Ph.D. Student News

Welcome to the Ph.D. News Website. This Website contains items of interest to iSchool Ph.D. students at University of Texas at Austin. The home page "Announcements," "Activities for this Week," and "Future Events" are normally updated each Sunday. Additions and changes to the current week as well as special announcements are noted in red (or other appropriate color) . Significant future calendar events are posted as they are received and time permits. Suggested additions, corrections, and other comments are always appreciated. Email me or grab me in room SZB 463 or in the hall.

Friday, Jan 13, 9-11 AM, SZB 556, Jason Turner, The Communication of Influence through Technology-Mediated Channels. A copy of Jason's proposal is on display near the printer in the main admin section. All interested faculty and doctoral students are welcome to attend. Jason's committee consists of Andrew Dillon (Chair), Mary Lynn Rice-Lively. Randolph Bias, Glynn Harmon, and Dawna Ballard (Communications). Jason's abstract follows:

Study and research grounded in communication, management, social science, and technology use have all treated 'influence' as a fundamental aspect of human communication and behavior. Yet, despite its fundamental stature, influence per se has been subject to a number of disparate conceptualizations and research traditions. For example, influence has often been likened to, or equated with, notions of social power or normative forces built on any of a number of a priori social structures and conditions thought to be ultimately responsible for observed behavioral outcomes. Other notions of influence place the concept itself within a larger system of social forces and alternatives for action that produce, and are reproduced by, the communication and interaction between individuals, as well as the nature of the relationships between those individuals. Finally, influence has been conceptualized as a form of communicative behavior in its own right with research focusing on dimensions or inventories of the symbolic exchanges between individuals, as well as the efficacy of specific influence messages. However, regardless of the conceptualization or perspective, the introduction and use of communication technology has been demonstrated to alter the communication of influence itself, the environment in which influence communication is enacted, or both.

I propose to conduct a mixed-method experiment that will draw on elements of each of the perspectives described above to help answer the following two fundamental questions about influence within the context of communication technology use. First, how does communication technology affect or change the nature of symbolic, communicative behavior aimed at influencing others? Second, how does communication technology affect or change the communicative environment in which influence messages are produced and exchanged? Specifically, I intend to conduct a longitudinal study of three different 4-person groups engaged in various integrative, intellective, and judgment tasks; one group working face-to-face, the other two using varying degrees of communication technology support for synchronous and asynchronous text and synchronous audio (and synchronous video if possible).

To answer the first research question, I will draw from the existing literature a set of common criteria to classify specific textual or verbal utterances that correspond to a pre-determined inventory of ³influence messages,² then record and compare the incidence of those messages expressed within each group between each treatment condition. To answer the second research question, I will initially use a series of focus-group techniques to create a representation of the communicative environment surrounding the conduct of collaborative work. Once I have generated a depiction of the most salient aspects of that environment, I will use the record of the groups' activities during the experimental tasks as well as individual interviews following the group tasks to interpret and assess how communication technology did or did not affect the various aspects of the communicative environment as defined during the focus group.

Monday-Thursday, Jan 16-19, Omni, San Antonio, 2006 ALISE Conference, From Research to Practice: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in LIS Education. The annual conference of Library and Information Science Educators is near by this year--we should all be participating in this event. See related items on Oct 1 and Oct 31.

Monday, February 13, Proposals due for contributed papers. The 2006 ASIST conference "Information Realities: Shaping the Digital Future for All" will be in Austin this year November 3-9 at the Hilton Austin. This is a unique opportunity you will not want to miss. ASIS&T 2006 challenges us to explore this moment in the history of information science as people seamlessly move between their physical and digital worlds to create information realities for themselves and others. Submissions by researchers and practitioners are solicited on a wide range of topics. The Call for Papers has been issued. All submissions are made electronically via a link from the ASIS&T Web site .

