You know you're a grad student when...

• you have difficulty reading anything that doesn't have footnotes;
• the concept of free time makes you disoriented;
• weekends spent studying no longer seem weird;
• the professor doesn't show up to class and you discuss the readings with your peers anyway;
• you wonder if the ACM style allows you to cite talking to yourself as "personal communication"

You know you're an IST Ph.D. student when...

• you think about humor in terms of possibilities for creating an information system in support of joke creation and dissemination; 
• you start thinking whether computers indeed have a "sense of humor";
• you start analyzing your own social network and a peer group you belong to.
  
  

In case you become even slightly interested in finding out more about what type of student you are or might be, feel free to check this out, a comical article written by an Australian journalist (and once a PhD student) Monica Dux  'Which type of PhD student are you?'.

 

I feel a bit like an 'odd duck' among the vibrant and amazingly young crowd of my peers, the IST graduate students. I am  an 'adult learner', returning to school after many years of working as a practitioner in the world of books, online databases, Internet and endless library patrons, who were always eager to find missing pieces of  information in the library.

The first semester of being a graduate student is the time for emotional and academic adjustment, stressful and full of challenges. One of the ways to make life easier during this challenging time is find a social niche where a student could enjoy camaraderie, share common interests, and even have some fun.

With this in mind, I started looking for clubs and organizations on campus that might fit my mental model of a matching social niche. Graduate Women in Science was one of my first picks.

Who is this famous scholar? Her name is Dr. Jane E. Fountain,
and she holds a double Ph.D. from Yale University in organizational behavior and in political science. Currently, Jane Fountain is a Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, the founder and Director of the National Center for Digital Government at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. 

I find it much easier to think of my likely future publication and presentation venues if I consider  choices made by contemporary scholars engaged in e-government research.  By exploring the Penn State Libraries Databases, such as the ISI Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, as well as some individual scholars websites, I can come up with a number of possibilities. Here are some of my choices.
1. Government Information Quarterly (GIQ) is an international journal of that is published by Elsevier, the world's leading publisher of science and health information.Elsevier takes its name from the original House of Elzevir Dutch family publishing house founded in 1580, although the modern publishing house was founded in 1880. 
GIG is a cross-disciplinary and refereed journal and it covers information and telecommunications policy, information management, IT planning and management, e-government practices, policies and issues relevant to all levels of government within the USA and abroad.
 
2. The Society of Social Implications of Technology (SSIT) of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) publishes a quarterly journal, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, and sponsors periodic conferences, The International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS).
This periodical invites feature articles (refereed), special articles, and commentaries on topics within the scope of the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology, in the broad areas of social implications of electrotechnology, history of electrotechnology, and engineering ethics.

3. Communications of the ACM is the flagship monthly publication of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and was first published in 1957. It focuses on the practical implications of advances in IT, and while the magazine's content is subject to peer review, the articles published do often simply summarize research that could have been published someplace else.

Conference participation is extremely important for developing a successful career in academia. As a Ph.D. student, I have numerous conference and/or symposium venues to explore and choose from. Periodical scanning of the professional association websites (e.g., IEEE, ACM) in search of upcoming events may be a useful technique.
One of the conferences that I find particularly interesting in view of my research agenda is an Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research. The last conference was held in Montreal (Canada) in May 2008.
This conference is a forum for presentation and discussion of interdisciplinary digital government research and practice.  It is organized by the Digital Government Society of North America (DGSNA) and receives major support from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).

Philip Agre, now an Associate Professor of Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, back in 1993 wrote an article for inspiring  Ph. D. students about "Networking on the Network".  "The principle of articulating commonalities is the secret to getting along with people," was Agre's advice. Agre offered another useful advice about building communities of people "on the basis of openly explored shared interests".

Recently, I've come across a fascinating new book written by a psychologist at  Washington University in St. Louis, Keith Sawyer. In Group Genius, Dr. Sawyer shares the empowering results of his acclaimed research and reveals that creativity is always collaborative, even when we are alone.

Thus, driven by academic interests and the desire to tap into the creative power of collaboration, I would always seek out like-minded people around the globe, organized in a variety of social networks. Professional associations could be excellent platforms for building collaborative webs of people with shared research interests, because they all strive to provide an optimal environment for substantive intellectual exchange. I can name a few that fit my "mental model" of professional groups that I would want to be a part of one day. Every single one of them represent an important combination of features that I need to help me construct a bridge between my professional past as a government documents librarian with my future academic life as an information scientist interested in e-government research.

