Northeastern University, Spring 2008, Key Number 15346
Professor: Judith A. Perrolle (perrolle@ccs.neu.edu)
Office: 541 Holmes
Phone: (617) 373-3861
Office Hours: W 1:30-4:30 and by appointment
Class meets sequence 5: M, W, Th 4:35-5:40 in room 119 DG
Teaching Assistant: Christopher Hovey (hovey.c_at_neu.edu)
Office: 532 Holmes
Phone: (617) 373-2329
Office Hours: W and Th 1:00-2:30 and by appointment
This course is open to upper class students in all colleges and is an A&S College core curriculum course. However it has a prerequisite: Computer Science junior or ability to program a computer. It is required for Computer Science students and is intended to relate their practical experiences with computers to larger organizational and social issues. While no programming will be assigned, students are expected to be familiar with computers, preferably as part of their coop job experience.
| Essay 1 - Power and Social Control in Computerized Gatekeeping | due W Jan 16 | 10% of grade |
| Group Assignment 1- Computer-Mediated Communication | due W Jan 30 | 5% of grade | Essay 2 - Social Capital in the Opensource Movement | due W Feb 6 | 10% of grade |
| Midterm Quiz on Concepts | Th Feb 21 | 10% of grade |
| Essay 3 - Uses and Abuses of Standards | due Th Feb 21 | 10% of grade |
| Essay 4 - The Death of DRM? | due W Mar 12 | 10% of grade |
| Essay 5 - canceled | 10% of grade to be redistributed | |
| Group Assignment 2 - Accessibility | due Mar 26 | 15% of grade |
| Essay 6 - Topic to Be Announced | due W April 16 | 10% of grade |
| Essay 7 - Topic to Be Announced | due W April 16 | 10% of grade |
Group and individual essays should be based on the assigned readings and will also require additional online sources found through the class bookmarks or by searching. Grades will be based on the thoroughness, critical thinking, and synthesis (grading criteria details in .rtf or .pdf format). Each essay should be between two and a half and five double spaced pages. They must include a list of sources (including the urls of information found online). Students are expected to exercise some judgment about the probable accuracy of sources on the web. When using slashdot, Wikipedia, or other popular news sources try to find out where the original information came from. When giving the definitions of sociological terms try the class glossary, not an online dictionary of English. To avoid plagiarism you must cite your sources. Use this HowTo or just indicate the URL and the date you retrieved it. Use quotation marks for direct quotes. Put information you have obtained into your own words. The NU English Department has a Writing Center at http://www.dac.neu.edu/owl/ that can help you with specific assignments and paper topics.
Small group assignments will receive a single grade. You will have an opportunity to recommend individuals in your group who contributed more that their share of effort and who deserve a higher grade. You may find Coping with Hitchhikers and Couch Potatoes on Teams helpful.
Assigned readings are available online. Temporary backup copies are available in the class
cache in case the webserver for the reading becomes
unavailable. These files are viewable only by members of the class and require your myNEU username and password.
The
Communications of the ACM and other online journals are available to the
Northeastern University community through the Library's NUCat portal.
You can subscribe to the
RSS feed for the class
bookmarks. Bookmarks will generally refer
to information on topics that will be used in lectures but hasn't been incorporated into
class notes.
You can subscribe to subsets of bookmarks for
specific topics instead of the whole collection by clicking on the RSS feed 
for that topic. The amount of required reading in the second half of the class will be less than in the first half.
Some notes and readings for the latter part of the course will be assigned depending on available material
for current topics. Please download an updated version of the syllabus after spring break.
M Jan 7 Topic: Introduction to Social Structure
Concepts: The basic unit of
social structure is the
social interaction.
Repeated patterns of social interaction build larger elements of social structure:
roles,
groups,
organizations,
communities, and
social institutions.
Read:
W Jan 9 Topic: Power
Concepts: The social theorist Max Weber defined
power
as the ability to get someone else to do what you
want them to, even against their will. Power is exercised in society through social interaction. When
that interaction is mediated by technology, the way in which power is exercised may change as well. Weber distinguished among
normative,
economic,
coercive forms of power.
