Rogue Tory

The final experiment

Paul — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 07:00:44 +0000

I’m reaching the end of my MPhil now (well, the research part anyway—still have 15,000+ words of a thesis to write) and I have one final experiment to run in order to get some results which will hopefully back up the last twelve months of my life. As with the previous experiments, it’s in the form of a simple online survey, which should take around 20 minutes to complete, so it’s short enough to do during a quiet period at work… say a Friday afternoon?

Linux 2008 Conference

Paul — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:34:30 +0000

This year’s UKUUG Linux 2008 conference is being held in Manchester this year, with a pretty impressive range of speakers and a tutorial on Python Web Frameworks on the Friday. I’ll be there for all three days, wearing my new hat of UKUUG chairman, and attempting to learn as much as possible about the various topics under discussion.

Push forward the frontiers of science still further

Paul — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:37:28 +0000

As part of the research for my MPhil, I’m running another experiment to try and find out the keywords which people associate with related events on the Web. The survey comes in two parts – first of all you’ll be asked to look at some existing web pages and enter some keywords which you think would help find related stories. After completing this stage, you’ll then be shown some more web pages and asked to rate some suggested sets of keywords for each one. You can complete the survey online – it will probably take about thirty minutes based on the people who have taken part so far.

At the moment the experiment is in a pilot stage before I send it out to a larger audience, so if you have any comments, or manage to break it, I’d love to hear them.

(yes, this experiment is pretty similar to the last one – we decided to change what we were asking people for to make sure that the evaluation is a bit more robust…)

Life update

Paul — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:35:12 +0000

I’ve just spent the last weekend at FoE conference in Loughborough—three days of workshops, speeches, networking sessions and drinking. I enjoyed it far more than last year, and I think I’m starting to be a sufficiently familiar face for people to recognise me. It was great to catch up with people I hadn’t seen since last year and meet some new faces. At one or two points I was even in grave danger of actually both looking and being relaxed, which is most unlike me! I think the former might have been down to wearing jeans and a t-shirt and brushing my hair to the side though.

The workshop which I ran (‘Free Software, then Free the World’ – title courtesy of Graeme) also seemed to go down well. More people turned up than I initially expected, including two members of staff. As a result of the discussions, I seem to have accidentally volunteered to set up a network within FoE for local activists who are interested in IT —oops! I think this will really benefit local groups though and there are already people who are enthusiastic about getting involved. I had some useful conversations during and after conference which were particularly interesting as well…

Research wise, my thesis is coming along slowly—the introduction chapter is almost finalised and the other chapters are slowly starting to take shape as well. My supervisor is away at the moment, but I’m hoping to launch my second experiment as soon as he gets back next week. Once that’s done, my research is more or less complete, and I’ll be writing up in earnest. I’ve also applied to be a demonstrator again this semester, as this will hopefully provide me with a small source of income and a longer period of continuous employment with the University on my CV.

Finally, I got the membership secretary position I wanted, which will hopefully lead to a company secretary position too. There’s also a voluntary board position which I’m thinking of applying for (I’m not sure if I’ll get it or not though—like the FoE one I expect I’ll be too inexperienced) and I have a number of project/business ideas which I’m hoping to have more time to work on once my thesis is complete. For now though, it’s back to the grindstone…

Thesis and experiment progress

Paul — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:10:04 +0000

After setting up my experiment a week or so ago, I’ve now moved into thesis writing mode. At forty pages, it seems to be taking shape quite well. My abstract is more or less finalised (after only two revisions with my supervisor, so I think I must have done a good job the first time round), the thesis overview is ready, a large chunk of my related work chapter was written over the last six months anyway and the methodology chapter is mapped out in my head. I’m not sure how quickly it’s all going to fall into place, but I think I’m well on track to finish by the informal deadline of 1st December which I’ve agreed with my supervisor.

My technical experiment, the results of which will be analysed in my thesis, is also coming along slowly. So far 15 people have taken part (thank you!), which is 30% of the number I’m aiming for and 50% of the minimum I need, so that’s reasonably encouraging, and I’m hoping that some of the people who I’ve emailed today will also take part. Results and analysis is the only chapter which I’m worried about—all the others I know what I’m going to write so hopefully I will get some reasonable results from the experiment which is currently running and the one I plan to setup next weekend.

