Making connections… September 13, 2007

From my reflection on the culture in Tanzania vs. the culture in America, I made a note that people are much more friendly to strangers in Tanzania than we are in America. Well, I am reading the book The Transparent Society, for the class 6.805 Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier, in the second chapter, David Brin discusses the reasons for why we fear our neighbors, and how that relates to our idea of privacy. I thought that was really interesting, because it really got me thinking that our ethics are really based on the culture and society we live in. Not only ethics evolve over time, but they also are very different from one place to another.

Well I haven’t finished the book yet, but from what I have read so far, Brin proposes that we should rethink about how we should live in the information age, where transparency is going to play a major role in how we live, operate, and interact in this new world. Then, may I ask, how can we break the mindset of our society that we should stop thinking about secrecy, and begin to embrace transparency? The road from centralized control and secrecy to transparency is a bit unclear to me right now, as I know a lot of people would fear that they would have to give up privacy. Brin made it clear in the beginning that you can have both. I am interested in what he would say…

Transparency brings up another idea. In my research, I work with Professor Glen Urban at the Center for Digital Business, where one of our main focus is to work on projects along the ideas of Trust and Advocacy for the consumer. The main idea is that since competitor’s information is so readily available, companies should really be transparent, so that trust can be built. It hasn’t been easy for executives to change their old marketing strategies to this new paradigm, but some have, and they have been successful. Not sure where I am going with this.. just a though.

Ahhh well how is life? School is a little nuts right now, and I am definitely back to MIT mode. I am doing work every waking moment, and it seems like work is never ending. 18.310C is going well, and I am learning really interesting applied math concepts (coin weighing, sorting, etc…). The first problem set was a bit tough, but I think I stressed too much on having it to be perfect. I am loving 6.805 right now, because I am learning all sorts of new things, and I am also gaining other skills such as how to read a judicial opinion. 6.898 is awesome because I am learning about the Semantic Web, and there is a good chance that might affect future research with my thesis.

Job search is in full force! (If anyone comes across this post entry, I just want to say that I am on the market!) I am trying to figure out what to do, and I think that there are some interesting opportunities out there. I hope I get to find a job that I really love.

Enough blogging for now, I should get back to work!

I have been too busy! September 8, 2007

Things are piling up, school just started, and I spent a week moving to a new apartment. I am starting to feel like I can’t breathe anymore. So many things have happened since I had posted on the blog!

School is going so well, I am really enjoying 6.805, which is a class where u study the law around technology. I would really like to work in this field, perhaps I could find something like that as a job. Which reminds me, job season is coming up, and I am so stressed out about this! I really want to find a good job, a job that I really feel like I can kick ass doing. We’ll see how things go. My goal is to find a job that is exciting and challenging! I don’t want my brain to go rusty I have a first phone interview next week, I hope it goes well *crosses fingers*

Well I have to say that I am a terrible summer fellow, because it’s been taking me forever to finish the post-fellowship requirements. I just got done with them right now, so I would like to post what I had written, so that others can know about them! My writing is really terrible, but I have no time to revise what I am writing… I have got so much other work to do! Ahhh I wish I had 36 hour days.

Alright – time to stop blogging, and post what I wrote…

New faces on campus August 25, 2007

Wow, it has come time to Freshmen orientation at MIT. I feel so old now, especially when I am no longer an undergraduate! But this year will be good, turns out the Graduate Student Council has a month long of orientation events for grad students! It sure sounds like it would be better than the freshmen orientation!

I am busier than ever. It’s Friday night, and I have too much work to do, and too much to think about. Life is good, but I don’t write down all the details like I used to in Tanzania. Moving day (August 31st) is coming up, and looking to apply for grad school and also begin my full time job search. I have to wrap up my work from Tanzania (which I have been putting off because of my thesis work), and begin my next project for the WDDC class (will need to start thinking about funding again, and the possibility to visit more workshops). Lots of big decisions coming ahead! Whenever I have free time, I am putting my head in the world of Harry Potter. The books are much better than expected, and at times, I wouldn’t be able to stop turning the pages!

The term will start soon, and I am very excited about the new school year. I’ll be taking these classes:

MIT 6.805/STS085: Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier
MIT 6.898 Transparency and Accountability Architectures for the World Wide Web (supplement to 6.805)
MIT 18.310c Principles of Discrete Applied Mathematics

As a grad student, I have a credit limit, so I can no longer take more than 2 classes! It should be a fun term. Just bought my books from Half.com

Andrew is out working tonight, and I am staying at home to do work. Hopefully I’ll get some work done.

No longer MIA!! August 13, 2007

Well, it’s almost been two weeks since I returned to Boston, and I have never been so sick in my entire life!

1. Got a Staph infection on my back (well it’s gone now…)

2. Antiobiotics made my stomach so sick I can’t sleep at night…

3. I’ve got a cold, too.

It’s weird that I didn’t get sick when I was in Tanzania, but I got terribly sick when I got back. *sigh*

Anyways, I have been really busy with my thesis work, and been taking a short break from the fellowship work that I have been doing, so not too many updates there. I have been home-bound because of my stomach problems, but besides that, I am thankful that most of my work can be done remotely from home.

I miss Tanzania a lot, and especially everyone that I had met. People are so nice to everyone there. They are now great friends of mine, and thanks to the internet, I am able to keep in touch with them! I also started a Hi5 (a social networking website) profile, so that I can keep my network going. I don’t really like Hi5 though, it’s such a buggy site, and I realized that I take it for granted that Facebook is such a robust site. Props to Facebook!

