"City of Dreaming Spires" a Oxford Travel Page by shutterlust

I am in love with this city. I spent two weeks at St. Anne's College, University of Oxford, researching/studying global media policy with the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy and I fell in love with this city. The people, the buildings, the pubs, the bars, the library, the bookstores, the cafes, the parks, the punts...I fell in love with it so much that I'm currently in the middle of researching for a PhD proposal to apply for 2007-2008!

The two weeks I spent researching at Oxford were two of the best weeks of my life. I met people from around the globe, all interested in global media policy, changes in technology and its application to regulation and legislation. Besides sitting in conference session from 9-6, Monday-Friday for two weeks, we also spent a great deal of times perusing the pubs, drinking constantly, whether it was a wine and cheese party in the park, or strawberries and champagne in a punt, or beer tasting in a pub, we were forever giddy. :-) Playing football in University Park, walking through Port Meadow to the Trout Inn, picnicking in cemeteries and church yards, 2am visits to the kebab vans, so many amazing memories with some really amazing people.

I've just completed my Bachelor's degree in Mass Media and Communications with a dual concentration in International Studies and Technology. I'm planning on applying to the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy for a research MLitt and then hopefully onto the Oxford Internet Institute for a PhD. My academic interests are primarily in the field of technology, particularly issues of global media technology policy and regulation, free culture cases (think SONY DRM, Creative Commons, free and open source software and code, Linux platforms), etc. I'm becoming increasingly interested in nonproprietary, collaborative initatives, like Wikipedia, and their influence on our original concept of intellectual property. I want to examine how virtual (online) collaboration results in real world effects on the public sphere, the development of democracy and influences on creativity and cultural production. Then, take these social relationships and apply them to Internet policy, whether in terms of content or ISP regulation or protection of free speech, etc.