We've linked to a great blog post by Karen Green of our festival partners, the Renaissance Computing Institute, a major collaborative venture of faculty, staff and students at Duke University, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill along with the state of North Carolina.

Here's a taste of her post... click the link below to access the full blog:

“We have technology, finally, that for the first time in human history allows people to really maintain rich connections with much larger numbers of people”. –Pierre Omidyar, eBay Founder

Maybe Omidyar overestimated the ability of technology to bring people together, to create in new ways and form communities that have no physical limits.

Or maybe not.

CHAT (Collaborations: Humanities, Arts & Technology) will explore the impact of technology on our lives; how it has changed the way we interact and how it has stirred the imaginations of artists, helping them create new forms of expression.

Read the rest of Green's post...

We've been blogged! Christine Evans, who is working on the Virtual Performance Factory Project recently posted an update on her work. Here's a blurb and a link to her full post:

The time’s approaching for the CHAT festival at UNC Chapel Hill. It’s been so much fun to write for this event, as part of the Virtual Performance Factory. Like many playwrights, I’m well acquainted with “development hell” and this gig, by contrast, has always involved a guarantee that the thing will be taken into full production—in collaboration with Icarus, a commercial video game company (Fallen Earth producers).

Read more...

Things continue to progress! We had a great meeting today with our faculty project leads and some friends in technology (Andy Lang from OASIS, one of our heroes) and UNC News Services (two more heroes: LJ Toler and Patty Courtright).

We shared the full overview of the schedule--from parking and transportation logistics to details about planned panels and workshops--and we were thrilled at the enthusiasm everyone shared for the festival. We're excited by it, but then we've been hard at work pulling together the schedule and crafting the feel of the festival. It's always nice to know we're on target!

We still hold out hope that we'll be able to post the schedule before the holidays. At the same time we're working on that, we're also grateful for the help of UNC technology folks Jon Outlaw and Brian Payst, who are helping create mobile content for CHAT, which should make for a neat experience for attendees with smartphones.

The good news is that we've asked for some guest blog posts, and it looks like we're in business! Expect in the next few weeks to start hearing from people "on the ground" in the festival.

In the meantime, we'll keep you posted as things progress. Thanks for checking in with us!

Greetings! Before I tell you what we're up to, allow me to introduce "us." The three of us devoting our lives to the CHAT festival right now are:

• Megan Granda, festival director and the executive director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, who is handling programming and sponsorships;
• Jeanine Simmons, festival project manager and program & events coordinator at the IAH, who is handling all event logistics and volunteer coordinating; and
  
• Yours truly, Kirsten Beattie, festival project manager and communications specialist for the IAH. I'm handling the marketing and communications surrounding the festival.
  

For the past months (really for the past 24 months), we’ve been working on carving out what exactly CHAT is and creating the programs that you’ll be able to enjoy when you participate.

For us, the exciting thing about CHAT is just how excited everyone we’ve met with gets when they figure out what we’re doing. It’s not always easy to express the tone of the festival in words on our site—the festival is rather complex, and summing it up as “showcasing the digital resources of the RTP” really can’t express what an exciting program it is!

To be fair, we know that better than you right now, because we have our working schedule with all of our panels and performances filled in. Confirming our speakers is our key priority right now, and that's where Megan in particular is putting most of her efforts. If you visit our “speakers” page, you can see of the guests we’ve confirmed. (There are many, many more not listed yet!) Our goal is to post the schedule prior to the holidays. We'll keep you in the loop.

Jeanine has been tirelessly working on event logistics—everything from finding and confirming venues to working with UNC facilities to prepare for an influx of guests to managing our schedule to securing our host hotel. We’ll make a formal announcement later, but for now we’re happy to inform you that we’ll be working with the Siena Hotel in Chapel Hill. There are no words to express how helpful and gracious they have been.

As for me, marketing the festival is a huge task, which is why this blog has been quiet so far. We’re carving out our marketing plan and working with local and national press to get the word out. We’re slowly building followers on our Twitter account (UNC_CHATfest) and gathering fans on our Facebook page (CHAT Festival). We’ll be counting on YOU to help us spread the word to your peers, colleagues, friends, family, students, professors… the checkout clerk at the grocery store, your yoga teacher… you get the idea.

For now, we’ll try to keep this blog updated 1-2 times a week. Once we get closer to the festival (post-holidays), we’ll start sharing a lot more news through this. So, keep checking in. We’ll be in touch soon!

In the meantime, if you have some thoughts on digital arts and humanities that you’d like to share, leave a comment or send us an email (chat@unc.edu). As we say at the IAH, “Join the Conversation.” Only here perhaps we should say, “let’s chat!”

Welcome to the shiny and new CHAT festival blog. Help us out: send us feedback about the site and the festival, let us know if you see anything that needs fixin', and join the conversation. This is your festival!

Along those lines, although we're going to use this blog to share our news, we invite you to participate, too. Let us know if you'd like to write a guest post (we promise we'll give you credit for your brilliant, or even mundane, words!).

Thanks for visiting! Now make sure you go register for the festival.