You really know it’s summer when the blog posts start popping up, apologizing in advance for three months of radio silence. Let me join in the fray and apologize – this is going to be a busy summer for me, and unfortunately Unit Structures will suffer. I’m aiming to graduate in the spring of 2009, so this summer finds me writing and defending my proposal. I’ll be running dissertation research in the fall and winter, and hopefully finishing writing in the spring. This also means I’ll be going on the job market this fall – if you see anything interesting, feel free to send it over to me!
In addition to my proposal, I’ve got a few other projects I’m working on. I recently signed a contract with an academic publisher to produce a manuscript entitled “Research and Analysis of Online Social Networks.” This book will bring together many of the research threads I’ve been working on over the past four years. Thankfully, it is a short book, and I hope it will be ready in electronic form by late fall. I’ll also be conducting social networks research this summer. Jacob and I will be analyzing audience perception and cultural processes in OSN’s. We’ll be presenting preliminary findings at ASIST 2008. In another line of research, I’ll be running interviews later this summer, analyzing relationship management in OSN’s.
My summer work is being supported through my work with HASTAC and MacArthur’s Digital Media and Learning Competition. I’m having a wonderful time working with the DML team, and I’m looking forward to working with them on many future iterations of the DML program. Travel will be fairly limited this summer, but I’m looking forward to attending the CSST Research Institute, a NSF-supported program exploring socio-technical systems.
In addition to maintaining sanity and getting to the beach a few times, I’ve got a few goals for this summer. I’d like to do some writing for a popular publication or two – if anyone has advice or good connections, I’m all ears. I’m also hoping to keep productive on the software side of things – I want to build a few more little apps like Freedom, and new ClaimID features are keeping me very busy. I’m also open to consulting opportunities, etc.
With regards to Unit Structures, I’ll be shifting from long-form posts to more link-oriented stuff. I’ll update with interesting things that cross my radar. It will be a little different, a little more reflective. What about you? Do you change your blogging habits in the summer?
The students are away and I’m all alone in my office…more temptation to blog on the clock!