HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory, pronounced "haystack") is a virtual organization of over 7000 individuals and institutions inspired by the possibilities that new technologies offer for shaping how society learns, teaches, communicates, creates, and organizes at the local and global levels. HASTAC members are motivated by the conviction that the digital era provides rich opportunities for informal and formal learning and for collaborative, networked research that extends across traditional disciplines, across the boundaries of the academy and the community, across the "two cultures" of humanism and technology, across the divide of thinking versus making, and across social strata and national borders.[1]
A network of networks, HASTAC members are dedicated to transforming and reforming traditional education with peer-to-peer collaborative techniques inspired by the open web. HASTAC administers the annual $2 million MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competition. The 2011 Competition, “Badges for Lifelong Learning,” launched in collaboration with the Mozilla Foundation, will focus on badges as a means to inspire learning, confirm accomplishment, or validate the acquisition of knowledge or skills.
HASTAC is open to anyone. One joins simply by registering on the HASTAC website (hastac.org). Once registered, one can contribute to the community by sharing his/her work and ideas with others in the HASTAC community, by hosting HASTAC events online or in his/her region, by initiating conversations, or by working collaboratively with others in the HASTAC network. HASTAC is, in effect, what people make it and change is their byword. HASTAC's scope and mission are fluid, constantly changing to meet the opportunities and challenges presented by the ever-shifting terrain of today's digital world and morphing with the needs and goals of its network members.
Many of HASTAC's members are academics or others affiliated with universities at any stage of their careers, from students to senior professors. Other HASTAC community members are public intellectuals, artists, citizen journalists and scholars, educators, software or hardware designers, scientists specializing in human-computer interfaces, gamers, programmers, librarians, museum curators, IT specialists, publishers, social and political organizers and interested others who use the potential of the Internet and mobile technologies for new forms of communication and social action.
Specializations include the full range of the humanities and social sciences, the arts, music, new media arts, journalism, communications, digital humanities, cultural studies, race, gender, and sexuality studies, and global studies, as well as all computational fields, visualization and auditory sciences, information science, and engineering, plus those interested in intellectual property issues, and those concerned with social entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and public policy on a local or global scale.
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.
founders, people doing the everyday organization of HASTAC, Nominating Committee, recent and forthcoming hosts of international conferences
Anne Balsamo, Professor, Interactive Media and Gender Studies and Managing Director, Institute for Multimedia Literacy, University of Southern California
Cathy Davidson, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, and Ruth F. DeVarney Professor of English at Duke University
Kevin Franklin, Executive Director, Institute for Computing in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Science (ICHASS), University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
David Theo Goldberg, Director of the University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI) and Professor of African-American Studies and of Criminology, Law, and Society at the University of California, Irvine
Daniel Herwitz, Director and Mary Fair Croushore Professor of Humanities, University of Michigan
Julie Klein, Professor of Humanities in Interdisciplinary Studies, and Faculty Fellow in the Office of Teaching & Learning and Co-Director of the University Library Digital Media Project, Wayne State University
Tara McPherson, Editor, Vectors, and Associate Professor of Critical Studies in the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California
Kathy Woodward, Professor of English, Director of the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington
three-year terms, elected
Simone Brown ('08), Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin
Dixie Ching ('10), HASTAC Scholars representative, from New York University (one-year term)
Wendy Hui Kyong Chun ('08), Associate Professor of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University
Dan Cohen ('09), Associate Professor of History and Art History, and Director, Center for New Media and History, George Mason University
Sharon Daniel ('09), Associate Professor of Film & Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz
Caitlin Fisher ('10), Canada Research Chair in Digital Culture, Directro of the Augmented Reality Lan and Associate Professor, York University
Geraldine Heng ('08), Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Director of Medieval Studies, and Perceval Fellow in Medieval Culture at the University of Texas at Austin
Nick Montfort ('09), Assistant Professor of Digital Media, Program in Writing & Humanistic Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tim Murray ('08), Professor of Comparative Literature and English, Director of the Society for the Humanities, Curator of The Rose Goldsen Archive for New Media Art, Cornell University
Joyce Rudinsky ('09), Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), Associate Director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities at UNC-CH, and Domain Scientist for Digital Arts and Humanities at Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI).
