Noam Chomsky delivering the closing adress at ICA 2011. To sum up, you might say that Chomsky has essentially given the same speech for 40 years now. It’s a good speech though – and, unfortunately, continuously necessary.
I’m at Arlanda Airport, waiting for my flight to Boston, by way of Reykjavik. The last couple of days have been interesting – the ashcloud generated by the icelandic volcano Grímsvötn has kept me on my toes as to whether or not I would be able to get to Boston and the ICA conference. As of today, most flights seem to be operating, while there are some delays… Hopefully, I’ll be able to make my transfer at Keflavik airport and make it in time to Boston.
As of yesterday, one of my papers on the use of interactive features on the web sites of Swedish newspapers is available (pending your library benefits) via New Media & Society. If I remember correctly, it is scheduled for print in the november issue of said journal.
It seems like all of my work for the past three years is paying off at almost the same time. One of my papers on the 2o10 Swedish election just got published in First Monday. Specifically, it attempts to track the changes that political party web sites undergo throughout the entire election year. While there has been several papers on similar matters, they have often focused their analyses on a couple of weeks preceding the election date. To my knowledge, my paper is the first one to look at how these developments play out during a longer of period of time. Apparently, it was original enough to merit publication in First Monday. Which is good.
Just as the working week was winding down I received an e-mail containing the good news that my application for the 2011 Summer Doctoral Programme at the Oxford Internet Institute had been successful. Beginning july 11 and two weeks onwards, I will be spending my time at the institute discussing Internet related social scientific research with other PhD students and faculty. Sounds like a fun time, as well as a genuine learning experience. Who needs a vacation? Well, I do, actually, but I can get to that after the programme is finished.
After two months as a visiting PhD student at the School of Communication and Information, Rutgers University, I am now at home in Uppsala again. I’ve had a great time here – both from a professional and a social point of view. I would very much like to thank the people at the school, particularly Mark Aakhus for hosting me during my time here. A big thanks also to my neighbours at Ford Hall.
Coming home, I was greeted by some good news: I have been accepted for two doctoral consortiums: one preceding the Nordic Academy of Management conference (where my paper abstract, co-authored with professor Pär Ågerfalk, was also accepted for presentation), to be held in Stockholm in august, and one hosted by the Communication and Technology Division of the International Communication Association, preceding the ICA conference in Boston this coming may. Fun!
The first paper I wrote after I was accepted to the PhD programme has now been published in First Monday. In this collaboration with Stefan Hrastinski, we present a research review on research regarding blogs and blogging as carried out in the social sciences and humanities. In doing so, we identify a few research gaps and provide recommendations for other researchers interested in this particular topic. Personally, I think First Monday is a very interesting venue to publish in – high quality, interdisciplinary and free of charge. Hopefully, I’ll be able to publish there again.
The wait is over – results from the review process for ECIS 2011 were due on march 1st, but I got word today. However, it was worth waiting for – a paper based on my collaboration with associate professor Hallvard Moe at the University of Bergen has been accepted for presentation at the conference. This year, it takes place in Helsinki, Finland, a beautiful city that I had the pleasure to visit for the NordMedia conference back in 2007. “Finland, Finland, Finland, the country where I want to be”…
Second acceptance in under a week – I’m on a lucky streak here… Yesterday, I received word from the editors that my paper on interactive features on Swedish newspaper web sites had been accepted with revision for publication in Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies.