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Lacking Initiative but Inventing the Future

6. Give the female employee a definite daylong schedule of duties so that they will keep busy without bothering the management for instructions every few minutes. Numerous properties say that women make excellent workers when they have their jobs cut out for them, but that they lack initiative in finding work themselves.

11 Tips on How to Handle Women Employees taken from the 1943 issue of Transportation Magazine (Via The Presurfer)

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I'm getting quite excited in the run up to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.  I am so glad I got a full scholarship to attend.  I admit I'm a bit nervous about being one of their official bloggers, but that just means it is tIme to polish my words, develop some opinions and confirm my daylong schedule of duties so I can do some thinking in advance. (Although I may lack the initiative for the latter, or so I understand from the above.)   

Agile 2007

Agile 2007 in Washington D.C. marked my first international conference and my first time out of Europe.  It therefore could not be anything but an experience.

I was signed up as a student volunteer (again, I just can't seem to not), had a research in progress paper for Agile Narratives and an experience report on informative workspaces so it was set to be a busy conference.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

My photos are available here.

XPDay 7

And so registration for XPDay 2007 in London on 19-20 November 2007 is now open. 

The programme is interesting and lively, and the conference is great fun. 

Don’t forget you can also submit a poster session if you want to interact even further with the conference!

d.Construct

In trying to reflect on d.Construct 2007 I fear I have less to say than I would like.

From the volunteer’s perspective, a role I have filled many times at many other conferences, it was by far the slickest organised conference I have ever attended.  Smoother even than the ones I used to organise back in the day.  I’m glad to have helped for the little I could.

As a conference it also had the nicest T-shirts.  This must be true as I actually plan to wear mine again.  The gift bag was also darned good.  These things so often get overlooked.

I remember that I was on a high from having my first pint of cider in a month the night before.

I remember I was jet-lagged, having flown back from the states and burning man the day before.

I remember the microphone not working just when I needed it to. 

I remember really enjoying the talks.*

I remember drinking afterwards.

I remember drinking some more.

I remember wondering if I should have had some dinner.

And now I seem to have a notepad full of drawn faces, but I don’t recall who drew them.

This probably all summates to a very good conference (v.g.c.).  Shame I don’t seem to have much in the way of notes.

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* I unfortunately clashed slightly with the talk that related to my research area, which somewhat wound me up through not mentioning all the masses of work being done in the area.  It wasn’t a bad talk, in fact it had incredibly well-done slides, just not for me.  Couldn’t be helped.

I did however develop an instant crush on Matt Webb for being the first person in my recollection to ever mention Grice in a presentation.   I wish I had not just hit jetlag nap-time so I could have focussed more on the talk overall as it seemed potentially really fascinating; sadly sleep was battering at my concentration.

PPIG 2007 - When PPIG met Wagner

I was luckily funded (after winning the draw at WIP-PPIG 07) to attend the Psychology of Programming Workshop 2007 in Joensuu in the Lake District area of Finland on 2-6 July 2007.  The programme was the most ambitious yet; featuring keynote talks through technical papers, a doctorial consortium, tutorials, and a wide range of evening activities.  I have written a full review for the PPIG Newsletter but here are some of my highlights:

The workshop opened quietly on the Monday with the Doctoral Consortium, allowing us early-days researchers the chance to chat about our research and build up our confidence for the main conference.  Discussions were focussed on research methods and approaches and detailed and interesting questions were asked after each presentation.  Most importantly we were reminded to never start with a research method, but instead a theory or question that needs to be evaluated: What’s my question?  What evidence will satisfy?  How will I collect the evidence?  And the interesting questions: What do people say they do?  What do they actually do?  We also received good advice on how to read research papers, some ideas I intend to share with the Research Methods class.

There were two great tutorial sessions I attended:

• An informal tutorial on eye-tracking and potential application when researching programming.  We were taught about visual attention and Fovea cones, the history of eye-tracking systems from 1898 through to modern eye-tracking systems, and potentials and challenges for such systems in the context of studies of programming.  The main focus of the tutorial was a hands-on experience using an eye-tracking system to conduct research. 
• A tutorial introducing phenomenography (about which I knew nothing) and grounded theory.  We were given real data we could use to practice the two types of analysis, and I was extremely comforted to find that  I seemed to have a high level of inter-rater agreement with the original researchers using both approaches.  This gave me significantly more confidence that I have it in me to complete my own research. 