I really want to go back to Tanzania, but because plane tickets are like 2,000 USD, I am really not sure when I can afford to go. One day I’d like to take my boyfriend and family there. Everyone loved the pictures, and it was good to really show them what Tanzania is like. Many people I know had no idea what’s like in East Africa (to be honest, I didn’t either, before I visited).

A lot of my friends are asking questions like “What was the most memorable thing from the trip?” Or similar questions like the sort, I can’t seem to answer those questions. Every little thing was memorable, everything was really eye opening… And things just can’t be described in words.

more on this later…

The day before tomorrow July 2, 2007

I am finally all packed, and got more work lined up ahead of me. I have a good stack of papers on Marketing to read, and more notes to compile. I am learning a whole lot about Marketing! I am putting together a guide that would be posted online soon. I hope to make the guide more suitable for businesses in developing countries, and I hope others would find it interesting to read.

Given the recent bombing at the UK airport, I may have to cancel my short visit to London! We’ll see.

Time to do more last minute work!

Oh sh*t, it’s Friday June 29, 2007

Well this week has been jammed packed with things to do! I am so excited and happy I have got a great family, and a bunch of wonderful friends who are helping me to get ready for this trip (thanks to those who let me borrow stuff for the trip!). Everyone is sending me off like I am never going to come back! (I will come back, I promise!) I’ll miss being away from Boston, despite the fact that I don’t like Boston much.

On the fellowship front: I have contacted a few vendors and sent more emails out to everyone. I have to get the laptop ready with all the documents this weekend, so that everything is ready when I need it (hopefully my documents from my PC will look right on a mac). I found out that the Apple laptop AC adapters work for 100~240v!!! Can you believe that? I thought I’d need a voltage converter – but Apple designers already took care of that! Way to go, Apple!

Besides getting ready, I am working on a second document (in addition to “How to Make a Web Site at an Internet Cafe”), and this one is to summarize some basic marketing and business tips! I’ll have to post it soon. I revised the ebooklet this week, and took 1/2 the content and made it into a caffeinated version of “How to Make a Web Site at an Internet Cafe.” That will be posted soon as well. So much writing and documenting!

I can’t help but post a short blurb about something I have been working on with my thesis project. I am trying to add the functionality where charts and graphs can be dynamically generated based on user input. I am using CakePHP, and found this really neat tutorial by Chris Hartjes that shows you how to integrate PHP/SWF Charts library to a CakePHP application! It took an afternoon to get it working, ‘cos I was stupid and forgot an important line of code. But it works now!

It’s time to get back to work

Oh, it’s Wednesday already? June 27, 2007

Time is flying by when I am getting work done. I spent a ton of time going through the guide I made, to think about what screen shots makes the most sense to put on the guide – and also trying to decide on how to condense this guide to make it as small as possible, without leaving out the important stuff! I hope to finish that up tonight – so that I can spend some time packing, and making a list of things I need to buy Luckily, Alison Hynd and Amy Smith had come up with a very detailed list of things to bring, so I should be all set packing for things.

Alright, it’s time to get back to work

What an exciting week! June 26, 2007

Last week was eventful I worked way overtime for all of my projects, and a ton got done, so I feel very happy (yes, work makes me happy).

On June 19-22nd, the Lemelson-MIT Program, where I intern at, held a capstone event–InvenTeams Odyssey–where high school students from all over the U.S. came to MIT to present their team inventions. I was really busy last week, trying to get ready for this Africa trip and all, but I was only able to attend the showcase on Thursday, and met some of the InvenTeams students that presented. I had set up a blog for students to post their first hand experiences, check it out here: InvenTeams Blog

I was so impressed by many of the projects that I saw at the showcase. Because of my work with the summer fellowship for developing countries and also mobility aids, I was very interested in seeing projects that were related to my work.

Now that I have recently graduated from MIT, I realized I was in high school over 4 years ago! I wished that I had done something cool when I was their age, but I guess it is never too late for me to start a project for international development, right?

Besides the InvenTeams Odyssey, I spent the majority of my time either working on my thesis, or working on the e-booklet–”How to Make a Web Site at an Internet Cafe“. It is about 20 pages right now, so this week, I am working on a caffeinated version of it I also published the content on a Web site (http://make.a.website.on.googlepages.com). I still have to put more screen shots up there, so that those who don’t know English can also use the short version of the guide.

Alright, it’s time to go back to work!

Hello world! June 18, 2007

I actually like the title of this post. I suppose “Hello World!” is the classic thing to print out when you are learning to write a program. But in this case, it makes sense to say Hello world to whoever that is reading this blog.

A little background about why I am starting this blog. I have started many blogs before, but I never had anything meaningful to say, so they didn’t last long. But this time around, I am hoping to put up information about my summer fellowship (and any other things I am currently doing)!

My Summer Fellowship

During the Spring semester at MIT of my senior year, I took a seminar called Wheelchair Design for Developing Countries. First day of class, the instructor for the course (Amos Winter) gave a first lecture on the situation for the disabled in Eastern Africa. Amos, who is a grad student, really inspired me that I, also, can do something to make the world better.

As part of the course, I worked on a project for marketing. We developed a marketing kit for the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center Wheelchair Workshop. I really wanted to take the project and implement in Africa, so I applied for a summer fellowship from the MIT Public Service Center. I was lucky enough to receive a grant from them!

What I’ll be doing in Africa

I’ll be leaving Boston on July 2nd to go to Moshi, Tanzania and come back to Boston on July 30th. During that time I am hoping to take take these materials to various wheelchair workshops in Tanzania (and perhaps Kenya) to help these workshops grow. I also hope to participate in social marketing to advocate, for the equality of disabled in East Africa. While I am there, I’ll be teaching people how to make a simple Web site at an Internet cafe! I have created a guide for it, and you can see it at: http://make.a.website.on.googlepages.com/