i am a working in a datamining and information retrieval research project. I was thinking of applying for the PHD. Working couple of hours a day after office time for 2 months i was able to lunch a website and a Facebook application. This fun project motivates me to do similar projects, at the same time it confused me whether to go for full time project of my own or go for PHD.
It really depends on why you would want a PhD. There are many good reasons. I am just finishing up a PhD myself (after first completing a masters degree) and I tell everyone who is considering a PhD to only pursue it if they have a good idea of how a PhD fits into their future. For example, you may want to become a professor, or get access to some specific research jobs.
Read this <i>very early</i> HN submission (note the ID #):<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=227" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=227</a><p>And then you might want to talk to andres of octopart.com<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=andres" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=andres</a>