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Each are 50--300 words.
Why do you want to study your chosen major [Computer Science]
specifically at Georgia Tech?
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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).
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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.
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