And so, slowly, I am returning.
Spring was spent watching the wild primroses growing inside the conservatory; the outdoors breaking in to the quiet security of my home. Now the cherry blossoms have fallen from the trees and I find I am out of time.
Time to start moving again, regroup and replan.
As mentioned in my last post I am now entering the major analysis phase of my research, a phase set to last me a full year. I have over fifty hours of transcribed audio (interviews and meetings) which I now need to sit down and face.
The overall approach directly supports multiple-viewpoint analysis of the topics under investigation and allows for cross-comparison of stories told in interviews and meetings (i.e. under different interactional circumstances). It also lends itself to a focus on the different types of narrative found in different circumstances, which may have an impact on our understanding of developer coordination in different meeting structures.
It is a beautiful strategy and a big pile of work. I have taken the decision to upgrade from my trusty N6 to NVIVO 7 which will be better for visualisations. I look forward to learning this new software as well.
I look forward to being able to see this work take shape, such that I can see past the methodology to the results. I have taken heed of my fortune cookie quote from HackDay:
"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results" (Winston Churchill)
"You look tired" he said as I reached my car that morning.
"Do I?"
Shaking his head he rephrased himself, "Do you think you look tired?"
I shrugged at the stranger, and looked up at the grey morning sky. Winter was creeping in and everywhere was damp from the recent rain. "Everyone is tired at this time of year."
"Is this your car? I cleaned it for you."
I looked at him, this stranger who had halted me.
"The birds, you know. I have a woollen sock. It works well, wool. It just wipes off, like this. See?"
I looked at him as he wiped at my car with a white woollen sock.
"I'm going to clean my steps using it next."
I muttered my thanks and excused myself. Interesting kindness and odd words.
It was lovely to attend the Christmas Geek Dinner. I was able to arrive late and be surprised about what had been arranged. Bliss.
I'm remaining nothing but glad that I took the sensible route and deliberately stepped back a bit from co-organising the girl geek dinners. I was severely over-committed, spread thin. Although I had put a lot of work into setting up the dinners, now they're established and my time is precious, the time came to redistribute my time more effectively.
The night itself was great fun, with an interesting talk from Aral*, lovely food, gifts and a fun raffle. It was a tribute to all the hard work put in by Simon, Devi and Rosie.
Although it was strange to not be involved, especially given my tendency towards volunteering for everything, attending as normal attendee was a sheer pleasure, and I hope to do so again soon!
---
* Amused that 2007 really was the year of the social, both locally (more socials than ever) and globally (more focus on social and communication media).
I had the sheer pleasure of giving a SkillSwap talk on agile with Tom entitled 'Agile: Iterating the Reasons' on 21st November. As it occurred the day after XPDay, although shattered, there were a lot of arguments fresh in our heads.
I did the dry conceptual basics and Tom countered with the enthused practicalities. It was the first time I had ever co-presented and it turned out to be a complete joy, together we could look at a subject from more than one angle and bounce ideas off each other. I think it also gave a nicer pace.
I'd be curious to see whether much study has been done on co-presenting for teaching - I think there may be a strong parallel to pair programming. Quality was improved, interest (at least on our side!) was maintained, and - as this type of presenting is much less draining - may be more efficient. Teaching is exhausting, but much less so under these conditions. Theoretically it may be possible to teach more classes under this model where the work is shared.
I loved doing this, and just hope that the people attending gained something from it as well. Our slides are available on request.
So I defended the next stage of my research as challenged. Kinda.
I clarified a lot of things which I had forgotten to say and learned some important lessons:
I shaped an analysis plan for this coming year which effectively showed I need to:
Unfortunately some issues are still unresolved. As I am looking for my hypothesis to arise from my data I am currently in the worrying position of being able to produce a thesis suitable for social science and of interest to practitioners, but that in itself isn't necessarily a passable informatics thesis.
This could be a serious problem, especially if my data proves less amenable than I hope. Sadly my data doesn't support incremental analysis - it is all or nothing, so I cannot fail fast.
I know I can do this, but I am mildly amused that I have effectively just argued that I be allowed to conduct waterfall research. Single loop: Gather, Analyse, Deliver.
I have also promised to focus. This means cutting back on all my other commitments and getting on with my research for a change.
We shall see next Easter how well this has all succeeded. Until then, wish me luck.
There was an odd feeling deep in my bones tonight. Like spring in autumn, a bounce in my step, a desire to run wild.
I was on the bus home, cider in my veins, on my way to my family home, my childhood bedroom, my work. To do work.
I almost rebelled. This feeling pushed.
In a moment, in a flash, I would have been off the bus, out to go dancing and socialising, rebelling as if I were still young. I am still young (I am!) but, as the crowd reminded me as the bus pulled past, not that young. It has been more than twelve years since I first went to that nightclub. So long ago.
And yet this need still pulsed through me. Why do I need to work? Why can't I still run wild? After all I do still live at home. I am still a student.
Instead the bus drew me on, drew me home, to the life that is still in flux as I fail to grow up or live young. The life in which I failed to decide who I want to be.
