Dr. Seuss continues to Influence me!

Oh, The Places You’ll Go! This was a favorite Dr. Seuss book of mine and I never really new when I read it that I would travel so many places and experiences so many things. This also seems to be holding true for my dissertation as it continues to emerge into something actual or concrete. What I mean is that I am still focused on studying social media use in nonprofit organizations and I am particularly interested in what this has to do with making the organization sustainable. However, I am very interested in doing a dissertation that is feasible! Many individuals have continually told me that my dissertation just needs to be adequate, I just need to finish and get out of the building so I can move onto other things. I agree and don’t look at my dissertation as a game changer or something that will change the world. I figure I have my career for that.

A couple weeks ago I was presenting some of my research at VCU’s Graduate Research Symposium and was introduced to a gentlemen who works in one of the research center’s on campus. A few days later I would meet with this gentlemen in his office to discuss my research and a project his center is beginning to work on. It seems so serendipitous that we would meet and that his project closely resembles what I imagine doing for my dissertation. I don’t have all the specifics but essentially the center would like to build communities of knowledge both face to face and online. Utilizing social media, evaluating it with social network analysis, and possibly doing a few other things is very interesting to me. The project would actually provide a bit more focus as the organizations that would be surveyed ultimately work with the Autism population. I think what they have in mind is very do-able and hopefully as we continue to meet to finalize the details I will be able to report back on more progress. It’s just interesting how things turn out.