As I write this blog entry, Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt and Jordan are going through major political change. By the time you read this, I’m sure the status of these countries and probably others will have changed again. It’s an incredible time.
In most of these recent events, the Internet has played a strong role; WikiLeaks was partly responsible for Tunisia’s demonstrations and services like FaceBook and Twitter helped to fuel the flames and organize protests.
In Canada this year, FaceBook and Email campaigns have had impacts on decisions at various levels of government right down to the uwaterloo logo, lasers anyone? Or Engineering’s PDEng program – our faculty now conducts student surveys on PDEng every term.
What many people don’t realize is that Canadian governments and institutions like UW actually want your input and are increasingly embracing the Internet to collect your views. As citizens we often think our only power is to turf the players out every few years and complain the rest of the time, but we can also write email, join facebook groups and participate in online surveys to help get change more quickly.
Savanna, our co-op this term, is conducting a survey regarding computing in the faculty. You can help us plan for the future by completing the survey online. It’s anonymous and only takes a few minutes.
Feel free to write to me at erick@uwaterloo.ca if you have comments regarding computing in Engineering or at UW, good or bad.
NOTE The survey is now closed. Savannah will summerize the results shortly. Thanks to the hundred people who participated.
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