I run late, searching for things that cannot be found. Like a white rabbit joining the hunt for snarks.
I don't know whether it is poor spatial awareness, poor balance, or just a love of tactile sensation, but I feel the walls when I walk.
As a child I would run my hand along the fence, rat-a-tat-tat, on my way home. I did the same with the walls, but they made a less interesting sound. I did the same with a Yucca, and cut my hands.
My trailing hand feels the path.
I didn't learn a lesson from that yucca experience and today my hands still follow walls, radiators, window panes, wood. I know where I have been from the textures on the walls I pass.
Texture, balance, whatever. I feel my way wherever I go.
(Not sure if that's just me, and an odd compulsion that is all my own, or a perfectly normal behaviour that I have just chosen to vocalise.)
Today I realised I had lost my walk.
I was walking at the time. Baffled, I almost stopped.
When I was younger a friend used to joke I had the Newman walk. To his mind all those who went to Cardinal Newman School came out with a distinctive walk. I had it, my brother had it, my friend's ex-girlfriend and another friend's niece and nephew all had it. A fast-stride high bounce walk. Bobbing while striding. Purposeful.
These days I amble; slow, flat, no pace or drive. Comfortable but not powerful.
'I've lost my walk' I was thinking as I walked along by the level just now, 'Should I try and find it?' And as I was thinking these thoughts on came a song on the radio: Here Comes the Hotstepper.
I enjoyed that walk, but I shall wait and see what the future holds for me walk-wise.
Yesterday I cleared. Shuffling things in my small living space.
The strange thing I realised is that being back in your childhood bedroom causes interesting filing issues. Fitting a lot of things gathered over many years into a small space is never easy...
Where *should* the pop-up pirate game be slotted*? Does my croquet set really belong with my shoes and glockenspiel**? Where is the best position for my top hat? My hourglass? My Thundercats VHS videotape or my Storyteller cassette tape? How does the logical ordering of mask, stone and dried flowers work?
I'm finding my own order.
----
* The answer turned out to be on top of my PC under my workstation. Sometimes these things are necessary.
** Another case of 'spiel'.
After a brief discussion about the etymology of the word spiel I looked it up.
I now know:
game in Afrikaans is wedstryd
game in Danish is leg, spil
game in Dutch is spel
game in French is jeu
game in German is Spiel, Partie, Spiel
game in Italian is giuoco
game in Latin is venatio, ludus
game in Norwegian is spill (which I knew already)
game in Portuguese is jogo
game in Spanish is baraja, juego
Game Translations
I am entertained, and vaguely satisfied, that spiel is rooted in game/play.
I fear my memories will fade.
I hadn’t realised the true pain involved with Burning Man; the heat, the tent-snapping storms, the stinging dust that swells your hands and feet, the blistering walking distances, the need for radical self-reliance and vinegar.
Yet, somehow, whether deliberate or not, this makes the place. You need each other, a community whole. Everyone gives, everyone tries to make the experience good for all. Everyone contributes from volunteering, to running theme camps, even just in keeping the place free of MOOP.
It is a community trying to have fun and express themselves in a location that is, simply put, out to get you.
We drove in at dawn, past the words, to Will Call and my ticket. The sun broke across the playa; it wasn’t morning mist refracting the light, it was dust.
We were camped at about 2.40, spanning between Grasslands and Habitat, with the lovely people associated with Wolf and Lamb and the Sapphire Portal. Their shade structures astounded and their showers were by far the best in town.
I might not have got to know many of them well, but I will always love them all for providing my lovely home. Just as I will always love the people I travelled up with for their forethought, planning and browbeating.
Despite the pain*, I had a week I will hold in my heart and treasure for a long time.
I still dream of it. I will return.
My fracturing memories in no clear order:
Dawn over the playa, dragonflies mating, my battery-powered fairy-lights that lit up the world and the moth that loved them, the sapphire portal, camelbacks and dry mouths, long walks, the bliss of cycling (although not on the dark sand), the ‘musical’ portaloos, ‘high strung’ aka hammock-land and lovely naps, the rebuilt man glowing in the dark, the necessity of tutus, joy of water misters, my poor aim with waterpistols, great cthulu and duck the bike guardians, hair that will not move for dust, the problems with tutus, eating at the snack food glory hole, the volunteers dancing on the bar at centre camp, the beauty of tinned pineapple and cold cold margaritas, Barbie death camp, dance dance immolation, watching the lights spin through 3D glasses, the slow burn of the temple, the cheers at the thunderdome, animal crackers, trampolines, rebar, the physical pain of packing up and leaving, "they don't let it stop them", the tiny room of mirrors at the hive, visiting spikes, centre camp and lemonade, the fear the rain will turn the dust to glue, giggling at friends at the roller disco, the draining of the coolers, chasing glowing balls in the dark, monkeys swinging round in the dark, the drying shower water stained by the beetroot people, the Cheshire cat art car (amongst others) sailing by in the dark like giant luminescent leviathans in the deep (where us humans were but small fry), my first ride on an art car, getting hit by swinging western doors, missing people, finding people, my amazing escape from sunburn, the man who told people they were beautiful with all sincerity as he passed them in the crowd, the pickled runner bean in the bloody mary, how smoking summoned dust storms two days running, vitamin water, climbing on vans for the view, dancing until dawn, night golf and a crocodile head, the gift of lovely pasta bolognese, remembering my cup, forgetting my cup, the dust that creeps in everywhere, visiting Hobbiton, queuing for ice, hugs from the tequila-giving eyeball riders, getting lost in the dark and somehow still found by friends, sitting on a sofa in the middle of nowhere in the night reading the letters, air raid sirens filling the air and an explosion that rocked the world, the simple realisation that I was home.
