Internet Studies: Appalachian State University

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internet studies

Fall 2008

IDS 3250-101 / 3300-101
MW 2:00-3:15
LLA 223

This course provides an introduction to cyberculture and Internet Studies. As the Internet continues to insinuate itself into our daily lives, it is changing both our culture and ourselves. This course will look at some of those changes through an interdisciplinary investigation of some of the social, political, cultural, psychological, economic, and legal implications of the Internet. It will also provide an opportunity for you to hone your critical reading skills in the context of the Internet as well as learn some of the technical and editorial skills needed to publish your own blogs and web pages. This class fulfills requirements for the IDS Internet Studies major concentration and minor. There are no prerequisites. (Writing, Cross-Disciplinary, Computer).

Textbooks

Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: Ace, 1984.
Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity. New York: Penguin, 2004.
Turkle, Sherry. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.

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Requirements

The most important requirements for this course are regular class attendance, participation, and preparation. You should come prepared to ask and answer questions and to discuss the readings each day. The formal grading requirements are as follows:

Class Participation 20%
Three Web Writing Assignments 20% each
Final Web Project and Symposium 20%

The class participation portion of your grade will be based on regular class attendance and participation as well as on periodic homeworks, blog posts, in-class assignments, and group work. Also included in your class participation grade will be your presentation of your Web pages to the class for discussion.

Two absences are allowed during the semester. Each additional absence will lower your class participation grade by one letter grade. More than six absences and/or failure to complete any of the written assignments detailed below are grounds for failing the course.

There will be three Web Writing Assignments during the semester. Late assignments will be docked one-third of a letter grade for each day late. You will receive two grades for your Web writings each of which will count one-half of your assignment grade: one for writing content and mechanics, and one for online media design and mechanics. You will also be asked to present your Web pages to the class for discussion.

There will be a Final Web Project and Symposium during our regularly scheduled final exam time.

More information about these assignments will be posted online later in the semester.

With regard to all assignments for this course, you are expected to know and follow the current ASU code of academic integrity.

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Class Schedule

Week	Day	Assignment
1	W 8/27	Introductions. Begin reading William Gibson, Neuromancer. Check your campus email for an invitation from blogger.com to join our Internet Studies Blog. Post a brief introduction about yourself to the blog. Please only post information you are comfortable sharing publicly, but consider including the following: Your first name, your major and minor, your particular interest in taking this class, and a link to your favorite strange, unusual, or little known web site for our amusement and edification.
2	M 9/1	LABOR DAY
	W 9/3	How To: Create your own blog.
3	M 9/8	Read Bruce Sterling, "A Short History of the Internet." Browse Hobbes' Internet Timeline. Read Douglas Adams, "Beyond the Brochure." Browse Yahoo's Netrospective. and this illustrated history of computers.
	W 9/10	First Web Writing Assignment due. You will present your blogs to the class for discussion.
4	M 9/15	Read Vannevar Bush, "As We May Think." Browse this Vannevar Bush page, as well as these photographs and timeline. Read Time 100 article on "Sir Tim Berners-Lee." Finally, browse the Wikipedia (extra credit if you contribute to an entry on the site).
	W 9/17	Read Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Fire Worship."
5	M 9/22	Second Web Writing Assignment due. We will watch clips from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in class.
	W 9/24	We will discuss Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and watch clips from Ridley Scott's Blade Runner as well as the original Ridley Scott "1984" macintosh commercial (ipod version). Browse The Odyssey Explained, 2001 Resources and this Blade Runner fan site.
6	M 9/29	Finish reading William Gibson, Neuromancer. Browse the screenplay and Paul Brians' Study Guide to Neuromancer. Read about Gibson's Agrippa and browse the text and photos. We will also discuss and watch clips from the Wachowski Brothers' The Matrix.
	W 10/1	How To: Create your own web page.
7	M 10/6	Turkle, Life on the Screen, Introduction and Chapters 1-2, pp. 9-73. Browse Sherry Turkle's home page.
	W 10/8	How To: More on web page design.
8	M 10/13	Turkle, Life on the Screen, Chapters 3-4, pp. 77-124 (and pp. 321-324). Talk with ELIZA and Alice. Browse the Loebner Prize, Julia and Michael Mauldin' s home page, and Pattie Maes' agents.
	W 10/15	TBA
9	M 10/20	Read Alan Turing, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence." Browse the Alan Turing Scrapbook, a chronology, a biography, and an encyclopedia article. Read John Searle, "Minds, Brains, and Programs." Browse John Searle's home page.
	W 10/22	Turkle, Life on the Screen, Chapters 5-6, pp. 125-174. Browse the General Problem Solver, Hubert Dreyfus, Marvin Minsky, David Chalmer's Zombies, play with the Game of Life, Blind Watchmaker, Cellular Automata, Boids, and browse the A-Life page.
10	M 10/27	Third Web Writing Assignment due. You will present your pages to the class for discussion.
	W 10/29	Virtual class. Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen, Chapters 7-8, pp. 177-232. Login as a guest to English MOO at Texas Tech. Before class, read this MOO Guide. For more information, see the MOO Command Summary. Practice before class and when you first login, type: help manners. From the "Main Entrance," go to the "Research Facilities," and then the "CMC Classroom." Look for "Dr. D" and come say hello. "See" you there! If it tells you that all guests accounts are in use, don't believe it. Just keep trying. After you log in, you can click on "Options" in the toolbar and it will ask you to enter the name you wish to use for that session (instead of the default guest names).
11	M 11/3	Turkle, Life on the Screen, Chapters 9-10, pp. 233-269.
	W 11/5	Handout: Voodoo Electronics, Jaron Lanier Interview.
12	M11/10	Lessig, Free Culture, Introduction and "Piracy," pp. 1-79.
	W 11/12	Lessig, Free Culture, "Property," pp. 83-173.
13	M 11/17	Finish reading Lessig, "Puzzles" to Afterword, pp. 177-306.
	W 11/19	Lessig, concluded. Browse eldred.cc, creativecommons.org, publicknowledge.org, eff.org. Groups assigned.
14	M 11/24	Group Work.
		THANKSGIVING BREAK
15	M 12/1	Group Work.
	W 12/3	Group Work.
16	M 12/8	Group Work.
	M 12/15	Final Symposium during our regularly scheduled final exam period: Monday, December 15, 2008 from 9:00AM - 11:30AM

