Sociology 049: Computers, The Internet, and Society
Santa Clara University, Winter, 2006
9:15-10:20, MWF
Bannon 210


Instructor
John Ratliff Net.gif (23396 bytes)
Dept. Office: O'Connor 303
Office Hours: MW 1:10-2:10; or by appointment
Phone: 554-5178
Email: jratliff@scu.edu

THIS QUARTER'S WEBSITES ARE HERE

CLASS DESCRIPTION AND REQUIREMENTS

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Frances Cairncross, The Death of Distance, Harvard University Press, 2001 paperback edition.  Note: this is different from 1997 hardbound edition!
Richard Holeton, ed., Composing Cyberspace: Identity, Community and Knowledge in the Electronic Age, Stanford University Press, 1998.

CALENDAR AND READINGS

Note: this class schedule is tentative, and may be changed at the discretion of the instructor.

# On Class Website and/or at a specified URL Web location, for downloading, printing out, or reading online.

Week One (week of Jan 9th): Introduction to course and overview of syllabus.
Monday: Class Introduction. Discussion of the nature of sociology and pedagogy of this class.  Lecture Notes
Wednesday: Student self-introductions. 
Friday: Beginning of discussion. Cairncross, pp. xi-39. Lecture Notes

End of First Week Assignment:  ASSIGNMENT IS DUE Sunday, Jan 15th:

First, spend some time going through the Suggested Web Sites to Get Started:
NY Times page Cybertimes.  Lots of stuff about social and cultural issues relating to the Net here.
San Jose Mercury News  Support the local paper!  
The Washington Post also has a s special tech section called Technews. Check it out.

ILC Glossary of Internet Terms. Excellent online reference for technical terms. For non-techies: you might print this out for future use. Does anybody really know all of these terms?

Also, you can take some time going through PC Magazine's Top 100 Web Sites .  This year the feature is "Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites."

For the more adventurous:
Hot Wired -- General issues of electronic culture.
SlashDot -- Geek Central: enter at your own risk.

Then, post a general review (about a half-page of text) of the sites you found particularly helpful or interesting or surprising.  As part of your review, focus on one article or item at one of the sites that was of particular interest to you and include the URL of that article in your email.  Be sure to include "CIS" (no quotes) in subject line of email.

Note: In addition, add the information about yourself that you presented in your self-introduction in class on Wednesday to the message. If you send this from a computer at school, please include your actual email address in the "from" line.


Week Two (week of Jan 16th): Social foundations and implications of the Digital Revolution.
Monday: Holiday
Wednesday: # Nicholas Negroponte, Being Digital, Ch. 1 and 5.  Lecture Notes

Student Web Finds for Today.

Friday: Discussion of origins of the PC. # Sources of information: "Pirates of Silicon Valley:" Timeline  Lecture Notes

Week Three (week of Jan. 23rd) Development of the PC and rise of Wintelism as portrayed in popular culture: "Pirates of Silicon Valley."
Monday: Prep for video  Lecture Notes
Wednesday: Begin watching video
Friday: Video continues.  Couple of mystery pictures: who are they?  who is he? Here's Apple 1984 commercial.   Another Gates shot, with more relevant photos: Gates and Allen, Altair, Apple One, Woz and Jobs early on, Woz with Blue Box, Woz and Jobs later, Gates and Baumer.  Finally, a more recent video clip of Steve Baumer's leadership. 

Assignment: email me a brief (a few paragraphs) comment about what you found interesting/confusing/provocative/surprising about the video.  In particular, what did you learn about the social process of innovation?  What about Jobs' comment: "Good artists copy; great artists steal?"  (You could also unpack his later statement "Real Artists Ship," and Gates' response to Jobs saying "Our stuff is better," namely "It doesn't make any difference.")  Please have this in to me by noon on Sunday.  Remember: CIS in subject line.

Week Four (week of Jan. 30th) The rise of the Internet: the accidental superhighway.
Monday: Discussion of video.   #An article on Wintelism by Charles R. Morris and Charles H. Ferguson: "How Architecture Wins Technology Wars."  Lecture Notes
Wednesday: Discussion of Internet begins. Cairncross, pp. 75-125.  "The Accidental Superhighway: A Survey of the Internet," The Economist, July 1, 1995, special survey.   Also, briefly skim: # National Information Infrastructure Agenda for Action.    Hobbes Internet Timeline. 
 Lecture Notes
Friday: Presentation by Helen LaFrance on WWW search strategies. (Date Tentative).

Week Five (week of Feb 6th) Internet, continued. Web publishing.
Monday:  Choose groups. History of the Internet.  Added sites:  Internet Archive   Discussion of group projects. Lecture Notes
Wednesday: Discussion of Internet, contd. Media: Peanuts Hey Ya  Bush/Blair Endless Love  Sites:  All Music Guide. Tucows, IMDB, TWOP.    .  Global Internet culture.  Lecture Notes
Friday: Internet discussion continues.   Discussion of World of Ends  Midterm distributed. 

Week Six (week of Feb. 13th): Constructing Identity in the Computer Age.
Monday: Introduction to DreamWeaver with David Armstrong.   Dreamweaver Quickstart Guide. Here's a demo copy of Dreamweaver MX  CAT
Wednesday: Internet discussion continues.
Friday:  E-commerce. Beginning of discussion of online identity. Holeton, pp. 2-32.  Optional Assignment (strictly for fun).

Week Seven (week of Feb. 20th): Building Community Online
Monday: Holiday
Wednesday: David Armstrong returns.  Account information: User Name and Password are both "cis0x" (no quotes, with "x" being your group number.  URL for your group is: http://itrs.scu.edu/ratliff/ciss06/cis0x, with "x" being your group number.  You can also access your group by going to http://itrs.scu.edu/ratliff/ciss06/ and then clicking on your group number.  Remember: homepage must be titled: index.htm.
Friday: Complete Holeton discussion questions.    Midterm due.
 

Week Eight (week of Feb. 27th): Intellectual Property in a Digital Age
Monday:  Progress report due, reviewed in class.  Sociology of Cyberspace discussion
Wednesday: Discussion contines.
Friday: Discussion concluded.  #Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community, Introduction, Chapters One and Two.  Final distributed.  Brokeback spoofs.

Weeks Nine and Ten: Student Presentations, Future of Cyberspace
Monday, March 6th: Discussion on readings: Thomas Friedman, "Cyber-Serfdom."  # Mark Helprin, The Acceleration of Tranquility. 
Workshop

Note: Class is cancelled on Wednesday, March 15th.  Group presentations originally scheduled for that day are moved to Friday, March 17th.

Thursday, March 23rd: Finals due.