September 2008 Archives

In decades, research of GIS has drawn more and more attention and made rapid progress. As a member of this community, my adviser has published lots of papers to the top journals of this area. Such jounals include GeoInformatics, International Journal of GIS, Transaction in GIS, Environment and Planning B and so on. As GIS is a multi-disciplinary research area, his research does also cover a broad research scope including geography, hci and cartography (Figure 1).  Among all of his works, DAVA_G system can be his most important accompliments. This system escapes the old way in which people communicate with map, instead, it provides a multi-model means (verbal, gestures) for real-time communications.


For research, it is important to meet others and exchange ideas. This is especially important in the area of GIS, as research of GIS needs different expertises working together. Till now, there have been several conferences founded for GIS, which can be checked from http://gislounge.com/events/. Among those conferences, what my advisor attended include Virtual Geographic Environment; ACM workshop on Geographical Information Retrieval; Intelligent User Interface, etc..
 
Then, except for the research, my advisor also has a rich teaching experiences. In the past years, he taught technical classes for undergraduate students, including database and visual analytic.

Definition

About the definition of I-School, in my view of point, I think I-School is about the use of information by human through technologies.

Technology, people, information, these three components construct the core of I-school. Are these component evenly balanced? I do not know. Where should I start my research, T, P or I? I also do not know. In fact, I-School requires ourselves to decide our own research, where to start and where to focus. 

Scope & Branches

As I-School involves different perspectives from ITP. It covers broad research areas, such as behavioral science, psychology, computer science, social science and others. It is expected to mix these disciplines together in order to obtain a comprehensive viewpoint of the problems. For example, when designing a platform for geocollaboration, we need to think about not only what functions collaborators need, but also need to care about how people user the environment, how information should be provided and what technologies are available for the development.    

Right now, I-School has been a new research paradigm all of the world. As shown below, many countries have joined into this community especially developed countries.

Advantages & Disadvantages

The advantages of I-School:

1) Compared with other schools, I-School is more flexible. 

2) I-School may equip you with a much broader perspective to view the world.

3) As a new emerged school, I-School has huge potential to develop.

The disadvantages of I-School:

1) As I-School covers so much, it lacks internal structures. I still think about if I-School needs this.

Suggestions:

Evaluate yourself first then decide whether join or not.

I & I-School

Before I came here, I know nothing about I-School;  I only knew this is not computer science but has some relationship with IT. Besides, I knew I can meet a lot of different people here and absorb different kinds of knowledge. Currently, I have gained a good understanding of it, and think this research is meaningful. 

hmmmmm...... My life is pretty easy.

My attitude to life :

Research is the main line of PHD study but what the research is? Based on my understanding, research = reading papers + summarizing + critique + new ideas. 

Hmmmm...... To be honest, I still do not know if I like doing research, sometimes like and sometimes not. Currently, I think it is important to make research matching with one's characteristics, because doing research is a gradual and accumulating process, requiring lots of patience and hardworking. ....... Indeed, research is a long way to go and need lots of courage.

My current research is Geocollaboration, involving several disciplines including GIScience, cognitive science, and CSCW. And my other research interests include communication, advertise, film and user interface. Welcome to communicate with me if we share same interests,

Born in February 1986, I belong to Aquarius. 

About myself? My name is Kunchen, from China, 22.5 years old, second year phd student in IST, and research in GIS. Hmmmm, this introduction is full of information and can make you know who I am, where I am, and what I am doing. 

I am not a person who has a strong self-protection and conservative awareness, so I am very glad to share myself with others. I like making friends with anyone and believe that they may make my life fruitful. HAHA, I am friendly and hospitable. I only have one requirement: When talking with me, please control the speaking speed, becasue extracting information needs some time. 

I am longing for an easy life but I cannot stop thinking. I like thinking some questions that do not have any answers, concerning with the nature of mankind and life. Why do we live? What should I look for? How to find my position in the world? What is myself? and How to make balance between individual and society? Everyone should think such questions, right?  in order to make life more clear.