Hi, Bijan, Mark,
Hmmmmmmmmm, Bijan, … I understand your frustration. If you don’t
mind, I’m changing this thread from “Learning how to write from
Ken” to “thoughts on the PhD-Design List.”
My thoughts. We are a specific subset of the design community: people
involved in doctoral studies and research training. List owners David
Durling and Keith Russell established the list after the first
conference on Doctoral Education in Design at Ohio State University in
1998 as a way for conference participants to keep in touch. Because
another list existed for many of the same people, this list was quiet
until the La Clusaz conference. Since then, it has been lively and
active.
While it’s true that many conversations seem endless and uncertain, I
take a different view. If you dip into the list archives over the past
decade, you’ll find that many topics return, some – hopefully – at
a higher and more thoughtful level of integration.
There are indeed dialogues where people contend. I am probably guilty
of some of the posts that annoy you. This list is an open and
unmoderated list. Any member is free to post, no member may stop a
thread. If we don’t like a post or a thread, we ignore it. If we wish
to contribute or build on an idea, we do. Universities are and always
have been debating environments, and that means that people occasionally
challenge each other, sometimes fruitfully, sometimes not.
People write at different lengths. Several of my friends tell me I
write too much while other people value carefully constructed posts with
lots of information. It’s hard to please everyone. I’ve been
criticized for providing scholarly references and information as though
this were a seminar or conference – and when I have not done so,
I’ve been criticized for failing to substantiate my views. I focus
on topics that interest me and try to write something useful. Entering
threads that interest me and following other threads is a way to stay
located in the concerns that influence our field.
Where I’ll differ with you modestly is that email is not
old-fashioned. It’s a communication medium with a purpose. The written
word is one medium of the research community.
The UK JISCMAIL service that hosts us was established by and for the
British university system, but in this wired world of international
research networks, this has been a global benefit. Listserv email
software linked to a web archive and interface permits people from many
universities around the world to participate. This is especially
important to people who do not work or study at a wealthy university
such as NTNU or live in a country as well wired as Norway. Many people
around the world still use modems or have less than desirable home
Internet connections. While this is increasingly rare, email remains a
robust, simple technology that still serves many people well. There
probably are other approaches. People try them. Some work, some don’t.
The fact that this list is over a decade old with more than 2,000
subscribers suggests that it works reasonably well.
There are many doctoral students on this list. Most don’t choose to
post. Most people on most large lists don't post. In my experience, many
doctoral students use their doctoral years to learn – even when they
attend live seminars and small group meetings with senior scholars, they
are often shy. Some don’t even ask questions until they get a visitor
off to the side over a cup of coffee, and it’s often the questions
that might have added real value to the public seminar that they ask
privately. That’s not a factor of the list – though the occasionally
sharp debate can be intimidating. But this is not a list established for
doctoral students – it is a list for people concerned with doctoral
studies and research training. It was originally comprised only of
professors, deans, research directors, and the like because that was who
attended the Ohio Conference. The first doctoral students joined after
La Clusaz. Doctoral students who are concerned with doctoral studies,
research training, and research issues in design are welcome here. There
are many development opportunities – you will find a good number of
CFPs, conference calls, and project notices, along with valuable career
advice as well as with the debates on issues. My sense is that the list
must be about 30-40% doctoral students by now, along with early career
researchers, doctoral supervisors, practicing designers interested in
research, junior lecturers, senior professors, and everything in
between, along with professors emeritus, and research directors. We have
a semi-retired Deputy Vice Chancellor from the top UK university for
design research. We have a three-times retired professor who posts here
between world travels and writing the book that will follow the eighteen
best-selling books he has already written. We have one of the world’s
leading experts on bamboo use in manufacturing, also an expert on design
for craft and several other subjects – he was a professor, but he
pretended to retire so that he could start working. There’s hundreds
of great people on the list and many of them have posted over the years,
usually when a topic interests them.
Mark: The debates and what you see as “point scoring,” are what
happens when a community of strong minded people meet, either face to
face or online. As one of our retired professors points at the many
conferences and meetings where he still plays a key role, challenge and
debate is the soul of the university and a major driving mechanism for
advances in research. Arguments and point scoring are not unknown when
professional designers meet, and my guess is that firemen, lawyers, and
physicians all lament the same thing. Behind much of the lamentation, of
course, is the unvoiced question: “Why can’t all these folks just be
sensible. Like me.” The difference in research universities is simple.
We’ve signed on for a profession in a field where we agree to argue
and sort the issues through -- even when we believe that we are indeed
sensible. Part of our job is to shape new knowledge, and in doing so, we
are aware that many ideas will come forward that require testing. Debate
is one of the mechanisms we use, sharpening our ideas against the minds
of other strong-minded people.
Personally, I think that’s one of the most interesting aspects of our
life – and, as your post implies, one of the occasionally irritating
aspects of our life.
Yours,
Ken
Professor Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished
Professor | Dean, Faculty of Design | Swinburne University of Technology
| Melbourne, Australia | [log in to unmask] | Ph: +61 3
9214 6078 | Faculty www.swinburne.edu.au/design
Bijan Aryana wrote:
We are the design community and still using old fasioned email
exchanging method for discussions! This list would work better if we
focus on things that can help us to improve our knowledge and career,
rather than endless discussions without any certain outcome. Is this a
mailing list or a forum? Look at the number of members and then look at
the number of people who participate in the endless discussions. That
explains everything!
And, look at the title of the list : This list is for discussion of
“PhD studies” ..... Many people forget about that! Were are PhD
students?!
Mark Ransom wrote:
I agree! As a recently started part-time PhD student many of the
discussions appear to be a dialogue between a few who keep point scoring
until somebody gives in.
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