Felipe Schmidt Fonseca - ESR 4
07/01/2022
2022 will be the final year of my PhD research. The first semester will focus chiefly on the third phase of OpenDott, with training modules and new deliverables to be submitted. The deliverables will inform work on my thesis that will keep progressing until I start focusing exclusively on it in the second semester.
At the meeting of OpenDoTT supervisory board that took place in the second semester of 2021, we were reminded that completion of project deliverables by the end of June takes priority over PhD writing. Aligning with OpenDoTT plans for the final year, I have already attended three training modules (Digital Inclusion and Digital Literacy; Media Training; Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship) and will need to write reflective pieces about them.
In January we are scheduled to have a training module on Policy and Advocacy (WP3), which will entail other specific deliverables:
The exact form of such deliverables is not yet clear, as the training has not started. I will discuss this with my supervisors as it unfolds. I will focus on these activities at least for the first quarter of 2022, then work on project deliverables so everything is complete and submitted before the end of June.
I still need to hear back from management about hiring a design studio or professional to improve the presentation of my WP2 deliverables and will need to coordinate that in parallel as well.
By Q4 2021 I had a thesis workshop with my full supervisory team. It was important to help start outlining my research in a cohesive manner. In the coming months, I will be dovetailing my project activities and deliverables together with the development of my thesis. I will however only be able to focus exclusively on the thesis after June.
As mentioned in the document “year 2 Progress Report”, I will use Constructivist Grounded Theory in order to recollect data generated in earlier research studies as well as my own memoing of the research progress. New iterations of analysis, reading and reflection will be incorporated into the thesis structure.
As mentioned in section 1 of this document, it is not yet clear what will be the form of the WP3 deliverables. I can expect to engage with organisations and policymakers in fields related to my research. The way it looks at the moment, I expect to propose interviews and online workshops with policymakers and other potential stakeholders of my research concepts.
There are organisations in Berlin - in the public sector, as well as businesses and nonprofits - whom I would like to involve at this point of my investigation. Also, in November 2021 I have participated in two events in Barcelona. There I had the chance to visit and get acquainted with organisations working on fields related to my research. I plan to interview members of those organisations as well.
The focus of these activities will be to assess my research from a perspective of policy and advocacy. Any participatory study that is incorporated into the plan will naturally be accompanied by the necessary ethics clearance as usual per Northumbria processes.