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authorHolden Rohrer <hr@hrhr.dev>2020-10-14 15:05:47 -0400
committerHolden Rohrer <hr@hrhr.dev>2020-10-14 15:05:47 -0400
commit134be6bd1d8ff2fe6813153baf78c5089e8cd939 (patch)
treee326535915d138173860d5e25cfb49b39e25d27f
parent31949743c45ca146f77c9cc91a02d31895c45bae (diff)
tech essay #2 v1
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+Each are 50--300 words.
+
+Why do you want to study your chosen major [Computer Science]
+specifically at Georgia Tech?
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+All applicants must choose one of the two questions below:
+
+1) Georgia Tech is committed to creating solutions to some of the
+ world’s most pressing challenges. Tell us how you have improved or
+ hope to improve the human condition in your community.
+
+2) If you feel that your personal or community background can provide
+ additional insight to your application that we have not already seen
+ elsewhere, please take this opportunity to share that information
+ with us.
+
+I like (1).
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I love freedom.
+Not exactly a controversial statement, I know.
+>> "I'm aware"?
+But my view of freedom does appear to be fairly unpopular.
+I believe firmly in free software---programs that can be edited,
+distributed, and run however the user chooses.
+The list of open source programs is surprisingly long, but there is
+still work to be done.
+
+I've contributed lightly to software freedom by using it, participating
+in the community, and writing some free software.
+But my current favorite project is OpenStreetMap (OSM)---a freely
+licensed, globally editable map made up of trees, farms, streets, paths,
+buildings, businesses, and everything else that fits in an objective
+map.
+I recently started contributing to OpenStreetMap and using OSM-based
+maps, which are startlingly deficient compared to commercial maps like
+Here or Google Maps.
+My area, Fulton county, actually has very good data compared to the US
+overall---it has decent buildings, addresses, streets.
+But it doesn't have businesses listed, forcing my community to rely on
+manipulative, closed data sources like Yelp or Google---whom have abused
+their influence to extort businesses and manipulate customers.
+And in less priveleged areas, cartographic data is scarce and groups
+like the Humanitarian OSM team can have concrete impacts on communities
+around the globe.
+
+There are pragmatic benefits like being entirely independent of the data
+owner: it's generically searchable, available to governments for
+disaster response or public information, allows for more private use and
+more innovation and supports egalitarianism.
+Like Wikipedia opening up encyclopedic information to everyone, the
+"democratization" of geographic data improves widespread groups'
+condition, and I want to help, by contributing my effort to making
+people more free.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------