Culture and New Media Technologies

Internet, Technology, and Society, ICS 3, Summer 2010

Posted Thu, 05/20/2010 - 11:50 by Yong Ming Kow

SYLLABUS
Internet, Technology, and Society
ICS 3
Summer 2010

All information are subjected to changes.

Overview

Course goals:
1. To describe the history of the Internet
2. To define the different forms of Internet technologies: technologies that made up the Internet, Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0, digital media vs new media, popular media, virtual worlds, and the emerging technologies.
3. To describe the current and emerging social impacts of the Internet: intellectual property, human rights and privacy, work, life, play.
4. To explain the various issues related to globalization of the internet
5. To describe the emerging features of the Internet.

COURSE SCHEDULE (approximate)

 


Week

Date

Day

Topic

Activity

Assignment

1

Jun. 21

MON

Organizational meeting,
Course overview;

What’s
the Internet? Decentralization, or a Combinatory Innovation

Castells

Tuomi

 

 

Jun. 23

WED

History and culture of the
Internet

Castells

Tuomi

 

2

Jun. 28

MON

Internet ethnography

Skill set for final
project;

Interviewing, ethnography

Practice interviewing

Begin Assignment 1

 

Jun. 30

WED

Blogs: The public diary and
commentary


 

 

3

Jul. 5

MON

[no-class]

 

Independence Day

 

Jul. 7

WED

Data visualization, and
complexity

Tuomi

Nardi

other SNA studies

 

4

Jul. 12

MON

Wikipedia


 

 

 

Jul. 14

WED

Facebook: Social networking

 

 

5

Jul. 19

MON

Participatory culture,
netWorking

Jenkins

Nardi

 

 

 

Jul. 21

WED

Open source, crowdsourcing

Scacchi

Kow

 

6

Jul. 26

MON

Social issues: identity,
privacy, trust


 

Due Assignment 1

 

Jul. 28

WED

Freedom of speech, Civil
actions, and social capital

 

Begin Final Report

7

Aug. 2

MON

Virtual worlds: World of
Warcraft

 

 

 

Aug. 4

WED

Modding and contradictions
of user production

Kow

Benkler

Tomlinson

 

8

Aug. 9

MON

Intellectual property
issues

 

Guest: Bill Tomlinson

 

Aug. 11

WED

Intellectual property game

Tomlinson


Begin Assignment 2


9

Aug. 16

MON

Globalization: Cultures and
imaginaries of the Internet

Discussion of final
project;

Preliminary report of data
collection

 

Due Assignment 2

 

Aug. 18

WED

Globalization: China

Kow

 

10

Aug. 23

MON

Future of the Internet: Project
presentations

 

 

 

Aug. 25

WED

[no class—work on Final Report]

 

Due Final Report: 5pm

 

Dec. 8

TUE

FINAL EXAM

10:30-12:30 p.m.

 

 

Suggested texts, for those interested in further reading on the topic:

Benkler, Yochai (2008). The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. Yale University Press. Or http://yupnet.org/benkler/

Castells, Manuel. The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society. Oxford University Press, 2003.

Jenkins, Henry (2008). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. The MIT Press. http://www.henryjenkins.org/

Lessig, Lawrence (2010). Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace, Version 2.0. Basic Books.

Tuomi, Ilkka (2006). Networks of Innovation: Change and Meaning in the Age of the Internet. Oxford University Press.

Suggested blogs:

http://www.lessig.org/

http://www.henryjenkins.org/

http://dmlcentral.net/