[Photoset] [other flickr photos: 'burningman07']
---
* I'm really proud I went to burning man, camped in the desert and came away without the normally inevitable sunburn.
While in Washington DC for Agile 2007 a group of us visited the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.
The line "No Country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources" quoted on one of the inscriptions entertained us.
The use of the phrase 'human resources' had attracted our attention. The concept of developers often being treated as nothing but resources to be swapped about had been raised many times during the conference.
From Wikipedia:
In the very narrow context of corporate "human resources", there is a contrasting pull to reflect and require workplace diversity that echoes the diversity of a global customer base. Foreign language and culture skills, ingenuity, humor, and careful listening, are examples of traits that such programs typically require. It would appear that these evidence a general shift to the human capital point of view, and an acknowledgment that human beings do contribute much more to a productive enterprise than "work": they bring their character, their ethics, their creativity, their social connections, and in some cases even their pets and children, and alter the character of a workplace. The term corporate culture is used to characterize such processes.
The traditional but extremely narrow context of hiring, firing, and job description is considered a 20th century anachronism. Most corporate organizations that compete in the modern global economy have adopted a view of human capital that mirrors the modern consensus as above. Some of these, in turn, deprecate the term "human resources" as useless.
I have yet to work out why the phrase "No Country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human capital" would be any more preferable.
*** Warning: This is quite a self-indulgent post for me. ***
... And so I took a holiday. Somewhat.
Looking back on the last several years there is a pattern. I have been on holiday several times. The majority were busman’s holidays. I have invariably brought work from home with me as well for good measure. I've had no holidays without work.
That’s just what you do.
(Especially in research. It’s not like I can leave my research at the office.)
So I took advantage of the fact that I was going to the states to present (x2) and work as a student volunteer at a conference in DC to go on holiday. I extended my flights and bought others. I planned a tour.
(I took some work with me to be getting on with of course. Who needs tourism when you have editing to be getting on with?)
________________________
The first week away was at the conference. Working, presenting and socialising turned out to be pretty full-time, so I didn’t get my additional work done. I hadn’t shaken myself out.
I did have a good try with the facepaint though. [Photoset]
________________________
The second week away involved imposing on an acquaintance in LA. ‘Put me up, I’ll be quiet and get on with work. I’ll be good, you won’t even need to talk to me.’
This started a shift. I did that work I’d brought with me, I procrastinated with tv, but somehow, inevitably I slowly faced the fact I was somewhere new, not Brighton. I was away from all close friends, all procrastinating work. I didn't know what to do with myself - going out exploring on my own was unthinkable.
My rhythms broke, my thinking changed.
For the first time in a decade (or in my life?) I slept in front of people (people I didn’t even know well) with trust – they came, went, chatted, sewed while I slept. I went out and met new people. I slowly remembered just a little bit what it was to be self-sufficient, to understand that my mood was my own and, fundamentally, that I actually quite liked my own company*. I still wasn’t comfortable with the idea that I was completely on my own, but I was working on it.
I made it out and explored. [Photo Set]
________________________
Week three (and a bit) was in Burning Man, about which I shall write more and separately. I didn't camp with my friends from Brighton, a chance choice which helped me further expand this idea of my own individual coherence. It was hard. By the end of the first day (after two days awake) I was hot, lost, dehydrated and fretting that I had friends out there somewhere that I couldn’t find. I had no laptop, no
mobile, no work to read, to hide behind, and I was somewhere alien to everything I knew.
Over the days I slowly coalesced my thoughts, and grounded myself. It was lovely when I found my friends, but it made me realise how much I missed my once independent spirit. I re-evaluated my fear of walking about alone; was alone so bad? Where was my random self-reliance?
I don’t know at what point things shifted, I don’t know that they ever did completely.
All I know is that by the time I left I was happy and content in myself. Closer to someone I recognised. [Photoset]
________________________
Week four culminated with the journey to San Jose from Burning Man, where I realised I was brave enough to rekindle an old friendship, which in turn led me to San Francisco, views, beaches, twisting roads in town and mountain, the smell of eucalyptus, sons of butcher at high speed and good laughs. 
The next day I took my time, rediscovered sleep, encouraged randomness met up with Sophie and went exploring. Oddly happy. [Photoset]
Thankfully this set my mood well for the two days and four flights that my odd travel plans had left me for the journey back to Brighton. I didn’t mind the occasional security issues**, the fact I almost missed one of my connecting flights due to my phone resetting its clock, and I actively rejoiced when my bags turned up with me at my final destination.
