Even though I don't officially start my PhD until the 1st of October, today
really felt like a proper first day of term. I got up early went to a couple
of fourth year/MSc classes that I've decided to sit in on
(HCI and Text
Technologies), went to
training for tutoring/demonstrating, filled in some forms, got my new student
card (that doesn't expire until 2016!) and most importantly, got the key to my
office in the Informatics Forum.
My PhD ideas are vague at best right now, though it'll definitely be within
the realms of the Semantic Web. According to the proposal I wrote to apply
for the position back in May, it'll be to do with provenance of and
collaborative creation of digital media artefacts, like comics and films.
It'll be interesting to watch that morph and change.
Though I became aware of Semantic Web stuff during my undergraduate, I
developed my knowledge during my MSc at Edinburgh. Primarily by taking the
Multi-Agent Semantic Web
Systems course for credit,
enjoying it a lot and doing pretty well. (I should be TAing/marking for that
this year). I also learnt lots about linked data and other such things at
conferences and hacks like Dev8D, and various open data
meet-ups. I'm super excited about the future of the Internet - particularly
making sure it remains an open, public platform for uncensored expression and
knowledge sharing (fingers crossed). Since I'm a technologist, not a lawyer
or policy-maker, I have to address this with theoretical and practical
research around how people create and share things, and ways to improve
connectivity (between people and data), which of course includes the big
problems like privacy, security and identity.
Whilst I'm confident enough to say I know quite a lot about designing and
developing for the Web these days, my Semantic Web knowledge really consists
of a basic grounding, and a lot of enthusiasm.
There's a ton of research going on in various related areas, so I've decided
to read one or two relevant academic papers a day... forever, I guess... and
make notes on what I read. Publishing my notes here works as a subconscious
stimulant, to make sure I actually get it done. A lot of them might be
foundations, or basic stuff, but I intend to cram as much as possible -
especially in the couple of weeks before I start propertly. So look out for
those! (If you're interested. If not, ignore them).