Blogger News
PBWorks Wikis
     WordPress Blogs

  lecture video

    lecture slides

article text

Announcement: Spring course of interest for LIS 201 students

Computer Science 202
Introduction to Computation
Meets 1:20 – 2:10 Mon, Wed, Fri (3 Cr)
Instructor: Professor Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau

Would you like to understand how computers work? Do you want to know
how to use computation to solve problems?

Designed for a diverse audience, CS 202 focuses on understanding
algorithms, step-by-step methods for accomplishing a complex task.
Algorithms are useful in more places than you might imagine.
Algorithms specify the work that must be done for large, complex tasks
like sequencing the human genome. But, algorithms also describe how
people approach everyday problems like finding a path out of a maze or
solving a rubik's cube. Understanding how to solve problems in a
step-by-step fashion is useful for more than just computer scientists.
In this course, you'll investigate the types of problems we currently
know how to solve with computation and you'll compare different
algorithms that solve the same problem to determine which are the most
efficient.

In this course, you’ll also learn how modern computers perform
computation. For example, you’ll understand how hardware and software
store data, run applications, and display and find web pages. You’ll
learn about a wide range of areas in computer science, such as
robotics, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence.

To obtain hands-on experience with algorithms, we will be using a new
programming environment called Scratch. Scratch enables beginners to
create sophisticated programs by simply dragging and dropping
predefined instruction blocks. Thus, you will acquire experience
decomposing problems into well-defined steps without the fear of
frustrating ``syntax'' errors. You will use Scratch to create
animated stories, art, and educational games!

All majors are welcome!

For more information, please see:
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~dusseau/Classes/CS202/

August 31 2009

WEEK 01

Preparing to study the information society

Lecture
Since our lectures are held on Mondays but classes don't start until Wednesday September 02, there will be NO live lecture this week.

• Instead, please watch this short introductory video from Professor Downey.  (5 minutes)
• You may want to learn more about me at my personal web site. (Or you may not care.)
• Make sure to read through this whole LIS 201 course web site (bookmark it in your web browser) so you know what to expect from this very unusual and very labor-intensive course! 
• Please acquire the xeroxed course reader from ASM Student Print.

Discussion
Since many discussions sections are held on Tuesdays but classes don't start until Wednesday September 02, there will be NO discussion sections this week.

• Instead, your TA will email you to introduce him/herself sometime this week. 
• Rather than participating in a discussion this week, please take this short web survey on how much technology you've used in the classroom.

Online
This week you'll learn how to use our wiki service, PBWorks, to access and post to your discussion section wiki.

1. After your TA emails an introduction to you, you'll receive an emailed invitation to your discussion section wiki.  Just follow the directions to become a member of the wiki. 
2. Notice that when you first go to your wiki home page (called the "front page"), the tab at the top indicates that you are in "VIEW" mode. 
   
   
   
   In a moment, we will EDIT this front page.
3. On the front page of your discussion section wiki, your TA has created a big table listing all of the students in your section. You will create a wiki page for yourself and link it to your name in this table.
4. At the top of the wiki front page, click the "EDIT" tab.  This brings the wiki into Editing mode. 
   
   
   
   Notice that there is now a familiar-looking toolbar of editing tools at the top of the page. 
   
   
   
   
   Be careful; you are live-editing the front page of your section wiki.  (If you mess something up, just hit "Cancel" at the bottom of the wiki page and try again.)
5. Highlight your name and click the little "make a link" icon in the toolbar:  
6. This brings up a window where you can specify what you want that text to link to. 
   
   
   
   For "Link type," choose "PBWorks Page" (the default).  For "Page," choose "--New Page--" (the default).  Finally, for "Page Name," notice that PBWorks has defaulted to the text you selected (your name) as the name of the new page.  Add the words "personal wiki page" to the end of this and then click "OK".
7. The text you selected has now been changed in color to look like a normal web link.  Go ahead and hit "Save" at the bottom of the wiki page
   
   
   
   to save your edits.
8. Now, in "VIEW" mode once again, find your name with the link you just created and click on it to try to go to the wiki page that has been created for you.
9. Aha!  The wiki has figured out that you "linked" to a page that does not exist yet, so it's asking you to create this page first.  Go ahead and click the "Create page" button to do this.
   
   
   
   Now you have a blank wiki page all your own.
10. Click "EDIT" at the top of your wiki page to add some text and introduce yourself.  Maybe describe where you're from and what your favorite Star Wars(tm) Collectible Action Figure is.  (Or not.)  Anyway, write at least 250 words.  After you're done, click "Save" at the bottom to see your changes added to the wiki page. 
11. Now try to upload a digital photo of yourself to the wiki.  On the upper-right-hand-side of the wiki page, find the link to "Upload files" and click on it. 
    
