This course begins your study of information science -- a field that
focuses on the nature, use, and impact of information. We live in what
is often called the "Information Age" because of the growing importance
of information (and information-related skills) in our society.
The study of information cannot go very far without encountering the
role of information
technology (IT) -- in other words, computers and
communication networks. Information technology enables many
of society's
information-dependent institutions to function. For example, our
financial system (including banks, credit cards, and the stock market)
could
not exist in their present form without computer-based IT. In
addition, IT has changed the way
people communicate with each other. Information scientists are
just beginning to study and understand the impact of email, wikis,
social networks, and text messaging on human behavior and
relationships.
| WEEK | TOPICS
|
|
| PART I. Information and data
models |
||
| 1 9/11 2 9/15&9/18 3 9/22&9/25 4 9/29&10/2 |
Course overview;
Information design: taxonomies and classification; Research and writing
I Information design (cont.): Structured objects; Ontologies: what can we talk about? xml and the semantic web Probabilistic data models: decision trees Information theory and classification tree learning |
Graham
and Sanchez
articles; Handout Noy/McGuiness: Ontology101 Adams article; Hay article Decision Tree Primer Part 1 Decision Tree Primer Part 3 Intro to Information Theory Building Classification Models |
| Part II. Information systems
(Organizational IT) |
||
| 5 10/6&10/9 6 10/13&10/16 7 10/20 10/23 8 10/27&10/30 9 11/3&11/6 |
Information systems: the basics Information systems for business Discuss term papers Exam #1 (covers through week 5) Catch up on Business Information Systems Behavior and Information Systems Behavioral Informatics: Case Studies |
ITM, Ch. 1-2 ITM Ch. 7 Handout ITM Chapter 8, 13 Guest Lecture Dr. Mark Putnam West article CONFIRM, Home Alone, Rogers, Grudin |
| Part III. The Information Society |
||
| 10 11/10&11/13 11 11/17& 11/20 12 11/24 11/27 |
Impact of computers on society
(in general) Economic impact: the long tail Challenges to our institutions: intellectual property; Computer crime and cybersecurity Catch up and discuss final papers/presentations Thanksgiving recess -- no class |
Pew
report pp. 3-17 & Brey
article Is Google making us stupid? Anderson article 4 short CACM articles 1 2 3 4 Guest Lecture Kyle Courtney Social Engineering article, Cybercrime article |
| Part IV. Exam and student
presentations |
||
| 13 12/1 12/4 |
Exam #2 Student presentations |
|
| 14 12/8 |
Last class: Student presentations |
|
| Final Exam Date |
Student presentations |
Academic Honesty: Work assigned to an individual or a group must be
done ONLY by that individual or the people in that group. When
material is copied or derived from outside sources. those sources must
be given the proper credit. Plagiarism or cheating will result in
an official University disciplinary review.
Late Homework: Assignment 1 papers must be handed in as hard
copy in class on the due date (or within 24 hours). The other
(major) assignments will be submitted using Blackboard
unless otherwise specified. All of your work should have a
professional
appearance, and include
your name, the name of the course, a title that identifies the
assignment, and the date. Homework will be
accepted up to 24 hours late without any
penalty.
After that, late homework will be penalized by 10% of the maximum grade
per week. This will be handled on Blackboard by having two
assignments defined for each actual assignment: one for on-time work
which will enforce the deadline, and one for late work.
Missed exams: There are no makeup exams in this course. An
unexcused absence for an exam results in a grade of 0. If a missed exam
is excused for legitimate medical or family emergency reasons, the
course grade
will be based on the student's other work in the course.
Last modified: Nov 4, 2009