Since 1937, the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) has been the society for information professionals (including librarians) leading the search for new and better theories, techniques, and technologies to improve access to information. The Society provides the perfect forum for individuals who share a common interest in improving the ways society stores, retrieves, analyzes, manages, archives and disseminates information.

There is hardly a better place to find out what's going on in the world of digital government research than Information Technology and Politics, an Organized Section of the American Political Science Association. What I like the most about it is the fact that members receive a free subscription to the professional Journal of Information Technology and Politics (formerly Journal of E-Government), an exciting forum for policymakers, academics and researchers. This new periodical is focusing on the application and practice of e-government in its broadest sense, using information technology to enhance the delivery of public services and information.

I see my future as an academic, and I already have several years of experience in college teaching. I believe that should explain my third choice and curiosity about ALISE, or Association for Library and Information Science Education, a non-profit organization that serves as the intellectual home of university faculty in graduate programs in library and information science in North America since 1915. ALISE is known for ensuring a rigorous, highly competitive process for refereed papers for conference programs and the journal, and well as useful commentary to researchers from reviewers. At the moment, there is an  additional attraction such as a special interest group for doctoral students.

Making machines think and feel just like humans was a teasing dream for many generations of computer scientists. Various people have said that since artificial intelligence hasn't reached human level by now, it must be impossible. And yet there were others who believed that the goal was achievable if the right path has been chosen.

On October 6, everybody who have gathered in the IST Cybertorium had a chance to witness something quite profound, a scholarly presentation made by a Master, Dr. Lotfi Zadeh.
Dr. Zadeh, the creator of fuzzy logic, passionately argued that the AI challenge could be within our grasp if only different methods were applied to the task. At present,  after applying  his concept of neurofuzzy and soft computing, it can finally be said that intelligent systems are becoming a reality... close to four decades after AI was born.

What is a role model?  How would someone go about choosing a role model within the same peer group? If you agree to trust the American Heritage Dictionary definition,  a role model  is "a person who serves as a model in a particular behavioral or social role for another person to emulate".

So it happened that upon some consideration, I've narrowed my search to just one senior graduate student who was likely to share some of my educational background, have similar research interests and pursue the same hobbies like photography and travel.
Thus I've decided to have closer look at David Saab.
One connection between us is obvious and clear, we share the same academic advisor, Dr. Andrea Tapia. The concept of having similar research interests may be a bit fuzzy at times, so I have decided to adopt a more philosophical view of similarity. In philosophy, according to the Wikipedia interpretation, similarity is defined as sharing properties and characteristic traits. For instance, the sky is similar to the sea because they both share the property of being blue.
 
David has once mentioned online that his "... research interests focus on the nexus of cognition, culture, and technology. From this broad perspective, I should say that David's research interests are quite similar to mine because I intend to research the connection between political and cultural make-up and successful implementation of e-government initiatives in different parts of the world.

David Saab expects to graduate in 2009. After many months of hard work, vigorous research and writing, David had a momentous day in his academic life, June 12, 2008. That was the day when he successfully defended the dissertation proposal which dealt with the ontology of tags and folksonomies. In his own words, David Saab tries to understand "information system ontologies as emergent cultural schemas through the manifestations of folksonomies and the use of tags". My sincere congratulations, David! And good luck with the dissertation defense.

David is very active in achieving his academic goals. He writes papers for domestic and international conferences in the USA, Canada and Germany, effectively participates in local workshops held at the University Park campus. According to his CV, David currently has five papers in progress on topics ranging from scenario-based ontology development to study of international NGOs engaged in Humanitarian Relief efforts.
 
David's writings are reflective of his various research endeavors, and some of them are similar to mine. For instance, we both work as Research Assistants in  Dr. Hall's Center for Network-Centric Cognition and Information Fusion.
In 2007, David Saab worked on another project, COHORT, that I have slight connection to.

In conclusion, I would like to mention that earlier this semester I had a chance to listen to David's presentation intended for students in one of my graduate classes, IST501, taught by Dr. Giles. I was deeply impressed by his knowledge and professional demeanor. This presentation was a truly successful attempt at simplifying a highly complex article, What is the Philosophy of Information?" [Metaphilosophy, 2002, 33 (1/2)], written by Luciano Floridi, one of the most influential contemporary thinkers in this new branch of philosophy.

