that was last sunday. the “procession” on the way to the commencement ceremony. ah. all done.

Continue Reading…

this represents my 4 year long sils career in one big outline. links point to online assignments.

Spring 2004

• INLS 172 Information Retrieval – Bob M. Losee
• INLS 252 Metadata Architectures and Applications (Dublin Core) – Jane Greenberg
• INLS 392 Master’s Paper – Gary Marchionini (advisor)

Fall 2003

• INLS 201 Research Methods (SPSS) – Bob M. Losee
• INLS 357 Seminar in Human-Computer Interaction – Gary Marchionini
• JOMC 144 Censorship – Chuck Stone
• JOMC 391 Virtual Communities – Paul Jones

Spring 2003

• PSYC 123 Introduction to Cognitive Science – Peter C. Gordon
• INLS 257 User Interface Design – Barbara M. Wildemuth
• INLS 281 Internet Issues and Future Initiatives – Paul Jones

Fall 2002

• INLS 150 Organization of Information – M. Cristina Patuelli
• INLS 259 Web Databases (ColdFusion, ASP, PHP, XML) – Kristin H. Chaffin
• COMP 120 Computer Organization (MIPS) – Lars S. Nyland

Spring 2002

• INLS 131 Management for Information Professionals – Fichman-Shachaf
• INLS 180 Human Information Interactions – Gary Marchionini
• INLS 258 Database Systems II (MySQL, Oracle) Kristin H. Chaffin

relevant undergraduate coursework

• INLS 70 Organizing and Retrieving Information (Relational Databases, Entity-Relationships, Microsoft Access) – Ruth Monnig
• INLS 90 Independent Study in Information Systems (Linux, Samba) – Scott Adams
• INLS 162 Systems Analysis (Contextual Inquiry, Entity-Relationship Diagramming) – Joel Dunn
• INLS 183 Distributed Systems and Administration (Linux) – Greg Newby
• INLS 184 Protocols and Network Management (Ethernet, TCP/IP) – Jim Gogan
• COMP 114 Foundation of Programming (Java) – Stephen F. Weiss
• COMP 117 Introduction to World Wide Web Programming (Perl, CGI, Java Applets) – Ketan Mayer-Patel

7 years of elementary school (hagen)
2 years of junior high (orville a. todd)
4 years of high school (spackenkill and pflugerville)
4 years of college (unc)
2 years of graduate school (sils)
=
19 years of formal education

there really wasn’t that “this is the *last* class i’ll ever take” feeling during undergrad. that spring semester i was taking three sils classes and i knew i was going on to the masters program. this time is different. wednesday is the last day of classes. my last class will be information retrieval at 8am with dr. losee. wow.

1. financial information system underway, check.
2. masters paper written, 65 pages, check.
3. masters paper approved by Dr. Marchionini, check.
4. masters paper reviewed by Lucia Zonn, check.
5. masters paper printed on 100% cotton paper, check.
6. masters paper signed by Dr. Marchionini, check.
7. masters paper turned in to Lucia Zonn, check.
8. masters paper approved by Lucia Zonn…pending.

reflections

as is the fashion, i’ve posted my paper, Design and Implementation of a Web-based Financial Information System, in a semi-permanent location. before you print it out to read on a rainy sunday afternoon, be forewarned, it really isn’t that interesting, except maybe to that one person Measure will be hiring to assist me with the financial information system’s development.

in it i explain (somewhat superficially) Measure Evaluation’s motivation for developing a custom financial system, i survey the existing Microsoft Access system, i describe the web-based implementation i’ve developed, and i reflect on the project thus far.

in a sense, it’s everything we were instructed in research methods that our masters paper should not be (project-specific, excessive scope, etc.). but that’s ok, because we were also instructed that anything our masters paper advisor would let us get away with is fair game. i guess in exchange for not bothering my advisor all semester (and not being bothered), i got to do what i wanted: to work on this project at work during the semester and document the process and the system at the end.

this paper is a beginning, sort of an awkward snapshot of a prototype system in development. not only does the system need extensive and further development, but it will grow to become part of a currently envisioned management information system, which itself will be part of an internal website. accomplishing this, or at least figuring out how to coordinate all this is my job now and in the near future. my hope is that some of the problems i encounter or solve along the way (probably glossed over or briefly introduced in the masters paper) will provide enough fodder for some novel research and publication in the future.

a whole week and nothing to blog? shame on me.

i spent a lot of time nursing my sick baby back to health (as the comments to this post will attest). suffice it to say, my laptop is almost feeling better than new (and i’m exhausted). i also got the new wireless-g cable gateway, which replaces my cable modem and wireless access point/router (in case anyone is interested in picking them up real cheap).

i’ve also been applying for the job i currently have, in hopes of becoming an actual permanent employee of the state of north carolina. guess i wasn’t lying on my in-state residency forms two years ago. go figure.

i’m enjoying the post-masters paper freedom, maybe a little too much (marchionini still hasn’t gotten back to me and jason’s already practically famous). i was excited to just “go to a movie” tonight, i enjoyed drinking with coworkers and friends last night, and i had the loveliest time making morningstar burgers with jane afterwards. tomorrow night is happy hour, friday we have off for resurrection weekend so meg and co. are gonna be grillin out and playing tennis. saturday dance party at hell. am i back in the game?! am i back in the game?!

i think so.