Week

Date

Topic

1

Jan

15

Introduction

- Who are you, Who am I?

- What’s this weekly blogging about?

- What is the Internet (Try defining it!)

2

Jan

22

Blogging 101

We’ll run through some basics on blogging, as well as key social media tools, such as RSS and folksonomy. You’ll learn how to have a voice online, as well as to interact with the rest of the blogosphere. Finally, we’ll talk about how you should blog for the course.

Required

“What’s a Blog?” by Blogger.com. Retrieved Jan 3, 2007 from http://www.blogger.com/tour-start.g

Blood, R. (2000, Sept 7). Weblogs: A History and Perspective. Retrieved Dec 31, 2006 from http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html

Blog. (2006). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:30, Dec 31, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Blog&oldid=98042185

RSS (2006). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:30, Dec 31, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=RSS_%28file_format%29&oldid=97567833

Folksonomy (2006). ). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:30, Dec 31, 2006 from

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Folksonomy&oldid=97210123

Optional

Reporters without Borders, (2006). Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents. (Web abstracts and downloadable PDF eBook)

http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=542

WIRED: Weblogs will outrank the New York Times Web site by 2007. The Stake: $1,000. See http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.05/longbets?pg=8

3

Jan

29

History of the Internet
The history of the internet extends further into the past than most people realize. This week, we will discuss the origins of the internet, its development over the past decades, and its current status.

Required
Rheingold, H. (1993). Visionaries and Convergences: The Accidental History of the Net. The Virtual Community. New York: Perseus Books. Retrieved from http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/3.html

History of the Internet. (2006, August 20). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:07, August 23, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_the_Internet&oldid=70771572

History of the World Wide Web. (2006, September 5). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:58, September 8, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_the_World_Wide_Web&oldid=73974490

Optional
Internet History Timeline.

See http://www.computerhistory.org/exhibits/internet_history/

Internet History.

See http://www.mkaz.com/ebeab/history/

Hobbes' Internet Timeline v8.1.

See http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/

CLASS PRESENTATION BEGIN FROM HERE
*Note: None of the citations hereon are in APA format –

if you cite them, you'll need to convert them yourself. Here are some tips.

4

Feb

05

Sharing, Copyright and Creative Culture

A primary design goal of the internet was to simplify the sharing of information. By all accounts, it has succeeded in achieving this goal. The mass popularization of the internet brought this capacity for sharing into conflict with some existing philosophical, social, and legal institutions. This week, we will be discussing copyright, sharing, and the impacts of the internet on creative culture.

Copyright and Conflict
• An Introduction to Copyright (pp. 2-10)
• Copyright Myths and Misconceptions

Piracy
• Sharing and Stealing (pp. 2-36)
• Effect of file sharing on record sales (Intro and Conclusion)

Optional
• What's the Download?
• Real story of the rogue rootkit (Sony DRM fiasco)
• Layperson's guide to filesharing lawsuits
• Is suing your customers a good idea?

Creativity and Culture
• The mouse who would be king   (review of FreeCulture)
• Remix culture: a rights nightmare

Optional
• The Shadow Internet

5

Feb

12

Internet Economies

A gift economy is an economic system in which goods and services are given, rather than traded. The internet has allowed for the development of several gift economies.

Gift Economies
• The Political Economy of Commons
• The Hi-tech Gift Economy by Richard Barbrook (First Monday)

• The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)

• The open source definition

• Wikipedia Free software

Optional

• Wikipedia Open source

• RedHat: Why open source?

• Washington Monthly Reboot!: How Linux and open-source development could change the way we get things done

Creative Commons

• Creative Commons website

• Wikipedia Creative Commons

6

Feb

19

NO CLASS - CHINESE NEW YEAR HOLIDAY!

7

Feb

26

Online Identity

What is "identity" in a computer mediated environment, where a new email address is often all that is required to create a new virtual persona?

Deception
• Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community

Reputation
• Manifesto for the Reputation Society

Optional
• Norm maintenance in online communities: A review of moderation regimes

Identity Theft (Guest speaker: Ian Loe)
• Mitigating Identity Theft
• Hooked on Phishing

Optional
• FTC Identity Theft site

8

Mar

05

Review for MID-TERM EXAM

Mar

07

MID-TERM EXAM (Wed, 10.30 - 11.30am)
A combined class exam will be held during consultation hour, Wednesday, March 7, 10:30 - 11:30am. Note that there will be no regular classes for group A on Wed. and B on Thurs.

9

Mar

12

Privacy and Surveillance

Privacy and lacks thereof are increasingly important topics in the information age. This week: privacy, surveillance, marketing, and politics. NOTE: Be familiar with the "Identity Theft" materials assigned earlier.

Required
• The Naked Crowd
• Privacy under attack, but does anybody care?

• Sousveillance : The recording of an activity from the perspective of a participant in the activity (i.e. personal experience capture).
• International Privacy Map by Privacy International

Optional
• Example of Sousveillance in China (via Virtual China)

• Reporters without Borders, (2006). Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents. (Web abstracts and downloadable PDF eBook)

http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=542

10

Mar

19

Online Communities

What is community? Can community emerge from online interaction? What are the implication of the internet for traditional communities? This week, we'll be discussing the concept of computer-mediated community.

Required
• Fernback and Thompson 1995:
Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure?
• Wellman and Gulia 1996: Net Surfers don't ride alone

• danah boyd 2006: Friends, Friendsters, and Top 8: Writing community into being on social network sites

• Wikipedia: Reputation management

11

Mar

26

Politics

How has the advent of the Internet changed politics? Can the Internet truly create democracy? Why isn't there Internet election voting?

Required
• Does the Internet create Democracy? by Alinta Thornton (HTML version / Microsoft Word version)

• The Big Gamble on Electronic Voting (Web version / Print version)

• The politics of Singapore’s new media in 2006 (Dec 31, 2006) by Gerald Giam

Optional
• The Internet and State Control in Authoritarian Regimes: China, Cuba, and the Counterrevolution
• Click the vote

• Tank Man Roundtable discussion
• In YouTube Clips, a Political Edge

12

Apr

02

Journalism

Journalist vs. Bloggers, Whistleblowers and more…

Required

We the Media chapters 1, 3, and 9: available as PDF files or HTML
(NOTE: The HTML version has the whole book on a single page)

Optional
• We the Media, remaining chapters
• "How Technology is changing the Media" at Berkman Center for Internet and Society (Watch Google Video)

13

Apr

09

Gaming

Possible Guest Speakers: Tricia Wang & Jin Ge

Why should we take games seriously?

• World of Warcraft: Is It a Game?
• Virtually dead in Iraq

Optional
• A Rape in Cyberspace
• Synthetic statehood and the right to assemble

• Second Life: CopyBot causes widespread protests…

Unreal Estate and Virtual Capitalisms

• The Unreal Estate Boom
• Pitfalls of Virtual Property
• Ogre to Slay? Outsource It to Chinese

Optional

• Anda's Game (short story)

14

Apr

16

Future of the Internet: Net Neutrality

What does the future of the Internet hold? Is net neutrality the answer to an ever increasing demand for higher bandwidth network connections?

Required

Network Neutrality on Wikipedia
Free American broadband! @ Salon.com

PBS documentary entitled "The Net @ Risk"

Apr

18

Review for FINAL EXAM

15

Apr

25

FINAL Exam (Wednesday, 10am - 12pm)

Good Luck!