Growing up is optional

• Been skating a bit; not as much at I would like. Got a few new boards (pintail, pool, slalom, dervish). Went to a race at the mount. Another race coming up in Wellington.
• Stopped playing online poker. Was profitable, but the time was a drag. It paid for a few skateboards though. Still have a small bankroll for live games.
• Changed jobs. Working in the Health sector, still for government. Basically I’m a project manager, but there’s more to it and the explanation is really long so I won’t bore you.

I’ve had my last exam ever. …unless I decide to do some other qualification. Only 1 research paper to go.

In other news: I finally ordered some slalom gear. It should be here next week. Now I just need to find some more people…

The fastest traffic peak I’ve ever had on a work website happenned today. The site I built to promote fireworks safety this Guy Fawkes was metioned on the front page of the New Zealand Herald, New Zealand’s biggest daily.

Still, not as big as when I released a PHP-Nuke module to parse RSS feeds which made the PHP-Nuke homepage.

I’m working on my Masters of Management through Massey University. I’m currently trying to put together a literature review of my chosen topic. However, I am having trouble locating any academic or even practicioner research in this area. My topic is (verbatim from my draft research proposal):

Determinants of effective website management in New Zealand government websites.

How are websites managed and how does this affect their effectiveness in achieving the outcomes for which they are maintained?

In this research I will examine different types of government websites (e.g. informational, educational, transactional) looking at how they are managed (including governing structures, authorship models, development models, history), and determine if there is a relationship between these variables and their effectiveness.

I have narrowed the topic to NZ govt sites just to stop the research getting too huge, but any research on website management with a sound methodology in a different domain (e.g. ecommerce, activism) would be a good start for me. I’ve hunted around all of the academic abstract databases etc I can think of but with no luck. Everything I have found is focused on the technology and functionality, rather than the people side of website management.

Do you know of any research, theses, papers or anything else remotely related to this topic?

Long time since I posted; been too busy

• Going to Webstock, met some people I’ve chatted with online for a while. Putting faces to names. Heard some legends. The heads of the two biggest browsers are speaking tomorrow. (IE, firefox)
• My new board arrived (very late)
• Been cited in an academic paper for the presentation I gave on Semantic HTML, and it’s on page 1 of Google
• Soccer season is up and down

I’m not so happy with this mark, mostly with myself because I know I could have done better, although most people tell me it’s not that bad considering I work full time, have two small kids and study 50% FTE.

Enough excuses. Next year it will be 2 more papers:

• Advanced Strategic Management
• Advanced Research Methods in Business

Got a B for my final exam. Not as good as I hoped, but it’s better than I thought it would be. Should end up with a B+/A- for the paper overall. Anyone need Strategic Governance analysis done? Directorships on offer?

Lazy post about what I’ve been doing:

• Been studying heaps. 1st assignment is in, working on 2nd.
• Playing with Pandora - very cool. Let me know if you want an invite and I’ll see what I can do.
• Can’t find a builder to do up my bathroom. Can find every other service though.
• Work’s really busy.
• Thinking about the general election. Still undecided centre vote.