HASTAC

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

available from http://www.hastac.org

HASTAC (pronounced “haystack”) is an acronym for Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory. It is an entirely voluntary consortium of leading researchers and nonprofit research institutions worldwide. Its primary members are universities, supercomputing centers, grid and teragrid associations, humanities institutes, museums, libraries, and other civic institutions. HASTAC members have been co-developing software, hardware, and cyberinfrastructure systems since early 2003. Members have developed tools for multimedia archiving and social interaction, gaming environments for teaching, innovative educational programs in information science and information studies, virtual museums, and other digital projects. HASTAC’s mission is to promote expansive models for thinking, teaching, and research. To become a part of the HASTAC network, one only needs to register as a user on the HASTAC website (http://www.hastac.org), which provides the ability to create a blog, post to forums, and submit various works.

Contents

[edit] Founding and Steering Committee

HASTAC was founded by Cathy N. Davidson, former Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies and co-founder of the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, and David Theo Goldberg, Director of the University of California's state-wide Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI). At a meeting of humanities leaders held by the Mellon Foundation in 2002, it was clear that Davidson and Goldberg had been working on a variety of projects with leading scientists and engineers dedicated to expanding the innovative uses of technology and to thinking together about social, ethical, and access issues of cyberinfrastructure in parallel with the process of creating it. Each of them also knew of leaders at other institutions who shared that vision and, within a few months, the HASTAC consortium was born.

The leadership group of HASTAC also includes Ruzena Bajcsy of the University of California, Berkeley; Anne Balsamo, Tara McPherson, and Douglas Thomas of the University of Southern California; Allison Clark of University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Kevin Franklin of UCHRI; Daniel Herwitz of University of Michigan; Julie Klein of Wayne State University; Henry Lowood of Stanford University; Thomas MacCalla of National University; Stephenie McLean of RENCI; and Kathleen Woodward of the University of Washington. Communications among all HASTAC member institutions are coordinated by HASTAC Project Manager Jonathan E. Tarr, based at Duke University. Mark Olson, Director of New Media at the Franklin Center at Duke, spearheads technology vision and infrastructure for HASTAC, and Brett Walters of the Franklin Center is the HASTAC webmaster. Dozens of other scholars, administrators, and technology designers support HASTAC projects at the individual institutions. HASTAC leaders have served as consultants to U.S. and international organizations and governments on grid computing and cyberinfrastructure.

[edit] Events

Members have been meeting twice a year, writing grants together, holding forums, and developing new research initiatives, both at their individual institutions and across them. These individual projects led up to a national InFormation Year of programming running from June 2006 to May 2007. All of the events were webcast, and archived version are available free on the HASTAC website for nonprofit educational purposes. In its short existence, HASTAC has received funding from Digital Promise, the National Science Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

[edit] HASTAC II conference

The second annual HASTAC conference, entitled "Techno Travels," was held on May 22-24, 2008, on the campuses of University of California, Irvine and University of California, Los Angeles. The keynote speakers were writer Howard Rheingold and Curtis Wong of Microsoft Next Media Research. A full agenda and registration information is available on the UC Humanities Research Institute's website.

[edit] Digital Media and Learning Competition

Supported by MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning initiative, which aims to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life, HASTAC is administering the Digital Media and Learning Competition. This open Competition is intended to mobilize emerging leaders, communicators, and innovators in these fields. 17 awardees received grants totaling $2 million in the competition's first year, in addition to an extensive support network and the opportunity to showcase their projects at a conference[1]. The next application cycle of the DML Competition will launch in Fall 2008.

Awards are divided into two categories: Innovation and Knowledge-Networking. The Innovation Award (with grants of $100,000 or $250,000 to each award-winner) is designed to support learning pioneers, entrepreneurs, and builders of new digital learning environments for formal and informal learning. The Knowledge-Networking Award (with grants ranging from $30,000 to $75,000 to each awardee) is designed to support communicators in connecting, mobilizing, circulating or translating research around digital media and learning.

The competition closed on October 15, 2007. Over 1000[2] applications were received and the 17 award winners were announced on February 21, 2008.

[edit] In|FORMATION Year

The featured event of the 2006-07 InFormation Year was HASTAC's first international conference, entitled "Electronic Techtonics: Thinking at the Interface." The conference took place April 19-21, 2007 at Duke University and in downtown Durham, North Carolina. The keynote speakers consisted of Former Xerox PARC Director John Seely Brown, Duke Law Professor James Boyle, and artist and UCLA Professor of Design/Media Art Rebecca Allen.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Digital Media and Learning Competition news[1]
  2. ^ Davidson, Cathy and Goldberg, David. "Competition Closes with Over 1000 Entries." John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Spotlight blog, 18 Oct. 2007. [2]

[edit] External links