    
    This takes you to a page listing all the extra word processing, image, sound, and video files that have been uploaded to this wiki.
12. On this page, click the "Upload files" button
    
    
    
    and you will be presented with a file browser dialog box where you can pick a file from your computer to upload.  Find a nice digital photo of yourself (not too large, please) and upload it.
13. Now that your image is uploaded to the wiki, navigate back to your personal wiki page and "EDIT".  On the right-hand side of the wiki page you'll see a tab for "Images and files." 
    
    
    
    Click this and you should see the image you just uploaded in the list.
14. Click on the title of your image and it will be inserted into your wiki page.  Click "Save" at the bottom of your wiki page when you are satisfied with how the image looks.
15. Finally, visit the personal wiki page of another student in your section and post a friendly "comment" to the bottom of their page. 
16. If you run into trouble signing on to the wiki, creating your personal page, editing and saving text, or uploading an image, ask a classmate to help you or talk to your TA.

Readings
This week's readings cover tools you will use all semester long to improve your writing and speaking skills.

1. Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, The craft of research, 2nd ed. (2003), selections.
2. Laurie Rozakis, The complete idiot's guide to public speaking (1999), selections.

Optional:

• Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, "Planning and drafting [ch. 12]," "Revising your organization and argument [ch. 13]," "Introductions and conclusions [ch. 14]," and "Revising style [ch. 16]" The craft
  of research, 2nd ed. (2003).
• Anne Lamott, "Shitty first drafts" (1994).
• Brandon Royal, The little red writing book (2004), selections.
• Stephen E. Lucas, The art of public speaking, 6th ed. (1998),
  selections.

September 07 2009

WEEK 02

Technology and social change

Lecture
Since our lectures are held on Mondays but classes are cancelled for Labor Day, there will be no live lecture this week either!  (Isn't this the strangest class you've ever had?)

• Instead, please watch this prerecorded lecture by Professor Downey.  Topic: Thinking about technology and information. (40 minutes)

Discussion
Finally, discussion sections meet this week.

• Meet your TA and your fellow students in person!  (Your TA may have you create a "table tent" to help everybody learn names.) 
• Discuss the syllabus and grading.
• Your TA will assign you to specific weeks and readings for your prepared oral presentations and your written article reviews.  (You won't know when you'll be called upon to do your extemporaneous oral presentations.) These will all be listed on your section wiki.
• Discuss techniques for effective oral presentations.
• Discuss this week's lecture and required readings. 

Online
This week you will prepare a personal weblog using the WordPress weblog service.

1. This is a blog that you will be using as your own public space all through the semester. Near the end of the term, another student will be assigned to read your blog and try to figure out something about you based on your blog identity.  You may try to keep it real or fake them out -- your choice.
2. Visit www.wordpress.com and click "Sign up now" to create your own weblog. (You will need to supply a login ID and email address to do this.)  You may want to use your real name as your ID, or you may want to use a pseudonym so that your real name is not made visible to the world.  Your choice.
3. You may want to use your real name in your blog address (where you fill in _____.wordpress.com) and/or title, or you may want to use a pseudonym. Again, your choice.
4. Post something good to your new blog to get things rolling! 
5. Your assignment from now to the end of the semester is to post something, anything, at least once a week on this blog.  (But you may write more if you are inspired.)
6. If you run into trouble signing on to the weblog, posting and commenting, or uploading and linking an image, either ask a classmate to help you or email your TA.

Readings
You need to have these readings completed by the time you get to discussion section each week, in order to be able to discuss them with your TA and fellow students.  We may quiz you on this readings as well.

1. Donald MacKenzie and Judy Wajcman, "Introductory essay," in The social shaping of technology, 2nd ed. (1999).
2. Paul Edwards, "Infrastructure and modernity: Force, time, and social organization in the history of sociotechnical systems," in Thomas J. Misa et al. eds., Modernity and technology (2003).

Optional:

• Merritt Roe Smith, "Technological determinism in American culture,"
  in Merritt Roe Smith and Leo Marx, eds., Does technology drive
  history? The dilemma of technological determinism (1994).
• Andrew Chadwick, "Some conceptual tools," in Internet politics: States, citizens, and new communication technologies (2006).
• Stephen Lubar, "Introduction," in Infoculture: The Smithsonian book of information age inventions (1993).
• David E. Nye, "Critics of technology," in Carroll Pursell, ed., A
  companion to American technology (2005).
• Langdon Winner, "Do artifacts have politics?" (1986) in Donald MacKenzie and Judy Wajcman, eds., The social shaping of technology, 2nd ed. (1999).
• Alfred D. Chandler jr., "The information age in historical perspective," in Alfred D. Chandler jr. and James W. Cortada, eds., A nation transformed by information: How information has shaped the United States from colonial times to the present (2000).
• Susan J. Douglas, "The turn within: The irony of technology in a globalized world," American Quarterly (2006).

Please note that the Wednesday of the second week of class is generally the last day to drop without a "DR" on your transcript. (You can still drop through the ninth week of class but there will be a notation on the transcript.)

September 14 2009

WEEK 03

Print culture and literacy

Lecture
Finally, lecture meets this week! Students are expected to attend all in-person lectures and take notes. Within 24 hours of each in-person lecture, I'll link a PDF version of any slides I showed in lecture next to the lecture title (click on the little icon).

