A good friend and colleague of mine, Andrew Ishak, has finished a pretty cool documentary called Out of Egypt. It’s about the experience of Coptic Orthodox Christians in the United States. You should support him and check it out.

So a year or two ago, I started an org comm literature wiki. Over the life of this wiki, it has gone from a personal experiment to a collaborative space where a colleague and I shared interesting and relevant articles for our research to my most useful citation management tool. I spent a great deal of time on the wiki this summer in preparation for my comprehensive exams. I am coming back to the wiki now to manage my prospectus and dissertation sources.

So I’m back from the annual meeting of the National Communication Association (in Chicago this year - one of my favorite cities, but so very cold in November that my thin Texas skin can’t take it). I tend to get easily worn out by these huge conferences and I never attend as many panels I as I tell myself I should. This year was no exception. I was pretty disappointed by some of the panels I attended, and that really wore down my resolve to attend more. I did hear some interesting papers about work/life balance, but some of the org comm technology papers were surprisingly boring or outdated. I am hoping that might motivate me to write a really awesome dissertation.

So now that Thanksgiving is winding down, I guess it’s time for me to get to work. I’ve set a deadline for myself that I’ll have a draft of my prospectus written by Christmas. That gives me one month. And this blog is going to be my public(ish) commitment to that deadline. I’m going to post frequent updates on my process and my progress in an effort to get and keep going. So here I go - I will deliver a prospectus draft in 26 days.

In a couple days, I’ll be heading to Chicago for the annual National Communication Association convention. These conventions are normally a good chance for me to get re-energized about my research. If I hear anything particularly interesting, I’ll report back in a week or so.

Also, why are these November conferences always in such cold places? I don’t want to leave my 80-degree Austin weather for the 30s and 40s we’re bound to have in Chicago. Yuck. Next year, we’ll be traveling to San Diego - now that’s a good November destination.

I’m sure my thousands of readers will be more than happy to take a short survey for a project I’m working on, right? Here’s the pitch:

I’m working on a study that looks at the way people use technologies during meetings to multi-task. As part of this study, we’re sending out a survey to people in a number of industries and jobs to get a sense of how they use BlackBerries, IM, laptops, etc… during meetings at work.

Anyway, the survey takes about 10 minutes and is completely anonymous. There’s also a drawing for a $100 Amazon gift card if you’re interested.

The survey is here - https://webspace.utexas.edu/ks8004/www/index.htm

Also, if you decide this is relatively painless and you’d like to send this on to any friends or co-workers who might be willing to take it too, I would be very appreciative!

So, here’s my blog. It’s about time. This will be my space for ruminations on my research and teaching, the dissertation process and basically whatever piques my interest. Enjoy reading!