It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. (Winston Churchill) I have been exploring finding the narrative in my research to try and make my thesis a less painful document to read…..here is the first attempt. There is a problem that needs thinking …
This may be a little dull for anyone not interested in the process of actually writing a doctoral thesis – feel free to look away. Meeting with my supervisor this week its clear that I need to step it up a gear and start worrying about the right things. While I have been quietly obsessing …
I picked up a conversation on twitter last week where someone was attacking the role of academics and suggesting they shouldn’t criticise practitioners as writing and thinking aren’t as important as doing. I disagree – the act of reflecting and studying action is in my view essential if we are to learn from our actions …
This post is a bit of a hodgepodge of follow up from stuff I was working on last week – we’ll see if it weaves itself into one piece by the end. First up is a follow up on the social network analysis. Ethnobot was good enough to point me at the work of Damon Centola …
Its very tempting to think there is a perfect match between social networks and social network analysis – and its true – there is a lot we can do with this to examine online social networks. However in doing this its important to understand what the limits of what we can achieve with it without …
This post is a good example of where my work and research start to come together. Over at Public-i we have been working on a number of social media audits for clients and I have been working on a more formal framework to deliver this (white paper on this soon) and so I have been …
I had breakfast with my supervisor last week which is always a pleasure – and pretty much guaranteed to reboot and sharpen my thinking. We also reflected on the fact that though its a Good Thing that I have a first half first draft it is going to need taking apart and putting back together …
Before getting started here – large thanks to Anthony Zacharzewski from DemSoc for putting me right on a number of things – all mistakes still existing are clearly my own…. One of the things I like most about working through the blog is that a piece can start off as one thing and become something …
Scarily enough I am now starting to write up my thesis – the aim is a chapter a month – and I have been blogging a bit less as a result (though have a few posts queued up – its addictive you know. Below is some of the ideas from the theoretical framework I have …
Just a short piece this week as I had to write something for a print deadline this weekend – and finish that pesky research committee progress report – but I couldn’t let the week pass without just noting a couple of election thoughts. In doing this I am sure I am joining hundreds of blogs …