Welcome to the Ph.D. Fora Webpage. This page contains information some of the email lists and other fora that might be of interest to iSchool Ph.D.

School Of Information Ph.D. Fora

To facilitate restricted communication among us, we have three communications forums--this Website, an elist, and a Blackboard site. The elist forum, provides information push capability, and the Website and Blackboard site forums provide information pull capability.

Website. The Information School Ph.D. Website is open to the general public. It provides information on Ph.D. students and other information of interest to Ph.D. students. All current Ph.D. students are listed on the Website, with standard information, on an opt out basis, when they join the program. Any student may ask any piece of information to be deleted or to be deleted entirely if they so desire. Alumni may also be listed if they desire. Please provide the information (usually name, e-mail, homepage, committee, degrees, research Interests, and bio) to the Webmaster. Also, if you are into forms, here is one that lays out what we have done before.

Ph.D. Listserv: Docsider. Our Ph.D. email forum or elist is an opt-out, push type, discussion forum restricted to current and former iSchool Ph.D. students. Faculty and staff are not members. We use this forum for posting and discussing items of general interest in the information field and related disciplines and for advising each other on interesting things we learn as our research progresses. This list is for topics of interest to Information iSchool Ph.D. scholars. Personal conversations should be conducted via personal email. (If you want to receive general information from the Information school, you should also subscribe to the Information School student organization elist, the-insider@utlists.utexas.edu)

Messages for the email forum are addressed to: docsider@utlists.utexas.edu. Only current subscribers receive messages from this list, but anyone who wishes to send a message to all Ph.D. students may post to it. The list manager will restrict this capability for non-subscribers if posting is abused.

Subscription: To subscribe/unsubscribe, send e-mail to Don Hamerly (hamerly at ischool.utexas.edu). Current Information School Ph.D. students and alumni may subscribe or unsubscribe as they wish.

Ph.D. Blackboard Forum. Our Ph.D. Blackboard Forum is an opt-out, pull type, discussion forum that also contains information that because of copyright and other limitations may not be put on the Web. Unlike the Ph.D. Website which is open to the world, the Blackboard forum is restricted to Ph.D. students. (As our mentor and guiding light, the Dean is a member of the Blackboard forum but other faculty and staff are not. The Dean is not a member of the elist forum.) Members of may review current membership of Blackboard at any time. Information School Ph.D. students are automatically a member of the Blackboard forum but may ask to be removed if they desire. If you are a iSchool Ph.D. student and would like to participate in our blackboard discussions and read the documents posted there, simply follow the link to Blackboard and log in. In the right side of your home page under "My Organizations" you will find the link to the iSchool Ph.D. Students. Click on it and you will be there.

Grounded Theory Forum. This forum is similar to the Ph.D. Blackboard Forum but with a restricted set of students and faculty who have an interested in Grounded Theory. It supports the Grounded Theory Discussion Group which meets a couple of times a month. If you are interested in participating, please send a message to Don Drumtra.

UT Graduate School Fora

The graduate school has a Webpage forum for all graduate students and a dissertation elist forum mainly for Ph.D. students.

Graduate School Webpage. The Graduate School provides information and courses of interest to all graduate students from their Website, http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/.

Dissertation Listserv. This is an opt-in elist for UT graduate students planning to write or in the process of writing their dissertation. It provides a forum to ask questions about the dissertation process, and for sharing dissertation experiences. Dr. Richard Cherwitz, a previous Associate Dean of graduate students, frequently posts information about job seeking after graduation and other items he believes are of interest to Ph.D. students. Instructions for getting on the list are provided on Intellectual Entrepreneurship Website, https://webspace.utexas.edu/cherwitz/www/ie/disslist.html.

UT Student Governance Organization Fora

There are two student government organizations of particular interest to Information School Ph.D. students: The Graduate Student Assembly and the Information School student organization. They both have Webpage and email forums.

Information School Student Association (SASI)

Webpage. This organization advances the interests of the student body of the Information School with its administrative counterpart in the school, to foster community and cooperation within the Information School student body, and to provide support for the professional and educational interests of its members. All School students are automatically members of the Information School student organization. Their Webpage is at, http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~sasi/wordpress/.

Listserv. This opt-in elist provides items of interest to Masters Students and school events. The Information School staff uses it as a student notification channel, although, since not all students subscribe, it is not the Information School's official notification channel. Subscription and other information on this list is provided below and at: http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~sasi/wordpress/listserv/.

Not automatic subscription: This is an opt-in elist. Information School Ph.D. students are not automatically subscribed to this list but may subscribe and un-subscribe as they wish. Ph.D. alumni may also subscribe or unsubscribe as they wish.

Graduate Student Assembly.

Webpage. This organization is one that represents graduate students in the University environment. The Information School student organization elects representatives to the GSA. The GSA Webpage is at, http://www.utgsa.org. If you are interested in the relationships between UT graduate student government organizations, see, http://www.utexas.edu/students/gsa/website/charter_docs/organization.html.

Listserv. There are a couple of opt-in elists that GSA sponsors that might be of interest. They are listed at, http://www.utexas.edu/students/gsa/website/charter_docs/lists.html.

Last update: 2008 June 19