"What is a proposal anyway? A good proposal should consist of the first three chapters of the dissertation."

Reading that statement today (I hope it's true) made me feel incredibly good. I really hope it's true. Pretty pretty please. Does that mean I'm really just about done with the first 3 chapters !?!?!

Probably all a bunch o' lies. Bah. I probably have the proposal that that idea doesn't work for.

(See what it's like living in my head? This is why I don't post. It's crazy in here.)

and then of course, 3 days later i begin to attempt to accomplish what we've talked about and i feel lost and overwhelemd.

these feelings are all so predictable as i notice this cycle every time.

but actually, i think i will miss this entire process when it's over. well, maybe not.

my favorite option so far is actually the Coffee Bean in the Ralph's Supermarket. it's well lit (and open 24 hours to boot), they have nice bar height chairs and tables with outlets specifically for laptops, no one really hangs out here (so you don't overhear annoying loud conversations), free wi-fi, and right now I am staring at a display case of Banquet frozen dinners. i like it, though i feel like a vagrant because theoretically the supermarket is not where you hang out. the sign saying you're only supposed to be here for 1-hour doesn't help either... i wonder if they enforce that.

The Growth of Social Knowledge: Theory, Simulation, and Empirical Research in Group Processes

by Szmatka, Jacek.; Lovaglia, Michael J.; Wysienska, Kinga.,

Publication: Westport, Conn. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002.

Most of the work produced by group processes researchers is careful empirical research that regularly appears in top sociology journals. These examples of group processes research show the interplay of theory and research characteristic of theoretical research programs.

Qualitative Data: An Introduction to Coding and Analysis

by Auerbach, Carl F.; Silverstein, Louise B.

Publication: New York New York University Press, 2003.

even better, the book is available for free online through NetLibrary (if your university subscribes to this service). i just finished interviewing 15 people in the austin area who: 1) work in offices and 2) attend meetings for their job. i asked them stuff about interruptions during their work day, especially those of a technological nature, and the different ways in which technology enhances their work. we'll see if any worthy conclusions emerge...

and i am very much enjoying the song _sons & daughters_ by the decemberists right now. i don't know any of their other songs yet, but i like that this song reminds me of neutral milk hotel.

title of paper: The Staging of Agency in Girls Gone Wild.

"This paper addresses the ambivalence produced by Girls Gone Wild (GGW) as both text and social practice by interrogating the ways in which it functions hegemonically by staging an effect of agency. I draw on Bakhtin's notion of the carnivalesque as a means to examine how contradictory spatio-temporal contexts of GGW function as spaces that offer the opportunity to momentarily transgress—yet simultaneously reify—white, bourgeois norms of femininity. The videos reinforce a neoliberalist mentality of personal responsibility through the inclusion of the consent—and dissent—processes on camera. After analyzing how postfeminist discourses emphasizing “individual choice” justify GGW as a mode of female empowerment, I turn to a complementary textual analysis of GGW 's role-reversal counterpart, Guys Gone Wild (2004), in an effort to show the ways in which this “mirror image” text ultimately reinforces the structure of exploitation in the original."

1. British commercial with cell phone humor:

2. This one's just because I love ImprovEverywhere:

3. Woman gets upset at co-workers loud cell phone:

4. In case I needed something on the allure of technology, not a particularly interesting video though:

5. Some sort of pseudo-DJ ranting about the social norms of when and where cell phones should be used:

6. American commercial where the ramifactions of not knowing someone is using technology can lead to gross misunderstanding of the situation:

7. More inappropriate social etiquette with the phone:

i'm staying at the 'w' in downtown seattle -- overly posh, but kind of in a dated way. i became so frustrated with the room service guide (which was impossible to open and read due to an unfriendly single hinge design with heavy plastic covering), that i tore the whole thing apart. now i have these little 'playing cards' of pages and shards of broken plastic in the bin. i'd take a picture but i forgot my camera, and plus, this is really not that interesting to anyone but me.

also annoyed that there was no ethernet cable available in the room immediately (and no wirless connection from the rooms) -- blah blah blah. i'll stop complaining now. but really, in a city that is as high tech as seattle (wireless available on some public transportation!) a hotel doesn't have immediate connectivity provided? i guess all this is demonstrating is that maybe my life is much too dependent on digital-ness.

