Last December, deans from the Graduate School and the College of Arts and Sciences at Duke University came to me and asked if I and the team at the Humanities, Arts, Sciences, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC) team based at Duke would assess the need and opportunity and then propose a multi-disciplinary Master's Degree that would help its graduates be prepared for communication, interaction, commerce, and other features of a digital age.  We began work, putting calls out to the HASTAC and Digital Media and Learning community, soliciting feedback on our way to drafting a proposal for a new Master's degree in Knowledge and Networks.  This is a degree that, by design, spans the two cultures of technology and science on the one hand, and human and social sciences and the arts on the other.  It encompasses deep learning in the theory and history of communication, technology, and social networks with actual preprofessional (we're calling it "re-professional") training in project management, community building, and application of humanistic knowledge of communication in real-world settings, either with a social purpose (such as nonprofits) or as part of small businesses (entrepreneurship and innovation).  We have shown these ideas to many faculty, and have arrived at a draft proposal ready to be seen and discussed, both at Duke University and by anyone in the world.… more