Archive for February, 2007

Frenzied in Firenze

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

.. is precisely what I don’t plan on being, but I liked my colleague‘s email subject line so I decided to use it here. Point being: I’ll be in Florence this weekend and am looking for suggestions for what not to miss. As a bit of background: 1. I’ve been already and have visited the relatively obvious touristy musts; 2. I have six guide books in my office with suggestions.

Of course, you could then say “so what do you need us for?”. Well, I’m looking for suggestions of that hole-in-the-wall place you found at the end of your trip having hoped in retrospect to have had more time to enjoy. Or that specific spot on a sidestreet from which the view to some place is especially magnificent. Or whatever. There are hidden gems in every city so I thought it was worth asking.

And if anyone around here happens to be in Florence this weekend, let me know.* This is a work trip, but the meeting doesn’t start until Monday so I have Fri-Sun for fun.

For anyone curious, I’m going there for an OECD meeting on “new millennium learners”. Thanks to INDIRE for sponsoring this. We’ll also have a public meeting next Wednesday on the topic.

* I have another post in the works about how to keep people posted of one’s whereabouts.

Links for 2007-02-27

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

Vote for your favorite academic haikus

Saturday, February 24th, 2007

Jim got such great response to his academic haiku contest that he decided to categorize the submissions by field. You are requested to cast your vote in the following categories:

I’m surprised by some of the classifications, but I’m sure it wasn’t easy with some of those submissions. Why my paper that was published in Social Science Quartery was not classified as social science is beyond me, but perhaps Jim needed some excuse to create a fourth category to make things manageable and thus put some entries in the fourth interdisciplinary tech/computer/Internet-related, but otherwise unrelated group. Even in the realm of academic haikus my work lands in a heap of confusion, the story of my academic life.

In any case, this was a really fun exercise and I thank Jim for inspiring so many of us to think about our work in 17 syllables. If you haven’t done it yet, I recommend playing with the concept even if you are too late to enter this contest. Go read the submissions and vote to get inspired.

I’m quite happy with my “I am an expert” haiku. If you agree, don’t be shy and please check off the corresponding mark, #3 on the tech/computer/Internet list.:-)

Links for 2007-02-24

Saturday, February 24th, 2007

Links for 2007-02-23

Friday, February 23rd, 2007

Links for 2007-02-22

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

Academic haiku

Wednesday, February 21st, 2007

Grad school pal Jim Gibbon launched an academic haiku contest a week ago. I only noticed it today (Wednesday),which happens to be the deadline for submissions. If you still have time, head on over and submit something. If it’s past Wednesday then feel free to add your creative output in the comments here.

The idea is that the haiku should represent some of your work (a paper, a book, a dissertation, etc.). Here are my two submissions:

I am an expert.
I am man, you are woman.
I exaggerate.

From: *Hargittai, E & S. Shafer. 2006. “Differences in Actual and Perceived Online Skills: The Role of Gender.” Social Science Quarterly. 87(2):432-448. June.

RSS, widgets,
Don’t know one from the other.
Average Web users.

From: Hargittai, E. 2007. “Wikis and Widgets: Differences in Young Adults’ Uses of the Internet” Paper to be presented at the 2007 ICA meetings.

[*] I have to add that it’s actually not possible to tell from the findings whether men overestimate or women underestimate their skills, but perhaps that amount of artistic freedom for the haiku is allowed.

Links for 2007-02-21

Wednesday, February 21st, 2007

Quick update

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007

For any regular reader, it’s probably been hard to miss that I haven’t had much time for blogging.. or even browsing the Web given how few links have appeared here via del.icio.us.

I was on the road, first at a MacArthur grantees’ meeting, then in Fort Lee, NJ for a couple of days, next in Chicago for some meetings and data collection, and finally at Northwestern for our graduate recruitment weekend. I’m delighted to be back in what was sunny California when I arrived yesterday, but what is now a cloudy rainy day (less delighted about the latter).

I’m still in catch-up mode so don’t expect too much in the near future. Maybe I’ll post some photos to keep things colorful.

In the meantime, check out how the “wisdom of crowds” principle completely failed me in this guessing game Scott put up. I decided to guess the contents of the coin jar by averaging the guesses of everyone else. It didn’t work at all.

I guess it’s just as well, choosing from among those intriguing prizes would’ve been difficult.

Links for 2007-02-20

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007

Links for 2007-02-15

Thursday, February 15th, 2007

Links for 2007-02-14

Wednesday, February 14th, 2007

Links for 2007-02-13

Tuesday, February 13th, 2007

Links for 2007-02-12

Monday, February 12th, 2007

Links for 2007-02-08

Thursday, February 8th, 2007

Links for 2007-02-07

Wednesday, February 7th, 2007

Links for 2007-02-06

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007

Links for 2007-02-05

Monday, February 5th, 2007

Superbowl dance

Sunday, February 4th, 2007

Not interested in football, but still want to get into the Superbowl spirit? Check out Jeremy’s “The Boy Detective” dance choreographed for the occasion. Try at your own risk.

Requisite addendum from a Chicagolander: Go Bears!

Links for 2007-02-04

Sunday, February 4th, 2007