Phd Drafts

Get my confirmation document (pdf, 1MB). I am doing my PhD “by publication” through the W3C, everything is available through the their CVS repository:

Why “by publication”?

I hold the position that writing a traditional PhD is not a productive thing to do. The main reason I hold this position is that most (say 99%) of all PhD are never read by anyone apart from supervisors and examiners. To spend three years of your life on something that only around five people will ever read seems like a monumentally stupendous waste of time. So, instead, I much rather spend my time on writing publications that are actually read and (hopefully) useful to people.  I also believe that the traditional PhD process if flawed because it holds authorship and individual contribution to the field is such high esteem (it forces one to isolate themselves from the community and discourages collaboration). I believe a better approach is to work openly collaborating with people on problems: to harness the collective intelligence and the wisdom of crowds as much as humanly possibly. 

Stages of the PhD

QUT breaks the PhD process up into 4 stages described below. One must pass each stage before he can become grand master…Wondering what each stage means? me too! Well, here are some definitions I’ve made up…

Stage 1 - Get accepted (completed)
In stage 1 your make a grand unfounded statement about some crazy thing you intend to do (feel free to read my PhD proposal (PDF). Politically speaking, that should be enough to get you accepted into the PhD course. Note that my PhD application statement has little to do with what I am doing now. My lovely proposal was enough to earn me an Australian Post-Graduate Award (APA) and a top-up scholarship from the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design (in return for my soul and probably my first born!). My official start date was March 24th, 2006.
Stage 2 - Stage 2 document (completed)
A small administrative document showing that you know what you are talking about in your PhD, and that you actually have a PhD worthy problem. Document was excepted by the Research Committee in Jan, 2007 (Things move a little slow around here. I don’t mind, I didn’t have to make any changes.)…. the Research Committee members are like the Mafia: they have no names and no one has ever seen them, but apparently they know all about every possible PhD topic… they either let you through or they can cause you great pain and make you write the document again. I’m not making this document public because it bears no resemblance to what I am currently doing.
Stage 3 - Confirmation
Confirmation involves writing an extended document about what you have been doing for the last year. You then must present this document to a bunch of people that have probably not read the document you have written. Confirmation took take place on July 11th, 2007.
The final draft of my confirmation document is available as a PDF( 1Mb). One day I’ll get around to converting it to HTML. 
Stage 4 - Write and submit (Current)
Write and publish like a maniac and submit before the scholarship money runs out on the 31st of March 2009! Bundle all publications with a bulldog clip and a short exegesis. I think I might have to do a presentation/defense, but I am not sure. Unlike in Europe, the PhD defense is not a big deal in Australia.