Jentery Sayers ('11), Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Victoria
Patrik Svensson ('10), Umea University
Brendesha Tynes ('08), Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology, Child Development Division, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
S. Craig Watkins ('10), University of Texas at Austin
Paul Wouters ('09), Director of the Centre for Science and Technology Studies and professor of Scientometrics, Universiteit Leiden
emeriti and others
Ruzena Bajcsy, Director Emerita of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) at the University of California, Berkeley
John Seely Brown, Visiting scholar and advisor to the Provost at University of Southern California (USC), and Independent Co-Chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge
Allison Clark, Founder and Director of AMedia1.com, LLC
Tom MacCalla, Executive Director, National University Community Research Institute (NUCRI) and University Vice President, National University
Mark Olson, Visiting Assistant Professor of Visual Studies, Duke University and former HASTAC Director of New Media
Jentery Sayers, Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Victoria
In 2008, HASTAC initiated the HASTAC Scholars Program, an annual fellowship program that recognizes graduate and undergraduate students who are engaged in innovative work across the areas of technology, the arts, the humanities, and the social sciences. For 2010, over 170 students from 70 institutions were named HASTAC Scholars, functioning as links between their home institutions and the virtual community they foster on the HASTAC site. They sponsor several lively Forums each year and have started an online Book Club. In 2011 over 200 students from 75 institutions were HASTAC Scholars. The HASTAC Scholars are making a huge impact on numerous fields: Between September 2009 and May 2011, over 358,000 unique visitors have stopped by the ten HASTAC Scholars Forums.
Held in Barcelona on November 3–5, 2010, the Mozilla Drumbeat Festival gathered teachers, learners and technologists from around the world dedicated to making, teaching and inventing the future of education and the web. HASTAC hosted the "Storming the Academy" tent which offered a full two days of programming dedicated to discussing and workshopping open learning and peer-to-peer assessment strategies, ideas, and lessons, investigating their potential to transform traditional higher education and formal learning principles that are deeply rooted in a 19th and 20th century industrial age mentalities. Sessions included "Storming the Syllabus," "Storming Publishing and Peer Review," "Storming the Grade Book," and "Storming the Cloud/Crowd."
On October 16, 2010, HASTAC hosted THATCampRTP at the Smith Warehouse at Duke University's John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute. Co-sponsors for the event were Duke University's Information Science + Information Studies (ISIS), the University of North Carolina's Department of Communications, and Duke University's John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute. It was the first area THATCamp for the for the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina.
Funded by the Digital Media and Learning Hub, HASTAC held this one-day public workshop on September 10, 2010 at the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University. It included an opening "unpanel," and unconference and breakout sessions during which participants discussed, explored and modeled the benefits and challenges of peer-to-peer collaborative pedagogies from the specific perspective of young scholars, emphasizing evaluation and grading. Invited workshop "mentors" included ten HASTAC Scholars from all over the U.S. who were flown in to participate in this event. Their preparation for the event took the form of a wiki that was opened up to the public for input (http://hastacscholars.wikispaces.com/P3). Participants also included field-defining academics and exemplary hands-on practitioners as well as developers of innovative evaluative software, including two of the top organizers of P2PU, Peer-to-Peer University, the online, peer-taught open source university. Invitations were also extended to local faculty and students from NC—including Duke's Information Science + Information Studies (ISIS), UNC, NCCU (a HBCU), NC State, Durham Technical Community College, and also local DML Winners.
HASTAC 2012 will be held in Toronto and hosted by Steering Committee member Caitlin Fisher (York University) and Maureen Engel (University of Alberta).
