Final Projects Abound

This week’s final project mixer was a great success! I’m thrilled that as much as a mixing session it was one of sharing. No matter if an idea was fully formed or had just emerged, everyone shared thoughts, ideas, and project pitches. Overlaps in people’s curiosities and interests seemed to come out of the woodwork. Even though our backgrounds are so varied, we share many common interests: location-based services, open source and interoperability in health systems, strategies for disaster situation reporting and much more. Nate’s launch of the project wiki gives us a nice place to continue our discussions. I’m excited to see what groups and projects will form!

GAME NIGHT!

One of my favorite events is Game Night! In I202 (a course about Information Retrieval/Organization required of all Master's students) we chatted in-depth about Wittgenstein's discussions on defining the word "game." Pretty much, we bring any definition of game to the table (literally). So long as it doesn't involve shooting animals in South Hall. Wii, Set, Ticket to Ride, Speed Scrabble, Poker, Guitar Hero, Unreal Tournament, Chess, frisbee... but I personally LOVE Zendo.

Even after I graduate, I'm going to commute to come to these things!

I hate cablecars (AKA, the City Beneath the Surface)

I hate the cablecars!

I hate the cablecars. Have I mentioned that I hate the cablecars?

The truth of the matter is that Berkeley is perfectly situated. While you are not busy with the world renowned education of Berkeley, you have easy access to the greatest city on earth – San Francisco.

Now there are those among you who might think you know SF. Who might even think that it is ok to call it “Frisco”. Who have done Grant St. Chinatown, Coit Tower, and Fisherman’s Warf, and think they have an idea of what this city means.

I am here to tell you that you do not. The city is in its streets, in its people, and in its weirdness. Now I would not go so far as to say that I am an expert, but I cannot urge you enough to get out there and hit the pavement. Do, and I promise you that you will find incredible things.

Here is something to get you started.

The Idiosyncratic Guide to SF.

It was last updated in 2004, but the spots it knows and the attitude it brings are priceless. Some of the info is out of date, but it is a priceless primer on the neighborhoods and working of the city. Still the best and most comprehensive guide I have ever seen.

When you are ready to go out and find something to do, check these out:

The SF Bay Guardian - Concerts, Lectures, Theater, News, Politics. Sf from a street level view.

The Laughing Squid: Squidlist - Tailor made for the iSchooler looking for something to do. Art, Technology, and Culture.

Check these out, go stomp some pavement, and find the city beneath the surface. You will not regret it.

The Big C

Hiking up Charter Hill from campus to the Big C is incredibly short and offers a nice view, especially at night. The Berkeley Online Tour of traditions mentions the C was built by moving the materials uphill in a human chain by the classes of 1907 and 1908. It also provides the "cheap seats" on Tightwad Hill that overlook the football stadium.

One (super intuitive, now that I think of it) caveat I feel I should mention is you probably don't want to be anywhere near a BBQ before climbing. The smoke from the grill will likely infuse a heavy meaty smell in your clothes, making you attractive to bugs of all sorts. .. either that, or I'm just that much more delicious than my fellow hikers.

From the trenches... first week of school

Right, so it's Wednesday night of the first week. Whew, feels like Friday of week 3 or something. Most of us have been going to a bazillion classes while shopping for that perfect schedule and, you know, sitting in lecture isn't as easy as you'd think. Then there's the little time in-between lectures - how does it evaporate so quickly? I guess I have to relearn how to actually be productive in time blocks less than 3 hours.

Unlike many of my classmates, however, I think I'm pretty settled by now. It's toughest on the first years - they don't know what many of the class names actually mean, let alone which professors to gravitate towards. I have a year left and I'm going to use it well - nothing to loose really. I'm taking Visualization (super cool with a nice touch of programming), Tangible Interfaces (never done artsy before), one of the Project Management classes (will try the second tomorrow), and do some work for the Law&Tech clinic (intellectual property research for a biotech group). And TA Web Architectures. Hm. That sounds like a lot, maybe I should actually start the readings now.

The Springfield iSchool

As you may be aware, The Simpsons Movie website has an avatar generator, so you can make yourself anew with a massive overbite and eyes most protuberant! Just what you always wanted! My goal is to have every iSchooler make an avatar of themselves so we can make a big Springfield iSchool poster for the lounge. Please contribute, and add you avatar to the iSchool Flickr group!


k7, does this even begin to deal with #10 of your ToTFBaBIL:P1 list?

The classic question

So what exactly is the iSchool? I’d love to answer this question with a single word, or maybe a nice link, but, truly, there is no easy response. We are neither multi-disciplinary nor cross-disciplinary but post-disciplinary. We study information and information technology through a variety of lenses: sociological, computational, economic, to name a few. Rooted in all of these disciplines we are synthesizing new directions for the design of technology. Where else could you use case law from a course on information law and policy to inspire designs for tangible interfaces? With scholarship and creativity, our unique iSchool perspectives carve us a nice niche on Berkeley’s campus. I’m proud to be a part.