Greetings, humanoids. Today I successfully defended my dissertation, "Dissertations: Past, Present, and Future." Overall, I was pleased with my performance. I was able to pretty much include all but one of my major academic interests in the diss (copyrights, hackers, wikis, new tech, politics, etc.) Anyway, I thought some people might want to hear it, so I made an audio recording of the whole thing and will make it available for you to stream or download. I also have the original PowerPoint presentation here (zipped because of photos). You may be interested in the questions I got asked and some of their responses--I had two scientists present, and their takes on the issues were quite distinct from the English professors in attendance. You also hear Moxley making some "Moxleyisms," though I won't mention my favorites...I think you'll discover which ones I'm talking about if you give it a list! Finally, if you want to read the whole dissertation (though keep in mind it still needs revision), that's available as well. Three of the committee members want to see it again before it goes into the depository, so I have quite a bit of work left to do on it...I was told that this wasn't because it wasn't any good, but rather that they're so interested in my work that they insist on seeing the changes I make. ;-) For sanity's sake, I'll take their word for it!
I'll try to post the final version at some point, though I'm still waiting to hear back from Richard Stallman. He's agreed to read it and provide comments via telephone. I can't wait for that!
Congratulations!
Awesome! How cool that you're making all this available. Go out and celebrate.
CultureCat
Dr. Barton I presume?
Congratulations!!!
Dr. B.'s Blog
Blog
To Presume
To tell you the truth, Samantha, I'm not sure if I'm "Dr. Barton" yet or not. No one seems to have a definitive answer on that question. TRUE, I passed my defense. The catch is that I haven't submitted my final dissertation to the U, and three of my committee members want to sign off on it (they could have signed it right there at the defense and been done with it) before I am allowed to submit it. So, practically speaking, I won't get my Ph.D. until I properly revise my diss and it meets with their approval.
I've heard other people say that it's common to start calling onself "Dr." after the diss is defended. Others say you must wait until you have the degree in hand. Who knows. All I know is that I seem to have passed one hurdle and must now tackle another one before I'm good to go. I suspect that at some point before I'm finished I will need a Dr., and I'm not talking about a PhD!! :-)
Great News!
Hi Matt,
Congratulations. I look forward to browsing your PPT slides.
I believe you become Dr. Barton only once you have all the signatures, but you should make friends start using the title now so that you've grown tired of it by the time it becomes official.
What's your next step?
Dr. Andy
MN Bound
Hi there, Dr. Andy.
I've already taken a job at St. Cloud State in MN, so I'll be moving there this summer to take up my duties.
Congratulations, neighbor!
Neighbor an hour and a half away, that is. If you're ever in the Cities, please let me know so we can grab some coffee or lunch/dinner!
CultureCat
congrat's Matt!
I hope you get to work with scog at St. Cloud. I can't imagine a better dean to working under/with, whatever the right preposition might be.
Brad
Great news...
Congrats!
Dennis G. Jerz
Jerz's Literacy Weblog
Congratulations
Congrats here too, Matt, though a day or two late. As I'm writing a dissertation on the insersection of CBPP and the teaching of composition, I follow your posts here often and am excited to hear of your progress. Perhaps we'll get to meet at C&W?
Meeting at C&W
Sure, Bob. Are you Greek? I'm learning a lot about the culture through my fiance's father. I just got a book called "Code Reading: The OS Perspective" by Diomidis Spinellis. Good stuff--I wonder if there is some huge FOSS following in Hellas or something?? :-)
not Greek actually
No, but I did take a class once, and my office is down the hall from the Classics folks here at Georgia!
Let me know what you think of Spinellis' book. I'm way overdue to start another book on open source culture -- my last read was The Hacker Ethic, and that must have been 3 years ago already. I guess I've read some things since then, but nothing book length.
I'm getting excited about heading to C&W and SF. Great sushi! And the last time I was there I went to a restaurant in China Town which completely broke the taste barrier on Chinese food, so I'm looking forward to going back there too.