still in Cambridge (Boston)

Yesterday was one of the better days of my time here in Boston.
I've been spending a bit of time at the MIT Media Lab, as well as visiting Geoffrey Kirkman at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

It's been interesting, but also hard to get into real discussions with people. Mostly because people, of course, are busy, but also just for lack of a common theme or goal to bring us together.

But yesterday I had the good fortune to participate in part of a class at Harvard Law School, taught by a range of the fellows at the Berkman Center, including my good friend (and hero?) Ethan, who's just been given a spot as a Fellow.
It was an interesting class, and I recommend anyone who's interested in ICT for Development to have a look at the class material, here (it's class 12, if anyone should be in doubt).

I also had a good meeting with Mike Best @ the MEdia Lab, and it was definitely one of the more fruitful talks I had, mostly because his work in wireless is very close to my own, so we got into some level of tech detail.

The only people I haven't been able to corner in my week in Cambridge, were David Reed and Sandy Pentland, so all in all it's been a success.

I'm not sure it's gotten me any closer to understanding whether the Media Lab is the right place for the type of research I want to do, but it's  definitely worth thinking about if they'll have me.

I knwo for sure that Cambridge is an amazing place in that respect. The world center of ICT for development research, and a nice place to boot. With so many institutions doing work in this area, at Harvard and MIT, it would be a grewat place for me to go and just learn more. Just some of the institutions doing stuff in this area include Harvard Law School, The Berkman Center for Internet & Society @ Harvard, Harvard Business School, The Medialab @ MIT, The Sloan School for Management @ MIT, The Kennedy School for Government (and the Center for International Development) @ Harvard, etc.

I think I've made up my mind on 2 things. I want a master's degree, in some form of ICT and Development, and I'd love for it to be done in Cambridge.

Internet & Society: The Technologies and Politics of Control