Protected: Wk 5: Things are picking up

Protected: Who am I to judge?

Best Podcasts of 2009 Shortlist

Here is a list of the shows that have made it onto my best of shortlist for 2009. The final list will be out soon.

• This American Life
• Radio Happy Hour
• Radiolab
• TED
• The Moth
• Bill Moyers Podcast
• Big Ideas
• Search Engine
• Wiretap
• Classic Tales Podcast
• Onion News Network Videos
• Savage Love Podcast
• ReSound
• StoryCorps
• Planet Money
• The Memory Palace
• Long Now Foundation

Draft Statement of Purpose

I am interested in understanding the real and possible boundaries between technology and society, through observation and building innovative systems. I am drawn to the field of information studies for its ability to understand people and their relationship to technology in service to the public good. I distinguish a difference in the approach of the School of Information as one that explores the complex human conditions that have typically been labeled as “noise”. I am also attracted to this program for its ethos of public good and methodologically savvy approach to research

Original research requires feedback loops that allow for the process to change. Conclusions drawn without open access to review remain alchemy. For me, leaning how to do original research is similar to the agile method I use when programming. Through iterative creation steps, the process evolves through collaboration. This collaboration occurs not only with other researchers, but with all affected community members. The process of building, sharing and reevaluating allows the project to evolve with the needs of everyone involved.

Learning how to do original research also means understanding appropriate methods. I value a program, like the University of Michigan’s that brings faculty from diverse departments with mixed methodological approaches to bear on a problem. My background in design, public service, web programming and current coursework has prepared me to contribute to the scholarshop of the School of Information.

During my masters I have taken courses in design, theory, methods and technology. Courses in statistics, focus groups, network analysis and qualitative research methods have been the foundation to different ways of approaching research. Courses in telecommunication theory, computer supported cooperative, and several special topics provided a theoretical foundation with practice. I have also supplemented my core requirements with courses in rhetoric and american culture, which have prepared me to understand more completely the complexity of human motivation specifically in context of computer mediated spaces.

As part of a design and theory class I helped develop OurMichiganAve.org, which seeks to help coordinate policymakes, developers and residents in order for them to find solutions to revitalizetheir community. As both a programmer and researcher my classmates and I were able to build quick prototypes in Ruby on Rails, elicit feedback through focus groups from our stakeholders and redevelop the website quickly. The resulting website allowed people to share stories about their lives on the corridor, map areas of interest, vote on improvement ideas, and keep informed on development news. This project was an example of balancing the implicit needs of a project with the explicit goals. Building this site required learning Ruby on Rails from scratch, as well as quickly understanding the various protocols of Ruby and Subversion. Research also has layers of implicity work in preparation for the expected work. I believe projects like these have prepared me, whether building websites, working with communities of people, or analyzing data.

Balancing what has worked in the past with the potential of what might be was the incentive of my thesis. Rather than simply replicating the successful one-on-one consultations of physical writing centers online, my thesis is a case study that seeks to understand the role of a writing center online asa hub for people writing about writing at Michigan State University. The hands-on opportunity to be a part of the entire research process has been beneficial in preparing to continue at the School of Information. Exploring research that connected asynchronous, remote groupwork of students with the Writing Center required a negotiation between what the web-software allowed and the expectations of multiple audiences.

A significant part of the research process was understanding the best way to study the case itself; This was not an obvious process. I reviewed different ways to design and conduct the study, capture information, analyze and report the findings, as well as different frameworks for building the web interface. My thesis is only the beginning of what I can fulfill at the University of Michigan. I believe it demonstrates a sincere effort not to merely fix a problem, but rather, to find the appropriate means both to understand the situation and move towards a solution.

I admire the the scholarship the School of Information is producing. I am most impressed with the the community information use work of Dr. Paul Resnick and Dr. Joan Durrance. Also the online community work of Dr. Mark Ackerman, and the public policy work of Dr. Steve Jackson. I notice that the diverse topics share the common thread of work in the public interest. When talking with Dr. Ackerman, I sense that this ethos of public good is not just a research goal, but at the core of the program. I belive that my design, theory and research experience, and my background in public service would be a good fit for the School of Information at the University of Michigan.

3 unrandom podcasts about… randomness

Big Ideas on TVO has become one of my favorite podcasts to listen to.. well… Big ideas. I took statistics over the summer, and a lot of what we covered dealt with randomness. Unfortunately, I wasn’t familiar with Leonard Modinow before… but I am familiar with many of the points he brings up in his talk about his latest book “The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives”

Link to his Big Ideas lecture

His talk also reminded me of a show WNYC Radio Lab did on randomness. They also seek to understand the role randomness plays in our lives. In fact they used the same example that Leonard mentions about the chance of a 56 game hitting streak happening again in 10,000 baseball scenarios.

Link to the Radio Lab episode on randomness

Finally, Leonard also mentions a study done with drinkers of Coke and Pepsi, which reminded me of a podcast by Malcolm Gladwell who also talked about the fragility of judgement using the Pepsi Challenge experiment. He also goes on to talk about how the Herman Miller Aron chair became first the most hated chair, and then the most popular selling chair (which reminds me of the Radio Lab episode where they tell the story of an opera that caused a riot, and years later was celebrated as a masterpiece).