Updated potential electives list (Update – 11/12 3:35PM – The list below is now ranked):

1. PB AF 594, Economic Approaches to Environmental Management, (3 credits, description)
2. INFO 498, Special Topics in Informatics: Programming Semantic Structures (1-5 credits, description)
3. IMT 586, Information Dynamics I (4 credits)

   This is after reading the description sent to the iMSIM mailing list by Mike Crandall on the 9th of this month:

   “Have you ever wondered …

   • what causes some ideas, products, and companies to become fads that peak and die, while others have staying power?
   • why there are business cycles?
   • what causes some diseases to become epidemics and others to subside with little effect?
   • why real change often takes so long?
   • the role information plays in the answer to each of these questions?

   Would you like to learn how to answer these and other such questions yourself?

   Sign up for IMT 586, Information Dynamics I, in the Winter Quarter.”

4. LIS 559, Special Topics in the Social Context of Information (1-4 credits, description)
5. IMT 546, Data Communications and Networking (4 credits, description provided by instructor)
   Update (11/12 3:30PM): The professor for the course indicates that this is likely going to be review material, so it’s been removed from this list and the schedule below.

Updated visual schedule (Excel is good for this stuff):

Update (11/12 12:30AM): I have e-mail messages out to the Evans School regarding PB AF 594 and an e-mail out to the instructor for IMT 546 to figure out whether these courses should stay on my list or not. For PB AF 594, this depends entirely on which registration period I have to wait for to register. For IMT 546, it depends on whether the course covers topics I already know a lot about, which isn’t clear from the provided description.

I attended an information session this afternoon about the informal concurrent MLIS/MPA degree partnership with the Evans School – many thanks to former coworker-turned-MLIS/MPA-candidate Bo Kinney for running into me on the way out of class.  As it turns out, this is actually the result of this graduate school policy, which establishes that any student can do a concurrent masters informally by applying for admissions to both of the programs they want a degree from:

Informal Concurrent Degree Programs
Students in these programs pursue two degrees from different departments simultaneously.  These programs have not been approved as formal concurrent programs, but students complete the same requirements as in the formal concurrent programs.

To earn two master’s degrees, a student must complete the equivalent of two Graduate School degree requirements of 36 credits each for a minimum of 72 credits. If one or both of the participating programs require more than the minimum of 36 credits, those additional credits may be “shared”, and applied to both degrees. However, the total number of credits completed must total at least 72 and both programs must approve the credits counted toward both degrees.  Up to 12 credits earned toward a Ph.D. degree may be counted toward a Master’s degree in another program with the approval of both degree offering units.

It is the responsibility of the student to submit a written list of courses which apply toward each respective degree at the time he or she files an application for the Master’s degree or schedules the general examination. This list must be approved by both programs.

The Information School and the Evans School has several students (in the MLIS program) doing this joint degree work, and apparently it has been done by MSIM students in the past as well.  Since this isn’t a formal concurrency degree, there’s a lot of flexibility in the arrangement.

As noted in a previous post, I actually already am considering taking courses in the Evans School curriculum series.  I’m actually starting to think about this idea, since it also means that I could potentially get two Masters degrees in three years.  If I were to do it, surprisingly, the Evans School might be a good option, particularly because of their environmental policy and natural resources management policy gateway, which is one of the primary focuses of Evans School researchers.  Other options would include Computer Science and Engineering and Technical Communication.  Interestingly enough, the Law School has an Environmental Law concentration track (Dad, Don – what was that I said about NEVER taking law and the familial limit for lawyers being reached….?).

I would have to formally apply for admissions to the second program, and would start the concurrent degree next year (2008-2009) if I were to decide to pursue it.  That means, though, that I’d have to apply by January or February.  That also means application fees, essays, and recommendations (ugh), though I sort of doubt that I’d have to retake the GRE.  Further communication with program advisers would be necessary to figure out what would be needed for application materials.

I’m considering this, since it makes really good economic sense – three years of debt versus four if I were to return for another Masters degree.  Alas, the other Masters degree that was originally very interesting to me – the MBA in Sustainable Business from Bainbridge Graduate Institute – doesn’t count under this program, since they’re two distinct institutions.  And I’d have to be insane to do three Masters programs.  Hell, I’m almost insane for thinking about doing two…

Links to the UW’s Current Section Status pages for my elective and required courses are below.

