone who needs to perform complex searches on text or clean and manipulate textual data. This workshop will explain the fundamental concepts behind regular expressions and provide hands-on examples of how to use them.

Grantwriting strategies for the Digital Humanities

Instructors: Jennifer Serventi and Joshua Sternfeld
Prerequisites: None
You need external funding for your digital humanities project. Where do you begin? How does one construct a digital humanities proposal? What sort of team is required? Can you start with a small pilot project? And then what? Staff from the National Endowment for the Humanities will be available to address these and other questions about crafting grant proposals for digital humanities projects. Josh Sternfeld from the Division of Preservation and Access and Jennifer Serventi for the Office of Digital Humanities will introduce participants to the range of grant opportunities–from fellowships to digitization projects to large-scale implementation efforts–offered by the Endowment. They will then lead a “close reading” of two grant program guidelines the Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants (ODH) and the Humanities Collections and Reference Resources Program (Preservation and Access)–to help the participants understand the differences between the programs. Participants should finish the session with a greater understanding of the wide range of digital humanities funding opportunities by the National Endowment for the Humanities (as well as other funders) and a sense of where particular project ideas might fit most appropriately.