Since I have two academic advisors, I thought it would be only fair to write a brief introductory essay about academic achievements of my second advisor, Dr. Carleen Maitland, who joined the IST faculty in 2002 as an Assistant Professor of Information Sciences and Technology. Dr. Maitland has a significant educational background in engineering and telecommunications. She received her MS in Engineering-Economic Systems in 1995 from the Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA) and Ph.D. from the Delft University of Technology (Nethelands) in 2001 where her research has been focused on the role of institutions in creating the potential for e-business in developing countries.

According to the matrix of Faculty Research Areas, Dr. Maitland has a diverse package of research interests, including Crisis Management and Emergency Response, Globalization, Social Impact and Social Inclusion, and Social Network Analysis. Some of her research projects have been made possible through grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), IBM, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the European Commission.  Dr. Maitland's findings have been reported in over 30 refereed articles in journals and conference proceedings.

Over the last three years (2006-2008), Dr. Maitland published numerous journal articles, book chapters, and participated in a number of refereed conferences proceedings (e.g., 5th International Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM) Conference in Washington, DC. May 4-7, 2008). Dr. Maitland's CV is available on the IST Faculty Information Page at: http://faculty.ist.psu.edu/maitland/cv.html.

Dr. Maitland and Dr. Tapia have shared research interests, and they are currently collaborating on the COHORT Project, which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). This research should help improve delivery of relief services for disaster survivors and increase efficiency in the use of disaster relief resources.

Dr. Maitland invests a lot of energy in teaching the IST undergrads so that they could benefit from both her life and research experiences, which include scientific investigations in the areas of telecommunications, fixed and mobile Internet access technologies as well as personal experiences of having lived in both Western Europe and sub-Saharan Africa (Malawi).

Here are  a couple of courses Dr. Maitland taught in Spring 2004- Spring 2008 that would serve as a good illustration of Dr. Maitland's passion in teaching: IST 442: Information Technology in an International Context, IST 445 H: Globalization Trends and World Issues. 

According the American Heritage Dictionary, an educator who advises students in academic and personal matters is an academic advisor. Additionally, they may be  known as mentors, employers at times, collaborators on research projects, and perhaps even life-long friends. And yet it may come as a surprise to some of us to find data in support of the hypothesis that academic advisors are also humans, just like you and I.

I am very pleased to introduce all of you, dear fellow students, to my academic advisor, Dr. Andrea Tapia, a young, affable and yet ambitious scholar with an impressive portfolio of accomplishments behind her belt that opens with her becoming a Community Ambassador to Spain in 1986 and continues to her winning a prestigious Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Arizona in 2000-2001.

I had a chance to interview Dr. Tapia in her office just a couple days ago, when she managed to carve a chunk of time out of her extremely busy schedule. That is one of the things I admire about my advisor: her apparent ability to manage time. This ability now appears to me even more astounding once I discovered some previously unknown facts about her life beyond academia.

As I found out, Dr. Tapia is happily married to Ron Tapia and has two adorable little boys: one is only 6 and a half, and the other one is 3 and a half years old. There is also a couple of semi-retired New-Mexican cats in the Tapia's household, Dis and Dose (10 and 8 years old respectively). These cats are the only members of the Tapia family who can afford long hours of relaxation and undisturbed sleep. But even cats, in rare moments of exploding energy, get into the family spirit of hunt, hard work and adventure.

Ronald Tapia is a mathematician and is currently working in the Applied Research Lab  (ARL) as a computer scientist, thus representing the hard sciences' side of the family, while Dr. Tapia brings in an interdisciplinary flavor of the IST, although it's mostly rooted in social sciences and humanities (e.g., cultural anthropology, sociology, and language arts).

Dr. Tapia's ancestry represents a fascinating mix of different European ethnic origins. Andrea's maternal great-grandparents came from Poland, but her paternal ancestors used live in Spain, Italy, and, perhaps, even Greece. Dr. Tapia's maiden name was Hoplight (retained to this day as a middle name). If spelled a bit differently, hoplite,  it could have explained the missing Greek branch in her ancestral family tree. And it brings back to life some fascinating stories about Ancient Greece and Spartans.