I got a crazy idea today.
As some of you know I’ve sent in an application to go get my master’s at the MIT Media Lab, focusing on wireless networks in the developing world. Part of that is that I know I want to work with these issues for the foreseeable future, but I can’t be sure that wire.less.dk will be able to fund that in the long-term. Part of it is a growing desire to have the time and place to contemplate, and really think about these issues. I know they’re important, to the woreld, but mostly to me as an individual, and I have a lot of opinions about them.However most of these opinions aren’t founded in anything I would characterize as a broad understanding of the issues involved.
It would be really great to be accepted at the Media Lab, but who knows.
I’m not sure I’ll get in, and I’m not sure I can really fund a 2-year master program anywhere else. But that shouldn’t mean I can’t do this deep calm contemplation, should it? After all, since last May I’ve pretty much been funding my own project (wire.less.dk) from savings and a few family contributions, with a little additional money from a few minor consulting gigs. Well, if I’m funding myself, shouldn’t I be able to do exactly what I want? Even if that involves taking 6-8 weeks off to think and write about these issues that interest me so much?
Understanding the intricacies of the current Universal Access debate. Understanding the different POV’s on Open Source in the developing world.
Understanding how low-cost, decentralized (wireless?) networks are significant in this context?
Finding out what projects exist in this area, and wat the experiences from them are?
So what if I could take the time off, maybe get enough funding to travel and meet some of these projects and people, get support and advice from others working in this area, and finally come up with an article/report/overview of the state of the debate anno 2003. Who thinks what, who says what and who does what. A 20-page primer basically concerned with the issues I’ve already touched on in my FAQ on ICTfor Development?
What if worst comes to wors, and it just becomes a wiki skeleton with links and summaries of relevant material, articles and discussions? might that still be worth it?
And would the community in general support me by sending links, comments, peer reviews and good ideas?
Let me know what you think about this idea? should I take 6 weeks off over summer to do something like this? Anyone interested in helping? Anyone have ideas on how I could fund such a thing (small-small)? Even better, anyone know if this sort of primer exists already, so I wouldn’t have to go to all that trouble?
Let me know what you think, post your comments here, send me e-mail, TrackBack, whatever.
I think I’d be willing to let “the community” at large heavily infuence my decision. If there’s a general consensus that this would be valuable work in the ICT for Development area, I’d probably be much more inclined to do it, so the more people that give me an honest opinion on this, the more likely it’ll get….
off you go
It is the things that we don’t do, that we regret.
L
In general i agree, but sometimes it’s the things we do for the wrong reasons 😉 In other words, if i end up doing work that already exists, or is inherently useless to people then there are other things i’d rather do…
(they include travelling to strange places, lying on the beach, reading good science fiction, and genereally being mostly harmless).
A couple of mercenary points… You might want to find out whether you will be accepted to MIT first. If they take you then you might need to spend that time making money to support yourself. Try to find out if there are any foundations etc which might pay you to do it or at least publish it somewhere where it would be most likely to be read. And see if publishing something like that would help you with future applications to universities etc.
Also, why not consider doing your Masters somewhere in Europe where (if the UK is a guide) it only takes a year to do?
The first goes without saying. If I’m going to go study next year, I’ll do my thinking and contemplating there.
Regarding nthe publishing, that was one of the hopes I had when asking the ‘community’ is there an interest in this sort of thing, would it reach any readers, and fullfill a demand? Does anyone, apart from those of use academically interested, in fact care about all the arguments?
Whether it helps with future applications to universities worries me less. I would do it because it made sense to some people, and because I belive I can pull it off. The respect and interest of people like you, David, is worth a lot more to me than a university slot.
Regarding the Masters, I think the UK is the only place (I know of) where a masters is a one year ordeal. There are essentially two reason why I applied to the MIT Media Lab. Primarily it is the only place where they do hands-on projects with ICTs in development, and while I could easily imagine spending 2 months understanding the state-of-the-art in the sector, I couldn’t imagine doing a truly useful project without some degree of hands-on on the ground implementation. There just aren’t enough projects in the area that interests me to do a succesful study without doing some hands on work as well.
Secondly, Cambridge, Mass. with the MIT Media Lab, the Sloan School of Management, Harvard Business school and very importantly The Berkman Center for Internet & Society, is a extremely happening place in the ICT for Development arena. There are so many hyper-intelligent people working with these issues (and I know quite a few of them), that I figure it would be impossible to go there and NOT get inspired.
That said, I just recently noticed the program at LSE, where David is a student, MSc in New Media, Information and Society, which may be interesting in itself.