CURATEcamp AVpres 2013

• WHEN: April 19th, 2013 (12pm EST-???)
• WHERE: The Internet & physical sites including Bay Area Video Coalition in San Francisco, University of Virginia Library in Charlottesville, and New York City location TBD (METRO?)
• COST: free!

What is special about this version of CURATEcamp?

We'll be focused on audiovisual materials, specifically digital or digitized collections. A desired result of this camp is that it can generate topics and projects for a hackathon with coder/developer participants in association with this year's AMIA (Association of Moving Image Archivists) conference in Richmond, Virginia in early November. CURATEcamp AVpres will have several physical sites, but we'll virtually convene via Google Hangout for an introductory "keynote" and afternoon breakout sessions.

Any interested group of participants are welcome to convene at a physical site and participate in the CURATEcamp. Each site needs to have a dedicated "mediator" who facilitates group discussion via the Google Hangout and does "tech support" for that site (these can be two different people). Discussions will initially take place locally, but afternoon breakout sessions will enable attendees at disparate sites to virtually assemble and continue conversations.

Who participates? Why would I want to participate?

Audiovisual archivists or archivists with digital moving image materials in their collections. The idea is that CURATEcamp will allow AV archivists to talk about issues around and challenges in digital curation that can be addressed concretely by code and developer participation during the hackathon in November in Richmond. There will be "mediators" in the sessions who will navigate questions around digital preservation generally, if that is not your area of expertise.

Technical logistics

All participant sites will need to have a computer equipped with webcam and microphone, which will be used to connect to Google Hangouts—multiple camera and mic-equipped computers are highly encouraged as this will enable participants at a physical site to split up into different breakout sessions.

All our experience at the CURATEcamp will be greatly enhanced if your technical infrastructures is tested beforehand! Please find below some initial recommendations on how best to prepare for the Google Hangout portions of the camp.

Camera & microphone recommendations

Many laptops have built in cameras that will be adequate for videoconferencing, but the quality of microphones varies.

Network connectivity

A stable, relatively fast connection is essential for videoconferencing. The bandwidth of your connection can be tested using performance tests such as [speedtest.net speedtest.net]. Google provides some bandwidth recommendations for using Google Hangouts effectively.