• Topic: Three information societies
  

Discussion

• First five minutes: Quiz  01 on the readings or the lecture!
• Two student presentations, one on each of the readings (and two student extemporaneous responses).  Your TA will designate a classmate to record your presentations on digital video.  The recording will be uploaded to the discussion section wiki on the page for the article you discussed; after watching the recording, you must respond to your TA with one substantive way in which you could improve your delivery.
• Discuss this week's lecture and required readings.   
• Discuss tasks and strategies for paper #1.  (Rough draft due on wiki by start of next week's discussion.)
• After discussion section: Remember to post to your personal WordPress blog.

Online
Starting with this week, each week you will have an online research and exploration exercise.  Each of these "scavenger hunts" will require you to write something about your experience at the end on your discussion section wiki.   Each one should take between 45-90 minutes to complete.

This week's online lecture begins with an exhibit at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum on a World War II technological information system known as "V-Mail." 

1. Visit the main V-mail web site and read through the introductory material.  Spend some time exploring this site, taking notes both on the social purposes of V-mail and the information/communication technologies needed to make V-mail work. 
2. Make sure to try the "V-Mail service in action" interactive portion and view the V-Mail newsreel from 1944.   Would you argue that V-mail was a success? 
3. Now spend some time searching for the ways that soldiers communicate with the homefront today.  See if you can track down a "milblog" (military weblog) written by a soldier about his or her experiences in Iraq, Afghanistan, or elsewhere around the globe. 
4. For another written view on the war in Iraq, check out the last few entries from the "Baghdad Burning" weblog where an Iraqi woman wrote about her experiences during the war for several years.
5. Go to your discussion section wiki and post something about what you've found.  You may want to create a separate wiki page for this so that others can easily comment on it. 
6. Reply to a fellow student's post on this online lecture activity as well.
7. Please finish this online activity by next week's lecture.

Readings
Have these read by the time you get to section this week!

1. Deborah Brandt, "Accumulating literacy: How four generations of one American family learned to write," in Literacy in American lives (2001).
2. JoAnne Yates, "Communication technology and the growth of internal communication," in Control through communication: The rise of system in American management (1989).

Optional:

• Richard D. Brown, "Early American origins of the information age" (2000).
• David Levy, "A bit of digital history," in Scrolling forward: Making sense of documents in the digital age (2001).
• Walter Ong, "Orality, literacy, and modern media" (1982).
• John B. Thompson, "The digital revolution and the publishing world," in Books in the digital age: The transformation of academic and higher education publishing in Britain and the United States (2005).

September 21 2009

WEEK 04

The electromechanical control revolution

Lecture

• Make sure your online activity from last week is finished by today.
• Topic: The control revolution and "modernity"

Discussion

• Before section meets this week:  Post your rough draft of paper #1 to your personal wiki pages (create a separate subpage so that your peer reviewers can just "comment" at the bottom).
• First five minutes: Quiz 02.
• Two student presentations on the readings (and two student extemporaneous responses).
• Discuss this week's lecture and required readings. 
• Your TA will set up peer review groups (with 3-6 students in each peer review group) and post these on your discussion section wiki in case you forget. 
• After discussion section: Remember to post to your personal WordPress blog.

Online
This week you'll explore the Prelinger Archives, which contains thousands fantastic vintage educational and corporate promotional films, some of which deal with information and communication technology.  Many of these films are in color with sound, and most are short (15 or 20 minutes). 

1. Search this archive for telecommunications-related films (telephone, telegraph, etc.) and find the most interesting vintage film for a 21st century class on the "information society" that you can. 
2. Please note: Within each discussion section, every student needs to find a different film to post!  This means you need to see what's already been posted in your section to avoid duplication!  (Students who do this assignment earlier might have an easier time of it.)
3. Post a link to your film on your discussion section wiki pages and make an argument about why this film is useful to students of our modern information and communication infrastructure — what can we learn from the film you found?  You will want to create a separate wiki page for this so that others can easily comment on it. 
4. Watch at least one of your fellow students' suggested films and post a comment with your reaction. 
5. Please finish this online activity by next week's lecture.

Readings

1. James R. Beniger, "Introduction," in The control revolution: Technological and economic origins of the information society (1986).
2. Ruth Schwartz Cowan, "Communications technologies and social control," in A social history of American technology (1997).

Optional:

• Kevin Robins and Frank Webster, "The long history of the information revolution," in Times of the technoculture: From the information society to the virtual life (1999).
• Richard R. John, "Recasting the information infrastructure for the industrial age," in Alfred Chandler jr. and James Cortada, eds., A nation transformed by information (2000).
• Greg Downey, "Telegraph messenger boys: Crossing the borders between history of technology and human geography," The professional geographer 55:2 (2003). (Yes, this was written by your professor.  Don't worry, you can still be critical of it.)
• Ruth Schwartz Cowan, "Industrial society and technological systems," in A social history of American technology (1997).
• Steven Lubar, "Telegraph" and "Telephone" in Infoculture (1993).
• David Nye, "Shaping communication networks: Telegraph, telephone, computer," Social Research (1997).
• Kurt Vonnegut jr., Player piano (1952), selections. 