________________________
Hopefully I will carry the memories of this time with me for a good while longer.
I had a holiday. I welcomed randomness and wonder back into my life.
More astoundingly I... relaxed.
And so, before I left for my month away from town I ended up asking myself what my priorities were. I’d somewhat (no, not somewhat, certainly) neglected my health and my social life over the past year.
Of course I blame it on my ‘white rabbit’ issue. Friends and health fall behind work issues when there are time concerns (‘I’m late, I’m late’). This is just the way I have always worked.
The problem is that I am always late for something. I always have something I ought to be doing.
The immediate and overdue gets dealt with, the ongoing slips and slides.
When do you face you are doing too much?
How can you convince yourself that a reprioritising is necessary? Give yourself some time back to play, move, stretch, chat, wander and wonder?
I wasn’t sure so I took a holiday...
And...
I only worked for some of it.
Y’know what, I’m even going to find time to write about it. Honestly.
In 1152, Eleanor of Aquitaine gave a sundial ring to Henry II so that he would know when to leave the hunt for their love trysts. Moved by her love, Henry ordered his jewellers to make a copy for Eleanor – inlaid with diamonds and engraved with the Latin words Carpe diem (seize the day).
I realised while packing for my long trip to the states that I could not find my Aquitaine Sundial Ring. I needed it to tell the time and tell stories in the desert.
And so I ordered myself a new ring, as these days there are stories I cannot tell without it.
I woke up this morning with a sharp remembering. I had forgotten.
Once the walls of my bedroom were tessellated thick with books, pictures, paintings, ephemera and words. Once, that now empty space between the picture rail and the ceiling was filled with hand-written quotes I had lovingly gathered, captured, set down.
I would go to sleep with them and wake up with them before my eyes.
Where are my quotes and words now? What was it they told me?
Good: Dissemination
Bad: Clarity
That’s the long and short of it. I’m doing well, we think, but my lack of clarity about my research aim at this stage is still very worrying. For us all.
Teaching research methods means I am doubly aware of what a horrific state my research is in. How can I have a full data set and no hypothesis? What about hunches? What would be the shape of my thesis?
[Intro]
[Literature]
Magical gap which somehow forms:
[Methodology]
[Exp 1]
[Exp 2]
[Conclusions]
Is this the time to re-read all of phd comics to find where I am in the process?
Review which papers have shaped my thinking?
Write an abstract for my research?
Sketch out thesis shape?
Clearly I need to plan for a conference paper which will capture the story of analysis. I need to break down the next year of analysis; without a testable hypothesis I will need to consider my approach carefully. Analyse a part of the data, or analyse the full data set on a partial axis or theme? What would such themes be? Do they entail having already done a partial analysis? I need to break this down. If someone wanted to replicate my approach what instructions might I leave?
Ugh.
The following faux-abstract is the sticking point:
“Are agile processes reflected in their social aspect? A study of developers’ stories in a company applying agile software development practices. Through their narratives we consider:
And so my writing lacks depth, beauty, truth.
Or so it seems to me.
I see the souls of others, bared on the screen, bringing tears to my eyes.
I remember how I locked down rather than show myself.
I wonder where the me is that I kept confined for so long, wrapped up tight.
I look for my defended self.
And I wonder where my words lie.
I've recently been considering the Industry-Academia divide more and more recently* in the context of technology research and technology businesses.
How can business fail to take on work done in academia, and how can academia fail to take on work done in business? Why are they such distinct creatures?
Prime examples:
I've seen it argued that there is a divide between the goals and values of the two that make communication very difficult. Researchers value new knowledge ('that looks interesting') not new applications and generally don't work well in teams. A good business would rate business value ('that looks profitable') over risky innovation and exploration for exploration's sake, and values teamwork. Researcher's value dissemination, whereas a business would tend to value trade secrets.
I wonder if the base language of the two is just incompatible, or if it is a case of clashing world-views. Can people who work in industry generally appreciate talks given from a business perspective or vice-versa? I've been wondering this especially with the girl geek dinners, where academic talks could seem alien and not responsive to real-world issues but where business talks could leave out important research and background knowledge, depending on who is listening. To my mind the definition of 'someone who works, or has an interest in, technology' should embrace researchers in this field as core, but this does not seem to be so clearly the case.
I've become more and more sympathetic to the claims that more initiatives need to exist to bring the two sides together in collaboration, but I remain unsure as to whether they could ever fully understand each other. I also remain unsure whether this is a failure of universities to move with the times and acknowledge work done outside of their sheltered world, or whether it is the business view that work in academia is not necessarily valid work.
It just, well, seems such a waste.
----
* Presumably because I am an academic who is having a lot of contact with the Brighton new media community at present, rather than due to any exciting, or novel, trains of thought.
I have recently started a piece of idle musing. Do I drink so much coffee because it was featured so strongly in Twin Peaks?
Did I watch it at just the right age for me to take up coffee and smoking (stopped for almost two years) because of all the placement? And why did I never take to cherry pie?
These really are important questions and vital for me to consider over and above doing my work.
