The seminar on Thursday on Libraries and Weblogs was a very interesting event. I took a lot of mental notes during Anne Clyde's presentation: her empirial studies on library weblogs for her book Weblogs and Libraries were interesting, also as an example of a concrete methodological approach to weblog research. Also, I noted the organiser's, Esben Fjord's, blog-feed-site Bibfeeds which collects posts from all the Scandinavian Library Weblogs.

Oh, and it is smartlog.dk, not smartblog.dk, which seems to be a popular Danish blogtool.
TextPattern is another open source CMS, also for blogging, that I didn't know.

In general, I was made aware of several websites and initiatives I hadn't noticed myself. Since I currently want to move into moblog research as part of my more general research into blogging as "live-writing", it was particularly interesting to discover (as an sideeffect of the Blogger intro) that Blogger now explicitly provides the opportunity to "moblog" to your weblog: Blogger Mobile. Also, Microsoft's attempt to move into weblog space: Microsoft Spaces includes the possibility of blogging via one's mobile (and has apparently prompted a new "segment" of Danes to blog, judging from the linked blogspaces on the Danish version of Spaces that I'm automatically directed to).
# posted by Lisbeth at: 00:12 (0) comments

Tomorrow Im the first speaker at theme day on weblogs at the Danish Library School. Erik Stattin from Sweden and Thomas Brevik from Norway will also be there, so it will be a pan-Scandinavian blog event, with focus on the use of blogs in the librarian trade. The program is here: Weblogs paa bibliotekerne i Skandinavien
# posted by Lisbeth at: 11:59 (0) comments

Yesterday evening, I gave an informal talk about "Entryways into Research and the life of the researcher" at an event organised by the Danish Association of Candidates (Masters), in Danish "Magisterforeningen". An associate professor from the Danish Technical University also presented, and it was striking how he also had an 10 hour workday, lots of committeework, admin, supervision and teaching, and not a lot of time to do research. It seems to come as part of the trade ;).

- I really hope we didn't scare the hopefully researcher-wannabees too much. After all, we did enter voluntarily into the trade and none of us really wants to leave it at heart....
# posted by Lisbeth at: 11:54 (0) comments

For a long time, I've wished that someone would set up a comparative site for flight prices, with Copenhagen as departure point. Turns out that on backpackerplanet.dk, they have a function called:Flybilletter søg pris. It doesn't provide links to places to buy the tickets, but at least it gives you an idea of what the general price range for your wanted flight looks like.

Still, a site more like bogpriser.dk, which looks for the cheapest price for a specific book and then provides you with links to the online retailer would be brilliant...
# posted by Lisbeth at: 16:36 (0) comments

Yours truly proudly placed between head of the ITU, Mads Tofte (left) and Leif Hede Nielsen, head of Familien Hede Nielsens Foundation (right)

This wednesday, the 18th of May, was a very special day for me. Since the beginning of January I had known that on this day, I and two other pricewinners would be awarded the Familien Hede Nielsen's Foundation annual special price - given by appointment, not application. We had been sworn to secrecy since the foundation did not want the press or colleagues to know in advance. It's been a bit like being a member of a secret society, getting special snailmail with "Confidential" stamped on it and communicating off-hours with the secretary who organised it all. It's also been somewhat of a pressure; knowing that I would get the price, I have felt obliged to also do something serious about my research, on top of doing the head of department thing. Not conductive to the workload, and a bit frustrating because I couldn't tell people why I was working like mad. Nevertheless, it has been nice to have this day to work towards, an incentive to make me think about and develop my research continously and not just letting it rest, while I did the admin stuff.

This wednesday The Day finally arose, we were invited to a posh place in town and was allowed to bring close family and friends in for the event. Motivations and pricewinner speaks were given, the price handed over, music played and then a big lunch for us all. A quite festive event, which continued unofficially with family and friends at home.

Today the press release has been sent out, including this photo. So here goes: I'm the official recipient of Familien Hede Nielsen's Fond special price of dkk 200.000 (equivalent to 26.856 Euro) to use to develop my research. I can use them for all sorts of purposes (like research assistants or travels), as long as they are used for scientific work. It is an extreme privilege and an amazing opportunity, and - as one of the other pricewinners said in her speak, also an obligation. It is naturally expected of us that we use the money well and do good in our academic careers.

So far I'll "advance" my career by hopefully spending 3-4 months at Georgia Tech in the fall, focusing on article writing and development of my research in collaboration with all the great people staying there. It's a big relief to know that I don't have to worry about the expenses but can focus on "content", an amazing perspective. Yeah!

