Wandering back to Victoria

August 13, 2003 - 10:01pm — bmann

So Graham signed up for Tribes and created a UVic tribe. I thought about it, but I already started the Ottawa one, and didn't want to be "responsible" for another one. There are actually quite a few people that went to UVic online there. I never felt a strong affiliation for the school itself.

But, I wandered over to UVic see if anyone there is doing something with blogging. I did this search (UVic uses Google -- good on them!) and got a bunch of hits.

For one, the Computer Human Interaction and Software Engineering Lab (CHISEL) is running Drupal. Likely because of the taxonomy module, which maps nicely with ontologies and other high-falutin' words that get tossed around.

CHISEL has also built some cool tools, like SHRIMP -- for "visualizing and exploring software architecture and any other information space".

All that stuff just got me thinking about getting a Master's in CS. They even have co-op...

Kate would love that. Actually, Kate would love it if I was a perfessor.

I didn't do enough searching to see if anyone is doing stuff with the use of blogs and education. Collaborative course-ware, discussion forums, RSS feeds, etc. If only we had more time in the day. And on that note, to bed.

Social Software

Comments

August 18, 2003 - 6:14pm — gfair

Tremendous affection for UVic

I loved my time at UVic, and would happily give back money and time to the University, the Faculty of Business, and the ICVE, the Entrepreneurship program's non-profit organization that allows for donations.

There are many things for me that was unbelievably lucky at UVic. During my first years there, most of my closest friends from all times in my life were there, so I immediately had a social network and through them met all sorts of people. Three attempts I made to get into Commerce, the third was successful, and that was also the start of my time in the Cluster units where again my luck was unbelievable, and count several of those people as wonderful friends today.

Lastly, and most importantly, was my time in Entrepreneurship. Despite it bearing only a little fruit so far, it was a wonderful time again, with five professors and their assistant who worked tirelessly to teach the students as best they could about all areas of Entrepreneurship. The lead professor, Ron Mitchell, even recently had a heart attack and at UVic he was always busy, spending fifteen-hour days at the school. That's the degree to which he loved what he was doing and was dedicated to the students.

If there was ever a checklist of the highest expectations one has for University, my experience exceeded anything I could have thought of before going to UVic. That's why I love the school (oh, didn't even mention the campus and how amazing Victoria is) and would gladly give back anything I could to the school. Maybe one day Boris and I will end up professors there!, for it's been on my mind as well.

August 16, 2003 - 2:10pm — GSoo

What if...

you had to teach one of those Microsoft-sponsored courses Boris?

August 17, 2003 - 12:03am — bmann

Ha

Found this pointed to by Philip Greenspun:

The August 18-25 double issue of Newsweek, whose theme is "The Future of Technology", contains a brief interview with Paul Saffo, identified only as being from the Institute For the Future. Asked "are there any obstacles to innovation?" Saffo responds "We've got a couple of gorillas holding back innovation. Microsoft is a big intellectual roach motel. All the big minds go in and they don't come out."

Ha. So, I don't want my mind owned by MS. Interestingly enough, all the posts will likely destroy any chance of ever working at MS. Read the full PhilG for some other interesting bits.

August 16, 2003 - 4:51pm — bmann

UVic has never been an MS bastion

We have a lab funded by IBM, and churn out lots of "pure" CS students that go on to do research, etc. Java is the introductory language of choice. Solaris on Intel are the main machines. A fair amount of Macs with Codewarrior for 100 level classes, but higher level are all *NIX.

It is unlikely that UVic will see MS-sponsored courses.

August 16, 2003 - 5:56pm — GSoo

Are you...

limiting yourself to UVic then? Guess you are, since you still use "we" and apply your purity tests.

August 16, 2003 - 6:15pm — bmann

Just thinking

I'm not determined to go back to university. I actually noticed myself using "we", but decided to just leave it -- I guess I do have some "alum" feeling. We'll be back on the coast, so that somewhat limits me. I like that UVic offers co-op even for Masters students, which could certainly lead to some interesting opportunities.

As for the rest of the description, just trying to give a picture of how I remember it during my time there.