Face2Face meetings: a thing of the past?

As some know I'm now a part of Project Umonya, a Google CS4HS initiative at UCT. Since it is being run by essentially computer geeks we seem to have moved away from face to face meetings (this is difficult at the moment with 1 in Austria, 1 in Switzerland, 1 in USA, 1 in Stellenbosch and 1 in Cape Town). Instead we have moved entirely into the realm of online meetings and planning tools.

Firstly meetings are scheduled on Doodle to find a time that suits everyone. The time is then decided and a Google Calendar invite/iCal event is sent out as a reminder.

Meeting agendas are posted on Etherpad for comment and editing a day or two before the scheduled date/time, you can save revisions, highlight changes by different people in different colours (the only drawback are no attachment/image facility).

The meetings themselves take place on IRC or Google Group Chat (depends on the SA internet connection). Any supporting documents are posted on pastebin for review. A bot on the IRC channel then takes minutes (I'm not kidding, you set it to meeting mode and tell it to record decisions and full log and attendance). If we need to conscript volunteers, we create a Doodle form with time availability options.

Minutes are compiled at the end and sent via email for review of decisions and todo lists and then the cycle starts again for a progress meeting. I know it sounds crazy but it seems to be working

research meetings for the uninformed

I went to a research meeting and understood about 5 minutes of it. As Warrick pointed out, that's 8%. Maybe next week it will be 10%, by the time I leave I could possibly get to 80%. I have a goal.

I am registered with the uni now. Have a desk and internet access(obviously) and a stack of things to read including a PhD thesis. Fun times.

Weird note for the dance crowd. The syllabus here is wacky. Their gold is our advanced/bronze class, I mean gold just learnt slingshot in jive and natural turn, though they do do this cool reverse natural top thing and something called a wiggle.

Brain overload

Monday started with a bang. Had a research meeting at 9.30. Now for the people that know me, this is super early and I am generally not processing much yet. Imagine my surprise when I'm asked to speak about my thesis first! Turns out the stuff I planned to do while I am here isn't what they think I should do, so I am officially in the deep-end with new data, new techniques and new place. (pic is of the atmospheric physics building)

The rest of the meeting was focused around the Microsoft project UCT is collaborating in and the logistics and politics surrounding it. Have to love how the researchers talk about terrabytes of data as if its normal amount to produce.

Most of the technical stuff went over my head, but I have noted a few things. PhD students tend to be older, like 25ish minimum. weird.

Lunch was at the University Club(equivalent to UCT Club). Meals for 3gbp. Starter for 2gbp. Not bad price or quality food.

As a side note, the building on the left is the Science library. How cool is that. Science gets its own library, not like UCT where we have a section.

The FISH! Philosophy

I went to a meeting a while back and came across a corporate strategy philosohpy called FISH.

1. Play - Have a little fun at work.
2. Make their day - Go M.A.D. [Make a Difference], engage others. Make them part of the fun.
3. Be there - actually pay attention, to make sure you take care of the person in front of you right now!
4. Choose your attitude - Before you go to work in the morning, pick out an attitude, just like you choose your underwear.

Seems to be the a craze, but I like the philosophy. The people who thought up this crazy philosophy can be found at: (http://www.charthouse.com/content.aspx?name=home2)