Read:
Th Jan 10 Topic: Social Control
Concepts:
Social control
works best when the application of power is seen as
legitimate.
Although "illegal operations" are not really against the law, the embedding of
rules, regulations, norms,
values, and
laws into software tends
to blur the distinctions among them. Larry Lessig argues that computer technology is making society
more rigidly controlled.
Read or listen to:
M Jan 14 Topic: Identity
Concepts: identity, frontstage, backstage, walled garden
Read or View:
W Jan 16
Topic: Social Networks
Concepts:
Although some people believe that people were isolated from one another before the internet, the human species is
linked into a dense social interaction network that spans our planet in a way that makes each of us no more that 6
social interactions away from any other person. Social networks are characterized by
weak ties and
strong ties. They are able to mobilize
social capital, the collective resources of
their members.
Read:
Th Jan 17
Topic: Information
Concepts:
We will be using the mathematician Norbert Weiner's
cybernetics theory of information.
Read:
M Jan 21 is a holiday.
W Jan 23 Topic: The Social Construction of Cultural Information
Concepts: social construction
and the Thomas Theorem.
Read:
Th Jan 24
Topic: Formal and Informal Knowledge
Concepts: Formal
written procedures, like software algorithms,
can be applied to many human activities. But it is difficult to find an algorithm for riding
a bicycle. Informal knowledge is based on
physical experience and non-written communications.
Read:
W Jan 30 Topic:
Standards
Concepts: standard, proprietary standard, open standard
Read:
Notes on Standards
Due today:
Group Assignment 1
Eat: The pizza that your group brought to class today for Assignment 1.
Th Jan 31 Topic:
Informal Organizations and the Opensource Movement
Concepts: open source, "cathedral" and "bazaar" models of software development
Read:
M Feb 4 Topic: The Social Construction of Property
Concepts: property, public domain
Read:
W Feb 6 Topic: Intellectual Property in the Information Age
Read:
Th Feb 7 Topic: Contracts
and Licenses
Concepts: contract, license, "work for hire", Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA),
End-User License Agreement (EULA), shrinkwrap license
Read:
M Feb 11 Topic: Patents
Concepts: patent, "prior art"
Read:
W Feb 13 Topic: Trademarks
and Trade Secrets
Concepts: trademark, trade secret, censorship
Read:
Th Feb 14 Topic: Copyrights
Concepts: copyright, "derivative work", circumvention.
M Feb 18 is a holiday
W Feb 20 Topic: Fair Use
Concept:"fair use"
Read or View:
Th Feb 21 Midterm Quiz on concepts
Due Today:Essay 3
Begin to write:
Essay 4 (due Th Feb 28)
M Feb 25 Topic: The Tragedy of the Information Common
Read:
March 3 - 7 is spring break. The syllabus has been revised from March 10 to the end of the semester.
M Mar 10 Topic: Ethical Issues
in Design
Read:
Th Mar 13 Topic: Privacy
Read:
W Mar 19 Topic: Social Justice
Today's Presentation: The Bandwidth Group
Read:
Notes on Social Justice
M Mar 24 Topic: International Access - Poverty and Property
Today's Presentation: International Equity Group
Read:To Be Announced
W Mar 26 Topic: International Access - Language Standards
Today's Presentation: Language Group
Read:
World Wide Web Consortium's Internationalization
Activity
Th Mar 27 Topic: Designing for Disability - Standards and Tools
Today's Presentations:The Standards Group and the Design Tools Group
Read: Accessible Web Page Design
M Mar 31 Topic: Designing for Disability- Audio
W Apr 2 Topic: Designing for Disability- Vision
Th Apr 3 Topic: Designing for Disability-New Technologies for the Physically Challenged
M Apr 7 Discussion of Accessibility
Due Today:
Written Version of Group Assignment 2
| W Apr 9 Topic: The balance Between Civil Liberties and
Security
Read: To Be Announced |
|
Th Apr 10 Topic: Understanding Risk
Read: To Be Announced
| M Apr 14 Topic: Can Computerized Voting be Trusted?
Read: To Be Announced |
|