ISU300 Course Syllabus

IS U300 Principles of Information Science

Fall 2008, Prof. Carole Hafner
Contact Info: hafner@ccs.neu.edu tel. 617-373-5116

Office Hours: Tuesday 11-12, Friday 11-1

Weekly schedule of topics and required readings

Course administration and rules

Class notes

Powerpoint slides from Prof. Felten's lecture

I. Introduction

This course begins your study of information science. This study will include:

Information technology's role and impact on organizations

Models of information and data representation, organization and use.

An introduction to business information systems

IT in society: challenges to existing legal doctrines and ethical values

Principles and good practices of professional communication.

The prerequisites are CS U211, Fundamentals of Computer Science, and CS U200, Discrete Structures.

There is a packet of required readings at Gnomon Copy center, on Huntington Avenue across from Northeastern and the YMCA.

A major term paper is required, that will demonstrate the ability to apply the theories and concepts studied in the course, and the professional communication skills developed. Each student is required to present their term paper to the class in a 15- or 20-minute talk using PowerPoint.

II. Weekly Schedule of Topics and Assigned Readings

WEEK	TOPICS	READINGS
1 9/12	Course overview and definitions; Taxonomies of IT applications Professional communication; Assignment 6	Herbsleb et. al. article Professional Communication notes
2 9/16 9/19	IT in organizations; Diffusion of Innovation; Assignment 1 Technology in a context: groupware	Abraham et. al. article Handout from Rogers Review article by Orr Rogers Chapter 10, Grudin article
3 9/23 9/26	Review of Probability; Decision Analysis, Assignment 2 Decision analysis cont. The economic value of information	Decision Tree Primer, Ch. 1 Decision Tree Primer Ch. 3
4 9/30 10/3	Guest lecture: Information for health care decision making. Dr Stanley Hochberg, Dir. NU Health Informatics program Introduction to Business Information Systems: Definition and Types; E-Commerce, Assignment 3	Pollach article: makeup for HW1 Packet: Stair & Reynolds, 17-32, 306-325
5 10/7 10/9 10/10	Guest Lecture: Information for organizational decision making. Dr. Mark Putnam, NU Senior Vice President LECTURE MOVED TO OCTOBER 23!!!!!! Business Information Systems cont.; Operational Systems	Packet: Stair & Reynolds, 354-374
6 10/14 10/17	Corporate Strategy and IT; Decision Support Systems; Ethical and Legal Issues Data representation and organization; review for exam	Packet: Laudon 90-95, 148-173, 458-468 ilit.umbc.edu Ontology tutorial
7 10/21 10/23 10/24	Exam #1. Term paper discussion; Assignment 4 CCIS Distinguished Lecture: Prof. Edward Felton, Princeton University on Electronic Voting Systems, 3:00 p.m. Information theory. Classification trees.	Graham article ACM Digital Library Touretzky introduction
8 10/28 10/31	Classification tree learning: C4.5 algorithm; Assignment 5 Socio-technical analysis: pitfalls of technological determinism	Building Classification Models Kling article Packet: "Home Alone" by J.S. Brown
9 11/4 11/7	Guest Lecture: Analysis of Social Networks, Dr. David Lazer, Kennedy School, Harvard Univ. Information security as a socio-technical problem	Packet: 4 chapters from Dhillon West article
10 11/11 11/14	No Class -- Veterans's Day IT and Society: challenges to legal/ethical frameworks	TBA
11 11/18 11/21	Assistive Technology as a socio-technical problem Exam #2; Government regulation of cyberspace	ACM SIGACCESS Web site Harada et. al. article Electronic Frontier Foundation web site
12 11/25 11/28	Race and Gender on the Internet No Class - Thanksgiving	Packet: Articles by Shade and Nakamura
13 12/2 12/5	Guest lecture: IT in Politics. Prof. Richard O'Bryant, Political Science Department and African-American Institute Student presentations
14 12/9	Last class: Student presentations
Final Exam Date	Student presentations

III. Course administration and rules

The student's grade will be based on homework assignments (30%), two in-class exams (40%), a term paper and presentation (30%). Most homework, and the term paper and presentation, will focus on active, analytical reading, professional writing, and research skills. Some mathematical analysis is required, but no programming.

There will be 4 or 5 guest lectures, which students in earlier years have found very interesting. Attendance at the guest lectures is required, and one homework assignment will consist of attending each guest lecture and submitting a 1-page commentary on it at the next class.

Class attendance and participation is important. Excessive absence may result in lowering your course grade by one grade. Outstanding class participation may result in raising your course grade by one grade.

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: Homework is due in class on the due date. It should be submitted in hard copy form unless you are told otherwise. It 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.

Missed exams: There are no makeup exams in this course. Normally a missed exam results in a grade of 0. In extraordinary circumstances a missed exam may be excused, and then the course grade will be based on the student's other work in the course.

Last modified: September 24, 2008