From 134be6bd1d8ff2fe6813153baf78c5089e8cd939 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Holden Rohrer Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2020 15:05:47 -0400 Subject: tech essay #2 v1 --- application/06_tech_essays | 57 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 57 insertions(+) create mode 100644 application/06_tech_essays (limited to 'application') diff --git a/application/06_tech_essays b/application/06_tech_essays new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c570a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/application/06_tech_essays @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ +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. +------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- cgit