The worst of the academic year is now over. Not worst, just busiest.
I can feel my stress levels reducing, and am hoping to be a lot more social and a lot less tense.
The. Tension. Was. Beginning. To. Be. A. Problem. I admit.
(Two pieces of work left, I can see the end.)
To celebrate, since teaching for the academic year is over*, I have reverted to the blue side.
Phew.
And relax*.
And breathe.
---
* I don't like to have my hair dyed when leading classes of postgraduates. The class is mostly full of people who are the same age as me and just as bright, if not more so. This leads to a desire on my part to give them as little to judge me on as possible. Pigeonholed immediately can be hard to work round. I still remember Liverpool as a teenager, the busload of excited children staring and my abortive attempts to explain I was not a football fan to people on the streets. Things are different these days, but people still presume on first glance.
** I took a trip to see an old friend that practices shiatsu. I hadn't been in five years it turned out. I appear to be much better now than I was then, surprisingly, and it was a lovely calming experience (so calming I fell asleep). All the points she mentioned that I felt strongly about were for 'calming the mind' entertainingly.
I had an interesting moment yesterday when starting to explain how coding* works in qualitative research. I was thinking about the easiest way to explain it to a layperson and realised...
All it is is tagging. Standard web2 tagging.
Odd that I had never conceived of the two as linked before. It is blindingly obvious.
I've been participating in the Tags Networks Narrative in my *cough* spare time so I've noticed it even more. TNN is a "unique speculative project exploring the potential for collaborative keyword tagging (folksonomy) in narrative research." It is looking at tagging as a form of communication, folksonomy as an emergent knowledge network and narrative as a common ground.
By happy coincidence I have been assigned to the 'blue group' - see more on the project weblog.
(I am curious to hear more about the findings from our 'adventures in tagging' at the project seminar in June.)
---
* Not programming.
Working flat out, continuous but relaxed, long days, long weeks, my promised holiday to myself melted away into yet more opportunities I could not miss. Been a good month; have forgotten most that is not work related.
I had a birthday, lovely time at the hideous and yet fun Bali Brasserie. Grateful to all my friends that came and reminded me that I had not lost them all to work.
I did a storytelling performance, stood up and told in front of a paying audience. Wish I had spent more than a couple of hours in prep, but seemed ok in the end.
I slept I think.
I wish I had had more time to enjoy the outdoors, to bask in the spring air and gaze at the flowers. Mild regrets.
Holes in time.
Very sad to have missed a workshop on Retrospective techniques being run by Diana Larsen and Rachel Davies - Had place, had train ticket, had directions, had to be ill all night. Such is the way.
Sad to have been so ill I ended up in bed for two days - also missing XtC and an XPDay meeting.
We are almost ready to launch ticket sales for the upcoming Brighton Coding Dojo night which will be held at the Creativity Zone at Sussex on 10th May as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival. Tickets will be £3/£2 and the night will be fully catered (a real bargain). Public, students and professional programmers are all welcome (although some knowledge of programming constructs is preferred).
Further information will become available on http://www.brightoncodingdojo.co.uk/ within the next week or so.
My major question right now is whether I think people can learn a new language and the concepts of test driven development in one session… Should we announce the language so that people all have the chance to level the field and then apply TDD? Should we just emphasise the learning the language together and make it an exploratory night?
This question will impact strongly on how the coding dojo night will be organised – as we cannot guarantee skill level, language or knowledge. So far it is proving quite difficult.
The lack of clarity of purpose has affected even our publicity:
I fear people may expect some kind of performance-art martial-arts display on coding…
When I was little I always wanted letters after my name because it seemed cool. I'm an odd type.
Yesterday I had the interesting news that Associate Practitioners (i.e. Associate tutors with recognised qualification) have become Associates of the Higher Education Academy, with the post-nominal AHEA.
This, when combined with the recent completion of my PGCert in Narrative Research from UEL, means that I am now Johanna Hunt BA, MSc, PGCert, AHEA. One day my DPhil / PhD will come as well to the list.
I suspect I am almost qualified out - for the moment anyway. The only thing immediately tempting my bank account is the Scrum Master Qualification, which I surely want, but will cost me over £1000. Hard cash for a perpetual student like me.
I’ve compiled a short list of ideas for those who wish to add a dash of stress into their lives — all fairly easy to implement, not to mention widely encouraged by society at large and often easily observed in the behavior of those around you.
...
1. Attempt to control absolutely everything
2. Believe in the possibility of ‘making it’
3. Look for satisfaction out there
4. Emphasize yourself
5. Be more and have more
...
At the core, all of the above ideas can be summed up in a single method: simply convince yourself that you need more than you have at any given moment, and you will be able to maintain a steady feeling of anxiety throughout the day. This can be a feeling of needing to become more than you already are, or needing to have more than you have now (which are actually one and the same), and can be felt more generally as a perpetual sense of lack.
As part of my drive to finally take a trip out of Europe I have submitted an Experience Report (in conjunction with FP) to Agile 2007*. I will also submit research in progress papers for my research and for Agile Narratives.