PROPOSALS DUE Monday, February 13, 2006, for:
   Contributed papers
   Practitioner/Industry track
   Symposia and panels
   Pre-conference sessions
PROPOSALS DUE Saturday, February 25, 2006, for contributed posters/short papers.
ACCEPTANCE NOTICES ISSUED, April 28, 2006.
FINAL SUBMISSIONS DUE , May 27, 2006, final versions due for conference proceedings

Saturday, February, 18, Bates, A Day at The University with Malcom Archer and Friends. The University of Texas at Austin School of Music is proud to announce our second Sacred Music Workshop. We are proud to have such esteemed presenters as Drs. Malcolm Archer, B. Glenn Chandler, Elaine Dykstra, Gerre Hancock, James Morrow, and Frank Speller. The cost of the workshop, which includes a catered luncheon, is: $40 (if registered by Feb. 1), $45 late/walk-up registration (no AGO discount, $35 for members of the Austin Chapter of the AGO (if registered by Feb. 1). We look forward to seeing you at the workshop this February! For more information and to register please visit the event Website.

April 25-28, TLA 2006 Annual Conference Libraries: Igniting the Passion, Houston, April 25-28. For more information, go to the conference Website. While we are on the topic, there is still room in the inn! The 2006 TLA Conference in will be here before you know it, so make sure you reserve your hotel room if you have not already done so. Online housing is available at the TLA website. For more information, please contact TLA or Kathy Pustejovsky, conference manager, via email or phone 328-1518, ext. 14.

Friday-Thursday, Nov 3-9, Hilton Austin, ASIST Conference. The 2006 ASIST conference "Information Realities: Shaping the Digital Future for All" will be in Austin this year November 3-9 at the Hilton Austin. This is a unique oportunity you will not want to miss. ASIS&T 2006 challenges us to explore this moment in the history of information science as people seamlessly move between their physical and digital worlds to create information realities for themselves and others. Submissions by researchers and practitioners are solicited on a wide range of topics.

The information on the Ph.D. student Webpage is slowly growing. Names of all current Ph.D. students have been added. Your other information is needed to complete it . Please send Don a jpeg photo, information to post, and a link to your Website whenever you can. What is this Webpage? Well, as we agreed in spring semester, 2002, we wanted to have a summary page with a list of all Ph.D. students and links to more detailed information on each of us. The summary page consist of a photo, name, academic interest, contact information, and links to other pages. A detail page repeats the summary information and provides, education, a brief biography, and specialization. Students information should be linked to each student's individual Website with their vita, resume, and any other information they may wish to provide. If there is interest, we can also add Ph.D. alumni to this list. There is an input form that might work with your browser. Otherwise you can copy and paste.

Information on professional associations, student governance organizations, email lists and and other forums of interest to Information school Ph.D. students is provided through the Ph.D. Forums link on the left. Included is information on email lists, Blackboard, Websites and other forums.

The school of information sponsors weekly or fortnightly iForums (or iFora) of interest to School of Information Students and Faculty. Scholars from across the campus and occasionally from other universities are invited to present their work at a forum. From time to time, Ph.D. students are also invited to present their work to the forum. Each individual forum will be listed in the above schedule when details are known.

In 2001 and 2002 , Ph.D. students organized the Ph.D. students organized a colloquia to share their work in a friendly environment. The last series we had was the Fall 2002 Ph.D. Colloquia Series. Such a series could be reestablished if there was an interest. If you are interested in leading such a series, please contact Don Drumtra for his experience on leading the 2002 Colloquia

Disclaimer. The following information is compiled from various sources and is current as of the time it was written and the documents available. It is not official UT, Graduate School, or School of Information policy. It is offered to help Ph.D. students gain an overview of Ph.D. requirements. Please refer to official sources for current information before taking irreversible action.

General. UT Graduate School requirements for award of the Ph.D. degree are listed in the UT Graduate Catalog. Detailed requirements for the School of Information are listed the provided on the Doctor of Philosophy Webpage. Lisa Kleinman provided an unofficial summary of the requirements to the participants in the Fall 2004 Ph.D. Orientation.