HASTAC 2011 will be held at the University of Michigan on Dec. 2-3, 2011, and hosted by Steering Committee member Daniel Herwitz.
HASTAC '10 will be held virtually April 15–17, 2010. The conference will be hosted by the Institute for Computing in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Science (ICHASS) at UIUC. .[2]
HASTAC '09 was held April 19–21, 2009 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The theme was Traversing Digital Boundaries. The conference was hosted by the Institute for Computing in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Science (ICHASS) at UIUC. .[3]
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 is available on the UC Humanities Research Institute's website.
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.
HASTAC's members 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.
An online archive of conference materials and proceedings can be found on the HASTAC website here, as well as the link to its paperback counterpart, available for purchase or download from Lulu Press.
Created in 2007, the HASTAC/MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competition is designed to find and inspire the most innovative uses of new media in support of connected learning. Connected learning happens in and out of school, in physical places and in online spaces, and is:
Awards have recognized individuals, for-profit companies, universities, and community organizations using new media to transform learning. The Digital Media and Learning Competition Winners' Hub, featuring each winning project, is located on HASTAC.
The Digital Media and Learning Competition is funded by the MacArthur Foundation and administered by HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory), a virtual network of learning institutions. HASTAC co-founders David Theo Goldberg, Director of the University of California Humanities Research Institute, and Cathy N. Davidson, Duke University, are the principal administrators of the Competition.
The fourth annual international HASTAC/MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competition launched on September 15, 2011 with a theme of "Badges for Lifelong Learning." There are two Competitions under the Badges for Lifelong Learning them: Badges Competition: Badges For Lifelong Learning and Research Competition: Badges, Trophies, and Achievements.
Badge Competition Process The Badges Competition focuses on building digital badges for lifelong learning. The Competition is designed to encourage individuals and organizations to create digital tools that support, identify, recognize, measure, and account for new skills, competencies, knowledge, and achievements for 21st century learners wherever and whenever learning takes place. Awards: $10,000 to $200,000
The competition has three stages.
Stage One: Content and Programs
The goal of Stage One is to identify compelling learning content, activities, or programs for which a badge or set of badges would be useful for recognizing and making visible learning that takes place in a particular area or topic. Badges may represent learning a set of skills, acquisition of competencies, achievements, interests, or affiliations. They can provide visible milestones on a learning pathway, support various types of community participation, signal achievement to a community of interest and outside stakeholders, support participation and further learning, and build identity and reputation.
Stage Two: Design and Tech
Stage Two seeks fully developed badge systems and will include badges or sets of badges, assessments, and the technology required to issue, manage, and track or measure performance. Badge system design and tech proposals may be based on winning content from Stage One or collaborator content, or may use other content to demonstrate the designs.
Stage Three: Match-making and Finals
The goal of this stage is to match winning content applicants and collaborators with design and tech partners to form comprehensive teams, and for these teams to work together to finalize badge proposals. The product of this stage is a final badge system proposal from the team.
Research Competition
The Research Competition focuses on online networks, digital resources, and gaming environments that provide rich opportunities for demand-driven, learner-centered learning. These include networked knowledge communities, online tutorials, and other digital resources for wide-ranging learning needs. Awards: $5,000 to $80,000
The third annual international HASTAC/MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competition launched in December 2009 with a theme of "reimagining learning". Two types of awards were offered: 21st Century Learning Lab Designers and Game Changers.
Aligned with National Lab Day as part of the White House's Educate to Innovate Initiative, the 21st Century Learning Lab Designer awards range from $30,000-$200,000. Awards were made for learning environments and digital media-based experiences that allow young people to grapple with social challenges through activities based on the social nature, contexts, and ideas of science, technology, engineering and math.
The Game Changers category—undertaken in cooperation with Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) and Electronic Arts (EA), Entertainment Software Assocation, and the Information Technology Industry Council—awarded amounts ranging from $5,000-$50,000 for creative levels designed with either LittleBigPlanet™ or Spore™ Galactic Adventures that offer young people engaging game play experiences and that incorporate and leverage principles of science, technology, engineering and math for learning.
