The topic of this week readings was very new for me, since I am in Mass Comm major and did not really take any technical writing classes before. So it was a little bit hard to follow some of them, especially, about technomethodology. It was very heavy with acronyms and was written a very specific audience.
The other readin on work orders - was quite interesting. I think we can see how written documents enstill the hierarchy in organizations, especiaaly in highly beauracratic ones. For example, all government agencies require you to fill out tons of different forms and documents until they even talk to you. So that clearly demonstrates the power relationships.

From my own life experience, beauracracy was so widespread back in the Soviet times, lots of ridiculous forms and documents. During the period of the 90s, ealry 2000s we saw some attempt to decentralize organizations. Although, right now we are observing almost like a resurrection of the beauracracy. For example, in health care, medical practioner is forced almost to be a secretary of some sort. It is not about caring for a patient, but filling out papers for insurance company, supervisors, etc.

So, I can definetely see how written documents create and maintain an order within an organization. A better word would be not an order but a system, within which people have to work everyday. And which does not always serve good to the people. Like in the example of patients and health care system. It would be much better for patients to have more quality time with a doctor rather than see the doctor's writing some papers as a compulsory procedure of an ordinary patient visit ......

it seems like that for the class project I have finally decided to look at the financial blogs and how they are used. I have become really interested in this topic in the midst of the financial crisis developing in the States and elsewhere. It was interesting to find a whole new nich of bloggers who just blog about finances. From my personal perspective, finances as well as health issues, are two taboo topics in the western societies. It is fascinating how it is different from my own culture, where people are more open toi discuss their health (especially if it is bad, the assumption is that maybe somebody will give a really great advice how to cure it), and finances (where to keep money, etc. ) Maybe now, with the advancement of capitalism :( it is becoming slightly different than before. But anyway, with close friends it is one of the topics to talk about. In the U.S. it is less popular. So, where do people get this kind of info or advicde or some insights. It seems like that from financial bloggers. Some of them draw a lot of readers everyday!
For the class project, and possibly for the final final project I'd like to look into that phenomenon of financial blogging. How bloggers use their blogs, i.e. what kind of advice they give, what sources they link to.

Possibly that for this class I could run a pilot study - to look just at one or two blogs to help me refine my research instrument. From my perspective, this project fits our idea of field research, since we are looking at how people express themselves online. So, we observe and analyze their online activity, as any other activity. For the method I will use content analysis, to observe the textual (verbal) activity of the bloggers.

IRB

Today's class discussion on IRB was very useful, now it feels like I can do it and it is not so scary. I think it will be a great practice for us, especially we will most likly need it when we reach the dissertation stage in our careers :) I will still have to figure out how to write the proposal of the study that will be looking only at the artcifacts.....and not human subjects.

5389

I have decided to continue using this blog, which I created for a different class in during the previous semester, for a couple of reasons. First, I think it would be a nice way to present some of my interests as well as my family. The blog has couple of podcasts, which I really enjoyed doing. So, if anyone of interested you may take a look :)
The second reason is that I thought it would be easier for me to keep track of what I am doign by incorporating my work in one blog, rather than creating several different ones for every single case!