ooo, shinies!

Thanks to all the iSchool staff who make South Hall so beautiful!

Why I love my TUI class

I took Tangible User Interfaces because it fit with my schedule, but I expected very little of it - and I could not have been more mistaken! It is more inspiring than the best art classes I've taken. I find myself looking at objects in my house and thinking about how and why one might attach sensors, motors, music, and lights - really changing how one interacts with the world and the information available in the environment. My research focus (information architecture) hasn't changed, but my understanding and respect for designers has increased dramatically, and the way I look at computation has been transformed.

Of course, I have to finish my other homework (calculating system downtime, defending project management decisions) before I get to go back to building my rocket/potty-training robot for TUI...

Career Fairs @iSchool

After iSchool, what? Being well into the second half of the first semester, it was a good time to start thinking about it - full time positions for second years and summer internship positions for the first year students. Apart from the career fairs that happen at Berkeley level, iSchool organizes fairs and information sessions targeted specifically for iSchool grads.
This fall, it started with an information session by the Accenture Technology Labs last month. There was another one by Google organized on 30^th October where three cool folks from Google took us through the product lifecycle of the Google Checkout product.
On 7^th November we had our iSchool Career fair. About fifteen companies participated looking to recruit in a range of expertise including the user experience domain, information architecture and the product management area. It was nice to see so many iSchool and Berkeley alumni coming back to get more of their kind into their companies. Ranging from large corporations to startups, the diversity that we are especially known for, was prevalent even at the fair! Companies like Microsoft, Adaptive Path, Salesforce, Wells Fargo, Zazzle, Sapient, TIBCO and many others took the stage.
Thanks to Shirley and Meg for an excellent organization. Looking forward to having another one over in the Spring semester!

Halloween Festivities

These last few weeks were very busy at the iSchool with midterms upon us, but we still managed to sneak in some Halloween fun!

The week before Halloween, everyone was invited to the crypt formerly known as South Hall to enhance their costumes at the Monster Ball Clinic. One of my classmates from Tangible User Interfaces used a white cardboard box to make a scary monster head with razor jaws that she programmed to light up and roar. Costume Clinicians made antennae and other fun costume accents out of LEDs.

The festivities continued on Tuesday when the Master's students and faculty gathered outside of South Hall with carving knives and seed shovels to beautify some pumpkins. The typical iSchool charm was found among them all: the XML pumpkin (with the < > brackets, carved by the XML Foundations professor, Erik Wilde), the iSchool logo pumpkin (with the i man), an artistic pumpkin, and a few angry/evil looking ones. They were on display for all to see until All Hallow's Eve when we took them inside for safe keeping.

We can't forget about the day itself! My only class on Wed. is Information Organization and Retrieval, a class required of all Master's Students. I got together with some fellow first-years and decided to dress up as an infamous concept often referred to during our study of IO: the Document Type Spectrum. The idea is to think of document types as points on a spectrum with presentation, content, and structure rules determining where the document falls. It's one of those things where if you took the class, you would get why it's so nerdy...I mean funny. ;-)

Gotta love the iSchool. =)

*Thanks to Ken-ichi for the Monster Ball photo*

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.