The application process included an opportunity for public comments, which allowed applicants to collaborate with others and improve their submissions prior to final review. Of the more than 800 applications from 32 countries, 67 finalists were asked to submit videos of their projects for a final round of judging. Winners were selected from this pool by a panel of expert judges that included scholars, educators, entrepreneurs, journalists, and other digital media specialists.
Aneesh Chopra, the first Chief Technology Officer of the United States, announced the ten winners of the 21st Century Learning Lab Designers category on May 12 at a celebration of National Lab Day in Washington, DC, and the nine winners of the Game Changers category at the Games for Change conference in May 2010 in New York City. Each category included several Best in Class awards selected by expert judges, as well as a four People’s Choice Awards which were selected by the general public in over twelve hundred votes submitted on the www.dmlcompetition.net.
HASTAC hosted the winners' showcase at the second annual Digital Media and Learning Conference, "Designing Learning Futures," funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and held in Long Beach, CA on March 3-5, 2011.
The Game Changers Kids Competition was part of the larger third annual $2 million HASTAC/MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competition dedicated to "reimagining learning." For this youth competition, the MacArthur Foundation teamed with Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) and Electronic Arts (EA), Entertainment Software Association, and the Information Technology Industry Council to support new and creative youth-generated levels and adventures. Kids were challenged to develop new levels and adventures for the popular games Spore™ Galactic Adventures (EA) and LittleBigPlanet™ (Sony). Winners who designed adventures for Spore will be hosted, along with a parent or guardian, on a trip to Electronic Arts (EA), the game design company that developed Spore. Kids who won for creating new levels for LittleBigPlanet received a Sony PSP-3000 system.
Seventeen winners of the Game Changers Kids Competition were announced in Washington, DC on at the White House Science Fair on October 18, 2010 with President Barack Obama congratulating 13-year-old Jack Hanson of New Mexico, for scoring the highest marks in this competition for young game designers.
The 2008-2009 Digital Medial and Learning Competition cycle launched August 18, 2008, with a theme of participatory learning. There are two award categories. Innovation in Participatory Learning Awards (with awards ranging from $30,000 to $250,000) encourage organizations and institutions as well as individuals to develop large-scale projects and models to advance new learning environments. This category also welcomes eligible international applicants as part of an international pilot program for the Competition. Young Innovator Awards (with awards ranging from $5,000 to $30,000) are designed for youth aged 18 to 25 active in thinking and contributing to "what comes next in participatory learning".[4]
Based on feedback from last year's Competition, Competition administrators opened a site titled "Scratchpad" where potential applicants were able to share and discuss ideas.
Winners were announced on April 16, 2009 in Chicago. A total of 19 projects, 14 in the Innovation category and 5 Young Innovators, shared the $2 million in prize money.[5] This group also included the first Competition projects based outside the United States, with one project from each of these countries: Canada, India, Mexico, and South Africa. The public announcement coincided with a showcase in which all 17 projects from the first Competition cycle demonstrated their projects for a public audience.
Awards were divided into two categories: Innovation and Knowledge-Networking. The Innovation Award] (with grants of $100,000 or $250,000 to each award-winner) was designed to support learning pioneers, entrepreneurs, and builders of new digital learning environments for formal and informal learning. The (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[6] applications were received and the 17 award winners were announced on February 21, 2008. These awardees received grants totaling $2 million, in addition to an extensive support network and the opportunity to showcase their projects at a conference.[7]
An archive of the 2007-08 Competition cycle, with more information about the winners and their projects, is available here.
The University of Michigan Press and HASTAC launched The University of Michigan Series in Digital Humanities@digitalculturebooks and the UM/HASTAC Digital Humanities Publication Prize in December 2009. Series editors include Julie Thompson Klein and Tara McPherson; advisory board includes Cathy N. Davidson, Daniel Herwitz, and Wendy Chun (Brown).