Since finishing up my summer course on data warehousing and data mining, I have been working on my thesis proposal. If things keep progressing, I will be done with the literature review in the next few days and can begin working on the parts that are more my own ideas as opposed to just describing the ideas and concepts of other people. In the course of my research into IT leadership, I have been working on some other activites that tie in neatly with it.

Fall 2007 CCSP Conference
I am on the program committee for the CCSP semiannual conference at the University of Illinois. CCSP is the Computer Consultant Support Program which is the group of IT workers and managers on campus, and the conferences have always had good sessions on the technical work but have often been somewhat short on the "soft" side of IT. There have been requests for sessions focused on IT leadership issues. After meeting with the program committee last week, I was put in charge of organizing a session on IT leadership, communicating with organizational leaders, and dealing with the non-technical aspects of IT management.

2008 AUTM Annual Meeting
In addition, I will be moderating a panel at the 2008 meeting of AUTM, the Association of University Technology Managers, in San Diego next February. In the panel, I plan to give a few different perspectives and approaches on how to manage and implement IT in technology transfer organizations. This panel is a follow-up to the mailing list I formed in the spring for IT professionals to share ideas and issues in their tech transfer organizations.