I’d like to introduce Appozitegeist, my new blog where I will write in my official capacity as a founder of Appozite. Appozite is a totally new kind of e-commerce company, focused on bringing shopping into an era of social software and smart recommendations, creating a more relevant and fun experience, both for shoppers and retailers. Appozite is a brand new company, so expect lots of changes and updates in the coming weeks and months as we get things going.

I’ll still be blogging here about my dissertation and my various academic research interests revolving around organizational communication, technology and work. The Appozitegeist blog will explore shopping, style and social issues; it’s bound to be quite different from what I talk about here. I’m very excited about the new company and my role there, so give it a look!

I finally got around to reading “Uses of Blogs” today, a book I picked up at the AOIR conference in Brisbane back in September 2006. I should have read this book sooner; it was a relevant and stimulating treatment of blogging.

I found the chapters on blogging in PR and academia most interesting (go figure). A couple weeks ago, I started a sort of apprenticeship with an Austin-based web marketing consultant. So far, I’ve learned a lot about marketing and public relations online. I’m more interested in the PR aspects of this kind of work, but it’s great to learn about the marketing side of things, too. Anyway, I’m coming to realize the importance of good content to a successful marketing and PR effort. Trevor Cook’s chapter about PR emphasizes this point.

In his chapter, Cook also discusses the always on, conversational nature of PR online. Blogs play an important role in the “dialogue” of contemporary public relations by allowing practitioners to interact with publics in a real-time, one-to-one, permanent space. Blogs allow practitioners to create relationships with individuals and not just broadcast dumbed-down messages to mass audiences. Lots of good stuff in that chapter, and I will definitely be coming back to some of these ideas.

The chapters about blogging in academia focused on issues of collaboration and intellectual discourse, transparency and hierarchy. Specifically, Jill Walker’s chapter about blogging inside the ivory tower focuses on issues related to a scholar’s position in the academic hierarchy and her online interactions. Interestingly, Walker thinks grad students are in the best position to blog openly (and under their real names) about both the academic process and the content they study. I don’t disagree with that; I certainly have used this blog for exploring a range of topics, including research ideas, the process of earning a Ph.D., personal interests, etc… It does seem like the various responsibilities of a faculty or administrative position could dampen an individual’s desire to be completely free and open with blog content. As a student, however, I don’t really feel that pressure. I certainly don’t feel like my blog will negatively impact my dissertation process or job prospects. I guess we’ll see about that soon enough…

Overall, this book was a pretty quick read, and some of the chapters were more relevant to me than others. But it got me thinking in different ways about issues I think a lot about already.

A reader posted this question on Fast Company’s website, and though there are only four responses so far, everyone has said yes. Huh.

Update: I didn’t have time to elaborate any on this before, but I can now. I am not at all surprised that people check their Blackberries while with their families or friends. But I am a little surprised they admit to it so readily. I would have expected a social desirability bias in people’s responses; isn’t it bad to work when you’re with your kids? That’s what TV says anyway.

Looking at their individual responses is a bit more revealing - the four responses use language like “need to stop that” and “wow I have no life.” So maybe these people are comfortable telling the world they check their Blackberries while with their kids, as long as they admit that it might be a bad thing.

I wonder what kids think of Blackberries and their ilk. When I was little, no one had cell phones, especially not my parents. Do they mind that their parents keep their Blackberries around all the time? Do they think their parents are important or cool? Do kids want their own Blackberries?

Finally! I’ve seen these types of arrangements in other cities, but nothing quite like it here in Austin. Until now, at least. LaunchPad Coworking will open this summer, and provide the sort of community workspace those of us who work from home sometimes want, when we just need to get out of the house and be around other people. It’s more than a coffee shop and less than an full-time office. I love this idea! I think that some days, all I need to get my creative juices flowing is some interaction with like-minded others. Being around people who are excited and working hard inspires me to be and do the same.

From their blog:

LaunchPad Coworking is a place for independent workers, telecommuters, business travelers and office escapees to join together and work smarter. Carefully designed as a collaborative workplace with a café, LaunchPad Coworking provides independent workspaces and meeting rooms for rent by the hour, ergonomic chairs, ample power outlets, and secure, fiber-optic connectivity. LaunchPad Coworking is a cure for home office isolation and cubicle craziness.

Awesome! I’m looking forward to learning more about this space. I think it’s a great idea, especially in a town that seems to have so many people who work for themselves or out of their homes. I would pay a reasonable amount of money to have a something like a timeshare on an office somewhere else, for those days when I need to get out of the house but Austin Java just won’t do. My home office is wonderful - I have a comfortable chair and two huge monitors - but sometimes I enjoy being around other working people, and this seems like a great solution.

Note: I guess I do have a desk on campus, but there’s been a dead cockroach under it for more than six months and it’s dirty and old and not at all the kind of work environment one needs to be creative and productive. In fact, it’s just downright gross.

The SXSW Interactive schedule has been posted. I’ve yet to go through it completely, but I’m so geeked out and excited that almost all the panels look good.

Lots of the Core Conversations look interesting - Examining the Different Ways We Can Work, Coworking and the Evolution of the Independent Worker, Next Generation Education: Bringing the New Web to Campus, Mobile Manners: Mobile Presence and the Undefined Etiquette, Do You Have to Disappear Completely to Get Things Done?, Online Identity: And I *Do* Give a Damn About My Bad Reputation, among others.

More on this over the next few weeks.