Tuesday-Thursday were dedicated to paper presentations:

• On the Wednesday I enjoyed hearing about follower and gatherer roles in role based programming, particularly entertained by the speculative language presented which was called ROTFL (Role-Oriented Titillating but Fictional Language). 
• The ‘Experiential Report on the Limitations of Experimentation as a Means of Empirical Investigation’ advised us not to rush empirical studies with software organisations, and to remember that the controlled experiment route is not always optimal.  We were encouraged to consider how such data can still be rigorous and potentially useful. 
• On the Thursday I was intrigued by two of the closing presentations. Sue Jones' research showing that more experienced students have higher mental rotation ability - she wondered whether mental rotation could be improved. 
• Stuart Wray presented an analysis of SQ and EQ (Systemizing and Emotional Quotients) correlated against programmer aptitude.

On the Wednesday was the interesting discussion on ‘Children's mental/operational models of programming—Do children's programming tools miss something?’  We discussed the activities performed by children, mostly on the internet, which involve programming activity without being explicitly recognised as such; parameter tweaking, optimisation, variation and composition of components (e.g. skins), and the creation of simulations, animations and games.  A variety of questions were approached:  Is it programming if it is fun, simple, socially-led?  Are there generational differences in the mental models being developed?  Do these ‘play’ experiences generalise or lead to correct abstractions for developing programming skills?  Where does algorithmic theory fit in these experiences?  If there is a difference what does it look like and what are the implications?  Should more formal programming be taught earlier in the curriculum?

The trip to the Orthodox Monastery of New Valamo provided us with an interesting tour of the attractive monastery grounds and learned of the history of the monks who live there.  The Byzantine conference dinner was a lovely affair and I admit to being very taken by the Valamo-made berry wines, which were delicious.  I just wish I could buy it in Brighton...

As ever the best bit of the workshop was the number of humorous awards awarded at the end.  These included:

• ‘Most Desperate Attempt to Win a Prize with a Ridiculous Prize Suggestion’
• ‘The ‘p-word Prize’ (For yet another paradigm)’
• ‘Prize for the Largest Number of (Childhood) Stories’
• ‘Philosophy of Methodology Prize’ (for articulating when grounded theory is grounded theory)
• ‘Prize for ‘Running out of Time’ the Greatest Number of Times’
• ‘Prize for Conducting a Discussion with Himself in Public’
• ‘Prize for the Clearest Bottom Line’
• ‘Best Look-Alike Prize’
• ‘Most Stoical Scapegoat Prize’
• ‘Prize for Well-Formed Questions’
• ‘Most Invisible Session Chair Prize’

All in all PPIG 2007 was a wonderfully organised and varied workshop.  There was no shortage of interesting things planned, which helped to create an amazing environment.  I just wish my luggage hadn't been delayed in both directions...

My photos of this enjoyable trip to Finland are available here.

GHC

I have been awarded a full scholarship to travel and attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2007!

This trip to Orlando will mark my second-ever trip to the states and my first to Florida.  I fear Disney, but am greatly looking forward to the conference. 

The Narrative Practitioner

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I found I was presenting at the Narrative Practitioner conference in Wrexham in Wales.  It turned out to be a very enjoyable and interesting experience, with an impressive number and mix of keynote speakers.

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Day One:

By the time I had conquered the long drive up from Brighton, and navigated the Wrexham roads, I found myself sadly late for Donald Polkinghorne’s keynote talk ‘The narrativity of practice’.  What little I did catch was interesting and more than set the tone for the rest of the conference. 

