My blog has moved to a new location at wordpress: http://inkouper.wordpress.com/. The main idea of getting a new host is to have some more flexibility with organizing my working notes.

I'm thinking about using another hosting service for my blog. As soon as I figure out the details, I'll link to it.

Good news: my abstract "Blog as anthropological location: Methodological issues in ethnographic research of blogs" has been accepted to the symposium Trials and Tribulations: Negotiating research methods in cyberspace.

Looking forward to go to Montreal, Canada in November.

Writing Research Across Borders
February 22-24, 2008
University of California Santa Barbara
Conference website

Proposal deadline: May 1, 2007

This conference brings together the many writing researchers from around the world, drawing on all disciplines, and focused on all aspects of writing at all levels of development and in all segments of society. This will be an opportunity to learn from different research traditions, share our findings, seek common agendas, and lay the groundwork for future communication and alliances.

We are now issuing an open call for proposals for panels, roundtables, individual presentations, and poster presentations addressing
* current research on writing
* methodological issues
* reflections on ongoing research programs
* considerations of national or disciplinary trajectories of research
* agendas for further research
We anticipate a program of up to two hundred and fifty presentations.

Proposals to present current research should specify research questions, methods, data corpus, and findings, as well as the scope and duration of the research project. Proposals to provide overviews of and reflections on research traditions and agendas should identify clearly the relevant literatures to be considered.

Proposals for individual and poster presentations should be from 250 to 500 words in length and panel and roundtable proposals, 500 to 1000 words. Please indicate your preferred format.

Proposals should be sent by May 1, 2007 via email to writing @ education.ucsb.edu Please include complete contact information.

Looks like blogs may become a new channel for marketing.

A while ago I received a message from blogexplosion.com with an announcement of a great new deal for blog surfers: write about some site in your blog and receive 20 credits at blogexplosion.com.

It's not a big deal to go to some site, take a look and write a few words about it in exchange for credits (which bring more traffic to your own blog.) At the same time it changes a lot. The site doesn't care whether you say something good or bad. They just need promotion. Bloggers also may not care about this site, they want to increase traffic to their own blog. Not that it doesn't exist yet, but it's not fun to read blogs that have anything but sincere self-expression or personal appeal.