LVS - YYZ - CBC - YYZ - YEG

So much has happened since my last post. First of all, I sent in my abstract. Then I went to Vegas for 4 nights, barely slept, and returned home on the Tuesday night red-eye, in time to grab a quick nap and work Wednesday afternoon, then normal days on Thursday and Friday. On Sunday morning at 5:30am Toronto time, I got up, showered, headed to the airport, to catch my 8:10am flight to Edmonton. So after a three time zones in five days, not enough sleep in any of them, I've become convinced that my body hates me, and is genuinely confused.

That being said, today was the first day of school. Our first in person session of 501 with Yuping "Ruby" Mao was more of a getting to know you session, and an airing of everyone's research projects. Suggestions were thrown around, and quite honestly, the topics are far more diverse than I had originally anticipated based on the online discussion. Hearing the class discuss both my project and their own gave me some ideas on how to frame my study, people to talk to, and what kinds of issues to address. Wayne also suggested a book that I plan on picking up(Out of Control by Kevin Kelly)... if only I could read without falling asleep.

The afternoon session of 506, hosted by Stan Ruecker, was equally eye-opening. Stan has a lot of research experience, and specifically U of A experience, and seems like he might be a very useful resource in the completion of the final project. The course is about social networks, but most of the time was spent discussing research projects, ethics, assignments, and later on... blogs.

Blogging is a weird thing for me. Perhaps it's that I like imagining I have an audience, even if nobody reads this. With my personal blog, people tell me from time to time that they visited it, and comment on something in it... and it usually surprises me, entrigues me, and motivates me to keep writing. It happens infrequently, but it's usually enough to keep me going. And now that this has been hyped in class, I feel obligated to deliver raw, unedited, free flowing, typo-filled, braindumps. And I look forward to reading yours too, class. Hmm?

I love the phone. That's where I get my email.

Some of the reading I've done asks the question of why one is attacking a particular research topic. Other people in my class have struggled with the idea of researching something they love vs. something that interests them, and I think this topic falls somewhere in the middle for me. I've realized that I'm a big nerd and that I beat the hell out of Web 2.0 more than a lot of people.

In the past week, I've...

• Written entries in my 3 different blogs (this one, brianchick.com, and sportsguys.ca)
• Uploaded 4 videos to youtube and linked to them on blogs and facebook.
• Administered blogs for 2 other projects, and designed or maintained 8 other websites.
• Edited entries in the 2 wikis I administer.
• Bought something on ebay
• Updated my facebook profile via my phone
• Collaborated cross country on 2 different writing projects
• looked at photos on Flickr, but haven't actually posted any because it was a boring week
• spent whole days on MSN, talking to people in other provinces, countries, and continents
• took a picture and emailed it via my phone (twice)

Short of Ghandi's "Be the change you want to see in the world," I'd argue that I'm an example of the change that is happening in the world, whether we want it or not. I want to understand it, however, and help others understand it by examining this change, and identifying the issues that are coming with it. There's a clash, no matter how subtle, between the old way and the new way, and I'm going to look at where the lines are drawn and what exactly that means.

Do I love this stuff? Yes. Do I find it interesting? Absolutely.

More importantly though, I think it will cause a major change in the way work gets done. Anticipating that shift now will make for easier adjustments in the future.