Among the various sessions and formats for this year’s conference, we have set aside time for small cluster meetings of about eight participants at three specific breakpoints in the agenda. These pre-assigned clusters will come together to discuss key themes, share ideas and information, and channel inputs back into the larger group.

For information related to the Cluster Meetings, please refer to this page.

We will be using some digital maps to visualize your inputs; a prototype ideas heat map based on your pre-conference ideas has been created and is posted here.

Please note that all participants will be assigned to a specific Cluster Group (A-Q); please find your name and letter here. See Cluster Guidance and Instructions for an overview of the meetings and associated assignments. We’ll share more information about cluster groups during tomorrow’s opening exercises.

Berkman Center fellow Dennis Tenen invites Hewlett OER Grantee Meeting attendees and hack day participants to his class on Thursday evening. Participants will get together at the Studio/Lab Hour for Prof. Tenen’s course Lit 110: Introduction to Experimental Criticism + RS 219: Digital Humanities 2.0 Seminar. Participants can join the students’ informal creative design, hang out in smaller groups to brainstorm for the day ahead, and even begin to form Hack Day teams. The focus on brainstorming the Hack Day will be on the problem spaces identified in the conference and the hackable problems they present.

What:
Studio / Lab Hour
Lit 110: Introduction to Experimental Criticism +
RS 219: Digital Humanities 2.0 Seminar

Where: Arts @ 29 Garden Street (Chauncy St. entrance, directions)
When: 6-8pm, Thursday 4/5

What can literary analysis tell us about emerging textual practices: cooperation and co-authorship on Wikipedia, the usage of Twitter during protest movements, self-fashioning on Facebook, review culture on Amazon.com, and fundamentally, about the deluge of information that accompanies the advent of the information age? In this course, taught in conjunction with a graduate seminar sponsored by Harvard’s metaLab, we will learn to think big about digital archives, information architectures, live data, and large-scale textual corpora.

More info here.

In theory, Open Educational Resources and wikis go hand in hand. In our ranks, we have some of the most dedicated and accomplished users and advocates the collaborative online tools. So why is it that the OER article on Wikipedia carries the site’s second-lowest quality rating? It’s not just one article — the Open Access article shows room for improvement; the Open Educational Practices article doesn’t exist; and numerous related articles could be improved as well.

With all the wiki enthusiasts in our midst, this is a problem we are well equipped to correct. We can learn more about wiki collaboration, lift the tide of the OER movement, and improve the public’s understanding of our individual projects — all at the same time. A series of workshops (some colocated at conferences, but mostly online) in the coming year will provide a platform to do just that.

During the grantees meeting, we will introduce the Open Education Collaborative Documentation Project. This effort, led by Pete Forsyth of Wiki Strategies and Dr. Bob Cummings of the University of Mississippi, is currently in a planning phase funded by the Hewlett Foundation, and is proposed to take place during summer 2012 to summer 2013.

http://wikieducator.org/OE-Doc

There will be three opportunities to explore the potential of this project during the Grantees meeting:

* An exhibition during the Wednesday afternoon/Thursday morning poster session, where Pete and Bob (cummings@olemiss.edu) will be available for discussion

* A mini-workshop during the Hack Day, where we can work on Wikipedia content together and explore possibilities. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/hewlettgranteesmtg2012/Wikipedia_editing_event

* Pete will be conducting interviews with people from various OER projects: please contact him if you would like to schedule one prior to the meeting, or during a break, or in the evenings, or by phone after the meeting’s conclusion. Link: http://wikistrategies.net/contact

We very much look forward to seeing you on April 10-12 for the 2012 Hewlett OER Grantees Meeting. This email contains important details regarding logistics and the agenda. Please read it carefully and let us know if you have any questions.

[1] Locations & Maps: On Tuesday, April 10th, registration and check in will begin at 3PM in the Milstein East Room, on the 2nd floor of Wasserstein Hall (1563 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA) on the campus of Harvard Law School. A map can be found here: http://bit.ly/GUGIDH.  Directions from the local hotels, Harvard Square, or the airport to Harvard Law School can be found here: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/hewlettgranteesmtg2012/Travel_Related

[2] Agenda: The final agenda for the conference has been posted to the website: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/oer2012/agenda/. We are planning for each session to engage in focused conversation, with an eye towards deepening our dialogue and fostering insightful conversation. We are committed to genuine interactivity throughout the event; all attendees bring important (and diverse) knowledge, expertise and experience to the key topic areas, and we hope to encourage active engagement from all participants.

[3] Participants: We encourage you to continue to post bio and contact information to the wiki page: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/hewlettgranteesmtg2012/Main_Page#ATTENDEES. The affiliations listed on this page will be printed on your name badges, so please edit this page or email us edits by Thursday, April 5th.

[4] Poster/Exhibition Sessions: Please let us know if you would like to demo a project or reserve a space to discuss and present your work. We are hoping to create an informal “bazaar-like” exhibition space on the afternoon of April 11th and the morning of April 12th, which will enable various grantees and other participants to showcase their work and engage with others during the breaks.  You may bring a laptop or a small poster to set up, and we will have tables near the break area. If you would like to set up a demonstration, please let us know by Thursday, April 5th at the latest.  We ask that poster session participants set up materials during the lunch break.

[5] Hack Day: Thank you to those who expressed interest in participating in the Hack Day; we will be in touch under separate cover regarding final details. For those who haven’t yet RSVPd yet, it’s not too late. Please email ashar@cyber.law.harvard.edu by Thursday, April 5th so that we can save you a spot. More information about the Hack Day can be found here: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/oer2012/hack-day/

[6] Recording and In the Moment Technologies. We will be recording meeting sessions and plan to post select discussions online to the event’s website. We encourage you to tweet, blog, and otherwise document the proceedings and share your outputs with ashar@cyber.law.harvard.edu or on the event wiki. The hashtag for the event is #oer12hf.