By: Alex Halavais

Alex Halavais — Fri, 24 Sep 2004 14:03:34 +0000

James: I think that these schools are also doing informatics. I just recently had meeting with the deans at both schools, and largely we have the same sets of understandings of what constitutes “informatics,” though each of the schools emphasize one part over the others. One of the projects that John King is heading up provides a space in which informatics schools can better say “this is what we all do” and “this is what particular schools specialize in.” Given the composition and interests of our faculty, our focus will be heavily on social and organizational informatics. We want our students to have a basic level of technological proficiency, but also have the theoretical and methodological grounding in the social sciences that will allow them to better understand the ecology of information within an institution or group.

My hope is that over time we will find venues that will allow informatics schools to interact more easily. One interesting way to do this would be a graduate conference. (And no, I’m not volunteering to organize that alone, but if students are interested, I would certainly be willing to help.)

By: James Howison

James Howison — Sat, 18 Sep 2004 01:47:00 +0000

Hi Alex,

Interesting job opportunity. In light of the comment about “one of the first informatics schools” I just wanted to ask you how you approach the relationship between Information Schools, such as Syracuse’s Information Studies or Michigan’s School of Information, and what you are calling Informatics?

I understand the social tradition of informatics at places like Manchester in the UK but really my experience of I-schools sounds quite like what you describe as the School of Informatics mission …

I’m a PhD student at Syracuse’s I-school ;)

Comments on: Come work here

By: Alex Halavais

By: James Howison