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THATCamp New England is a loosely run organization, but it does have some business to transact. I’d like to hold a session on Saturday to take care of some business. Ideally the following kinds of people would come:

• previous organizers of THATCamp New England
• anyone who is interested in organizing a future THATCamp New England
• and anyone who just wants to be in the loop

The main business to transact is to find the institution (or institutions) who want to hold THATCamp New England next fall or spring. There is no need for a firm commitment at this point, but if you’re interested, then you’ll want to get in line tomorrow.

The other business is to thinking about sustaining THATCamp NE from year to year. There are two things to keep in mind. First, the Mellon grant to CHNM that funds the central organization of THATCamp (i.e., Amanda French’s amazing efforts as chief THATCampista, and thatcamp.org) will be finished soon, and the central organization of what will follow is still being organized. This shouldn’t affect THATCamp NE too much, since we haven’t received Mellon money for a couple years, but we do need to make plans for continuity on our part and on how we can contribute back to the international organization. Second, our multiyear grant from NERCOMP which has provided the lion’s share of our funding for the past three years will run out after next year, and we need to make plans to continue sustainable funding. It would be great if people with connections at their institutions could help make plans for raising funds (we don’t require much).

I hope we can wrap up this business very quickly (let’s say no more than half an hour) and move on to other sessions.

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Greetings, campers! I’m Roger Travis of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages at UConn, and I’ll be running Dork Shorts at the plenary session Saturday morning.

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You’ve probably found the information below on our website or on your own. Still, we send this just in case it helps one person.

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In contrast to its rural setting, UConn is a busy place, with over 20,000 students, faculty and staff on campus on a normal day. Be aware that traffic on Route 195 can be very heavy, especially coming from I-84 to the north, and plan accordingly.

On Friday morning, please come directly to the Dodd Center to pick up your registration materials. Directions are below.

Remember that the parking garage takes CASH ONLY. No credit or debit cards!

Route 195 to the South Parking Garage

There are two ways to get from Route 195 to the parking garage. Google Maps has mapped the campus, so you can eyeball these on the map.

#1: Mansfield Road
Coming from either the north or the south on Route 195, enter the campus via Mansfield Road. There is a stoplight at this intersection and a left turn lane.
From the north, turn right; Mirror Lake will be on your right.
From the south, turn left; the Fine Arts Center will be on your left.
Mansfield Road curves to the right.
At the stop sign, turn left onto Gilbert Road.
At the stop sign at Hillside Road, cross Hillside and follow the road up the hill.
At the top of the hill, turn right and drive through Lot 8.
The parking garage entrance is in the far corner of Lot 8, to your left. Watch out for crossing traffic from the right.
You are entering the parking garage on Level 5.

#2: Route 275
Coming from the south on Route 195, turn left onto Route 275. There is a stoplight at this intersection and a left turn lane.
Route 275 passes the Mansfield Community Center.
Turn right onto Eastwood Road.
At the stop sign, turn right onto Hillside Circle.
At the stop sign at the T intersection, turn left onto Hillside Road.
At the stop sign at Gilbert Road, turn left and follow the road up the hill.
At the top of the hill, turn right and drive through Lot 8.
The parking garage entrance is in the far corner of Lot 8, to your left. Watch out for crossing traffic from the right.
You are entering the parking garage on Level 5.

Walking from the South Parking Garage to the Dodd Center

• In the parking garage, take the elevator or stairs down to Level 1 and turn right out of the garage. (The huge building slightly to the left in the distance is the library!)
• Cross Hillside Road and continue toward the Graduate Center, which has a large gold banner. On Google Maps, this building is labeled “Office for Sponsored Programs.”
• Walk around the Graduate Center to the right.
• The Dodd Center is past the parking lot to your right. Walk past the wavy wall and turn right to get to the building entrance.
• If you arrive after later, Babbidge Library is the huge building across the plaza from the Dodd Center.