My recollection of the oral defense is very vague... I honestly can't remember any of the specific questions except about the 'Describe the field of Information Studies' question, in which I failed to address the issue of 'How is information defined'... bleeeh... I have to revise a portion of my answer to include a definition of information... but otherwise I've passed.

I'm essentially a 'Ph.D. Candidate' now. 4 steps away from finishing now... 1) Dissertation Proposal, 2) Carrying Out the Proposal, 3) Writing the Dissertation and 4) Final Defense

Also in this same issue of the New Yorker is a brief mention of Columbia U students falling victim to the 'broken sunglasses' con. And then last night, one of my friends who does temp work in Austin told me that his most recent temp placement was for a diet-pill scam. People paid $50 to go to a weight loss hypnosis seminar in Austin (held at a seedy hotel), and then were duped into buying $350 of diet pills. The classic marketing ploys were used like 'I only have enough pills for about 1/3 of you...' (when of course there was more than enough pills), to more subtle tactics like promoting seemingly more legitimate diet products, like Atkins, to make it appear that this seminar was unbiased toward any one particular brand.

Sigh. The academic responses to why people fall for these scams can be found in two of my favorite books: Influence by Cialdini and How We Know What Isn't So by Gilovich

In lighter topics, I just came across these 'personalized' bar codes (click here for full gallery). I love it in a kind of Orwellian fashion:

I'm so used to sitting in front of the computer now, I can't seem to leave it even though I don't want to be sitting here any more. It's gorgeous outside, I'm going to go to the Parlour and have pizza and a drink outside, and remember what it's like to live in this world (at least for this weekend, anyway).

i like the questions i've been given (they make sense & they're relevant to my interests) -- i just wish i had more than 1-day to devote to each. i'm surprisingly not stressed about having to take this exam, it actually feels more like writing a final class paper (can i think through a big thought and write coherently about it) rather than a 'test' which i associate with lots of annoying memorization.

back to work now... here are the questions i'm responding to:

1. You talk about others' use of technology (checking email) in face to face meetings. You outline some negative effects on social cohesion. Discuss some of the strategies, processes, or factors that can help moderate those negative effects. For example, to what extent would we expect the negative effects on social cohesion to be reduced by prior or posterior verbal assertions by technology-using members that they will use or have used technology during meetings. These assertions could be apologies (before or after the technology use occurs) or explanations that they need to check their email during meeting because they are expecting an urgent email.

2. While there are differences in immediacy and obviousness
of the interactions, it seems that many of the activities that
technology provides were possible BEFORE the technology. People in a
meeting can whisper back and forth, thus engaging in "backchannel
communication" that may or may not irritate others. Other group norms
(say, shall we allow pets or kids in our meetings) may be violated. I
can be just as poor with my eye contact whether I'm interacting with a
PDA or writing with my pencil. Discuss these and other possible
parallels between other-than-technology influences and
technology-specific influences. What can we learn from previous
(non-technology-related) related research? How might this steer your
research, to ensure that the findings are truly related to the
technology, per se, and not to more general behaviors?

3. "How would you define the field of information studies? In your answer give appropriate treatment to the history of the field, its theoretical and methodological contributions, and its current status as a discipline"

4. To truly understand how groups work together in reality (shared, real-time not mixed presence) situations, it seems appropriate to develop an understanding of how any kind of technology affects group work (more specifically meetings). How does any kind of technology, from
relatively traditional technologies such as pens and paper, printed
meeting agendas and large display presentations affect communication
productivity and interruption among a group of knowledge workers?
Additionally, is there research (as Grudin suggests) that recommends
possible types of technology that are better suited for specific
mixed reality environments including notebooks with wifi, their
associated software applications (instant messaging, email, shared
document editing) and also including pen-based computing (where the
display screen may not be a barrier between participants in a
meeting) and evoke a more traditional acceptability? Conversely, is
it applicable to say that technology and its interruptions are not
the problem in meetings and groupwork, but that a set of agreed upon
behaviors and methods to (loosely) govern interactions during work
could be designed and adapted to use technology in logical, less-
disruptive concert with knowledge workers' shared activities?