Between my thesis, starting a new contract and running Manchester FoE without Sam (though assisted by Sarah and Cat), I’m massively stressed out and have had to miss several meetings (including mySociety Manchester and Manchester Free Software) in the last month just to keep on top of things, but hopefully things will gradually calm down in the next month or so and return to mildly hectic, as opposed to the stress-testing madness at the moment.

Help push forward the frontiers of science

Paul — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:21:41 +0000

As part of the research for my MPhil, I’m running a simple experiment to try and find out the keywords which people associate with news stories on the Web. The survey comes in two parts – first of all you’ll be asked to look at some existing web pages and enter some keywords which you think describe the main story on the page. After completing this stage, you’ll then be shown some more web pages and asked to rate some suggested sets of keywords for each one. You can complete the survey online – it will probably take between twenty and thirty minutes based on the people who have taken part so far.

There’s no tangible reward for taking part, other than the warm fuzzy feeling of helping me to get some results for my MPhil, plus my eternal gratitude, hugs (if you so wish), and a promise to be less stressed once this is all over and done.

Disclaimer: Title of this post may be a slight exagguration.

Keeping on top of things

Paul — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:55:03 +0000

I’m somehow managing to keep on top of Friends of the Earth work in Sam’s absence—probably because it’s a quieter time of the year with so many people being on holiday, although local groups conference is approaching fast (I have to organise getting the group there, as well as planning a workshop which I’m running) and there are deadlines for the newsletter and membership leaflet coming up. We’ve also started a company to run the group’s activities through—for which muggins here has ended up as the company secretary as a result of being the only person who knows a lot about company law.

MPhil progress (or lack thereof)

I still don’t have my experiment up and running, though that’s largely because I’ve spent so much time fixing code written by other people (especially JTidy, who don’t keep their documentation in sync with their latest release—I wasted several hours trying to figure out why I couldn’t use a documented method, only to find out that it didn’t exist). I’m hoping to get things going this week though, as I really need to get some users through the system, tune the algorithm and then start writing up my results. I’ve only got two months left until I finish—although I can, and probably will, ask for a year of “submission pending” status, during which I can’t conduct any further research but am allowed to write up and submit my thesis. I think I will get everything done in time, though it all hinges on my results as I’m fairly confident that I can write decent chapters for related work, future work, methodology etc.

Jobs

Haven’t heard anything definite yet from anyone who I have spoken to, though I did have a constructive lunch on Tuesday—and discovered a reasonably-priced restaurant within walking distance of Euston—so I am currently waiting to see what, if anything, happens as a result.

OpenTech 2008 - a reflection

Paul — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:55:32 +0000

I spent last Saturday in London at OpenTech 2008, an event organised by UKUUG “and friends”. There were lots of interesting talks—allowing fifteen minutes per speaker ensured a variety and that no one got bored listening to one voice for too long—across a range of subjects from green IT to accessing “freely available” government data. I was also asked/volunteered to chair one of the sessions, which was enjoyable—even though the “projector and laptop failing to talk to one another” beast reared its head at one point.

For those of you who weren’t able to attend the conference itself, recordings of some of the talks should be available in the next few weeks – keep your eyes on the OpenTech 2008 website for details. Already there are some photos available, including several of me—chairing a session puts you at the mercy of the camera far more than just milling around in the audience!

The only downside to the whole day was a five hour train->bus->train journey back, as engineering works on the West Coast Main Line forced me to go via Northampton and Birmingham International. Luckily I’d set off earlier than normal—someone else (who unfortunately I didn’t know was in London) ended up having to book a hotel after missing the last train…

Perhaps I should move to London

Paul — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:03:57 +0000

As all the important meetings etc. seem to be there, including in the next month:

30th June: UKUUG Council meeting and venue viewing
2nd July: Association of History and Computing committee meeting and book proposal
5th July: OpenTech 2008
19th July: Campaign Against Climate Change steering group meeting

Plus a possible interview at some time in the next couple of weeks…

Dance off with the Star Wars stars

Paul — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:13:35 +0000

Via Ma.tt: Dance Off with the Star Wars Stars 2008

Anyone who can dance to Footloose whilst wearing a Jawa outfit deserves something, but I’m not sure ‘respect’ is the right word…