2002
DecemberBest tunes
Its a joy to see the fine reissues of previously impossible to find gems that gushed out of Jamaica in the 74-80 period. But what about the gems produced on these shores? In Brooklyn for example with Bullwackie Barnes? Thanks to the Rhythm and Sound German guys we have a chance to reawaken a great period in our own history. Showcases like Horace Andy meets Nagoo Morris top my list this year. However, only because this was the first of the series I listened to, buy them all!
September Teaching is hard
Started teaching User-centered web development. The text is a mess, but the theory is right up my alley, how do you mix the creation and engineering of a website with user-centered principles? Basically trying to bake-in usability. I still am struggling to create the course materials, lectures, tests, grading curve and other goodies. Whomever said this was a good way to make a living? No wonder my dad couldn't hack the academic route.
June Distinct Graduation
Woo hoo, finally knocked out HCI 440 - who does paper prototyping anymore? Also the capstone with my business plan for the Meme website (the precursor to facebook?). That got me a Masters in Computer Science from DePaul University (natch) with a concentration in Human-Computer Interaction (and Ecommerce. Also, got a 3.95 or some such GPA (damn that B I got in User Testing) but still made it across the finish line thanks to the A in Statistics. Huzzah!
November Sharepoint and Ed-Media Hawaii
Thanks to the sharepoint implementation, I published to Ed-Media this year. Met a bunch of great people, and got to evangelize the use of the sharepoint web solution for education. Unfortunately, not a big turn out, likely the waves and 80 degree weather may have pulled people out of the conference. As to team services, its a real pleasure to put the authorship into the hands of the faculty/staff rather than having to put developers on every issue. This saved our butt when it came time to review the degree requirements which is so hard since every peer reviewer has run off for the summer.