Along the road to grad school, many people impressed upon me how crazy I was to leave a comfy, secure job in troubled economic times to submit myself to abject poverty. To each of them I’d spew the normal “I’m chasing a dream” bit after which they seemed satisfied, even supportive. What I didn’t tell them was that I was using grad school as an excuse to unveil a new website. So here we are.
Welcome to technolitics, pronounced tech-nahl-ih-ticks, which, as I’m sure you’ve gathered, is the coupling of technology and politics. It’s my goal to use this site as an archive of my grad school work, a creative outlet for my thoughts and ideas when I emerge from my books for air, and a way to improve my writing by practicing as much as I can (apparently writing PHP and English are significantly different).
Like the name and description imply, you’ll find posts here about technology, politics, my experiences as a grad student and the intersection of all three. At first, my friends, family and co-workers were shocked when I told them I planned to study political science as it seemed I was abandoning my undergraduate studies and career. But really it’s a logical continuation. I’ve always been interested in the social sciences, and now more than ever the presence of technology is expanding in government. During the 2008 election, candidates used Facebook and text messages to rally their bases. Senators and governors have gone head-to-head on Twitter over healthcare reform and stimulus spending. Why is it that some of these technologies succeed where others have failed? What are the implications for government of a connected citizenry and world? Questions like these are best answered by those with both political and technical depth, which is why I’ve chosen now to expand my knowledge of politics. Hopefully some good can come from the tumbling in my head.
How frequently I’ll update this is at best a guess. I’d love to post multiple times a week but I’m not sure ambition and reality will jive come the start of the school year. An easy way to avoid coming back only to find stale content is to subscribe to my RSS feed, accessible by clicking the little orange icon in the upper-right corner. That said, do stop by often as I’m sure you can poke around and find something entertaining (that’s my dream, at least).
If you run into problems with anything on the site please let me know. I’ve done my best to test this puppy in multiple browsers and resolutions, but as, well, everyone that knows me will attest, I’m not perfect. Any feedback you can give that helps improve this site is and will be much appreciated.
Oh, and go Terps!