In the 2015 installment of the Digital Campus Year in Review podcast, regulars Dan Cohen, Amanda French, Tom Scheinfeldt, and Stephen Robertson look back at 2015 and predict the big news of 2016. Cheers went out to the NEH/Mellon Humanities Open Book Program, Congress (c.1965), the retirement of James Billington as Librarian of Congress, and the US Court of Appeals decision in favor of Google Books. Eliciting jeers were the Ad-blocker controversy, the behavior of Proquest (with Amanda dissenting), and the news that Jennifer Howard has left the higher education beat.

Much of what the group predicted for 2015 came to pass, to some extent: universities were hacked; SHARE developed; the push to learn to code continued; and Proquest and Gale moved to provide data mining access to their collections (at considerable additional cost to libraries). And, with the FAA moving to require that drones be registered, Mills’s prediction from 2013 that an Amazon drone will be shot down over Texas looks ever more likely. If you are impressed by those predictions, then in 2016 you should expect the Wu Tang Clan album to leak, Virtual Reality MOOCs to be launched, a digital humanist to win a Macarthur Fellowship, hypothes.is not to take off (or to enjoy the same success as DPLA), and emojis to replace text as our primary form of communication.

Related Links:

• NEH/Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program Grants: http://www.neh.gov/news/press-release/2015-12-17
• The work of the 1965 Congress:
  • The National Historic Preservation Act: http://preservation50.org/about/nhpa-history/
  • The National Endowment for the Arts: https://www.arts.gov/50th
  • The National Endowment for the Humanities: http://50.neh.gov
• The ad blocking controversy explained: http://www.vox.com/2015/9/18/9351759/ad-blocking-controversy
• In defense of Proquest: http://src-online.ca/index.php/src/article/view/226/448
• Why Are Universities Hacked? https://www.lawfareblog.com/why-are-universities-hacked
• SHARE: http://www.share-research.org
• Register Your Drone: https://www.faa.gov/uas/registration/
• Annotating All Knowledge [hypothes.is]: https://hypothes.is/annotating-all-knowledge/

Running time: 59:23

Download the .mp3

‘Twas the last podcast of 2014 and on this episode of Digital Campus, Amanda, Tom, Dan, and Stephen discussed their “Cheers and Jeers” for the year (with RRCHNM Digital History Fellow Amanda Regan filling in for Mills).  MLA, IMLS, FCC, and the lack of a government shutdown won the praise of the group, but Twitter could not stand up to the pressures of 2014.

After describing the good and the bad of the year, the group discussed their predictions from 2013.  While Mills’s prediction that an Amazon drone would be shot out of the sky in Texas did not come true, it appears that many of the predictions made by the group last year were pretty close–even though Dan gave himself a solid “B”.  With 2015 quickly approaching, everyone discussed their latest predictions for the new year and where the digital humanities are headed in the next 365 days.

Running time: 48:22

Download the .mp3

In this year-end roundup/predictions episode of our Digital Campus podcast, Stephen and special guest Sharon Leon jumped in on this year’s cheers and jeers, listing the best and worst stories and events of 2013, including praise for expansion of DH centers and digital collections, as well as critiques of Elsevier‘s recent actions and the impact of the government shutdown on educational institutions. Tom, Mills, Amanda, and Dan then reviewed the successes (there were a few!) and failures (oh, MOOCs…) of their respective predictions for 2013.

Once they’d finished assigning grades and debating near-misses, the group invited Sharon and Digital History Fellow Amanda Regan to join in on putting together a set of alternately optimistic and depressing predictions for 2014. Judging from these predictions, this coming year looks good for grad students working on digital dissertations and for those interested in expanding open access, but Amazon’s drones might want to look into bulletproof casings.

Special thanks to multimedia whiz Chris Preperato for the plethora of pertinent sound effects in this episode, as well as for ongoing work on the podcast.

