Tag Archives: masters

In a cage match between a library, website, and Facebook… who would win?

So it would seem summer ambushed me. No, no, it’s not that I didn’t see him coming. In fact I was anticipating his arrival with jubilance. What I didn’t expect is just how close to bubble-gum in my hair summer would be in relation to research and writing. That is, if papers, databases, and interviews were a haircut. Despite the fact that I’ve begun to comb-over my metaphors, as it stands the Grea-Council of Masters paper readers have given me their final requirements for the final draft. So maybe three days worth of trudging through my paper and some new sources stand between me and that degree. I’ve been putting it off like most people do taxes. Instead my life has been a whole lot of websites and web work (after I got the rancid left-over grading aftertaste out of my mouth), volleyball and skating, recording (sounds and sights!), games (electronic and board), and friends, lots of them. I’ve got to call a hoard of libraries and ask them about their computer resources next week for another in-process paper, to boot. Come Summer Session II (in a week or so) I’ll begin work formally transcribing interviews and collecting multimedia for a community informatics project. In theory I ought to be worried about getting all of the work done in time… but it’s summer man!

Becoming a Master… still

So my Masters paper, or at least a solid draft of it, was completed sometime last semester. Why then, you ask, have I not posted it all over the web in some sort of glory-kidnapping extravaganza? Have I become a little more modest in my old age? Heavens no! Am I perhaps realizing that most professional academics don’t study something considered as non-serious as Facebook? No, actually it in fact makes a superb recipe for interesting conversation. No, I’ve come to a bit of a crossroads. Over time the paper grew forth from a number of sources and managed to expand its borders to take over all kinds of areas and interests, some more effectively than others. I’ve come to a point where I have to split apart the front section, which is largely theory-rich and reads much like an area exam, from the back half, which is data and statistics derived from the two year study of usage and privacy. Now the task is to do this gracefully and with any luck the survivors (or at least one of them) will earn me a degree.