September 28 2009

WEEK 05

The postindustrial creative economy

Lecture

• Make sure your online activity from last week is finished by today.
• Topic: Understanding deindustrialization

Discussion

• Before section meets this week: Complete your peer reviews of your fellow students' paper #1 drafts, posted as comments on their pages of the discussion section wiki.
• First five minutes: Quiz 03.
• Two student presentations on the readings (and two student extemporaneous responses).
• Discuss this week's lecture and required readings. 
• After discussion section: Remember to post to your personal WordPress blog.

Online
While radio and television ushered in our current system of free broadcast content supported by ever-intensifying, interspersed advertising, we might forget that radio and television themselves were the subject of intense national advertising campaigns in the years following their introductions.  We'll explore some vintage ads this week.

1. The Duke University Library hosts a very nice digital collection of radio and television print advertising from the 1920s through the 1950s in its "Ad*Access" project.  Spend some time exploring this collection, and see if you can find one radio or television advertisement which each promotes its product in a way that feels unfamiliar today — in other words, an ad which describes radio or television as performing a certain social functions, or holding a certain place in culture, or exemplifying a certain ideal, which seems unfamiliar or outdated with respect to current meanings of radio or television.
2. Post this advertisement to your discussion section wiki (you can either upload the image itself or just use its weblink) and explain why it struck you as unfamiliar.  You will want to create a separate wiki page for this so that others can easily comment on it. 
3. Comment on at least one fellow student's chosen advertisement as well.
4. Please finish this online activity by next week's lecture.

Readings

1. Daniel Bell, "Post-industrial society," in The coming of post-industrial society (1973).
2. Ronald R. Kline, "Cybernetics, management science, and technology policy: The emergence of 'information technology' as a keyword, 1948-1985," Technology and Culture (2006).

Optional:

• Esther Dyson, George Gilder, George Keyworth, and Alvin Toffler, "Cyberspace and the American dream," The Information Society 12 (1996).
• Robert Reich, "The three jobs of the future," in The work of nations: Preparing ourselves for 21st century capitalism (1992).
• Benjamin Barber, "From soft goods to service," in Jihad vs. McWorld (2001).
• Nick Dyer-Witheford, "Revolutions," in Cyber-Marx: Cycles and circuits of struggle in high-technology capitalism (1999).

October 05 2009

WEEK 06

The global network society

Lecture

• Make sure your online activity from last week is finished by today.
• Topic: Cities and the information society
• This week I will distribute a list of terms and essay questions to study which will help you prepare for our midterm exam next week.  (I will probably distribute these on our course news weblog.)

Discussion

• First five minutes: Quiz 04.
• Two student presentations on the readings (and two student extemporaneous responses).
• Discuss this week's lecture and required readings. 
• Turn in a printed final version of paper #1.
• After discussion section: Remember to post to your personal WordPress blog.

Online
This week your online activity will involve the selection of the book that you are going to read and review.

1. Think about some search terms or phrases which might quickly and effectively lead you to interesting books on "the information society." Will using the term "information" suffice?  What will using the search term "information society" leave out?  Be creative.
2. Using an online bookstore like Amazon.com, do a search for a book related to the information society that you would like to read.  (We are starting in an online book store in order to make sure that the book is still in print.)  Narrow your choice down to three candidates.  Which book has the most pages?  Which costs the most?  Which is most recent?  Which has the best reviews?
3. Once you have found three possible books, look each of them up through the public web interface of WorldCat.  This is a meta-catalog of all US public and university library catalogs.   Which book is held by more libraries?  What are the subject classifications of each book? Do they differ?  Do they suggest further, more interesting search terms?  (You may want to go back to step #2 with these terms.)
4. Look each book up on Google Books.  Which book seems to have generated the most chatter on the Web?  Which has more reviews available through Google?  Are any of them in the public domain?
5. Finally, look up each book on Library Thing.  (You may have to create a free account on this service in order to search, but it's worth it.)  Which book has been read by more users of this social networking service?  Which book seems to match best with other books that you think you might like?
6. Decide which book you want to read at this point.
7. Now do a search of your chosen book on two academic journal databases: ProQuest and Project Muse.  What journals have reviewed your book?  Who are the reviewers?  What books have the reviewers themselves written?  Read and then print out or otherwise save these book reviews (you will use them in your final paper).
8. Add a page linked to your personal discussion wiki page that describes the book you have chosen (and the process you took to choose it).  Include an image of the cover (from Amazon.com) and a citation to any academic reviews you found.
9. Comment on another student's chosen book.  (Has anyone chosen the same book as you?  That's OK.)
10. Please finish this online activity by next week's exam.