Notes:

• If only the observable is real, we should talk about humans as we talk about objects.  Things are lost if we do this.
• Being human is temporal, we have a beginning, middle and end.
• Ricoeur, humans as actors
• Story helps us to understand and inform our next actions.
• There is something expressed in narrative about being human which is not expressed elsewhere.
• Pragmatism – Doing things moving through life as actors/practitioners
• Goals are contextualised  - not just out there
• Practice goals: ethical, life, means, conflicts
• Retrospective narratives: novice -> expert
• Can be used to invent prospective narratives

I generated a list of types of stories, which I shall have to revisit and revise in future:

• Retrospective stories
• Research articles
• Past experiences
• Oral tradition
• Prospective stories
• Designs (proposals and ‘method sections’)
• Qualitative + Quantitative designs
• Personal stories
• Vicarious (Oral, colleagues, research)
• Authorities (government, empirically based practice)
• Schonn’s thinking in action / walkthroughs

This keynote was followed by another keynote from Didier Danthois (School of Sacred Clowning) with a performance entitled ‘The wisdom of innocence’.  I twittered about how there was a clown on the lecturn, there really was.  After his performance he spoke about how the unknown leads to fear, so we need to learn to play instead.  He felt sad that you leave innocence behind as you grow up.

The afternoon sessions were all interesting, but my notes are sparse so apologies for omissions or inaccuracies. 

Narratives of Action Research (Melissa Sevista Nolas):

• Action research is a relational methodology
• Gergen 1997, Bowen 1998, Jovchelovitch 2007
• Working with groups, communities and organisations
• Dialogue (Levin 1946, 1958, Freire 1970)
• However, little research on action research.
• Bowen 1998 – Context in action research is emergent
• Roth 2006 – Action research methodology books should come with warning stickers
• Ways to learn:
• Didactic model – inadequate
• Apprenticeship model – Determined by opportunity
• Stories – Sharing experiences of Action Research projects
• Shareable world (Kearney 2002:3)
• Riessman Organising Experience
• Schonn Reflecting on Practice
• Polkinghorne (1998) Practitioners work with narrative knowledge
• Rappaport (1995) Narrative as a resource
• Stories were supportive in terms of sensemaking, identity, construction and communication
• Support roles and retelling to elicit responses
• Can methodological narratives still be considered stories?
• Are they asking for more stories or just different types?
• Making scientific research messy.
• Does technical rationality exclude storytelling?
• People who work in industry are doing action research.

Taking Risks: an exploration into women’s perceptions of ante natal risk in pregnancy’ (Dawn Jones):

• Beck 2004:203
• Late modernity
• Scientific narratives – rational response to problem solving
• Ontological security
• Now we have a need to know the risk.
• Risks are socially constructed sources of danger, are ‘knowledge’ and not ‘ignorance’
• Overt vs. Covert research

I ended the day with a clear task for myself: distinguish discourse, story and narrative in my research and make sure I keep to the distinction.

The day concluded with  exemplary music from Liam Robinson and Thomas Fairbairn and dancing at the conference dinner.

I then had to face the horror which was the student halls, but the less said about them the better.

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Day Two:

The morning keynote was from Roshan Doug who spoke on ‘The business of poetry’.  Some interesting points I noted:

• As researchers we are Faust.
• If we look to Milton – we are all Satan, we all want to set up on our own
• The purpose of a poet is to defamiliarise our familiarity
• Hermes leads to hermeneutic
• James Gee
• Kirkegaard – Lived forwards and understood backwards

The following session I presented, so I have no notes from the other talks as I was immersed in re-reading my own slides.    I know I came away convinced I need to look further into space and the narratives of objects: space of bodies, space of objects.

The afternoon keynote was from Gavin J. Fairbairn (I never asked whether he was related to the previous evening’s entertainment) on ‘Storytelling, Ethics and Academic Writing’. 

Rough notes:

• Real – Biographic Experience <-case studies
• Vs
• True – True to life (not ncy factual)
• Scientific labelling for remoteness
• Storytelling for closeness and empathy
• Hypothetical stories are the moral philosophers tool
• Weingartner – ‘Teaching as a subversive activity’
• Crap detecting, learning value or lack of
• Researchers should write so that as many people as possible are able to understand their work.
• Clarity of writing
• Tools for Obfuscation
• Big words
• Difficult ones
• No explanation
• Jargon (best from other fields)
• Liberal use of citation
• Obscure citation better
• Always cite the greats (name drop, esp. philosophers and social scientists)
• More refs mean more ‘academic’
• Circular arguments
• Difficult prose
• Ask yourself:
• Is this clear?
• Is this free from jargon?
• Is the structure helpful?
• Are the citations needed?
• Academic writing should be like storytelling
• They should tell their tales and make their research into a narrative

In the afternoon I chose to attend a workshop by Robin Williamson (who also provided the evening entertainment over dinner).  This was followed by a small student dramatisation of a teaching play for encouraging discussions about the difficulties faced by new students. 

