My Curriculum Vitae
For the month of September 2008, one of the top referrers (compounded by the subsequent linking by others) was by Chinese blogger Ruan Yifeng to the page about the book collection in my New York City apartment. That may have impressed a lot of readers, but it is really a function of my job. At certain stages in my life, my job required that I read and know a lot. And I mean a lot, but the topics were nevertheless restricted to certain subject areas (such as fractals, genetic algorithms, neural networks, cellular automata, chaos theory,, robust statistics, wavelets, latent class analysis, log-linear models, sampling theory, variance estimation, data fusion, media audience measurement, Latin America, Chinese gangsters, etc). Therefore, I can say with confidence that I have read everything that was ever published in these particular areas. But I am still completely blind in other areas. We have to accept that nobody knows everything. [By the way, the stuff on Susan Sontag, Marguerite Duras, Marguerite Yourcenar, Julia Kristeva, Hélène Cixous, Edward Said, Wen Rui'an, etc are my personal preferences because no commercial company would require their employees to read such.]
So what?
Well, nothing.
Really.
If I had been a restaurant cook (and I could easily imagine that I could be one), I would not need to read so many books. Instead, I would have learned and improved my job skills in non-bookish ways. There is nothing so superior about reading many books. You have to trust me on that. The more I read, the more I am confident about this assertion.
More interesting is the question about what have I contributed in return to these respective fields. Unfortunately, I worked for commercial firms all my life. I was only required to know, design and execute, but not to publish. More precisely, publishing would have implied the disclosure of trade secrets. Therefore, my publication list is sporadic and incomplete, and does not adequately reflect my actual work. I published only when the job also required publicity to enhance the reputation of the company.
Nevertheless, for your enjoyment, here is the list of my publications from my most recent curriculum vitae based upon my recollection.
[About.com: In the United States, a curriculum vitae is used primarily when applying for academic, education, scientific or research positions. It is also applicable when applying for fellowships or grants. There are several differences between a curriculum vitae and a resumé. A curriculum vitae is a longer (up to two or more pages), more detailed synopsis of your background and skills. A CV includes a summary of your educational and academic backgrounds as well as teaching and research experience, publications, presentations, awards, honors, affiliations and other details.]
1981 with Mark Granovetter
Threshold Models of Diffusion and Collective Behavior. In Hummel, H. And Sodeur, W (eds.). Modelle für Ausbreitungsprozesse in sociale Strukturen. Verlag Sozialwissenschaftliche Kooperative, Duisberg, Federal Republic of Germany.
1983 with Mark Granovetter
Threshold Models of Diffusion and Collective Behavior. Journal of Mathematical Society, 9, 165-179.
1986 with Michael Occhiogrosso
Who They Are Is What They Watch: A Special Report on the Study of the Relationship of Television Viewing Behavior and Household Demographic Characteristics. Arbitron Ratings: Laurel, MD.
1986 with Mark Granovetter
Threshold Models of Interpersonal Effects in Consumer Demand. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 7, 83-99. Available for public access at http://www.econ.msu.ru/cmt2/lib/c/477/File/Threshold%20models%20of%20interpersonal%20effects%20in%20consumer%20demand.pdf.
1988 The Statistical Reliability of People Meter Ratings. Journal of Advertising Research, 28 (February/March), 50-56.
1988 with Mark Granovetter
Threshold Models of Diversity: Chinese Restaurants, Residential Segregation and the Spiral of Silence. In Clogg, C. (Ed.). Sociological Methodology 1988. American Sociological Association, Washington DC, p. 69-104. Available for public access at http://www.stanford.edu/dept/soc/people/mgranovetter/documents/granchineserestaurants_000.pdf .
1993 with Paul Donato
Theory and Data in the Design of Interactive Television Structures. Transactions of the ESOMAR/ARF Worldwide Electronic and Broadcast Audience Research Symposium, Paris (France), 1st-4th May 1994.
1995 with Paul Donato and Pablo Verdin
Magazine Measurement in Extreme Environments. Worldwide Readership Research Symposium: Berlin, Germany.
1995 with Jim Peacock and Tom White
Statistical Reliability of Radio-Schedule Audience Estimates. The Arbitron Company: Laurel, MD. Available for public access at http://www.arbitron.com/downloads/RadioSchedAudience.pdf .
1996 with Paul Donato and Pablo Verdin
Latin American Media: A Pan-regional Perspective. Audits & Surveys Worldwide: New York, NY.
1999 with Barbara Smela and Risa Becker
Telecommunications in Latin America. Audits & Surveys Worldwide: New York, NY.
1999 with Risa Becker and Barbara Smela
Travel in Latin America. Audits & Surveys Worldwide: New York, NY.
2001 Data Fusion in Latin America. 47th Annual Conference of the Advertising Research Foundation, New York City (USA), March 7, 2001. Available for public access at http://www.zonalatina.com/Zldata166.htm .