Links:

Cheers:

• Google Books decision: https://chronicle.com/article/Judge-Hands-Google-a-Big/143059/
• JSTOR Swartz documents: http://docs.jstor.org
• Smithsonian 3D: http://3d.si.edu/

Jeers:

• Shutdown affects research: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/03/government-shutdown-curbs-academic-research-many-levels
• Elsevier takedowns: http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/posting-your-latest-article-you-might-have-to-take-it-down/48865
• Udacity moves to executive education: http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/academics-to-udacity-founder-told-ya

Predictions for 2013:

• EBook Sales in 2013: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/retailing/article/59194-signs-of-stability.html

Predictions for 2014:

• Affordable College Textbook Act: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s1704

Running time: 50:48
Download the .mp3

For our hundredth anniversary episode, the digital history fellows divided up the 2007 episodes of Digital Campus and picked their favorite bits — listen to the result if you dare, and be transported back to the days when the iPhone was brand new, when Second Life was the Next Big Thing, and when you had to have an email address with a .edu TLD in order to use Facebook. Good times.

Many thanks to digital history fellows Ben Hurwitz, Jannelle Legg, Anne McDivitt, Amanda Morgan, Amanda Regan, and Spencer Roberts for choosing the clips, and many many thanks to audiovisual guru Chris Preperato for stitching them together.

Running time: 58:13
Download the .mp3

Sure, there are a few talented people who have gotten EGOTs (an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony), but has anyone gotten a CEGOT? Find out who the lucky recipients of Campies are this year, awarded to the best and the worst in the world of technology and academia. Tom, Mills, Amanda, and Dan make their selections, as well as their predictions for 2013. The Digital Campus crew has often been right in the past, so be sure to tune in and know the future. (Past performance is no guarantee of future results.)

Links mentioned on the podcast:
Tumblr growth
Peter Brantley, “You Have Two, Maybe Three, Years”
Lorcan Dempsey, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at Libraries, Discovery, and the Catalog: Scale, Workflow, Attention”
Calling a Quorum — for Real
Buffeted by the Web, but Now Riding It
Amazon Is a Great Company Because It Has the Most Generous Shareholders in the World

Running time: 56:50
Download the .mp3

Roll out the red carpet, because it’s time once again for the Campies, Digital Campus’s beloved year-end review of what has passed and what is to come. Tom, Amanda, Mills, and Dan reveal their picks for the best and worst of the year, and shine their crystal balls to predict with vague and partially satisfying accuracy what will come in 2012. And the Digital Campus accountants force the podcast crew to be accountable for last year’s predictions. Were they right on or way off? Listen in to find out.

[Editor’s note: We recorded this podcast on December 16, 2011, but released it on December 21. On December 19, MIT announced something directly related to Dan’s prediction for 2012. Dan had no prior knowledge of this announcement but is looking forward to the 2012 year-in-review so he can gloat.]

Links mentioned on the podcast:

Whitehouse RFP on Digital Data
DML Competition
Cathy Davidson on badges
Eric Hellman on libraries and purchasing
Gates Foundation – Post-Secondary Education
MLA – New Office of Scholarly Communication

Running time: 51.23
Download the .mp3

It’s time once again for the tuxedos, red dresses, and closely guarded envelopes as the Digital Campus team reveals the top stories of 2010. In a twist this year, each co-host unveils their biggest flop and biggest hit of the year. Amanda, Tom, Mills, and Dan also gaze into their trusty crystal balls—which we can proudly say have been incredibly accurate in years past—for their predictions for 2011. The wait is over—tune in for the cheers and jeers, the laughter and the tears.

Running time: 58:09
Download the .mp3

For our golden anniversary podcast, regulars Tom, Mills, and Dan look into their crystal ball to see what the future holds for 2010 and the coming decade. We also look back at the biggest stories of 2009 and the prior decade. Via Twitter, we also share prognostications from our very smart audience.

Running time: 1:01:18
Download the .mp3

Dan, Mills, and Tom round out 2008 with the top ten most significant stories, trends, and technologies of the year. The regulars discuss how netbooks, Google Books, e-books, and iPhones made 2008 a year to remember. What will make the list in 2009? The regulars offer some predictions as well.

Running time: 51:30
Download the .mp3

The regulars close out the first calendar year of Digital Campus with a countdown of the top stories of 2007. In a year when lines formed for the iPhone, social networking went mainstream, Vista battled with Leopard (and XP), and virtual worlds beckoned, find out which stories made Mills, Tom, and Dan’s top ten list. What flew, what fizzled, and what will 2008 hold for technology at universities, libraries, and museums? We reveal the answers on our year end special.

Running time: 53:32
Download the .mp3