Is it really the end of August already?
Things are getting quite busy over here - there are lots of projects on the go at once. Lest I get swamped, here's a quick rundown:
Horizon 1
The small business project has moved into its data analysis phase. We have about 320 pages of interview transcripts, from 16 business managers. So far, 14 broad themes are emerging from the interviews. This will be my main job over the next fortnight, as we need to prepare a report by the end of next month.
I'm also writing the introduction for our report. jod999 is writing up the methods, and Marita has started on a literature review. She's found a lot of useful information that I hadn't turned up yet, on marketing for small businesses. Unfortunately, it seems like there isn't a lot on small business marketing via social media... there's a huge volume of stuff in blogs, but not enough academics working in the field. After all, most of the experts are (very profitable!) marketing consultants...
Horizon 2
Our proposal for the Virtual museums and cultural artefacts project has been sent in. Hopefully this will go somewhere, as there has been a lot of interest in it so far. The CRC held their most recent participant's meeting in Brisbane this week. I'll know a bit more about the project next Wednesday, after Supriya gets back.
Business Plan Competition
My team has made it through to the finals of the 2009 Business Plan Competition. Along the way we've changed names (now called TeachMeAnywhere.com - our previous choice of website was rejected), revised our plan, re-submitted it early on Wednesday morning, and sent off a Marketing brief. Presentations for the finals will be held on September 21st.
Referencing geek
I really, really like Zotero. I've mentioned this a few times before... If you haven't used it before, it's a Firefox plugin with the tagline "Research, not re-search." And it works.
It's a reference management tool. Part of it essentially does the job of EndNote, letting you drag and drop references into your writing. I also use it as a file management system (attaching PDFs, website snapshots, text and images to my references). I do most of my work through Firefox, so I like having access to the all the functionality without needing to switch between applications. It also backs up my references as I work, as I usually forget to.
I've now set up a research group to share papers for group projects, which I will be adding to over time. Unfortunately, the very fact that it can replicate EndNote is a problem for getting existing researchers to use it... I suspect that most people will stick to their old methods, and miss out on all the useful stuff that this software can do.
Horizon 1
The small business project has moved into its data analysis phase. We have about 320 pages of interview transcripts, from 16 business managers. So far, 14 broad themes are emerging from the interviews. This will be my main job over the next fortnight, as we need to prepare a report by the end of next month.
I'm also writing the introduction for our report. jod999 is writing up the methods, and Marita has started on a literature review. She's found a lot of useful information that I hadn't turned up yet, on marketing for small businesses. Unfortunately, it seems like there isn't a lot on small business marketing via social media... there's a huge volume of stuff in blogs, but not enough academics working in the field. After all, most of the experts are (very profitable!) marketing consultants...
Horizon 2
Our proposal for the Virtual museums and cultural artefacts project has been sent in. Hopefully this will go somewhere, as there has been a lot of interest in it so far. The CRC held their most recent participant's meeting in Brisbane this week. I'll know a bit more about the project next Wednesday, after Supriya gets back.
Business Plan Competition
My team has made it through to the finals of the 2009 Business Plan Competition. Along the way we've changed names (now called TeachMeAnywhere.com - our previous choice of website was rejected), revised our plan, re-submitted it early on Wednesday morning, and sent off a Marketing brief. Presentations for the finals will be held on September 21st.
Referencing geek
I really, really like Zotero. I've mentioned this a few times before... If you haven't used it before, it's a Firefox plugin with the tagline "Research, not re-search." And it works.
It's a reference management tool. Part of it essentially does the job of EndNote, letting you drag and drop references into your writing. I also use it as a file management system (attaching PDFs, website snapshots, text and images to my references). I do most of my work through Firefox, so I like having access to the all the functionality without needing to switch between applications. It also backs up my references as I work, as I usually forget to.
I've now set up a research group to share papers for group projects, which I will be adding to over time. Unfortunately, the very fact that it can replicate EndNote is a problem for getting existing researchers to use it... I suspect that most people will stick to their old methods, and miss out on all the useful stuff that this software can do.