Bill Gates - in a new light

The Oct. 24, 2005 New Yorker includes an insightful article, Healing Africa, which made me look at Bill Gates in a new light. He's spent literally millions of dollars trying to fight diseases, such as malaria, which have been essentially eradicated in the developed countries and therefore aren't popular with drug company researchers. But which still kills thousands, mostly children under 5, in African countries. This research seems so much more important than most other things many of us - myself included - are doing.

Travelin'

Been busy traveling as of late. I was in Chicago for the Association of Internet Researchers conference where I presented some of my research on the effects of publicly writing about one's Ideal Self. We are still crunching the numbers and are collecting additional data to get a true control group. It turns out thinking about the Ideal Self may have effects similar to writing about the Ideal Self.
The following weekend I went to beautiful Ithaca, NY to visit the Communication Department at Cornell and participate in their research speaker series. What a gorgeous place! Some very interesting research being done -- I was especially impressed with the graduate students I met.

Blogging in Academe

Inside Higher Ed recently had an interesting article about academics who blog: Too Much Information. This issue is something that's come up a lot for me, most recently in a grad class i'm teaching. I am curious about the ways in which academics manage the desire to disclose with the need for impression management; the pressures to have an active online presence (especially in media fields) with the penchant for revealing minimal information that could be "used against you." (What! Assistant Professor Jones is blogging about Desperate Housewives again - when does he have time to publish!")

Anonymous blogging is sounding better and better.