May update

I haven’t been very diligent in updating my research blog recently …. well, because it took much more time than I had thought to write intelligent blog posts. But it seems that I will be doing that more often in the next three months because I will be doing a lot of reading and blogging about them helps to organize thoughts.

Yes, in case you are wondering, I am finally going to take qualifying exam somewhere this September. The preparation, as well as the exam itself, will be a great opportunity to read, re-read, and organize stuff that I care about. I am excited.

Besides reading, I will also be doing ASIMS, which is a fabulous workshop on research methods, hosted by the Annenberg School at USC. Both USC and Penn students will join the two week workshop. I am tentatively in for categorical analysis and multi-level analysis. Sounds like great fun.

I am also presenting at the annual ICA conference at Montreal from May 21-26:

Shen, C. & Monge, P. (2008, May). Power asymmetry and network structure in Open Source community. Paper presented at the 58^th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Montreal, Canada.

Shen, C. & Fulk, J. (2008, May). Ecological dynamics of online communities. Paper presented at the 58^th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Montreal, Canada.

This year’s ICA has a lot of interesting sessions and panels. Besides, it is also time to reunite with old friends (a lot of them!) and make new ones. Can’t wait!