[archived announcement]

Data Sprint: The New Logistics of Short-form Method

Digital Methods Winter School 2013 and Mini-Conference

22-25 January 2013

Digital Methods Initiative
New Media & Digital Culture
University of Amsterdam
Turfdraagsterpad 9
1012 XT Amsterdam
the Netherlands

The Digital Methods Initiative (DMI), Amsterdam, is pleased to announce its 5th annual Winter School, entitled "Data Sprint: The New Logistics of Short-form Method." The Digital Methods Winter School provides the opportunity for PhD candidates, advanced MA students and motivated scholars to present a short paper on digital methods and new media related topics, and receive feedback from the Amsterdam group of DMI researchers and international participants, often drawn from previous Digital Methods Summer and Winter Schools. This year's Winter School is four days, with one day devoted to the Mini-conference, where the papers are presented and participants also serve as respondents, and three days to the workshop. The theme of the workshop is "alternatives to big data," and includes a data sprint. This year's edition will feature, among other interventions, guest lectures from Adam Hyde on book sprints and David Berry on the aesthetics of the sprint and the new media outputs that typically result. Participants do not have to present a paper to take part in the workshop.

Digital Methods Winter School Workshop

The 2013 Digital Methods Winter School is devoted to emerging alternatives to big data. The Barcamp, Hackathon, Hack Day, Edit-a-thon, Data Sprint, Code Fest, Open Data Day, Hack the Government, and other workshop formats are sometimes thought of as "quick and dirty." The work is exploratory, only the first step, outputting indicators at most, before the serious research begins. However, these new formats also may be viewed as alternative infrastructures as well as approaches to big data in the sense of not only the equipment and logistics involved (hit and run) but also the research set-up and protocols, which may be referred to as "short-form method." The 2013 Digital Methods Winter School is dedicated to the outcomes and critiques of short-form method, and is also reflexive in that it includes a data sprint, where we focus on one aspect of the debate about short- vs. long-form method: data capture. To begin, at the Winter School the results of a data sprint from a week earlier (on counter-Jihadists) will be presented, including a specific short-form method for issue mapping. One outcome of the Winter School would be a comparison of short-from methods for their capacity to fit the various workshop formats (barcamp, sprint, etc.), with the question of what may be achieved in shorter (and shorter) time frames. We also will explore a variety of objects of study for sprints, including data donations, where one offers particular data sets for abbreviated analysis.

Digital Methods Winter School Mini-Conference

The data sprint is the Winter School workshop. There is also the annual Digital Methods Winter School Mini-Conference. The mini-conference provides the opportunity for digital methods and allied researchers to present short yet complete papers (5,000-7,500 words) and serve as respondents, providing feedback. Often the work presented follows from previous Digital Methods Summer Schools. The mini-conference accepts papers in the general digital methods and allied areas: the hyperlink and other natively digital objects, the website as archived object, web historiographies, search engine critique, Google as globalizing machine, cross-spherical analysis and other approaches to comparative media studies, device cultures, national web studies, Wikipedia as cultural reference, the technicity of (networked) content, post-demographics, platform studies, crawling and scraping, graphing and clouding, and similar.

Project Pages

Winter13ThirtyThousandCivilServants

Winter13OnePercentOfTwitter

Winter13Hashtagtics

Winter13AmazonRecommendations

Winter13SearchingTheArchive

Practical Information

Winter School Schedule

22 January 9.30-17.00 Mini-conference, per paper: 5-minute paper presentations, two 5-minute responses, 5-minute author response, 5-minute Q&A. Location: Oudemanhuispoort 4-6, Rooms A0.08 and C0.23

23 January 9.30-17.00 Workshop, morning sessions with results of the data sprint on the counter-jihadism and Adam Hyde about the format and methods of the Book Sprint. Location of morning sessions (9.30-12.30): University Theatre, Nieuwe Doelenstraat 16, 1012 CP Amsterdam, Room 3.01. Afternoon sessions (13.30-17.00) at Media Studies, Turfdraagsterpad 9, rooms 0.13 and 0.12.

24 January 9.30-17.00 Workshop, morning sessions with David Berry, who will further elaborate on the format and aesthetics of the Book Sprint, and Hans Henseler, who will focus on the methods of digital forensics. Location of morning sessions (9.30-12.30): Oudemanhuispoort 4­‐6, Room C 3.17. Afternoon sessions (13.30-17.00) at Media Studies, Turfdraagsterpad 9, rooms 0.13 and 0.12.

25 January 9.30-17.00 Workshop, with afternoon presentations. Location: Media Studies, Turfdraagsterpad 9, rooms 0.13 and 0.04.

Follow the link for a detailed schedule:

https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/pub/Dmi/WinterSchool2013/WinterSchool2013Schedule-3-1.pdf

Maps

How to get to/from Schiphol Airport, a guide. We recommend taking the train.

How to get to the University of Amsterdam, Media Studies, Turfdraagsterpad 9, 1012 XT, Amsterdam. Take tram 4, 9, 14, 16, 24, 25 and get of at Spui/Rokin then walk to Oude Turfmarkt, enter the passage and it's the first building on your left.

Map for the different locations:

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=201538250879417252106.0004d3ca4fa069bc97a69&msa=0&ll=52.368531,4.895498&spn=0.002447,0.006282

A) Media Studies. Turfdraagsterpad 9, 1012 XT, Amsterdam. Rooms: 0.13 and 0.04

B) Universiteitstheater/University Theatre, Nieuwe Doelenstraat 16, 1012 CP, Amsterdam. Room 3.01

C) Oudemanhuispoort 4-6, 1012 CN Amsterdam

Also, Google Maps with all locations of the University of Amsterdam.

Sharing content

We will have an open Skype channel for all participants . Add Natalia or Simeona to your Skype contacts and you will be added to the channel.

Twitter: #dmiwinter13

Fees & Logistics

The fee for the Digital Methods Winter School 2013 is EUR 195. Bank transfer information will be sent along with the notification on 21 December 2012. The Winter School is self-catered. The venue is in the center of Amsterdam with abundant coffee houses and lunch places. The Winter School closes with a festive event, after the final presentations. Participants are expected to find their own housing (airbnb and other short-stay sites are helpful). The DMI organisers are happy to provide tips. Here is a guide to the Amsterdam new media scene.

About DMI

The Digital Methods Winter School is part of the Digital Methods Initiative, Amsterdam, dedicated to reworking method for Internet-related research. The Digital Methods Initiative holds the annual Digital Methods Summer Schools (six to date), which are intensive and full time 2-week undertakings in the Summertime. The 2013 Summer School will take place 24 June - 5 July 2013. The coordinators of the Digital Methods Initiative are Sabine Niederer and Esther Weltevrede (PhD candidates in New Media & Digital Culture, University of Amsterdam), and the director is Richard Rogers, Professor of New Media & Digital Culture, University of Amsterdam. Digital methods are online at http://www.digitalmethods.net/. The DMI about page includes a substantive introduction, and also a list of Digital Methods people, with bios. DMI holds occasional Autumn and Spring workshops, such as the recent Mapping Populism in Europe.

Interfaces for the Cloud: The 2012 Digital Methods Winter School Revisited

The 2012 Digital Methods Winter School, dedicated to "Interfaces for the Cloud: Curating the Data," had among its speakers Daniel van der Velden of Metahaven, the critical design research group. The lecture Daniel gave is now published.

"Captives of the Cloud" parts I & II are now out on e-flux:

http://www.e-flux.com/journal/captives-of-the-cloud-part-i/
http://www.e-flux.com/journal/captives-of-the-cloud-part-ii/