If I coincide this with my student volunteering there, it should prove a wonderful experience at fairly low cost to me. It reminds me that the long hours really are worth it.
---
* Which also nicely coincides with Burning Man.
After an unusually productive mapping meeting with my supervisors I now have thoughts and plans for how to approach my research. An actual plan. At last.
Sadly this means more interviewing, but will also make everyone more comfortable and possibly also provide me with stories to stock the Agile Narratives project with. I will elaborate my plan once I remember to get it signed off with my lovely collaborating company.
I find it strange how you can watch a meme spread, yet still be surprised when it eventually hits you.
So, I’ve been tagged by Rosie to share my 'Five things you didn’t know about me'. This proved an interesting challenge, so I am writing this for those who may not know me personally (where I have few secrets left).
Who next? Hmm. OK. The five I choose to tell me more about themselves are: Tom, James, Sophy, Rachel, Esther. Tag, you’re it.
I find it strange how you can watch a meme spread, yet still be surprised when it eventually hits you.
So, I’ve been tagged by Rosie to share my 'Five things you didn’t know about me'. This proved an interesting challenge, so I am writing this for those who may not know me personally (where I have few secrets left).
Who next? Hmm. OK. The five I choose to tell me more about themselves are: Tom, James, Sophy, Rachel, Esther. Tag, you’re it.
Expectations for the coming year:
More? Need there be more?
'We, the undersigned, believe the following two principles to be the foundation of academic freedom:
(1) that academics, both inside and outside the classroom, have unrestricted liberty to question and test received wisdom and to put forward controversial and unpopular opinions, whether or not these are deemed offensive, and
(2) that academic institutions have no right to curb the exercise of this freedom by members of their staff, or to use it as grounds for disciplinary action or dismissal.'
Academics for Academic Freedom
---
"The statement, launched by 64 academics including philosopher A. C. Grayling, would extend the current law that ensures that academics are free to "question and test received wisdom, and to put forward unpopular opinions".
If adopted in law, it would give all academics the unfettered right to speak out on any issue, "both inside and outside the classroom", whether or not it was part of their area of academic expertise and "whether or not these [issues] were deemed offensive"."
Scholars demand right to be offensive
---
Reminds me of the issues at Sussex a while back when I supported the decision at the university not to dismiss someone for their publicly stated opinions. I believed in freedom of thought whether or not it was politically correct and even when their opinions were appalling. I just thought that he should keep his opinions separate from his teaching, and did not condone his discrimination.
Interesting thought raised directly from Jason Yip's post back in November.
What do you have to fail to do before people can say you are no longer 'agile'? Is it possible to avoid current issues in 'defining agile' by creating instead a falsifiable set of criteria? Show when there is no spoon?
Just a muse, which follows on from the recent debates on defining Agile (as a methodology, religion or meaningless phrase):
"The key to Shu Ha Ri* is realizing that it's a process and that it cannot be
rushed. Agile the term means nothing, it's like saying "Martial Arts". The
actual methodologies like XP and Scrum are like the individual arts themselves
-- Aikido and Wing Chun to name a couple.
Nobody ever suggests that we
should remove the term "Martial Arts" because it doesn't really define anything
itself. And nobody suggests we stop teaching Aikido or Wing Chun because the top
UFS and Pride champions are mixed martial artists who study many forms and tune
them into their own personal styles."
Hmm, more needs to be done to consider the religious and martial art parallels which keep being drawn with Agile. I'll need to remember to return to this thought...
---
* Is it mumbo-jumbo for this comparison to be drawn in the first place?
If I had to list them as a top 10 (in alphabetical order):
Children of Men
Hoodwinked
Lady in the Water
Little Miss Sunshine
Pan's Labyrinth
The Departed
The Prestige
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
V For Vendetta
Walk The Line
So once again the tail-end of the year turned into a whirlwind of activities.
(Combined with some much needed lie-ins.)
After the visit to Devon, the xmas eve present opening, the cooking of the xmas lunch, the feeding of the 14 on boxing day, the three-day jaunt to Hastings (to play Munchkin, Cyberpunk, win at poker and generally relax), a 30th birthday party, and then New Year I now find I have much too much work to do.
And that, yet again, I have broken my phone. In the same way as last time...
(I fear I should not be allowed near technology.)
I'm excited for the coming year. It will be hectic, but should be pretty darned interesting.
So yes, erm, let us see how this one unfolds.
Free food, good company. The Eagle, 16 January 2007.
For some obscure reason I love being involved in conferences. It could just be that I spent too long as a conference administrator, or it could be that it is an easy way to have reasons to talk to people and be helpful. I noted this fact at XPDay, when I realised how much I had enjoyed being a student helper at VL/HCC 2006 and XP2006.
Unlike many people I do not view it as a step down (from being paid to organise the darned things) but instead see it as a busman's holiday. I get to go to a conference, get to be helpful without taking on the responsibility, and generally save £300+ in the bargain.
I will continue to student volunteer (in cases where I cannot help with the organisation) for as long as I remain eligible. I have already put myself forward to help out at QCon London, will shortly for Agile 2007 and hope to eventually for XP2007 (even if it does clash with my helping out at Glastonbury Festival...)
