Dr. Neil Hair

OK, I'll admit a degree of loyalty having owned my hotmail email address since 1996 - Ive known it longer than my wife (9 years) - but it's not the real reason why I keep using it.  A recent survey from London suggests that 9/10 emails are now spam - Yes kind sir please excuse this unsolicited communication from the daughter of the former. now dead ruler of Namibia, it is true! However, over the last two years the daily onslaught of messages touting enlargement or medication thereof has dwindled to a point where it is almost non existent. Heaven forbid am I about to praise Microsoft? Yes I am, and justifiably so. I get a degree of flack from my esteemed technical colleagues for continuing to use it. Amusingly, the system they prefer me to use (presumably so they can read my email and laugh at my conversations with the children of Namibian despots) sends me more spam warnings then I get from Bill's system. Go figure as they say in this glorious land. I love hotmail, I love it's reliability, I trust it, it's part of my identity and I have no plans to change from it. Oh and just for the record, I owned my hotmail account long before Bill bought it out. Pity he stopped buying competitors… off to google the details of this daughter that keeps emailing me.

This past week has been busy, I try to use the breaks to cram as much research time in as possible (since teaching pretty much takes up the rest during the quarter) - here are a few things I am currently working on: Understanding the nature of advertising models in social networks - as a new channel it's time we understood how people and companies are using this to promote themselves and their products. Im also interested in e-business models (about to start some interesting research with Vic P on this). The ethics of researching social networks is also something I'm interested in as the lure of unethical quick research must be tempting for a lot of people. I'm also working with three honors students at the moment on their theses. DanielLa is done, her research project explores perceptions of the online customer experience between Germans and Americans. Chris is also nearly done, his work looks at perceptions of personal branding of online consultants. Finally Akiera who is looking at Japanese and American perceptions of online music stores. The themes of all of my research are perceptions and relationships, usually online. I'm also teaching two graduate night classes this coming quarter - B2B E-Marketing & B2C Internet Marketing. With a bit of luck this will leave me with some quality time during the day to get on with my scholarship. Before you know it there will be snow on the ground and no one will want to be out in it. Youve got to love winter for getting stuff done!

OK, so it's official. I now have a cute website. Despite 5 hours sleep (I blame the cats as well as marking) we seem to be making headway in the acclimatization of the two girls. The world just seems a better place when you have two blue eyes looking at you at 7 o'clock in the morning (that doesnt want coffee, a full English breakfast, or access to your credit card). She's settled well, appears to be in the process of being accepted by my gorgeous black cat Spooky and only a couple of spats to mention of (her big sister is taking some time to suss out the competition). I've updated my youtube site to include a couple of videos of her enjoying her new home and I promise all my students that this momentary lapse of hardness will pass in time for the next quarter.

We have a new family member to welcome to the world. Rose and I went to Lollypop farm yesterday for the sole purpose of looking at and the falling in love with - SNOWBALL! Snowball is a tiny 8lb all white 3 year old domestic shorthair that looks lets face it like her and Spooky were kittens from a previous life's black and white party. Rose and I fell for her immediately. She comes from a great foster home and we're lucky to have her. First night went well, Spooky shows an arrogant indifference which is perfectly normal (if you pretend it isnt happening it just goes away right?) and Snowball's extremely affectionate with both of us. She has two baby blue eyes (although her retinas are red and blue which is interesting if not unique - hence the light reflection from the camera). I also found myself getting up for the first time and having to use a roller - the white hair will play havoc with my wardrobe. She's most definitely worth it.

You blink and it's gone. It's almost a year since I updated http://www.neilhair.com/ to web version 2.0. and it's time to review its performance. I'm looking for ideas and feedback on what you like and what might be improved. I designed my site with usability in mind, my audience is primarily three fold as I see it, family and friends, students and alum (who kind of blend into the friends category). I have several auditing questions I'd like to ask you.

1. What's missing?
2. What do you like?
3. What can I do more of?
3. Who would you consider to be benchmarks? (ie identify similar sites that might offer me additional ideas)
4. Any other misc. ideas that might be fun to incorporate.

