I'm really excited!! This week I have settled into life in Seattle and at the iSchool Research Commons. I found out that my group will be using MySQL and Java in a linux environment. I might even get to apply my XML skills to this project later on! Yay!!

My iSchool account has been set up, and I can save files, print documents, change my password, access the linux account on the cluster machine, and even display this webpage!! I've read some papers about the research project, specifically a paper that gives an overview of the project and the five-year plan, and a paper that describes the text-mining algorithm.

At the group meeting on Tuesday, I had an opportunity to meet the other team members, and to hear what they'll be contributing to the project. I also found out that I'll be focusing mainly on the design and development of a collaborative interface. I'll be working closely with Meredith and Lisabeth who are working on the interface for text-mining, and with Kris, who is working on the interface for document management. Our group is going to meet once a week as a reading group to discuss papers that we have read. Then, we'll probably meet one or two more times per week to discuss and critique our interface mock ups.

I refreshed some of my linux, putty, ftp, and sql skills by downloading the latest version of UMLS (2003AA), and loading it onto the cluster machine. UMLS stands for Unified Medical Language System, and is the work of the National Library of Medicine (NLM).

My goal for this coming week is to read twenty papers about CSCW (Computer Supported Cooperative Work) and group interfaces, for background information and ideas for my interface. In a week or so, it will be my turn to present a paper at the reading group. I'd better get reading...