2001 Data Fusion: Integrating Results From Multiple Studies. 6th Annual CASRO Technology Conference, June 22, 2001, New York City, NY. Available for public access at http://www.zonalatina.com/Zldata183.htm
2001 with Michelle de Montigny
The Anatomy of Data Fusion. 10th Worldwide Readership Research Symposium in Venice, Italy. Available for public access at http://www.zonalatina.com/WRRSfusion.pdf .
2002 The Pros and Cons of Data Fusion. Staying Tuned 2002, Toronto, Canada, February 11, 2002. Canadian Advertising Research Foundation Newsletter, March 2002 (http://www.carf.ca/members/254_news/March2002.pdf ). Alternate version posted for public access at http://www.zonalatina.com/Zldata220.htm .
2002 with Michelle de Montigny
The Contribution of Magazines in Mixed TV-Print Schedules. ARF/ESOMAR Week of Audience Measurement, Cannes, France. Available for public access at http://www.zonalatina.com/WAMSoongDeMontigny.pdf .
2003 with Michelle de Montigny
Does Fusion-On-The-Fly Really Fly? ARF/ESOMAR Week of Audience Measurement, Los Angeles, USA. Available for public access at http://www.zonalatina.com/WAM2003.pdf.
2003 with Lindsey Draves and Hugh White
A Segmentation of OTC/DTC Pharmaceutical Drug Buyers Based Upon Advertising Effectiveness. The ARF Week of Workshops, Advertising Research Foundation, New York.
2003 with Michelle de Montigny
Foundations of Split-Sample Foldover Tests. 11th Worldwide Readership Research Symposium in Boston, MA, USA. Available for public access at http://www.zonalatina.com/WRRS2003split.pdf.
2003 with Michelle de Montigny
Fusion-On-The-Fly for Multimedia Applications. 11th Worldwide Readership Research Symposium in Boston, MA, USA. Available for public access at http://www.zonalatina.com/WRRS2003fly.pdf.
2004 with H.J. White, L.P. Draves and C. Moore
Measuring the Effects of Direct-To-Consumer Communications in the Worldˇ¦s Largest Healthcare Market. International Journal of Advertising, 23(1), 53-68.
2004 with Michelle de Montigny
No Free Lunch in Data Integration. ARF/ESOMAR Week of Audience Measurement. Geneva, Switzerland. Available for public access at http://www.zonalatina.com/WAM2004.pdf.
2005 with Hugh White and Lindsey Draves
Homeland Security: Are Readership Surveys Safe? 12th Worldwide Readership Research Symposium, Prague, Czech Republic. Available for public access at http://www.zonalatina.com/WRRShomelandsecurity.pdf.
2005 with Hugh White and Lindsey Draves
Using Database Overlays to Detect Non-response Survey Bias. 12th Worldwide Readership Research Symposium, Prague, Czech Republic.
Available for public access at http://www.zonalatina.com/WRRSdatabaseoverlay.pdf.2005 On New Media and Social Transformation. New Media and Social Transformation Conference. December 9, 2005, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Available for public access at http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20051210_1.htm.2006 Individual Blogging For Social Transformation.
4th Chinese Internet Research Conference. July 21-22, Singapore. Available for public access at http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20060722_1.htm.2007 with Lindsey Draves
Sampling Errors Versus Real Changes in Magazine Audience Research. 13th Worldwide Readership Research Symposium. Vienna, Austria. Available for public access at http://www.readershipsymposium.org/papers/826.pdf.
2008 A Psychographic Segmentation of Chinese Bloggers
6th Annual Chinese Internet Research Conference. June 13-14, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
2008 Internet, Tibet, the Olympics and the Earthquake
6th Annual Chinese Internet Research Conference. June 13-14, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Not mentioned are the thousands of essays written at ZonaLatina.com (mostly short research articles) and ESWN (mostly Chinese-to-English translations), because they do not qualify at the standards for academic journals.
I think that some of these articles were brilliant and prescient, but the world didn't think so. Other articles were just nonsense and the world didn't think so. I'll leave you to figure which is which.
The most famous published article here is Threshold Models of Diffusion and Collective Behavior with Mark Granovetter in Journal of Mathematical Society (1983). Why? Who cares? Because it was cited by Malcolm Gladwell as one of the five academic articles that was recommend in his best-selling book Tipping Point. Who knew back then?
Postscript: Am I allowed to include the 1,200-word Chinese-language essay of how I discovered Eileen Chang's <A Return To The Frontier>? It is not being included at present. There will be many more such items in the near future.
Related materials: Press coverage of ESWN (Strange! There is more Chinese-language press coverage than in other languages for what is primarily an English-language blog about China! This blog draws greater interest inside Greater China than outside!)
