In a Nutshell

So here's what I've been up to over the past half year...

I’m presently researching Enterprise 2.0 – social web applications which support the interests and goals of businesses and other purposive enterprises such as governments, NGOs, research networks, and so on. A great deal of activity, development, and discourse, primarily commercial in nature, has attended this field since its quite recent inception. Yet relatively little empirical research has been undertaken to explore its multiple claims of benefits to the enterprise and even less explores the social aspects of Enterprise 2.0 adoption. With Enterprise 2.0 technologies being rapidly implemented within many types of organizations, both commercial and noncommercial on a global scale, clear understanding of social causes and (not necessarily connected) social effects is essential to achieve socially beneficial outcomes.

So I’m looking into two related research questions:
• What social factors contribute to success or failure in Enterprise 2.0 adoption?
• Following Enterprise 2.0 implementation, what social influences come into play in the organization?

I expect my research to demonstrate key elements of organizational predeliction to positive engagement with Enterprise 2.0 tools and methods. I also expect to demonstrate and explain social effects of such adoption within organizations – a key insight for enterprises currently engaging in or planning Enterprise 2.0 investments.

First, I’ll be exploring these questions here at the university, by surveying several academic communities – ECS, Digital Economy, and Sociology – on their uses of social software. I’ll then work with ISS and ECS systems groups to enhance the currently available web-based social tools. Subsequent surveys are expected to provide insight into usages, motivations, and effects. I plan to work with several external enterprises in similar fashion and have made contacts with appropriate parties at Boeing, Accenture, and Sun UK. I also plan to contact several NGOs in this regard.

The resulting insights should help to advance understanding of Enterprise 2.0’s social causes and effects, and lead to improved practice in the domain.

My supervisors are Professor Dame Wendy Hall from ECS and Professor Susan Halford from the School of Sociology.

An inspiration to us all

Over the past year or so I have had the great good fortune to meet and work with a truly singular woman of technology. Currently Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, UK, she was Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science from 2002 to 2007. She became University's first female professor of engineering in 1994 and has been a pioneer in advancing computing technologies and women's involvement in their advance. I speak, of course, of Professor Dame Wendy Hall DBE FREng.

Presently she holds multiple responsibilities, including:

• President of the ACM -- while not the first woman to hold the position, she is the first president from outside North America.
• Founding director, along with Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Professor Nigel Shadbolt, and Daniel J. Weitzner, of the Web Science Research Initiative, which was launched in 2006 as a long-term research collaboration between the University of Southampton and MIT.
• My PhD supervisor in collaboration with Professor Susan Halford in Southampton's School of Sociology. Ahem.

Wendy's support for women in technology is manifest. From her University webpage:
"She is particularly prominent as a strong and vocal advocate for women’s opportunities in SET and for the need to ensure that girls are not excluded from participation in science and engineering careers. In her research and her public life she has sought to ensure that women are equal beneficiaries of technological advance, and her example of achievement and dedication has made her a distinguished role model for women."

I am both honoured and delighted to work with Wendy, who is at once brilliant, innovative, passionate for her work and truly inspirational.

Busy, busy, busy

Lately I've been hearing from friends and family that they're having a hard time visualizing what I'm up to. So here's a post with visuals! Check it out.




Here's Building 32 on the University of Southampton's Highfield campus. New, very modern and whizzy steel, concrete, glass structure with all the latest tech built in or in development within. I have a desk now on the fourth floor with the 'Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia' group. No computing gear as yet -- I need to spec out my needs and they'll order it up.


Lost in thought. ;-p























Looking east across the River Itchen estuary from my wee office at my Priory Rd. lodging.








And here's a look at Priory Rd. just out front of the house where I'm lodging for now. Mine is the one with the third bay window from the right.
















Ok, so I start lectures tomorrow and participate in a meet & greet for postgrads in the Engineering, Science and Mathematics schools. Then back home to burn on some network analysis studies. Busy, busy, busy.

Ready, Set...

This is the peaceful part. The easy, end of summer, laissez faire bit where you get to cruise. Blue skies, puffy clouds, easy living, getting acquainted with the neighborhood, whatnot. But only just for a spell. Pretty soon all hell breaks loose, as usual. In my case, it'll be lectures and deliverables. The lectures, not so bad. These deliverables are serious socks. First up is a comparative review of Network Analysis from two points of view, that of computer science and that of sociology. I'm tearing in right now -- wish me luck.

First Steps

The summer of 2008 in southern England this year has been, by all accounts, a washout. Endless miserable rainy, gray, windswept days and nights with scarce silver linings. Now in mid-autumn the cycle appears to have broken. Since arriving in England I have not witnessed rainy or windy conditions, nor anything more intemperate than one or two cloudy skies. Mornings have been generally bright, cool, and crisp; afternoons warm, sunny, and pleasant. It's really been a treat, as I'm unaccustomed to any stretch of continuous cheerful weather in these climes.

I've taken a small room with a tiny office in a shared house on the waterfront in Soton, so I'm situated in that respect. Had a brief meeting with my sponsor, Wendy, the same afternoon, wherein we discussed supervisors, advisors, communication, and first steps. I allowed an interest in Manuel Castells writings and apprised her of a lecture Dr. Castells is due to deliver at OII in Oxford in late October. After some consideration, we agreed I'll read his "Internet Galaxy" and write a review for our next meeting on 29/9.

So here we are on 21/9 and of course that means it's EVAN'S BIRTHDAY!!! And now he's a TEEN!!! Yikes! Happy birthday to you, my beautiful boy!!

Fast Forward

Right. So it's been quite a spell since I've written and this here's my update.

Summer has come and gone, the way it will, and our collective wheel has turned. We made the brutal move off the island I love so well, and have created our temporal separate paths. Jena and Evan have taken residence at our Tukwila condo, proximate to Evan's new school, Seattle Christian Schools. I have made my way across the pond to Southampton, where I'm to take lodging tomorrow in Priory Road, St. Denys, Southampton, Hants, UK.

All good so far.

I've lately spent a day and a half getting acquainted with some of the putative practitioners or perhaps just teachers of web science at a curriculum-setting meeting at Uni Soton. It was a good session, good to make some new acquaintances, and good to hear the discussions of what taught elements might necessarily fit the rubric of web science.

Now it's a lovely day here and I'm guessing I'd best leave this writing for a bit later and go enjoy before it fades away.

Progress

We sent Evan (right) off to Hyak with his pal Gunde (left) for the weekend, so we have all this spare time for relaxing, talking, getting in touch. We'll just vege here by the fire on this rainy Saturday, then enjoy some sunshine tomorrow. We've been tossing around ideas about summer plans, living arrangements, investments, downstream plans, etc. Feels good to be brainstorming these things -- feels like progress!

Speaking of which, I heard from Professor Wendy Hall at Southampton at last, late in the week. She said, "We rushed your application form through the system today. Expect to get notification of acceptance soon." She also said, "I have a very good feeling about this." Me too!