Milestones. Program milestones consist of development and approval of a Program of Study, satisfactory completion of course work and a comprehensive doctoral examination including written, oral, and research components, presentation and approval of credentials to Graduate School (including a separate Program of Work), approval of a dissertation proposal, research and completion of a dissertation culminating in a final examination consisting of defense of the the dissertation and final presentation approval of the student's credentials to the Graduate School. Administrative progress through most of these milestones is described in the Checklist for the Doctoral Program (1993). Annual reviews are submitted to the students Advising Committee so that the committee may evaluate the student's progress. The student's Supervising Committee monitors the student's progress after the student reaches candidacy.

Graduate Studies Committee. Within the School of Information, the Graduate Studies Committee or GSC approves the students Program of Study and Annual review.

Qualifying Procedures. In order to qualify to apply for candidacy, the iSchool requires a written exam and oral defense (often called the comprehensive exam or "comps") and a research paper or "mini proposal" to be accepted by the student's committee. This committee (perhaps, it should be called the Examination Committee) ordinarily consists of three members of the iSchool faculty and one outside member. The three iSchool members could be your Advising Committee, potential members of your Supervising Committee, or any other three members who agree to serve. Ron Houston and Don Drumtra have volunteered to post their comps as two different examples of what was required. Their exams were open book and emailed to them on Monday at 8 AM with a response was due by Friday at 5 PM. But since the exams are student and committee dependent, another student's may be completely different. Ron and Don have volunteered to answer any questions you might have about their experiences.

Application for Candidacy. On June 1, 2004 the UT Office of Graduate Studies automated the application for candidacy and placed it online. Instructions for completion of and a link to the actual online form is provided in the application Webpage. Other candidacy requirements are also provided on that page including the requirement for the Program of Work.

Dissertation. Requirements for the content of your dissertation are developed between you and your Supervising Committee and the Graduate School sets guidelines for format. There are two format guidelines are provided by the Graduate School (Office of Graduate Studies or OGS), print guidelines and electronic submission guidelines. Even though you must submit your dissertation electronically, you would do well to meet both guidelines because someone might very well want to print your dissertation in the future. An a point of interest, the final authority on both the content and format of your dissertation is your Supervisory Committee--not the folks in the Office of Graduate Studies. However, the OGS folks can make life really difficult for you if you do not listen to them.

Dr. Harmon and eleven other UT advisors have published dissertation tips for doctoral students. It is posted on the UT Intellectual Entrepreneurship, Dissertation List-Serve and Resources Webpage. The Webpage also contains a dissertation writing bibliography, reflections of former graduate deans on dissertation completion, advice from UT alumni, and numerous other useful items for Ph.D. students.

Final Oral Exam (Defense of Dissertation. A satisfactory final oral examination is required for the approval of a dissertation. The Office of Graduate Studies publishes the time and place of this examination. The exam is open to all members of the University community and the public, unless attendance is restricted by the Graduate Studies Committee. Information is available in the Graduate Catalog and an application form are available from the Office of Graduate Studies.

Application for Graduation. There are lots of forms for graduation listed by the Office of Graduate Studies. You would be well advised to visit the office of Graduate Studies well before the deadlines to be sure you have the latest information and do not forget an essential form the absence of which might hold up your graduation.

Graduation. After all that work you won't want to miss the graduation celebration and fireworks at the end of the spring semester. UT introduced a new doctoral robe in 2001, which will be first available for graduating students in May, 2005. You can be one of the first scholars to wear one.

Additional Sources. The University of Texas and the UT Office of Graduate Studies provide the latest information on degree and administrative requirements requirements in three publications:

Information on Qualitative Research Methods. In September 2004, Dr. Davis loaned a copy of the three-volume Sage Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods (2004) to the lab for our use. It not only provides excellent summaries of lots of issues and topics related to research methodology, but it provides reference sources under each topic to allow further exploration. A copy is also available is also at the PCL reference desk.