Markdown is a plain-text formatting syntax that allows you to write in plain textfiles, and later convert those files to structurally valid XHTML or HTML. The original Markdown specification, written by John Gruber, is here. The full syntax of original markdown, including a philosophical statement about the reason for its creation, is here. You can Read More
After two weeks of vacation (i.e. working away from home, while everyone else was asleep), its time for the sprint to the start of classes. And theres mountains of work to do before then. What Ive been thinking about this week is version control, or the lack thereof, in humanities writing. I’d wager that most Read More
Doing research on the contemporary digital environment has always seemed to me to be a lot like this: At the same time as you’re trying to write something coherent about what’s just finished happening on the Internet, you have to be copying and saving everything you’re referencing. By the time you’re finished your paper, you Read More
I’ve been thinking a lot about Bart Simon’s generous response to last week’s post on humanities labs and hothouses. First of all, yes, this discussion will have to turn into a co-authored paper about the theory and practical implementation of humanities labs. One of the purposes of this blog is to develop the habit of Read More
Why build a humanities lab like Ampersand in the first place? One inspiration for me has been Barton Kunstler’s “The Hothouse Effect: A Model For Change in Higher Education” [1]. In Kunstler’s terms, a successful lab space acts as a “hothouse” that cultivates greater levels of creativity and productivity at both the individual and group Read More
As the weeknotes on this site start to increase in number and density, I’ve spent some time this week thinking about The Big Picture. Ampersand exists because it’s part of a growing number of initiatives focused on building a new model for research culture in literary studies. The standard model for literary research worked (and Read More
As of the beginning of June 2013, Amplab’s researchers have begun a particular form of blogging known as weeknotes. The first of these notes, by Shannon Tien, is already up. The weeknote is a form of writing that’s almost unheard of in academic circles. Its most enthusiastic practitioners are British tech writers, especially the ones Read More
Amplab is the online extension of Ampersand, a Concordia University research laboratory focused on the intersections between media & contemporary literature.