My Field of Study

eSociety

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My major is eSociety, which is essentially a mesh of Information Sciences and Social Sciences. Today, I will outline skills students in my field acquire, and what graduates with this degree go on to achieve. This post also includes references to top organizations and journals whose focus is eSociety.

Skills eSociety students acquire:

• Awareness how 'wired life' affects society, culture, and economic development
• An understanding of digital culture, social networking, and collaborative work
• A background in analyzing internet and new media studies 
• An understanding of basic research methods (research design, statistics, as well as data searching, organization, analysis)
• A base set of technical skills including a basic knowledge of computing language, algorithmic thinking, and managing ‘big’ data sets
• The ability to communicate ideas across traditional academic boundaries (e.g., disciplinary, theoretical, and/or methodological divides)

Career area opportunities for eSociety graduates:

• Marketing
• Consulting & Advising
• Information Technology & Management
• Media
• Information Literacy Instruction
• Web & Software Program Design
• Database Management
• Data Processing & Management
• Library Science & Information Resources

The librarian that inspired me:

 Beth Rubio was the fantastic children's librarian at Himmel Park Library. One day when I went in to start my shift, someone pulled me aside and told me that Beth had passed on - she had been suffering from cancer. 

We were all devastated by the loss. But in her loss, the people she had touched - library employees, children, parents - came together to celebrate her memory. We remembered and honored what she had done for our community.

She made me see just how much one person can impact another. I realized that I wanted to become a librarian as I discovered just how much she had helped her community - our community. I felt that I should have the same kind of impact.

Leaders in the field:

• Metamorphosis is an independent nonprofit organization based in Macedonia. The mission of this foundation is to increase the quality of life and contribute to the development of democracy by sharing knowledge. The group has worked with many other major players in the eSociety field to create resources and gather useful data.

• Creative Commons is a nonprofit resource that makes free availability of knowledge and creativity possible. Creative Commons is a resource for images and image artists, course materials, blogs, and music. This group also provides free copyright licences that help define what media is appropriate for public use.

• Open Knowledge is a global nonprofit network that promotes the use of technology make information available to all societies. The organization offers commercial technology services, consultancy, and training. The stewardship projects of this group is centered around helping communities achieve access to open data.

Top Journals:

• Computers in Human Behavior is published through Elsevier, which is a global provider of information and publishes multiple scholarly journals.
• Journal of Computer Assisted Learning is published by Wiley Online Library, an international scholarly, scientific, medical and technical publishing business.
• Journal of Educational Technology in Society is published by the International Forum of Educational Technology & Society, which encourages the discussion of issues affecting educational technologies and communities.

Reflection: By reading posts of my peers, I discovered a fascinating major that I didn't know existed from Chingiz and was happy to see a physiology major - Jessi -  in the mix. Mining engineering and physiology are both demanding pursuits: there's so much that you have to know, and in those career fields, so much can hinge on your complete understanding of the material. My major compared to those doesn't seem so complicated and difficult to me anymore. I am definitely less concerned about how little known my major is because I discovered an extremely integral major that I had never heard of. At first, every time someone asked me what my major was, I almost felt ashamed that I hadn't chosen something that everyone would know. Every time I said my major I got confused looks and the obvious follow-up question of "What's that?" Now that I've had a "What's that?" moment, I realize that my major is just as inspirational and exciting to me as Chingiz and Jessi find their majors to be. My excitement in majoring in eSociety and pursuing a career in Library Science is renewed!

         Resources: Jessi Grossman: Thoughts from a Bookworm

                          Chingiz Boldyrev: Chingiz Boldyrev - ENGL109H