I should also note, that my ITU colleague Rune Møller Jensen in the department of Innovation got the other price, so we were actually two ITU price winners. The third price winner (who got dkk 400.000) is a female research doctor at the National Hospital. Congrats to them :)
# posted by Lisbeth at: 16:43 (8) comments

Lots of stuff to spice up papers and talks: Nøgletal om informationssamfundet Danmark 2005 at the homepage of the Danish Statistics Organisation. (in Danish)
# posted by Lisbeth at: 22:44 (0) comments

19 days left as head of department.

The last 2 months I have had an average workday of 10.2 hours (have kept track) and still I'm far from having done the job as well as I would have liked to. It's not just a question of being better at making priorities, since there are many tasks and communications I have handled very lighthandedly - I seriously have the feeling, that if I was to do heading, supervision and research "perfectly" I would be working 24-7. Recently a very wise and experienced research manager from another country gave me this advice (quoted from memory): "You can't do everything and you never will. Some things will always fall through the cracks. The point is to learn which things to let fall through the cracks and which people to disappoint when you do it".

I could argue it is a female thing, but I'm not sure it is. You want to, but making everybody happy just isn't possible in a "middle" manager and -head job. Managing in itself isn't difficult; it's handling people's expectations, frustrations, conflicts and disappointment in a constructive and "strong leadership" kind of way which is the toughest part of the job. I still have a LOT to learn, but be there no doubt that I have learnt much about myself and my colleagues the last year that I wouldn't be without.

Now I need a rest from conflicts and mutual frustrations, and maybe, just maybe, several years down the road, I might return to "heading" - if in the meantime I have become better at handling those cracks and all that falling...
# posted by Lisbeth at: 12:00 (2) comments

A librarian's blog with bibliographies on blog literature, bib blogs etcBlogBib: Studies on Blogging
# posted by Lisbeth at: 15:31 (0) comments

Via Jill, a link to a student with a nice blog on Fictional Blogs, linking to other blogs collecting links of fictional blogs etc ad infinitum. With blogging, research-wise no stone is left unturned ;).
# posted by Lisbeth at: 23:34 (0) comments

Thanks to Torill for giving me the pointer to an article behind this article:Blogs Will Change Your Business - I know it has generated a lot of media and corporate attention, also in Denmark. Here is Business week's own blog follow-up in their "Blogspotting" blog.

Last week, when I was talking at FDIH, several big corporate DK businesses were present. I talked a bit about corporate blogging, and they were pretty sceptical and asked me: but has it really been proved that corporate blogging is good for business. We want concrete examples of corporate blogs that has really made a difference in the long run. I don't know of any - do you?
# posted by Lisbeth at: 23:28 (0) comments

On the Danish website, Kommunikationsforum, who is an excellent ressource for articles, interviews and academic essays about communication on the internet, I came across an interesting looking master thesis on Viral Marketing. It has been difficult for me to find literature on the subject, when students ask about it, but the two writers, Mette Hansen and Lisbeth Gramkow Jacobsen has done a great job of tracking relevant literature, both off- and online.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 17:57 (0) comments

By Lilia Efimova and Stephanie Hendrick:In search for a virtual settlement: An exploration of weblog community boundaries. Found it while ego-surfing, klastrup.dk is mentioned as an non-KM-cluster-blog with potential affiliations to blogs in the cluster. Btw, I really like Lilia's blog's relation visualisation tool - it provides an illuminating illustration of clusters.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 20:48 (0) comments

I'm afraid there won't be much time to blog in May (either). First and foremost, I'll be busy finishing all the head of department business, since I'm "retiring" as head on June 1st - so I'll be spending a lot of time in my office (2D14...if you happen to be at ITU). Secondly, I have said yes to participate in a number of external activities (to keep up with my lecturing skills and maintain my own presence as researcher, just hadn't imagined everything would take place in May ;)).

My lecture "touring" schedule goes as follows:
May 2nd: Guest lecture at Dept. of Film & Media Science on the course "Cyberculture"
- will give talk on "online worlds and gamers as subculture"
May 13th: Lecture/Discussion item on a seminar on "Political communication on the internet" organised by 440 hz. - With master thesis student Pia Svejgaard Pedersen, I will give talk presenting our first findings from the Danish Election Blog survey/analysis project, we are currently undertaking.
May 24th: Short talk on "how to move into the world of research" at an evening event for unemployed university candidates (Dansk Magisterforening)
May 26th: Presentation at one-day seminar about weblogs, organised by the Danish Library School. See programme here. - Will be talking about the history of and development of genres.

Regarding weblogs and political communication, I just found an online version of DJØF magazine from March where I'm quoted in an article titled Stemmer på nettet (in Danish).
# posted by Lisbeth at: 19:57 (0) comments

Note to self: please don't forget to check this out, once I have a research life again: Project Massive.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 13:21 (0) comments