We brainstormed future topics. Some include:
- What are different disciplinary perspectives on fundamental concepts of Information Science? E.g. “mediation” or “search” etc…
- How do the information practices of organizations protect or violate the privacy of individuals? What does the literature in Info. Sci. have to say about it?
- What are the social effects of the changing landscape for private information?
- Consider scientists as a user population. How does Information Technology play a part in their knowledge production. Do scientists with technology expertise have significant advantage over others?
- What is the relationship between entrepreneurship and IT tools?
- How do communities collaborate online to design something (e.g. OSS)?
- How can Information Visualization techniques encourage sustainable behavior-change?
We spent half an hour discussing “What is an Information Science dissertation?”
Some asked how Information Science is unique compared to other disciplines. One set of responses argued that it is the school’s emphasis on “information” and “impact on society”. Another response was to avoid the disciplinary discussion and to see the school as an administrative body that brought together a number of disciplines (LIS, CS, Soc., Education, MIS, Psychology, etc…) in a way that no other department does.
Others stated that, for a PhD student, an Information Science dissertation is what you make it. They point out that few professors in any Information school have an “Information Science” degree. PhD students now are setting the precedent.
We closed the discussion with a promise to set up a future panel on this question.
