Blau Exchange: Spring 2007 Roundtable (T3)

THREAD #3

Paul DiPerna:

Have there been any especially inspiring people who have influenced your graduate work? How have they been influential?

Paul Lawton:

My current supervisor, Art Frank.. I was in sort of a rut when I came in to do my PhD, in that I wasn't convinced that the academic life would be for me. By chance, I took a methodology course in Narrative Analysis, which he was teaching, and it completely opened my eyes to an entirely new way of looking at sociology. I handed in a paper (which used pieces from my data collection of Metafilter), and he gave me an A- on it. Of course, as an overachiever who just won't accept anything below an A, I was devastated.

When I asked him what I did wrong, he told me that the stuff I reported, while well written, never really left the screen... he told me that I was clearly "lost in cyberspace" - which caused me to have one of those great epiphany moments; he was exactly right. I had been attempting to come up with a sociology of online culture where everything stayed in the virtual realm, while completely forgetting that these were real people living real lives.

This propelled me to change my direction entirely into the project I am assembling now - that is, looking still at online communities, but communities centered around diseases, looking to see how the collaboration and sharing of information and experiences plays out in patients health work needed to manage illness, how this information collection changes the dynamics between the doctor and patient.

Fred Stutzman:

Well, my advisors Gary Marchionini and Paul Jones. I've known them going on 6 years, and I've learned a lot from them. They've been very supportive of my work. I've sort of had to chart my own course in terms of my research areas, but they are always there to provide guidance and unending reading lists. Gary and Paul are really just excellent people, and I'm lucky to work with them.

Sarita Yardi:

I've been lucky enough to have to two advisors who I look up to immensely! Peter Lyman at Berkeley was a PI with the Digital Youth group. I first had him for an introductory class but when I joined the project I had the opportunity to interact in more personal settings with him our weekly research meetings. He is incredibly wise, introspective, and perceptive. I'd give anything to develop the skills he has for observing people and being able to come up with all kinds of insightful descriptions of them. He had a very hands off advising style, which I liked since I work well independently, and he encouraged his students to explore their interests and generate their own conclusions.

My current advisor at Georgia Tech is Amy Bruckman. She is a role model to me in more ways than I can list. Her dissertation, MOOSE Crossing, was a pioneering project related to kids in constructionist online learning environments. She takes on an extremely dedicated role as a mentor to her students, as well as to the regular influx of random people who aren't her students but are wanting to get advice from her. I'm grateful to not have a professor who is impossible to get a hold of and who doesn't respond to emails. As I think about whether I want to head into research or teaching, being able to observe role models like Amy and how they conduct themselves on a daily basis is a valuable opportunity for me. There are a number of professors at Tech that I look up to in this way.

Miia Akkinen:

I am in the beginning with my thesis and just starting to create my own network of people who are interested on same things. Up to now, the supervisor of my thesis, Professor Virpi Tuunainen in Helsinki School of Economics, has given me a lot of useful information and advice.

I can't underestimate the significance of people in the online communities where I am personally involved. Behind the actual discussion themes, I can see there several things and phenomena, and continuously reflect them to the literature I have so far read.