sabbatical details

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I was deliberately vague in my first post about the sabbatical, because I was waiting for details to get firmed up a bit. But I can now say, with no small measure of delight, that I'll be spending my sabbatical year as a visiting researcher at Microsoft Research, in the Social Computing Group. w00t!

Many thanks to Lili Cheng, manager of that group, for making this happen. I'm really looking forward to working with her team, which is made up of some really amazing people.

What will I be doing, exactly? Well, that's still being worked out. I'm hoping to get a chance to peek over their shoulders on current projects like Wallop, providing feedback and participating in the design process. But I'm also really interesting in pursuing some work on what Linda Stone describes as "continuous partial attention."

I'll also be working on developing a social computing curriculum to implement at RIT upon my return.

Because I don't want to spend half my life in my car, we're planning on looking for a place to rent on the eastside (is it one word or two out there?). I love the idea of living in the city, especially since we'll be homeschooling, but I just don't think it makes sense given the traffic in the area.

My tentative start date at MSR is July 1, which means we're really only four months away from moving--which is more than a little daunting. Lots to do between now and then!

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Shiny lights from Joho the Blog on February 18, 2005 5:14 PM

Robert Scoble made the blogosphere a little shinier by congratulating Firefox on its success. RageBoy's new High-Beam blog was a pick of the day at The Guardian making The Guardian a little shinier and sanding down a carbunkle on RB's craggy butt which... Read More

7 Comments

By "out there" do you mean Redmond, Washington? It's usually one word, out there, sometimes capitalized. I lived there for many years, some near the Microsoft campus, some not. It's a lovely campus, with lots of places nearby to live, and there is a great transit system there. (I assumed by "in the city" you mean Seattle, right?) I think you'll find the eastside has many city-like features, particularly in Bellevue. Some nice places to rent in the Bellevue core, too.

Your sabbatical post sounds very interesting and exciting. Any advice I can offer, I'll be glad to (even though you don't know me from anybody). Seattle and its surrounding 'burbs was home to me for 30+ years before I came to Syracuse. I think you'll love it there.

Nice. Congratulations!

Congratulations, Liz! I'm sure we'll be reading some even more interesting blog postings!

We are really looking forward to having you, Liz.

the Eastside definitely has lots of beautiful places to rent. Minimize your commute AND live in a city by getting a place in Redmond near the town center (an outdoor mall and planned community hub). If you live in Bellevue, you'll still have to deal with the horrendous traffic on 520 unless you're lucky enough to live somewhere with a direct city street route.

Kirkland, Bellevue, Redmond, and Woodinville are all cities in their own right with museums, theatres, and plenty of interesting culture. There are three main characteristics that separate the Eastside from Seattle:

1 - age
2 - size
3 - higher car dependency on Eastside; people love their cars

But, never fear, you can always take mass transit into Seattle. The best way is to drive to a Park & Ride somewhere near one of the two bridges then bus it in. This will minimize your travel time while still utilizing mass transit. Once in Seattle, you can take a bus between districts (ie Queen Anne and Capitol Hill, or Downtown and the Seattle Center or Fremont and Ballard) or walk almost anywhere (within a district -- UW, downtown, Capitol Hill, and Fremont are particularly awesome). Also, if you're partial to canoeing, you can rent a canoe at UW and explore the Seattle waterways; there's a great Ivar's restaurant tucked right on the water, with a boat dock, right on Lake Union with a view of the Space Needle.

Congratulations for the opportunity to live in a beautiful place (not that where you are from isn't beautiful either). Enjoy your time in the PacNW :-)

So, does this mean you'll be in town for Gnomedex...? :)

Nope, I'll just miss it. :( I've promised the boys that they can finish out the school year here with their friends, so we won't be leaving Rochester until late June.

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This page contains a single entry by Liz Lawley published on February 16, 2005 6:10 PM.

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