[IP] A few more good students wanted
Begin forwarded message:
From: Jonathan Zittrain <z@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: December 11, 2005 12:39:57 PM EST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: A few more good students wanted
Oxford University
Doctor of Philosophy in Information, Communication, and the Social
Sciences
The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) is now accepting applications
from candidates worldwide who want to study the Internet and its
social impact full-time at a doctoral level from October 2006. We aim
to admit four to six students a year, starting in 2006-07. The first
closing date for fully completed applications is the 20th of January
2006 for admission in October 2006.
We are a department of Oxford University, chartered to pioneer the
multidisciplinary study of the evolution and social implications of
the Internet and related information and communication technologies.
The OII informs and grounds its research in fruitful collaboration
with policy makers, technologists, businesspeople, teachers, scholars
and civil society more widely. We seek to understand the most
relevant social puzzles, problems, and opportunities associated with
the Internet as it transforms the fundamentals of work, politics,
education, entertainment, and social collaboration and conflict.
Candidates must demonstrate the talent, creativity, and enthusiasm
necessary to perform outstanding research that will make a difference—
to ask original, concrete questions and adopt incisive methodologies
for exploring them, in order to help positively shape the development
of digital networked space and those whose lives are affected by it.
The OII’s four key areas of research provide the focal points for
studies within the DPhil in Information, Communication, and the
Social Sciences:
Technology and institutional innovation. This area includes
productivity in the private and public sphere; the management,
functioning and delivery of government
services and processes; and e-democracy and e-government
developments. Backgrounds in sociology, management, government, and
political science would help to explore issues such as: In what ways
is the Internet transforming politics, government and organizational
performance? How do governments use information technology to improve
public service delivery and enhance democratic processes—or to
strengthen autocratic regimes? What social and organizational factors
constrain and drive developments in e-government and e-democracy?
Science, learning and networks. Here the focus is on the use of ICTs
within academic and research communities, especially on innovations
in education and the social, legal and ethical shaping of what is
becoming known as e-Science. Backgrounds in education, computer
science, ethics, and law would be particularly appropriate for
examining questions like: In what ways is the Internet being used to
transform science, learning, and education? What new legal, ethical,
and institutional issues are being raised by advanced Internet and
Grid technologies? Will advanced developments in e-Science define the
next breakthrough in ICTs?
e-Society. The application of ICTs in many aspects of everyday life
is the heart of this theme, such as in personal interactions and
activities in the household and workplace in a mobile, networked
society. Backgrounds in sociology, media and cultural studies,
economics, political science and other relevant social sciences are
welcomed to gain fresh insights into questions like: Who uses and who
does not use the Internet and what difference does this make? Is the
Internet a technology of freedom or control, enhancing social and
personal freedom or eroding privacy and civil liberties? How can the
Internet’s impact be accurately and meaningfully measured and
explained? What social factors are shaping ICTs and their broad
societal implications?
Shaping, governing and regulating the Internet and related ICTs. This
focal point investigates frameworks that liberate or constrain the
range of choices that can be made about the use, design and
development of ICTs, including the architecture of the Internet and
how it is governed. Backgrounds in law, computer science, technology
policy, and media studies would be especially relevant to issues such
as: How far should, and can, citizen behaviour in cyberspace be
regulated and controlled? Who does, and who should, govern the
Internet? What shifts between public and private gatekeepers are
underway, or could emerge in the future? What options are there for
what the Internet could look like in the next 10–20 years, and which
of these futures are most desirable and attainable?
For further information, see <http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/teaching/>
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