Next Monday and Tuesday (Aug 22–23) the Documenting the Now project team will be having its first face-to-face meeting in St Louis. Generous funding from the Mellon Foundation has allowed us to fly in our advisory board and also live stream the discussions so that you can tune in and participate remotely. If you are interested in social media archiving, research and activism please we hope that you can join us. It would also be awesome if you’ve got a spare room in your school or place of work with a screen to watch portions with some friends and colleagues. More on that below.
As you can see from the schedule we’ve got panels planned on topics such as:
- social media and African American history and culture
- the ethics of social media archiving
- theorizing social media research
- social media as community documentation
- approaches & techniques for web archiving
Not to diminish any of these topics but there’s one session you don’t want to miss. Jonathan Fenderson, who is an Assistant Professor of African American Studies at Washington University in St Louis, will be leading a discussion with four activists that actively used social media on the ground during the Ferguson protests:
- Reuben Riggs @ReubLou
- Kayla Reed @RE_invent_ED
- Alexis Templeton @baldassalexis
- Rasheen Aldridge @SheenBean32
As we’ve written about here before, a large part of our work in the Documenting the Now project is not technical in nature but social. Archives of social media are ultimately about people, so its important for the folks who are using the tools of social media in their activism work to be at the table with us as we try to build collections and tools that are ultimately for them.
If you can only join us for an hour definitely try to make Dr Fenderson’s panel from 9:45 to 10:45 AM (CDT). But please join us for more if you can. Send us your comments during the event using #docnowcommunity hashtag.
If you do plan on organizing a watch party please let us know with a comment on this post, or via Twitter at @documentnow so we can help spread the word!
Watch Parties
University of Wisconsin: Place: Bunge Room, 4207 Helen C. White Hall. Contact: Dorothea Salo, [email protected]. All welcome, space permitting; attendees may come and go as they please.
University of Arizona. Place: Room 314, Main Library. Contact: Niamh Wallace [email protected] or Erin O’Meara [email protected].
University of Virginia. Place: Robertson Media Center VisWall, Clemons Library. Contact: Steven Villereal [email protected] or Lauren Work [email protected].
Indiana University Bloomington. Place: Wells Library 157J. Contact: Heidi Dowding [email protected].
College of Charleston. Place: Avery Research Center. Contact Mary Jo Fairchild [email protected].