This should be a great year for conferences.
The 3rd Creativity Workshop (Organised by the Creative Strategy Working Group in association with inQbate and the CETL in creativity) 'Catching the sparks: Methods for researching creativity' managed to fit an awful lot into an impressively short space of time (3.5 hours). Flickr photos up here.
---
Welcome: Steve Burman, Dean, School of Humanities
A very brief intro, stressing how nice it was that there was such a mix of areas represented at this workshop.
Visiting speaker: Geraint Wiggins, Professor of Computational Creativity, Goldsmiths: “Computational Creativity”
Behaviour deemed 'Creative' if performed by a human, through computational means. This covers the spectrum from human-like artefact behaviour to understanding creativity through simulation. Definition is therefore 'creative behaviour' not the more tricky 'creativity'.
Old chestnut - Programmer creative not computer. Response: Machine Learning, not directly programmed.
Associative memory may be the key to human creativity; stored by content not by address.
Scientists are creative just in a different domain, in a different way, with different criteria for success.
Introduces CHORAL (old KBS from 1985) which first year music and computing students are asked to simulate. CHORAL harmonises in the style of J S Bach. Interestingly I chose wrong when asked to differentiate between the computer generated harmonisation and the Bach. The actual problem with the system is that it produces melodies which are 'too Bachy' and 'full of Bachness'.
The proposal is to try to generate a similar system through machine learning, but this would raise interesting issues in criteria for judging.
ChrisT (who is heading up the new Music Informatics course) commented that the talk about 'creativity' was giving him horrible flashbacks to talk years ago about 'intelligence' (The term being so hard to pin down that it was defined in terms of behaviour of that form) and was concerned that there may end up being another 30 years of agonising over the term.
I also learned that Crazy Frog was, in part, generated algorithmically. Shudder.
Mary Agnes Krell (Media, Sussex): “Mobile Media Methodologies” (practice based research)
Mary Agnes talked about her MA students who look at mobile media.
Students look at:
She talked through mobile media schemes in other institutions and projects that her students had worked on (such as Jon Winet's Goal for the World Cup).
As part of the course they actively explore:
I want to do that course now, but will settle for finding out more about it.
Sue Roe (CCE, Sussex): “Researching Biography : Exploring and Inventing Methodologies'
Sue asked 'What is Biographical work? Is it scholarly, empirical, creative, theoretical?
She argued that it was not consciously theoretical. The biographer is constrained by facts. Theorists ask 'so many questions'. Things should be brought into juxtaposition, but only when you have all the facts. In her view you can't address theory and biography at the same time. Biographical work, to her, is closer to art. The unconscious is doing the work. Looking at the telling of the story vs. linear argument.
Open floor discussion
The floor discussion was an interesting trip into the difference between rigour in the humanities vs. the sciences (authority vs. process). It was argued that the sciences also judge validity in terms of creativity in a sense; Einstein with 'beauty' and quantum mechanics with aesthetics. The discussion kept returning to differences in 'evaluation'.
Ginger Break…
Fantastic idea. Ginger-themed tea break. There was ginger beer, giner wine, root ginger, gingerbread, ginger cake, ginger biscuits, ginger chocolate. Mmm.
Kim Lasky (Hums, Sussex): "Wedding: a prose poem on critical and creative writing" (practice based research)
Framelock - unspoken frameworks (see Irving Goffman)
Collaboration of intellect and imagination.
"I learn by going where I have to go."
Jess Moriarty (Languages, Brighton): “A Creative Writing retreat for academic staff” (problem based research)
In charge of creative writing workshops for academics - aiming to rekindle joy for writing in academics for whom writing has stopped being a passion or a pleasure.
We were asked to write a poem celebrating ourselves:
I will not share, but suffice to say it was great fun.
Justine Johnstone (SPRU, Sussex): “Researching ICT & Creativity: some methodological questions”
Asked whether creativity research can help us in ICT?
Robert Whittle (LifeSci, Sussex): “Science-art collaboration: some methodological musings”
A musing presentation on the benefits to science and art of collaboration. Often a one-way benefit - to the arts and not to science. He suggested art practitioners can help as feedback mechanisms to scientists - by using the trading of metaphors and drawing-out. For example he notices that scientists draw all the time but then just throw their diagramming away.* Another example of mutual collaborations would be Physics and The Novel by Alan Wall and Gron Tudor-Jones. A third example was his suprise when an artist (as part of meta-art) asked him which bits of the fruit-fly that he studied he liked, which led to an interesting collaboration.
Open floor discussion
Agreement that sci-art often not an equally beneficial collaboration. Interesting discussion around diagrams in science. Are they used to achieve agreement, externalising for development of a concept only, and just thrown away? Should they be kept? Performative vs. descriptive? Emotional relationship? What is the metaphor of a diagram? Should the artist be brought in as a diagram collector?
Concluding
The talk was interestingly summed up by the esteemed Maggie, and we shall all look forward to the next workshop (where the tea-break theme will be peppermint).