Readings

1. Stephen Graham and Simon Marvin, "Introduction" in Telecommunications and the city: Electronic spaces, urban places (1996).
2. Felix Stalder, "Flows and places," in Manuel Castells: The theory of the network society (2006).

Optional:

• Manuel Castells, "The space of flows," in The rise of the network society (1996).
• Manuel Castells, "An introduction to the information age," City 2:7 (1997).
• Stephen Graham, "Introduction," in The cybercities reader (2004).
• Paul Edwards et al., "Understanding infrastructure: Dynamics, tensions, and design" (2007).

October 12 2009

WEEK 07

Midterm exam

Lecture
During the time scheduled for lecture, our midterm exam will be held in the normal lecture hall.

Discussion section
All sections are cancelled this week.

Readings
No reading.  Study for your exam.

October 19 2009

WEEK 08

Cyberspace and hypermedia

Lecture

• Film: An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube (2008)

Discussion

• First five minutes: Quiz 05.
• Two student presentations on the readings (and two student extemporaneous responses).
• Discuss this week's lecture and required readings. 
• Discuss tasks and strategies for paper #2.  (Rough draft due on wiki by start of next week's discussion.)
• Graded paper #1 handed back. 
• Graded midterm exam handed back.
• After discussion section: Remember to post to your personal WordPress blog.

Online
This week you are going to explore some historical news databases.

1. Pick a term relating to the modern information society — "world wide web" or "computer" or "cell phone" or "digital divide" or ... well, use your imagination.  The only constraint is that you can't pick a term that one of your fellow sectionmates has used (so it is in your interest to do this assignment early!)
2. Try to find the earliest journalistic use of this term in three different historical newspaper databases provided by ProQuest: the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times. 
3. Now take the same term and try to find its earliest use in three different scholarly article databases: ProQuest, Project Muse, and JStor. 
4. Write a brief entry on your section wiki page about the ways in which your term was first used.  You will want to create a separate wiki page for this so that others can easily comment on it. 
5. Visit another student's section wiki page and comment on what they found out about the term that they explored.
6. Please finish this online activity by next week's lecture.

Readings

1. Gordon Graham, "The radically new and the merely novel: How transformative is the Internet?" in The Internet: A philosophical inquiry (1999).
2. Roy Rosenzweig, "Wizards, bureaucrats, warriors, and hackers: Writing the history of the Internet," American Historical Review (1998).

Optional:

• Jennifer Light, "When computers were women," Technology and Culture (1999).
• Nathan L. Ensmenger, "Making programming masculine" (2008).
• Steven Lubar, "Before computers," in Infoculture (1993).
• Lee Sproull, "Computers in US households since 1997" (2000).
• Greg Downey, “Jumping contexts of space and time,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (April-June 2004).
• Paul N. Edwards, "Y2K: Millennial reflections on computers as infrastructure," History and Technology 15 (1998).
• Cory Doctorow, "When sysadmins ruled the earth" (2006).

October 26 2009

WEEK 09

Searching and tagging

Lecture

• Make sure your online activity from last week is finished by today.
• Topic: Beyond Google

Discussion

• Before section meets this week:  Post your rough draft of paper #2 to your personal wiki pages (you will want to create a separate page so that your peer reviewers can just "comment" at the bottom).
• First five minutes: Quiz 06.
• Two student presentations on the readings (and two student extemporaneous responses).
• Discuss this week's lecture and required readings. 
• After discussion section: Remember to post to your personal WordPress blog.

Online

This week we'll explore a famous article by scientist, engineer, and wartime government administrator Vannevar Bush on hyperlinked media that many cite as an inspiration for today's World Wide Web.

1. Read Bush's 1945 article entitled "As we may think," where he describes his vision of an information infrastructure he called the "Memex." 
2. Twenty years later, in 1967, Bush wrote a follow up article, "Memex revisited," which recast his ideas in light of the early computer revolution.  Read this revised version and think about the differences from the 1945 version.
3. Do a Google search on "Memex" and explore a tiny fraction of the millions of hits that appear.  (You don't have to explore all of them.)
4. About thirty years after this, in 1995, a symposium was held at MIT to consider Bush's Memex ideas fifty years after their original publication. (Remember, this was only a few years after the World Wide Web had appeared on the media stage.)  Many of the attendees were well-known pioneers in the area of hypertext research, like Douglas Englebart (inventor of the computer mouse), Ted Nelson (author of the 1970s counterculture computer manifesto "Computer Lib!") and Tim Berners-Lee (creator of the protocols that underlie the World Wide Web itself).  Read this description of their reactions to the original Vannevar Bush article. 
5. Finally, go to your discussion section wiki and comment on what you've found and what you think of the Memex idea today.   You will want to create a separate wiki page for this so that others can easily comment on it. 
6. Reply to at least one other student's wiki posting.
7. Please finish this online activity by next week's lecture.

Readings

1. Alex Wright, "The web that wasn't," in Glut: Mastering information through the ages (2007).
2. Jonathan Zittrain, "The lessons of Wikipedia," in The future of the Internet, and how to stop it (2008).

