I’m writing this on my way to Dortmund, Germany, where I will attend the useR! conference. All sorts of R-Project users and experts will gather to talk and think about developments regarding this open-source software for advanced statistical analysis.

I look forward to the experience, and some sessions in particular. The tutorials by Douglas Bates and Frank E. Harrell Jr. should be something that will give a lot of food for thought. I have prepared some problems regarding mixed models and migration, so I hope that these questions can be answered.

Also, I’m excited about presenting my Read.isi package to the people attending this conference. Already, it has been a while since I developed it, but being able to present it was a nice impulse to finish and polish it so that it could be made publicly available. I hope to receive some constructive feedback and perhaps an idea or two to develop it even further.

The number of presentations during this conference is rather enormous! I expect to attend to more than 25 presentations in three days. Supposedly there will be WIFI connection at the conference location, so expect some serious live-blogging on this site. I will primarily focus on sessions applicable to social sciences, with a personal preference for mixed models, data visualization, and facilities for large-scale (survey) research.