---------
* Nice example being the dojo scribblings this week.
My Nabaztag sits - these days in the blue set-up mode - waiting for someone to tell me how to connect out via the Sussex roaming network.
It should work. But it is not.
My bunny is sad.
And so, with my lovely supply of Kinder Milk Slices (supplied in a brown bag under the table by the lovely Rachel) having ebbed low my thoughts turn to the obvious facts.
I may actually need to start thinking about my weight.
Properly and all that.
I have always ignored my weight: when I am big I am big, and when I am not so big well, does it make any difference? (beyond needing clothes to fit all sizes)
However, right now my health is poor. My blood pressure is worryingly high, I keep having dizzy spells and numb spells, and my asthma is apparent in a way it hasn't been since I stopped smoking.
The sedentary researcher life is not the best.
Never having done this 'dieting' thing before, I am quite daunted.
But I suppose it is time to try something new. It is needed.
On Friday I filled in a talk slot for our weekly lab meetings. It was a rough overview of what I have been up to workwise; covering Agile Narratives, my pilot and extended study, informative workspaces (nabaztags and walls), and the coding dojo.
A lot of interesting ideas have come out from this, which I will be following up soon.
Everyone was particularly taken with the concept behind the coding dojo, and the possible applications for teaching programming and other subjects (such as statistics or report writing). I was glad about this, as I can see plenty of applications which I would never have the chance to implement. It also fits remarkably well with the 'surgical theatre' philosophy of the CETL, so there may be some very interesting collaborations ahead.
Notes for my research to be reviewed and considered (that I remember):
In the run-up to the end of term (2 weeks remaining) my backlog is starting to look worse and worse.
This is sadly not helped now by finding this archive of Free Computer Books, Tutorials & Lecture Notes, giving me even more to worry about needing to read, and this set of links to online lectures to browse.
Come the vacation I shall be well in need of a rest, but also very proud of what I have achieved!
Walking in this morning, past the local college, I looked down.
The ground was splattered, white like paint, with the ghosts of a million discarded chewing-gum souls, slowly fading away.
Ok, so I should clarify the choice of name for this site.
Eventyr directly translates from Norwegian as 'adventure'. I use it for this meaning as it represents the adventure that is my PhD research.
However, the word is also used (as in Folke-eventyr) for folk-tales.
This is doubly representative as I am also in the process of collecting folk-stories about software development.
(That and I grew up with the Asbjørnsen and Moe folkeeventyr.)
(I'm not really making a point here, but wanted to note the thought down anyway.)
Driven home to me this week has been the shortcomings of informatics in academia.
It is all about insularity.
From one side, as discussed this week at the HCT Seminar by Ann Light, is that the common debates we may have (such as the ramifications of RFID tags or smart houses for the elderly) never seem to reach everyday people.
In reverse, new advances elsewhere are not taken up in teaching, as was realised when we found ourselves explaining the concept of Test Driven Development to the third-year undergraduate I am co-supervising. Why is this not taught? Or even mentioned? (In the same vein, why has he used waterfall in three projects, yet never heard of agile...)
Ho hum.
I'm sad. A badly timed 'bout of cold (kindly donated by my god-daughter) means I am missing what looks set to be a very fun night at XtC. Not only will it be busy, with very interesting attendees, but I am missing an opportunity to play with dice. Pff.
Nothing will stop me from being there next week though.
After a day left working without the internet (followed by a coffee-in-laptop incident I would prefer to forget), I started wondering about the general internet addiction we all suffer from. (Don't deny it)
Imagine you woke up in the morning and the internet had left in the night like a wayward lover. If you could not see videos, emails, websites. If it had left you without even a note to hold.
How weird would that be?
(Ooops, forgot to put this live!)
So, after finally getting to experiment with pumpkin carving after all these years, I've decided that next year I'll be going for the dried shrunken heads instead. It looks like less work and gives me a use for some of the cooking apples we end up with at this time of year as well.
Today I got to hold in my hands for the first time a copy of the Computer Society of India Communications containing a brief article I had written.
Getting to physically interact with something you have written is an amazing feeling, and one I hope I will never tire of.
Conversation heard today:
"Although, I should say, they don't have the best social skills. Thought I should mention."
"That's hardly an impediment. This is an informatics department."
First meeting with my new student today. It feel odd to know that I am actually now supervising final year undergraduate CS students, but these things happen I suppose. It should be a wonderful opportunity for him.
Hopefully this should help get the Agile Narratives database moving anyway.
We were running out of shelf space in our back room, so I thought it'd be a fun project to build a shelf unit...
This Bookshelf Hidden Door has me wishing I had enough room so I could mimic this. Want. (via MAKE)
I know I have enough books, I just need to magically find a room of my own...
So, newly fixed just two months ago it was.
And then this morning, while it was parked, I got to watch it reversed into.
Ho hum.
It does seem to be a lot of trouble owning a car sometimes...
Today they took away the beast that is my twice-died Dell laptop.
May this renewal breathe some permanent life into the machine.
I can hope.
Either way, I shall move the rock collection on its return.
(And, this time, I mean it).