Optional:

• Greg Downey, “The librarian and the Univac: Automation and labor at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair,” in C. McKercher and V. Mosco, eds., Knowledge workers in the information society (Lexington Books, 2007).
• Vannevar Bush, "As we may think" Atlantic Monthly (1945) and Vannevar Bush, "Memex revisited" (1967).

Please note that the Friday of the ninth week of classes is generally the last date a student may drop a course.

November 02 2009

WEEK 10

Social networking

Lecture

• Make sure your online activity from last week is finished by today.
• Film: Disconnected (2008)

Discussion

• Before section meets this week: Complete your peer reviews of your fellow students' paper #2 drafts on their pages of the discussion section wiki.
• First five minutes: Quiz 07.
• Two student presentations on the readings (and two student extemporaneous responses).
• Discuss this week's lecture and required readings. 
• Discuss paper #2 revision strategies.
• After discussion section: Remember to post to your personal WordPress blog.

Online

This week's challenge will be especially difficult.  Get ready.

1. Attempt to survive without using any personal social networking tools for one week, Monday to Sunday.  Do not consult or post to Facebook.  Do not Tweet.  Do not answer personal emails (or even read them, if you can avoid it).  The only thing you are allowed to do is the minimum necessary online participation for other classes you are taking.
2. Once the week is up (or once you've thrown in the towel if you don't make it to the end of the week), write about the experience on your discussion section wiki.  How do you end up communicating with people?  How do you coordinate meetings with your friends?  How do you survive without taking a Quiz On Your Favorite Star Wars Mini-Figure every hour?  You will want to create a separate wiki page for this so that others can easily comment on it. 
3. Comment on at least one other student's write-up.
4. Be thankful you weren't a college student before the early 1990s, like I was, when THERE WAS NO WORLD WIDE WEB!  (Gasp!)
5. Please finish this online activity by next week's lecture.

Readings

1. Atsushi Akera, "Communities and specialized information businesses," in William Aspray and Paul E. Ceruzzi, eds., The Internet and American business (2008).
2. Ari Melber, "About Facebook," The Nation (07 January 2008).

Optional:

• Lawrence Lessig, "Cyberspaces," in Code and other laws of cyberspace (1999).
• Andrew Chadwick, "The political economy of internet media," in Internet politics (2006).
• Langdon Winner, "Who will we be in cyberspace?" The Information Society (1996).
• Caroline Haythornthwaite and Barry Wellman, "The internet in everyday life: An introduction" (2002).
• Growing up online (60 min).  You may reach this film on the PBS web site  or through Google video . 

November 09 2009

WEEK 11

Online work

Lecture

• Make sure your online activity from last week is finished by today.
• Film: Secrets of Silicon Valley (2001). 

Discussion

• First five minutes: Quiz 08
• Two student presentations on the readings (and two student extemporaneous responses).
• Discuss this week's lecture and required readings. 
• Turn in printed final version of paper #2.
• After discussion section: Remember to post to your personal WordPress blog.

Online
This week you will explore the presence of casualized labor on the Interent -- and in real communities.

1. Manpower Inc. is the world's largest temporary employment firm: "Manpower's worldwide network of 4,500 offices in 80 countries and territories enables the company to meet the needs of its 400,000 clients per year, including small and medium size enterprises in all industry sectors, as well as the world's largest multinational corporations."  Explore their web site a bit to get a sense of what this firm does.  (They even have a branch on Second Life ...)
2. Now go to the US site for Manpower and do a job search in three different areas: (1) Madison, WI; (2) your hometown (or the city closest to your hometown); (2) a town or city you might like to someday live in. 
   
   (Hint: Leave the "Keyword(s)" field on the search page empty, but choose a specific state from the drop-down menu, click on a specific town in the "locations" list, and then click the ">" button to move that town into the search box.  Finally, click "Search.")
   
   What kind of technology skills do these jobs demand?  How many temporary vs. permanent jobs are listed?  Do these look like good jobs to you? 
3. Write up a report of your findings, comparing the three places you investigated, for your discussion section wiki.  You will want to create a separate wiki page for this so that others can easily comment on it. 
4. Comment on at least one other student's posting.
5. Please finish this online activity by next week's lecture.

Readings
Please note that we're swapping this week's readings with next week's readings as they appear in your reader. The ones listed below are the ones you should do for this week!

1. Frank Levy and Richard J. Murnane, "How computers change work and play," in The new division of labor: How computers are creating the next job market (2004).
2. Mark Deuze, "Creative industries, convergence culture, and media work," Media Work (2007).

Optional:

• Karen Hossfeld, "'Their logic against them': Contradictions in sex, race, and class in Silicon Valley" (1990), in A. Nelson et al eds., Technicolor: Race, technology, and everyday life (2001).
• Janet W. Salaff, "Where home is the office: The new form of flexible work," in Barry Wellman and Caroline Haythornthwaite, eds., The internet in everyday life (2002).
• Amitava Kumar, "Temporary access: The Indian H-1B worker in the United States" (2001), in A. Nelson et al eds., Technicolor: Race, technology, and everyday life (2001).