• IMT 546A, Data Communications and Networking (4 credits)
• LIS 559, Special Topics in the Social Context of Information (1-4 credits)
• INFO 498, Special Topics in Informatics: Programming Semantic Structures (1-5 credits)

This is in addition to the required courses listed below.  Update 11/10: Note that PB AF 506 is actually a restricted elective for those in the Evans MPA program and therefore does not appear here.

• IMT 530, Organization of Information Resources (4 credits)
• IMT 580, Management of Information Organizations (4 credits)

Here’s the official course information for LIS559, listed below as a possible elective:

Ethics, Imagination and Leadership: A Cross Cultural Approach
LIS 559
3 credits; Tuesdays 9:30 am – 12:20 pm
Cheryl Metoyer, Professor

This course will identify the ethical issues which effect leadership in the information professions. Students will examine leadership models reflected in the research of library and information science. They will then analyze the literature of culturally diverse groups with the intent of discovering alternative models and understanding the implications of alternative leadership models.

I’ve already registered for eight credits in the required core courses IMT530 and IMT580 – I only need to select an elective at this point.

My approach to the MSIM program thus far has been to select courses that sound interesting and fun.  I didn’t enter into the program with any particular final goals – I don’t have an answer to “What do you want to be” yet (though the scope has been narrowed a bit).  It’s time to consider electives for next quarter, which currently involves the following list.  Mike Crandall, the head of the MSIM program, suggested at some point also taking some policy courses from the Evans School or the Program on the Environment to incorporate some of the sustainability stuff I had mentioned in my application, so some of those courses are also reflected below:

• IMT 546A, Data Communications and Networking (4 credits)
  Sat 8:30 – 3:20, five class meetings total
  Larson
• LIS 559, Special Topics in the Social Context of Information (1-4 credits)
  Tue 9:30-12:20
  Metoyer
• INFO 498, Special Topics in Informatics: Programming Semantic Structures (1-5 credits)
  Tue/Thu 11:00-12:20
  Brooks
• PB AF 506, Ethics and Public Policy (3 credits)
  Wed 9:30-12:20
  Blake

This is in addition to the required courses:

• IMT 530, Organization of Information Resources (4 credits)
  Tue/Thu 1:30 – 3:20
  Tennis
• IMT 580, Management of Information Organizations (4 credits)
  Mon/Wed 1:30 – 3:20
  Scholl

Just to provide a visual structure for how all these interrelate:

Other relevant courses from the Evans School and the Program on the Environment: 

• ENVIR 416 Ethics and Climate Change (5)
  Conflicts with required course for Winter.
• PB AF 590 Environmental Policy Processes (3)
  Not offered Winter.
• PB AF 593 United States Energy Policy (3) 
  Not offered Winter.
• PB AF 596 Ethics and Values in Environmental and Natural Resource Policy (3) 
  Conflicts with required course for Winter.

A breakdown of the different nationalities for my cohort of the MSIM program was announced at orientation and at the last all-iSchool meeting. The breakdown is as follows across 32 incoming students for the third Day MSIM cohort:

• China (4)
• India (6)
• Taiwan (5)
• Korea (2)
• Phillipines (1)
• New Zealand (1)
• Washington State (10)
• Texas (1)
• California (1)
• Ohio (1)

And a gratuitous graph that adds nothing to the conversation:

Mike Crandall, head of the MSIM program, says we should be investing 3-5 hours of outside work per hour spent in class. Well, the UW schedules its blocks a bit weirdly to allow 10 minutes for class switches, so if I round up, there’s 13 hours of in class time, which includes an optional lab for IMT501 that’s about an hour and a half.

13 * 3 = 39
13 * 5 = 65

So I should be spending anywhere between 39 and 65 hours/week on classwork this quarter (note that this only counts IMT501, 510, and 540, not IMT500, which has already ended). I somehow doubt I’ve been approaching that total at this point.

(An aside – I’m working 10 hours a week this quarter, which means between 49 and 75 hours/week on work related to the iSchool with only 168 hours in a week, 112 if you sleep 8 hours/day.  So somewhere between 44% and 67% of my time should be iSchool-related work.  Ouch.)