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In this edition of the podcast Tom, Amanda, Dan, and Mills considered whether recent news stories about spammers gaming the Google search engine algorithm herald the end of big search as we know it. Is it really the case that Google engineers are being out-coded by their counterparts at “content farms” and other spam generating locations? And if they are, what does that mean for educators, students, and cultural institutions like museums, libraries, and archives? We also looked at Q&A site Quora (we weren’t bowled over) and Google Art Project (everyone but Tom was bowled over).

Running time: 37:09
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It’s January, and that means air travel, interviews, ball rooms, and exhibit halls. This year Digital Campus recognizes conference season with an extended discussion of digital humanities at the annual meetings of the American Historical Association (AHA) and the Modern Language Association (MLA). We also take time to discuss the latest tech news coming out of Las Vegas and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

Links to stories covered in the podcast:

Dan Cohen, Digital History at AHA 2011
Mark Sample, Digtital Humanities at MLA 2011
Pannapacker at MLA: Digital Humanities Triumphant?
Steve Ramsay, On Building
Android at CES: strong growth as platform jumps to new devices
iPad 2 Rumor Roundup
6 Top Smartphone Apps to Improve Teaching
14-year old developer takes top spot in App Store
Lua programming language
Google App Inventor for Android

Running time: 48:04
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In this episode of Digital Campus, Dan, Amanda, and Mills (Tom was unavailable), were joined by Jennifer Howard from The Chronicle of Higher Education to discuss the latest trends in digital media, higher education, and in particular, libraries. We began by reprising a story from so long ago we could hardly remember it–college professors assigning their students to write or edit Wikipedia entries. Then we moved on to much more important topics, like Robert Darnton’s recent proposal to create a “national digital library.” We also discussed a rising trend among librarians–enthusiasm for “patron driven acquisition,” also know as PDA. Please don’t confuse this PDA with prior uses of that acronym! Amanda then chimed in with her take on Amazon’s plan to offer limited lendability for e-books. Regular listeners won’t be surprised by her take on this proposal. And we wrapped with Dan introducing us all to Omeka.net, CHNM’s newest way of making it easy for web users to create and manage archival and museum collections online.

Other links mentioned in the podcast:
Wikipedia’s Public Policy Initiative
National Digital Library proposal in The Chronicle
National Digital Library proposal in Libraryjournal.com
Patron driven acquisition in The Chronicle
Amazon.com’s ebook lending program

Running time: 52:13
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Dan, Tom, Mills, and Amanda return to discuss what’s new for faculty this semester, including some welcome hiring in digital humanities. We discuss the trend of “cluster hiring” at big universities such as the one being advertised at Iowa and parallel developments at smaller colleges like Hamilton and Amherst [.doc]. Other topics include Google Instant and rumors of a Facebook phone. Oh, yeah, and something big was announced by Team Zotero.

Other links mentioned on the podcast:

THATCamp LAC (Liberal Arts Colleges)
Yahoo says we had it first
Zuck gives $100 million to Newark public schools
The Social Network, the movie

Running time: 54:04
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Mills, Tom, and Dan welcome Lisa Spiro back to the podcast to talk about the much ballyhooed launch of Apple’s iPad, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision against “net neutrality,” and—to the sounds of spring’s first robin song twittering through Mills’ open window—the role of the Twitter backchannel at the University of Virginia’s recent Shape of Things to Come conference. Other stories include the National Endowment for the Humanities announcement of 18 Digital Humanities Start-up Grants and Yale’s decision to delay its switch to Gmail.

Links mentioned on the podcast:

David Pogue’s New York Times review of the iPad
In Our Time, “The City”
New NEH Digital Start Up Grants at edwired.org
JISC crowdsourcing projects
Integrating Digital Papyrology Project
Civil War Washington

Running time: 1:06:50
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The Internet is buzzing about Google Buzz and so why should Digital Campus be any different? With Mills as host, we welcome Amanda French from our Corps of Irregulars to help us sort out the challenges to personal privacy posed by Buzz. We also considered whether Facebook rants against a teacher by a student should be considered protected speech and all four of us were more than a little shocked by a story about a school district that used security software in laptops given to students to spy on those same students by turning on the laptop webcams without anyone knowing. In an age when your movements can be tracked via the GPS capabilities of your cellphone, managing privacy is becoming more and more of an issue for universities and students. We also dipped our toes back into the eBook reader waters long enough to wonder whether or not the iPad and its inevitable imitators meant a new day for academic libraries.

Links:

Google’s response to public outcry about Buzz
Are Facebook rants protected speech?
Schools spying on their students via laptop webcams
eLibrary Economics
Tracking your movements via your cellphone

Running Time: 50:36
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While Tom was out on paternity leave, Dan and Mills took the opportunity to interview Stan Katz (Princeton University). For those who don’t know Stan, he is the past president of the American Council of Learned Societies, an accomplished legal historian and Vice President for Research of the American Historical Association, and a lifetime Chicago Cubs fan. Stan is also, in many ways, one of the fathers of digital humanities. In the interview he discusses the past, the present, and the future of digital humanities from a perspective few can offer. We also ripped our way through the news of the past two weeks, including the incredible news that spending time on Facebook can lower your grades. Who knew?

Other links mentioned on the podcast:
Crowdsourcing on Twitter
The Twitter Revolution That Wasn’t

Running time: 48:15
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