November 16 2009

WEEK 12

Games and avatars

Lecture

• Make sure your online activity from last week is finished by today.
• Topic: Games as product, pastime, and social commentary

Discussion

• First five minutes: Quiz 09
• Two student presentations on the readings (and two student extemporaneous responses).
• Discuss this week's lecture and required readings. 
• Discuss your book slideshow or movie project.  Your TA will tell you where to find Flip Video cameras and how to use them.
• Graded paper #2 handed back to students.
• After discussion section: Remember to post to your personal WordPress blog.

Online
This week you'll explore the phenomenon of creating online characters representing human identity through textual or graphical means, called "avatars."

1. Read this short selection from Neal Stephenson's early-1990s book Snow Crash in which the main character, Hiro Protagonist (get it?) visits an online world called the "Metaverse." 
2. Now visit the Second Life web site and download the necessary software to create an avatar of your own.  Or if you're a member of another online community or online game (like "World of Warcraft") you may use an avatar from that system.  (Or you may want to simply create a rather cartoonish avatar like the ones available on the Nintendo Wii system, which you can do here.)
3. Read through this photoessay on people and their cyberspace avatars from the New York Times and think about the different ways that people choose to represent themselves online. 
4. Post a screen capture image of your Second Life, WoW, Wii, or other avatar to your discussion section wiki.    You will want to create a separate wiki page for this so that others can easily comment on it. 
5. In the same posting to the wiki, write a bit about the process of creating this avatar. Did you try to represent yourself, or split from your real life persona?  Was it easy to create an avatar, or did you feel limited by the range of options?  How are race and gender and ethnicity and other markers of "difference" present or not present in your avatar?
6. On the wiki, take a look at the other avatars your fellow students have posted, and comment on at least one of them. 
7. Please finish this online activity by next week's lecture.

Readings
Please note that we're swapping this week's readings with last week's readings as they appear in your reader. The ones listed below are the ones you should do for this week!

1. Peter Ludlow and Mark Wallace, "The Death of Urizenus," in The Second Life Herald: The virtual tabloid that witnessed the dawn of the metaverse (2007).
2. Brad King and John Borland, "Gamers, interrupted," in Dungeons and Dreamers: The rise of computer game culture from geek to chic (2003).

Optional:

• Edward Castronova, "Daily life on a synthetic earth," in Synthetic worlds: The business and culture of online games (2005).

November 23 2009

WEEK 13

Online education

Lecture

• Make sure your online activity from last week is finished by today.
• Topic: The university of the future?

Discussion
All discussion sections cancelled for Thanksgiving.   Please cook your poultry to an appropriate temperature. 

Online
Last week you explored the world of temporary digital employment.   As we saw with Deborah Brandt's article in your reader a few weeks ago, employable expertise in literacy (and the technological tools for applying literacy) varies with historical circumstance.  This week you'll explore some of those circumstances.

1. While you're on holiday for Thanksgiving, talk to a parent, aunt, uncle, grandparent, neighbor, employer, teacher, or other significant adult in your life, and ask them to describe for you the most important information technology they use (or once used) in their job.  (This doesn't have to be a digital information technology ... typewriters or stenography machines count.)  How did they first learn to use this technology?  How difficult was it to master?  How do they feel that this technology affected their working conditions — did it make them more or less productive?  Did it make them enjoy their job more or less? 
2. Write up a report of your conversation on your discussion section wiki, and analyze what you heard with respect to this course and your own experiences.  You will want to create a separate wiki page for this so that others can easily comment on it. 
3. Comment on at least one other student's posting.
4. Please finish this online activity by next week's lecture.

Readings

1. Kurt Squire, "Open-ended video games: A model for developing learning for the interactive age," in Katie Salen, ed., The ecology of games: Connecting youth, games, and learning (2008).
2. Robert Darnton, "Google and the future of books," New York Review of Books (12 February 2009).

Optional:

• Tamar Lewin, "Universities rush to set up outposts abroad," New York Times (10 Feb 2008).
• James Gee, "Good video games, the human mind, and good learning," in Good video games + good learning (2007).
• Larry Cuban, "Cyberteaching in preschools and kindergartens," in Oversold and underused: Computers in the classroom (2001).

November 30 2009

WEEK 14

Digital divides and differences

Lecture

• Make sure your online activity from last week is finished by today.
• Topic: Producing and reproducing the digital divide

Discussion section

• Before section meets this week: Post an outline of your slideshow or movie presentation to your personal wiki page.
• First five minutes: Quiz 10 (last one!)
• Two student presentations on the readings (and two student extemporaneous responses).
• Discuss this week's lecture and required readings. 
  

Online
This week you will try to discern someone's real identity from their online traces.