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Assignments

First Web Writing Assignment (500-1000 words):

Due Wednesday, 9/10
Create your own personal blog on blogger.com. Then post your own personal computer history and timeline to your blog.
Talk about your first encounters with a computer, with email, with web pages, with music, games, chat, etc. Was it at school, at home, or with a friend? What machine did you use? What games and software did you use? What did you do on your computer? In short, tell us what your history with computers has been up to now. Be as specific, concrete and detailed, and as possible. Include links and graphics where appropriate.
Post a response on our class blog with the address of your new blog for us.
Bring a printed copy of your paper to hand in to me in class.
You will also present your blogs and papers to the class for discussion on Wednesday 9/10.

Second Web Writing Assignment (750-1500 words):

Due Monday, 9/22
Write an essay reflecting on the creation of your new blog in light of our readings from both Vannevar Bush and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
How does the internet in general, and your blog in particular, fit into the very different visions of the relationship between technology and society expressed by these two authors? Does the internet and blogging seem to you like a realization of Bush's dream of the memex? Or is it more like the insidious threat to social and domestic life Hawthorne sees in his new-fangled wood stove?
Take a clear position and argue for your view making specific use of both articles. Please use MLA bibliographic style for all works cited.
Post your essay as an entry in your blog using links and graphics as appropriate.
Please bring a printed copy of your paper to hand in to me in class, or put a copy in my box.

Third Web Writing Assignment (1000-2000 words):

Due Wednesday, 10/27
"What are we thinking about when we think about computers?" (Turkle 47). Pick one specific text, character, representation, TV commercial, print advertisement, film, TV show, software, game, or other cultural artifact dealing with computers and analyze and explore the ideas it conveys about computers and our relationship to computers. Compare and contrast those representations with one of the science fiction portrayals we have discussed in class: 2001, Blade Runner, Neuromancer, or The Matrix. Making substantial use of Sherry Turkle's Life on the Screen, explore how these portrayals might affect the way we think about and interact with computers, with each other, and even with ourselves. Please use MLA bibliographic style for any works cited.
Post your paper to your Web site. Think carefully about how to best articulate the thesis and themes of your paper as a Web page (or pages) through your use of appropriate links, graphics, etc. You will be graded on both your writing and Web design. When you are finished, post a link to your paper on your blog.
Please also bring a printed copy of your paper to hand in to me in class, or put a copy in my box.

Final Web Project and Symposium (1000-2000 words):

Due Monday, 12/15, 9:00-11:30 AM
Your final group project will be on a topic chosen by your group relating to the issues raised in Lessig's Free Culture and will be presented to the class during our regularly scheduled final exam period.
Each group will focus on one specific web site that deals with copyrighted digital content such as YouTube, Pandora, Flickr, LastFM, GarageBand, iTunes, MySpace, GoogleBooks, MarvelDigitalComics, NetFlix, BitTorrent or any of the many, many other sites you may find. Making explicit and substantive use of Lessig, you will examine the ways in which current copyright laws are impacting these sites and the services they offer and suggest specific policy changes that might better serve the various interests involved.

Your group will publish online and then present to the class for discussion your particular case study, arguments, conclusions, and recommendations using an online medium or combination of mediums: blog posts, web pages, youtube video, podcast, twitter, or other online form/s. Be clear, creative, specific, focused, and complete in your exposition.

Post the address of your group project to your individual class blogs.

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Resources

Association of Internet Researchers. International interdisciplinary organization of scholars studying the Internet.

Atlas of Cyberspace. Includes artistic, geographic, census, historical, topological and other graphical representations of the Internet.

Bare Bones Guide to HTML.

Internet Archive. An archival project preserving the history of the Internet for future generations and letting you to surf the Web as it was with their Wayback Machine.

Internet History. A collection of resources from the WWW-Virtual Library.

Internet Society (ISOC). An international organization facilitating the development of Internet standards and protocols with helpful links on Internet history, public policy, digital divide, spamming and more.

Living Internet. A general guide to the Internet, including sections on the history of the Web, email, Usenet and other topics.

Matisse's Glossary of Internet Terms. A helpful site when you need to know the difference between a bit and blog.

Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies. Links to book reviews, course syllabi, interviews, and other information on cyberspace and cyberculture from David Silver.

Slashdot. News for nerds, stuff that matters.

Strunk's Elements of Style. Because writing happens even online.

Technorati. A blog search engine.

Web Style Guide. Not a how-to guide, but a what-not-to-do guide on web page design.

Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, with entries on Internet history, hackers, world wide web, leet, Internet slang, and much more.

World Wide Web Consortium.

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Students

Name	First	Second	Third	Final Group Projects

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