Diary of a Dissertation

[Julia]

As many of you will know, I am currently steeped, absorbed, obsessed..tick all that apply - in my undergraduate dissertation which is a detailed research project that I have to complete in order to graduate from Uni with my BSc degree in July. Woohoo!!
Returning to education and learning when one is a little more mature *cough* than the average undergraduate sitting next to you in lectures, is a rather daunting prospect but is also an enormously challenging and rewarding experience.
I was first introduced to computers and the Internet (8 years ago now) by Simon....so he is the one to blame for all this!
I began with an ECDL computing course which taught me the basics of office applications and introduced me to the web and email. Once I knew how to actually turn this thing on and do a bit of stuff on my own, I went off exploring and began my journey of discovery into all things techie and geeky.

My degree in Information Systems with Management has taken 5 years to complete, studying on a part-time basis and as of this summer, I will be ready to unleash my finely honed skills and enthusiasm on a hitherto unsuspecting world.

I have decided to begin blogging about my journey and experiences as a lesson word of encouragement to anyone else who is thinking of travelling down a similar road. It is not always easy and you will meet quite a few unexpected pitfalls along the way, but the ultimate reward for me is a far greater knowledge and understanding of myself, what makes me tick and where I want to go in the second half of my life.

My dissertation needs to be completed in around two weeks time, so I wont have much time for blogging until then but as soon as it is printed, bound and handed in to the Faculty Office at college, I will be able to get very drunk ..oh no I dont drink anymore...enjoy some good coffee and a danish pastry (I am particularly fond of the maple and pecan variety!) and begin my reflections on these pages.

I also intend to publish the more detailed research parts of my dissertation on my techie website (Jewels Web Graphics) for anyone who is like me and enjoys the technical minutiae.

So, it is back to typing furiously for a couple more weeks now for me, but I will be back here later this month to bore you all rigid...hopefully keep you amused and entertained for short periods of time.

Watch this space, as they say!!

[Julia]

I am well into my research write-up now and am discussing the problems faced by us all when we moved to this new and different social network from our old homes in forums -particularly Digital Spy - which some of us had been posting in for years during each Big Brother.

I know many of you who very kindly followed me over here from DS and ZaC faced a lot of usability issues in the early days when R2 was still very experimental and I don't think I ever fully and properly explained to you all that one of the reasons it was so basic and unformed at that time was so that we could be 'Beta Testers' of the new platform..try it out, explore all the features and report back on things that worked 'out of the box' so to speak and things that required a lot more investigation and discovery before becoming usable. This was clearly a very basic omission on my part.

I realise now that some of you thought you were being asked to simply move house from one forum to another and were shocked and disappointed at the strangeness and differences you encountered.

Maybe some of you also felt that you been lured here under false pretences. I know that the subsequent drama and ill-feeling that ensued elsewhere didn't help matters in any way and in all probability, left a nasty taste in the mouth of some of those folk who flocked over here with such enthusiasm on that first weekend.

I am acutely conscious that I could and should have handled things considerably more diplomatically from the outset and avoided any distress or upset to members of the group.
I can only sincerely apologise to all of those members who were affected by these events and assure you all that the upset certainly wasn't intentional and was caused by thoughtlessness and poor planning rather than malice aforethought. Many lessons have been learned from this debacle, which is perhaps the silver lining....

If anyone feels they would like to look back and reflect on the move and how things evolved in the early days, this is always of help to me even though this specific dissertation may be completed, so that future projects or indeed the development of R2 itself can take note of these issues and make improvements and changes as needed:

Specifically:

What did you LIKE about the network?

(photos, videos, your own myspace type page, comment walls, blogs, friends, being able to chat with each other across your pages, or anything else that attracted you).

What did you DISLIKE about the network?

(couldnt find anything, confusing, didn't know where to post, didn't know how to add things -links, photos, images, too much clutter on main page, poor navigation, things hidden and not obvious enough, too different from DS, or anything else at all that you can think of)

Please don't be polite and worried that you will hurt my feelings by being honest here. I don't own Ning and wont take criticisms personally.

If this network has just not been your cup of tea and you prefer to spend your leisure time elsewhere on the net (myspace, facebook, other forums etc) please don't feel that this is offensive to me personally. We cant all like the same things, after all and even such negative feedback is incredibly useful when planning other ventures.

Any and all comments and feedback from anyone and everyone who has ever joined R2 even if you have never posted are welcomed here:

For those who merely 'lurked'

Did you not have the time to join in?

Did you prefer other places? Myspace perhaps?

Was it the initial drama and being labelled 'guinea pigs' that upset you or made you feel uncomfortable?

Did you feel you were being disloyal after the drama and didn't want to participate under those circumstances?


So, a final thank you all once again for being a part of this study in any way.

Just a reminder that whilst Reality 2.0 has been used as a case study for my research, it was not created solely for the research.
It was always my hope that the network would grow from a pilot project and develop into an enjoyable home from home on the net where several disparate groups of friends could meet up, discuss similar leisure interests and make new friends in the process. This remains my ultimate aim and I will be devoting more time to the network to promote these aims and goals once the research project is completed in two weeks time.

Thanks for listening!!

[jan]

Im sure reality 2o will work julia i think more should be of all the different aspect's of it ie blogging, formula,mvies groups etc as well as the bb groups apeak soon love jan x x

[Julia]

Do you mean push those things to other groups of people?
Yes i think that is the way forward...we need to get the word out to them somehow.
I am doing some analysing of data at the moment for the study..how many did this, how many stayed and how many left after one week or two and so on. It is interesting that lots of folk arrived, chatted to each other on their pages and said they liked it, but then drifted off. I wonder if that is normal for new places or was there something missing here...something that people were looking for but didnt find? Do people find it on Myspace perhaps? Is it easier to get into, do you reckon?