1. Your TA will provide you with the address of the WordPress weblog of another student in a different discussion section.  Read through the student's weblog and find out everything you possibly can about the student. 
2. Make assumptions based on what the student has written (and justify these assumptions). 
3. You may try to track down the student's identity using other free, public online tools as well (describe how you use these tools). But beware, the student may be trying to trick you.
4. Build a profile of this student and describe it on your discussion section wiki, along with a link to the weblog you were reviewing. 
5. Email your TA when you have posted your profile, so your TA can alert the student you were profiling -- they can check your assumptions and findings and email you to tell you whether or not you were correct.
6. Wait for an email from your TA with a student who may have been profiling you!  Were they accurate?
7. Please finish this online activity by next week's lecture.

Readings

1. Lisa Nakamura, "Cybertyping and the work of race in the age of digital reproduction," in Cybertypes: Race, ethnicity, and identity on the Internet (2002).
2. Jody M. Roy, "Brotherhood of blood: Aryan tribalism and skinhead cybercrews," in Tyrone L. Adams and Stephen A. Smith, eds., Electronic tribes: The virtual worlds of geeks, gamers, shamans, and scammers (2008).

Optional:

• Greg Downey, "Constructing closed-captioning in the public interest: From minority media accessibility to mainstream educational technology," info 9:2/3 (2007).
• Michael Zenos and Kirsten Foot, "Not your father's internet: The generation gap in online politics," in W. Lance Bennett, ed., Civic life online: Learning how digital media can engage youth (2008).

December 07 2009

WEEK 15

Network security and the state

Lecture

• Make sure your online activity from last week is finished by today.
• Topic TBA

Discussion
Last discussion section!

• Before section meets this week, you need to post your four-minute narrated slideshow or digital movie to the discussion section wiki. 
• First five minutes: Make-up quiz!  (Only if you missed one of the regularly-scheduled quizzes with an excused absence.)
• Start discussion with any make-up student presentations, if needed.
• We'll take the rest of the section to screen each other's presentations and films, voting on which one is the best.  The slideshow and movie with the top votes from each section will advance to the LIS 201 Academy Awards, where an Elite Panel of Judges (the professor and his two kids) will decide which are the best.  The top film and slideshow will be presented to the whole class in lecture next week.  Maybe some runners-up too, if I'm in a good mood.
• Last fifteen minutes: Fill out course evaluations (TA leaves room).

Online
Last online activity!  This week, you will discover how much information you can find out about yourself online.

1. First, do a geodemographic marketing analysis on yourself, by searching online for data about the place where you live which someone might ascribe to you.  Here are some sites to start with:
   
   
   • http://www.whitepages.com/reverse_phone (enter your phone)
   • http://factfinder.census.gov/ (enter your zip code)
   • http://accessdane.co.dane.wi.us/ (enter your address)
2. Next, do an individual profile analysis on yourself, by searching for online data specifically about you:
   
   
   • http://www.facebook.com/ (enter your name)
   • http://www.google.com/ (enter your name and likely keywords)
3. Can you think of any other sites to search for which might provide either individual or aggregate data to help flesh out your "digital puppet"? 
4. When you are finished searching these sites, create an entry on your discusion section wiki describing the person that a geodemographic firm would see when they look for "you".  What do you think about this representation of your existence?  You will want to create a separate wiki page for this so that others can easily comment on it. 
5. Comment on at least one other student's posting for this assignment.
6. Please finish this online activity by next week's lecture.

Readings
Last readings!

1. Ad Hoc Committee on the Triple Revolution, "The Triple Revolution: Cybernation, Weaponry, Human Rights" (1964).
   
2. Robert Dreyfuss, "Iran's green wave," The Nation (01 July 2009).

Optional:

• Benjamin Barber, "The old economy and the birth of a new McWorld," in Jihad vs. McWorld (2001).
• Cees Hamelink, "The decent society and cyberspace," in The ethics of cyberspace (2000).
• James Deane, "The other information revolution: Media and empowerment in developing countries," in Bruce Girard and Seán Ó Siochrú, Communicating in the information society (2003).

December 14 2009

WEEK 16

Assessing the information society

Lecture
Last lecture!

• Make sure your online activity from last week is finished by today.
• Wrap-up and review for final exam.
• Screening of the top student slideshow and digital film (plus maybe a runner-up or two).
• This week I will distribute a list of terms and essay questions to study which will help you prepare for our final exam next week.  (I will probably distribute these on our course news weblog.)

Discussion
All discussion sections are cancelled this week. 

• However, you still need to post your final 1000-word book review to your discussion wiki page this week.

Online 
No online assignment this week.  But you may wish to use your discussion section wiki to hold a study session for the final exam ...

Readings
No readings this week. Review what you've learned.

Final exam week

The final exam for this course will be held on Wednesday, December 23, 2009, from 12:25pm-2:25pm.  Room TBA (but most likely the normal lecture hall).

The final exam will consist of five short answer questions worth one point each ("identify and give the significance of") and one essay question worth five points.  Sample terms and essay questions for you to study will be posted on the course news weblog.  You may comment on these postings to share ideas with other students in a virtual review session.