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:ID:       5f4f1b67-4b52-42c6-8f17-051350ec250d
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#+title: 2016-04-03

* Personal Statement :academia:CSLA:@personal:
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:CREATED:  [2016-04-03 Sun 11:46]
:MODIFIED: [2016-04-03 Sun 13:09]
:IMPORTED: [2023-02-08 Wed 19:22]
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In late 2004, I decided to take six months off to look at ways I can contribute to something bigger. I have been working as a translator and a librarian, but always had a preoccupation with the state of the world. I joined the environmental movement, mostly with an interest in climate change, and have indeed been active for several years, until my involvement peaked and since reached a halt. It left behind an understanding of the underlying ecological and economic problems that define society, politics and the turbulent change we seem to be going through. We live in times characterised by two main dynamics: climate change and peak oil (and peak of other resources). Both dynamics are unprecedented in their size and impact on our civilisation, and so far our response has been too slow and too much business-as-usual.

Those were also the years where my involvement with the free software, and later free hardware, communities began. With an interest in Arabic and free content on the web, I helped start the Arabic Wikipedia, the Egyptian blogsphere and citizen journalism movement. The democratic opening Egypt had at the moment was an opportunity to support local and international civil society working on Egypt using technology for social change, and to help human rights defenders improve their digital privacy. This collective dynamic was a ramp-up to what later became known as the Arab Spring, and has moved me to a career in human rights.

During those years, I have become relied on and contributing to free software communities as a localiser, an advocate and as a user. It became clear to me how an open model of production and collaboration is offering products--in this case software, cultural products and knowledge--that empower people and help them lead lives that are increasingly autonomous, networked and in-solidarity.

The Arab Spring years allowed me to move from using technology as a tool, to making it a subject of study and an area of work. I wrote and advocated policy that will free information, protect data, remove the legal barriers in the face of decentralised telecommunications infrastructure, and balance rights in an increasingly relevant digital domain. I also helped start hacker spaces and supported youngsters and young adults discover and use free and open-sourced technologies in their education and artistic expression.


While doing this, I began contemplating questions: Was a maturing ecosystem of free software developed over two decades necessary for the current emergence of free hardware and maker culture? Why software first? What does it mean to innovation, but also to the economics and future of industry? Will physical goods go through a similar decentralisation of production and circulation the intangibles are going through? How rapidly are open technologies integrating? What is the impact on global trade? Is there a third area of localised and ecological production of food, fuel and fibre? How could a successful open hardware production model help this new agriculture? Are parts of the economy transforming? What is the impact on human development?

In my mind, answers to these questions are critical to finding ways forward to adapt and prosper in the turbulent times ahead, especially in a part of the world like the one I come from. Firm in my experience in public life and with my human-rights biases, I believe an MA in Science and Technology Studies, especially one that will help me develop my academic research and analysis skills, give me the necessary broader background, and help me proceed later on to further research, and/or to my role as a policy expert.