Please also grade this site for me:

Came across this really neat travel tool today following on from the inspiration from one of my current research students (Chris Adams) - it appears that my plans for world domination aren't there just yet… it would be nice to be able to break this down a little further into islands Ive visited as well but it certainly gives you a quick feel for places visited. Try it yourself - hopefully I rule! Theres also a US places visited option which is also interesting and reminds me that I need to visit genuine Nebraska as soon as possible.

Stupidity knows no bounds…

Paragraph 6 of the report made me cry. Here's to firework codes and the British safety establishment…

Week 10, you blink and the quarter is over. Maybe it's the early darkness thats got me all reflective, maybe it's worried students that the end is near and projects are due for clients but it's around week 10 that I always start to think about the quarter system and how quickly things are over. I'm blessed this Fall with two cracking classes that seem energized and are performing well. Just when you're getting to know them and seeing things develop - it's all over. Let me share a perspective on the quarter system with you from the other side… please feel free to contribute.

The pros of this system are evident from an instructors perspective; its fast moving, you dont get bored because you dont have time to get bored. It's extremely intensive which always makes for interesting teaching. Fresh set of faces and minds every 12/13 weeks (or, perhaps more minds to torment), and fresh sets of clients to work with. The winter months of Rochester life go VERY quickly when youre teaching two classes.

The cons though are also there from a personal perspective. Fall is a wonderful time to be in Rochester, you blink, and the trees are bare, you pass crying brass monkeys, and 5pm seems just too early for it to be dark - Ive missed Fall this year and I did last year too. In the classroom its no different, just as you're getting to really know students, and they each other, it's all over and you and they have to move on. I'm lucky in that about 20% of my students tend to go on and sit a further class with me - it used to be better and I make no apology for asking students to sit further classes with me. Back in 1999 I taught 5 different classes, Buyer Behavior, International Marketing, Internet Marketing (UG), Principles of Marketing, and Internet Marketing grad. I was fortunate to have many of my marketing students go on and take further classes, about 50% of each class was a returning student and one or two of them (Irene, Mark) went on and sat all 4 or 5. You really got to know students, see them develop their skills and form strong professional relationships with them.

Of course 5 courses and 5 different preps will ruin a research oriented academic's career so a balance is required and I'm not complaining with fewer preps. Thankfully I think the fewer classes I teach the more I can manage this balance of teaching and research although it's no cake walk. From a research stand point it's difficult to focus in on writing papers and conducting new studies when you've sets of papers to mark in week 4,5,7,8 and then again in week 11. Managing the demands of what your heart tells you (teach well) and your head tells you (research well) isnt easy.

I'll miss my cheery Internet Marketing and Marketing Concepts crew. Crew… how MTV. Enough of all this introspection, off back to my Crib in my pimped up ride. Good luck with the final client projects next week guys. You'll be missed. A little.

I have just finished a marathon of marking. Here's what I was listening to:

1. William Orbit - Strange Cargo 3
2. William Orbit - Strange Cargo 4 Hinterland
3. Massive Attack 100th Window
4. Sneaker Pimps - Bloodsport
5. Sigor Ros - Agaentis Burjun
6. Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas
7. Global Communication - 76:14
8. Jakatta - Visions
9. The Killers - Hot Fuss
10. Morcheeba - Who can you trust
11. My wife complaining.

The first three Albums got me through my Phd (that and number 11).

So, it was a matter of time before someone finally smelt the coffee. Google is expecting advertising revenues to exceed that of the UK's fourth largest independent television channel (itself one of the top ten in the world). Who says YouTube has no proven revenue model? Secondly, Google has been smart enough to start negotiating with the major media companies to split advertising revenue for those 'copyrighted' programs shown on YouTube. This may then reduce the pressure on the internet TV industry to protect such antiquated laws allowing people to enjoy media the way in which they want and everyone WINS. Google wins, the advertising companies win, the media corporations win, and finally - the consumer wins. Who will be the first to spoil the party? Watch this space…