Getting from the South Parking Garage back to Hillside Road

You will have to exit the parking garage on Level 1.
Upon exit, turn right out of the garage.
Turn right at the stop sign onto Stadium Road.
Turn right at the stop sign onto Hillside Road.
Now you can either turn onto Gilbert Road or drive past Gilbert to Hillside Circle to get back to Route 195.

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Hi Campers,

While you’re here at UConn, you might be interested in heading out for an evening on the town!

On October 18, 2013 at 8 pm, UConn is sponsoring an event to celebrate diversity and the cultural arts of Africa with music and dance. This event is FREE and open to the general public. It will be held at the J. Louis Von Der Mehden Recital Hall over at our Music and Drama building. Don’t know where that is? Befriend some friendly UConn campers and go with them! And you can also check out our Campus Map

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Are you up for a challenge? Heard of the Maker Challenge? At THATCamp CHNM (Prime) this summer, there was the hugely popular Maker Challenge. All campers were invited to make something over the course of two days, with prizes awarded for the best three entries. Guess what? THATCamp New England 2013 @ UConn has decided to sponsor a Maker Challenge.

What’s Involved?

• You (or a group) will make something (a plugin, an app, a document, a website, a Twitterbot, an ebook, an Omeka.net archive, a Zotero bibliography, a Wikipedia page, even a project plan or a PowerPoint presentation or what you will).
• You (or a group) will post a link to and description of your project in a blog post on this site and categorize it under “Maker Challenge” (the category exists already).
• You (or a group) will show what you’ve done in 3 minutes or less than 5 minutes or more on Saturday October 19th at the last session (details will be coming soon). If you have already left, this session’s moderator will present it for you.
• Anyone with a THATCamp account can vote for your project by logging in at newengland2013.thatcamp.org, then navigating to the blog post for your project and clicking “Favorite”.

More details coming soon…

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Things are starting to really move here at UConn for THATCamp New England. The schedule so far is looking great! You can see all the developments here on our website. You’ll notice that we already have our keynote speaker, Dan Cohen, the Founding Executive Director of the Digital Public Library of America, and a number of amazing workshops.

But of course, THATCamp is your camp. We need you to propose sessions! It’s easy to do. First you need to register after which you’ll receive your username and password for our website. With that, log into our THATCampNE website (newengland2013.thatcamp.org). Then create a new “POST” with the category of “session-proposal”. Be daring and add one of these sub-categories: “session-make”, “session-play”, “session-teach”, “session-talk”. Don’t worry if you’re new to WordPress. Check out “Writing Posts” (codex.wordpress.org/Writing_Posts) or our Propose (newengland2013.thatcamp.org/propose/) page.

We have reserved rooms at the Nathan Hall Inn and Conference Center with a THATCamp group rate of $144, which includes free parking. The cutoff date for the group rate is September 17, 2013. Nathan Hall is about a 5 minute walk from Homer Babbidge Library. There are also other options including bed and breakfasts in the area. Take a look at our Lodging page (newengland2013.thatcamp.org/travel/lodging/).

If you’re not far from UConn, we have directions including maps of campus on our website (newengland2013.thatcamp.org/travel/directions/). On Friday, the closest parking garage is the South Garage, which is located next to the Gampel Sports Complex off of Stadium Road. The South Parking Garage only accepts cash. There is also a parking garage in the new downtown area of Storrs, which is located off of Dog Lane. This Storrs Center Parking Garage is about a 10 minute walk from Homer Babbidge Library. On Saturday, you can park for free on campus!

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Our first post was entitled, “Look What Is In Storrs For You”! And we weren’t kidding. We might be in the semi-rural area of Storrs, CT. But there’s been a lot of change in and around UConn. While you’re at THATCamp, we hope you’ll join us for tours of the Scholar’s Collaborative and the Imagination Station. We also hope you’ll take a moment for a social breat at one of the great new venues in and around UConn.

Yup…. there is a Downtown Storrs! There’s several restaurants like Moe’s or Dog Lane Cafe. You can also find frozen yoghurt and sweets. There’s a new building just being finished, which I hear will also have an Asian fusian restaurant among other things.