sacha chua living an awesome life

I hadn’t heard anything from my KMD2004 groupmates all weekend, so I
was rather worried about the integrative summary that we were supposed
to pass on Monday. I couldn’t find any drafts on the wiki or the
shared workspace. If I had to write everything from scratch by myself
just to make sure that we’d get it in before the deadline, I was going
to do so. They could always make it up to me for the next assignment.
;)

I wasn’t looking forward to working on a Sunday night, but I hadn’t
had the time to work on it during the previous week. Besides, I could
consider Saturday as my downtime day for the week.

I sent my groupmates e-mail telling them I was going to write the
summary, and I gave them my MSN and Yahoo! instant messaging details
just in case they were online on a Sunday night. I started a document
on Google Docs (formerly known as Writely)
and sketched the outline just like I’d blogged my way past a writer’s
block for my background article.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quick response of my groupmates. MJ
sent me an instant message on MSN. I asked him to reformat the
appendices to have consistent citation styles while I worked on the
summary. Dave came online after a short while. After some trouble with
the invitations, we managed to get everyone on the same page.

I set up a group chat using Bitlbee, the IM to IRC gateway that I use
to chat within Emacs. We coordinated our actions using instant
messaging while I fleshed out the summary. Dave couldn’t work on the
document right then, but he could look over my work to see where the
article was going. I added some notes about the structure of the
document so that we had a coherent, logical flow.

My computer crashed twice because I ran out of memory. (OpenOffice +
Firefox + Emacs = not good!) Good thing I was drafting the document in
Google Docs, which auto-saved the document every few seconds and
allowed people to keep reading it while I rebooted.

I sketched the document and condensed my paper before fatigue set in.
I left the paper in their capable hands, and I’m sure it will get done
by tomorrow.

I couldn’t imagine doing this without real-time collaboration tools
like instant messaging and Google Docs. Imagine what it would have
been like, having to e-mail documents around? It would have been such
a hassle for me to keep people up to date.

Hooray for Net collaboration and awesome groupmates!

On Technorati: school, collaboration

Random Emacs symbol: menu-bar-mode – Command: Toggle display of a menu bar on each frame. – Variable: Non-nil if Menu-Bar mode is enabled.

I have a new favorite statistics textbook. Not that I had one before. Who knew that a statistics textbook could have a sense of humor? Discovering Statistics Using SPSS is infinitely cool. It’s funny, it’s solid, it’s detailed, it’s good. Get it if you ever need to do anything with statistics. Heck, get it even if you just want to get over a fear of statistics.

Props to Mark Chignell, my research supervisor and the professor teaching the statistics course I’m taking this term. He’s hilarious, too. This is going to be such a great term…

On Technorati: book, statistics, school, mie1402

I’ve missed the deadline for the Fall MBA courses, but I might be able
to squeeze my way into 2012HF: Entrepreneurship, 2915HF:
Entrepreneurship with a Social Mission, or 2916HF: Cultivating
Presence. Or I could just sit in, if I can get away with that. 2915HF
looks like a terrific course. =)

I’m definitely planning to go for Spring 2007 MBA electives. There’s:

I’m particularly excited about the social capital and outsourcing
courses. =)

The application deadline for the Spring Term is November 15. I can so
make that. I’ll see if I can take Strategic Management this term so
that I can take the 299* level courses next term. I think I’ll spend
Tuesday downtown so that I can sort this out, instead of waiting until
Thursday.

On Technorati: rotman, business, school, utoronto, entrepreneurship

I like these one-on-one meetings. I find myself in the zone, asking
questions and figuring things out. I had another good meeting with
Mark Chignell, my research supervisor. This
time, we worked on my research plan. I’m happy with the result, and I
think IBM will be happy as well. We’ll do a historical
pseudo-experiment looking at factors that may have affected the
adoption of social computing across subgroups within IBM. I’ll see how
I can visualize the data.

Some considerations:

Mark will be in Japan from January to mid-March, and again from April
to June. Options for masteral exam:

March

I’ll be able to make it to June convocation, and I might have a few months of vacation before real work.

I’ll be under stress because of the tight schedule, and I probably couldn’t take spring classes.

August

Less stress from schedule, can take additional courses in spring, more time around tech scene here.

Need to renew my visa, which is not a bad thing. I’ll miss the June convocation, and will need to make it to November convocation instead. If I find myself working in Canada, then I can still probably graduate with pomp and circumstance. ;) My parents won’t like winter, though, but hey… If I’m not working in Canada, then no pictures or ceremony. Oh well, s’okay. Must check fellowship.

Here’s the March schedule:

Here’s the August schedule:

Whichever schedule we choose, my next action is to hunt for as many
data sources as I can and figure out how to mash them up. I need to
decide which schedule to follow before I go on my Christmas vacation,
because I’ll probably renew my US visa then. (That is, unless I can
renew my visa from Canada.)

On Technorati: research, school

I met with Mark Chignell about the courses I should register for this term. He suggested signing up for all of them, attending the first few lectures, and choosing the one I like the most. I’ll have to rely on my intuition for this because the course descriptions all sound good. If I get along with the professors, I might even be able to explain my personal background and goals and get their help in figuring out which course would be best.

We’ll meet again tomorrow to flesh out my research plan.

Next action: Brainstorm a few things I can prototype. Also, take care of some paperwork.

On Technorati: school

I’d love to take a business-related course to round out my education and widen my network. If I can convince the Rotman School of Management to let me take an MBA elective, that would totally rock. Alternatively, I could cross over into CS. Here’s what I’m looking at:

MGT 2019: Commercializing Technological Innovations

How *does* one value innovation, anyway?

MGT 2050: Skoll Project: The Technology/Management Interface

Directly related to my research into adoption of technological innovations. I might be able to talk my way into this. Geared towards large companies.

MGT 2017: Strategic Networks

Directly related to my interest in supporting social networking. I might be able to talk my way into this based on my research.

Marketing High Technology Products

Hmm.

CSC2527H The Business of Software

Sounds like a terrific course.

Details:

It’s a good thing I read about Dublin Core, FOAF, and other wonderful
Web-based stuff before! =) I’m not _too_ out of place in our metadata
course, and can actually participate in the discussion. Rachel and I
usually have our hands up when the teacher asks questions (rhetorical
or not), although other people occasionally contribute.

On Technorati: school