In association with the annual conference, the Association of Moving Image
Archivists will host its second annual hack day on October 8, 2014 in
Savannah, GA. The event will be a unique opportunity for practitioners and
managers of digital audiovisual collections to join with developers and
engineers for an intense day of collaboration to develop solutions for
digital audiovisual preservation and access. It will be fun and
practical…and there will be prizes!

For those of you who want to participate in another way, we’ll be hosting a
concurrent Wikipedia edit-a-thon
<http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Model_projects/Edit-a-thon_How-To>,
which will focus on topics related to digital preservation & access for
audiovisual materials. While we encourage non-engineers to participate in
the hack day portion, there’s a lot of work to be done to describe topics
relevant to our community on Wikipedia as well.

We are very excited to be collaborating with the Digital Library Federation
once again. A robust and diverse community of practitioners who advance
research, teaching and learning through the application of digital library
research, technology and services, DLF brings years of experience creating
and hosting events designed to foster collaboration and develop shared
solutions for common challenges. DLF is generously funding two Cross-Pollinator
Travel Awards <http://www.diglib.org/archives/6240/> for developers
interested in attending the AMIA conference and participating in the hack
day.

What is a hack day?

A hack day or hackathon is an event that brings together computer
technologists and practitioners for an intense period of collaborative
problem solving. Within digital preservation and curation communities, hack
days provide an opportunity for archivists, collection managers,
technologists, and others to work together develop software solutions,
documentation or training materials, and more for digital collections
management needs.

The manifesto
<http://ptsefton.com/2012/09/05/open-repositories-developer-challenge-draft-manifesto-v0-1.htm>
of a recent event at the Open Repositories conference framed the benefits
this way:

“Transparent, fun, open collaboration in diversely constituted teams...The
creation of new professional networks over the ossification of old
ones. Effective
engagement of non-developers (researchers, repository managers) in
development...Work done at the conference over presentation of something
prepared earlier.”

What happened at last year’s hack day?

Last year’s AMIA/DLF Hack Day was an incredible success. Over 30
participants formed 6 teams who worked intensively over the day to create
innovating solutions to problems submitted by the participants themselves.
The outcomes ranged from working software to guidelines for common tools.
See the results on last year’s wiki
<http://wiki.curatecamp.org/index.php/Association_of_Moving_Image_Archivists_%26_Digital_Library_Federation_Hack_Day_2013>
.

What will be the format of the event?

In advance of the hack day, project ideas and a Wikipedia editing topic
list will be collected through the registration form and the event wiki
<http://wiki.curatecamp.org/index.php/Association_of_Moving_Image_Archivists_%26_Digital_Library_Federation_Hack_Day_2014>.
On the morning of the event, participants will review and discuss submitted
project ideas. We’ll then break into groups consisting of technologists and
practitioners, selecting an idea to work on together for the day and (if
desired) throughout the duration of the AMIA conference in the developers
lounge.

Projects will be presented during the conference, on Friday, October 10 at
3:30pm. Projects will be judged by a panel as well as by conference
attendees.

How can I participate?

Sign up! As this will be a highly participatory event, registration is
limited to those willing to get their hands dirty, so no onlookers please.
You may participate even if you do not know code or have an engineering
background—we welcome metadata hacking, ideas for programs that can be
worked on with engineers who will be present to collaborate with, and
Wikipedia editing for digital preservation and access for moving image and
sound.

Ready to sign up and join the fun?

REGISTER HERE
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1P8iQfCPub8abaWGUcl-WGPYnEvr7CxIFKK0dYA3VHaA/viewform>.
It’s free.