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Expectation setting in academic projects, and the “F*** You, Pay Me” principle

Sometimes your academic project suffers from a lack of clear documentation of expectations. I recently watched Mike Monteiro’s talk “F*ck You, Pay Me,” which is aimed at creative freelance and small business people (think web design and graphic design and copywriting and things like that), and I realized that hey, I know this particular heck from library and educational technology projects. It’s not that all projects I’ve worked on in academic project spaces have been messes: far from it! But over and over in academic spaces, people are glad when I ask for clear expectations, when I bring along documents and other tools for getting us to clear and shared expectations, when I am gently firm about getting these expectations recorded. Why are they so happy about it? And why… Read More »Expectation setting in academic projects, and the “F*** You, Pay Me” principle

Research Data Management Consulting and Faceting

Last week I had a really good conversation about my RDM consulting offerings with a friend who is in an allied health field, is self-employed, and has been out of academia for a while. As I continue to refine my consulting services page and reach out to colleagues about what I’m doing, it has been really good to talk to a variety of people about what I do. My friend had trouble wrapping her head around this admittedly broad slate of things I offer as an RDM consultant. With good reason: at one point she said that my consulting services page was trying to do an awful lot, perhaps too much, and I immediately agreed. Now, there are reasons the page needs to be set up the way it is,… Read More »Research Data Management Consulting and Faceting