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Day Three:

The final day was short but no less interesting.

Dr Alex Carson gave a fascinating keynote talk entitled ‘The Narrative Practitioner’.  Again my notes are rough, but I think they serve my purpose:

• “man is in his actions and practice, as well as in his fictions, essentially a storytelling animal”   1985:216
• Narratives are the practice not measurable against the practice
• Polkinghorne 1988:13: organisational scheme expressed in story form.
• Intelligibility
• Form of life
• Shared culture, understanding, social bonding
• Develops our tradition
• Max Weber
• Disenchantment of the world after the enlightenment
• Subject vs object divide
• Assumption that our ordinary perceptions are faulty
• Thick description, Geertz
• Fundamentally, the researcher makes the choices.  You can’t hide behind approach.  Research is value-laden and unbiased.
• The concepts of quantitative and qualitative research are just grand narratives (a la Foucault).  They structure your perceptions, don’t validate according to them.
• You should own up to reflexivity in research project
• Narrative Analysis:
  
  • “all practices aim at some good” (Aristotle)
  • Deconstruction
  • Critical Conversation
  • Reconstruction (stronger)
  • Holistic
  • Developmental
  • (Demosthenes “I suffered nothing”)
• Narrative Practitioner:
  
  • Fired with passion (Hegel)
  • Knows he/she doesn’t know
  • Open to further conversations
  • Reflective critical phenomenology
  • Says more about who we are, what we do (not reductionist)
  • Develops our self understanding
    

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All in all a very good conference, one I look forward to attending again despite the student halls.  Now I just need to write the associated paper.

The Story of Research

At the end of May I presented at a one-day symposium on reading and writing research at the Sussex Institute at the University of Sussex called ‘The Story of Research’. 

The first keynote ‘Representing Lived Experience: Making Principled Decisions’ by Professor Andrew Sparkes, was interesting and relieving in equal measure. 

The questions he posed which I particularly noted:

• How are you going to write it?
• How are you going to represent it?
• Be explicit about what you are doing and why!
  • Scientific / Realist / Confessional / Autoethnography / Poetic / Ethnodrama / Ethnographic fiction / Creative fiction/mixed genres
• How do you judge them?
• Narrative Poetry – Learning through the power of language
• Who do you want legitimacy from?
• (RAE as farce)
• Think about who we are when we are writing.

The talks were fun, although I regretted attending the second keynote as it resulted in an unfortunate coffee-spilling incident.   (Yes, I knocked it everywhere and over others.) 

On Rabbits, Space and Cards

I have finally got my act together and finished off my experience report for Agile 2007.  It is called 'On Rabbits, Space and Cards: Moving Towards an Informative Workspace' and I will be presenting it later this summer in Washington D.C.

I'm excited, as not only will this be my first time out of Europe, but it is also conveniently timed for leaving me in the states in time for Burning Man.  It is also a nice paper, and the only one I had time to produce properly* for the full IEEE proceedings.

It will be nice to finally have something published which focusses on the Nabaztag, Radio 2 and the joy of open-plan offices.

That will be the final of three conferences I will be attending (for talking about my research) this year: The Narrative Practitioner in Wales in June, PPIG'07 in Finland in July, and Agile 2007 in Washington D.C. in August.   Returning from that will also mark the time when I move into the depths of deepest-darkest data analysis - and will mark the start of movement towards the end of my PhD.  (Eek.)

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* I have two more papers submitted for the Research-In-Progress workshop, one of which is about the work I have been doing for the Agile Narratives Project.

XPDay 7 Call

XP Day 7 is a two day international conference for anyone who wants to create software better. XP Day focuses on practical knowledge, real-world experience and active participation of all attendees. We welcome submissions from anyone involved in creating software, whatever your role.

That means you.

See more at the XP Day 7 Call for Proposals.