I’m in the process of moving this blog to my website - deeringdavis dot com. So go there for the latest until I get everything straightened out.

I successfully defended my prospectus this morning! So now, according to the university and the Communication Studies department, I am officially ABD. Hooray.

Now I just have to write that pesky little paper.

This isn’t work or research-related in the slightest, but I just found out that I get to help conduct exit polls for the upcoming primary here in Texas!

It’s a very interesting time for national politics in Austin and Texas. Senators Clinton and Obama are debating on campus tonight (not that I - or anyone I know - got tickets to go, but still), local media outlets are just buzzing with the excitement of such a tight Democratic race, Texas actually plays an important role in the outcome of this primary, etc… I find it very exciting.

So I get to be there as all this is happening in two weeks, talking to people and gathering data they’ll report on all the major news networks.  Neat!

A reader posted this question on Fast Company’s website, and though there are only four responses so far, everyone has said yes. Huh.

Update: I didn’t have time to elaborate any on this before, but I can now. I am not at all surprised that people check their Blackberries while with their families or friends. But I am a little surprised they admit to it so readily. I would have expected a social desirability bias in people’s responses; isn’t it bad to work when you’re with your kids? That’s what TV says anyway.

Looking at their individual responses is a bit more revealing - the four responses use language like “need to stop that” and “wow I have no life.” So maybe these people are comfortable telling the world they check their Blackberries while with their kids, as long as they admit that it might be a bad thing.

I wonder what kids think of Blackberries and their ilk.  When I was little, no one had cell phones, especially not my parents.  Do they mind that their parents keep their Blackberries around all the time?  Do they think their parents are important or cool?  Do kids want their own Blackberries?

Finally! I’ve seen these types of arrangements in other cities, but nothing quite like it here in Austin. Until now, at least. LaunchPad Coworking will open this summer, and provide the sort of community workspace those of us who work from home sometimes want, when we just need to get out of the house and be around other people. It’s more than a coffee shop and less than an full-time office. I love this idea! I think that some days, all I need to get my creative juices flowing is some interaction with like-minded others. Being around people who are excited and working hard inspires me to be and do the same.

From their blog:

LaunchPad Coworking is a place for independent workers, telecommuters, business travelers and office escapees to join together and work smarter. Carefully designed as a collaborative workplace with a café, LaunchPad Coworking provides independent workspaces and meeting rooms for rent by the hour, ergonomic chairs, ample power outlets, and secure, fiber-optic connectivity. LaunchPad Coworking is a cure for home office isolation and cubicle craziness.

Awesome! I’m looking forward to learning more about this space. I think it’s a great idea, especially in a town that seems to have so many people who work for themselves or out of their homes. I would pay a reasonable amount of money to have a something like a timeshare on an office somewhere else, for those days when I need to get out of the house but Austin Java just won’t do. My home office is wonderful - I have a comfortable chair and two huge monitors - but sometimes I enjoy being around other working people, and this seems like a great solution.

Note: I guess I do have a desk on campus, but there’s been a dead cockroach under it for more than six months and it’s dirty and old and not at all the kind of work environment one needs to be creative and productive. In fact, it’s just downright gross.

The SXSW Interactive schedule has been posted. I’ve yet to go through it completely, but I’m so geeked out and excited that almost all the panels look good.

Lots of the Core Conversations look interesting - Examining the Different Ways We Can Work, Coworking and the Evolution of the Independent Worker, Next Generation Education: Bringing the New Web to Campus, Mobile Manners: Mobile Presence and the Undefined Etiquette, Do You Have to Disappear Completely to Get Things Done?, Online Identity: And I *Do* Give a Damn About My Bad Reputation, among others.

More on this over the next few weeks.

Why is it, that even when we know months in advance when a deadline is, we always end up working right up to the last possible minute to finish something? I use the generic “we” to refer to all people, not just me or the people I work with. Though there may be unique individual cases (a.k.a. freaks), procrastination seems pretty universal.

I absolutely despise working under duress, and last-minute work is always stressful. And every time a big conference paper submission deadline approaches, it seems to surprise us. Even though the submission date is the same every year! This is a strange phenomenon that seriously demands scientific study.

So, we’ve reached another annual NCA submission deadline. My last paper was just submitted, only minutes ago (not by me, thank goodness, because 40 minutes before the submission site closes really is pushing it), so now we can all relax. But I really do want to know why we always wait so long to get started. It probably has something to do with behavioral economics; somewhere someone like Steven Levitt is ready to tell me that procrastination is an expressed preference for valuing present time over future time. Or something having to do with rational utility maximization. Probably that one. It sounds so technical; it must explain this.