Syllabus :: Fall 08
The order of the readings for a given day is (usually) deliberate, so we encourage you to read them in the order listed. In some cases the first reading is cited by the second or at least adds context to it. We might adjust the syllabus as the semester goes along, but we won't change anything with less than a week's notice.

Most of the readings for the course are available online, usually through one of the many online journal subscriptions that are carried by UC-Berkeley. You can read them on-screen or print copies, depending on what you prefer. To access some of these links from off campus, you will need to use the Berkeley library proxy server. Please contact Andrew if you have any trouble accessing them. Those readings that aren't online are included in a reader available at Copy Central (2560 Bancroft Way at Telegraph, 510-848-8649) for $22.10.

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Week 1

Thu 28 Aug :: Course Introduction, Terminology and Taxonomy — slides

AIR-L mailing list discussion of CMC.

Week 2

Tue 2 Sep :: Community, Science, and CMC — slides

Rheingold, H. (1995) The Virtual Community: Finding Connection in a Computerized World. London: Minerva. (Read introduction only.)

Barak, A., and J. Suler. (2008) Reflections on the psychology and social science of cyberspace. In A. Barak (Ed.), Psychological aspects of cyberspace: Theory, research, applications. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Thu 4 Sep :: Social Presentation and Perception — slides

Goffman, E. (1956) Chapter 1 from The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday. (In reader.)

Donath, J. (1998) Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. In Smith, M., and P. Kollock (Eds.) Communities in Cyberspace. London: Routledge.

Week 3

Tue 9 Sep :: The Nature of Community — slides

Cohen, A.P. (1985) Chapters 1 and 3 from The Symbolic Construction of Community. London: Routledge. (In reader.)

Thu 11 Sep :: Online Communities — slides

Haythornthwaite, C. (2007) Social networks and online community. In Joinson, A., McKenna, K., Postmes, T., and U-D. Reips (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. (In reader.)

McKenna, K.Y.A. (2008) Influences on the nature and functioning of online groups. In A. Barak (Ed.), Psychological aspects of cyberspace: Theory, research, applications. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Smith, M. (1999) Invisible Crowds in Cyberspace: Measuring and Mapping the Social Structure of USENET. In M. Smith and P. Kollock (Eds.), Communities in Cyberspace. London: Routledge. (Optional.)

Jones, Q. (1997) Virtual-Communities, Virtual Settlements & Cyber-Archaeology: A Theoretical Outline. In Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 3 (3). (Optional.)

Week 4

Tue 16 Sep :: In-class design exercise — slides

Thu 18 Sep :: Social Science Inquiry — slides

Anderson, C. (2008) The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete. In Wired Magazine 16.07.

Timmer, J. (2008) Why the cloud cannot obscure the scientific method. In Ars Technica.

Rieder, B. (2008) Statistics vs. science (and why this is rather political). In The Politics of Systems.

Box, G.E.P. (1976) Science and Statistics. In Journal of the American Statistical Association 71. (Optional.)

Reips, U.-D. (2007) The methodology of internet-based experiments. In Joinson, A., McKenna, K., Postmes, T., and U-D. Reips (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. (Optional; in reader.)

Hewson, C. (2007) Gathering data on the internet: Qualitative approaches and possibilities for mixed methods and research. In Joinson, A., McKenna, K., Postmes, T., and U-D. Reips (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. (Optional; in reader.)

Week 5

Tue 23 Sep :: Trust and Trustworthiness — slides

Paine Schofield, C. B., and A.N. Joinson. (2008) Privacy, trust, and disclosure online. In A. Barak (Ed.), Psychological aspects of cyberspace: Theory, research, applications. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

McLeod, C. Trust. In E.N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2006 Edition).

Thu 25 Sep :: Trust and Trustworthiness — slides

Cheshire, C., and K.S. Cook. (2004) The Emergence of Trust Networks: Implications for Online Interaction. In Analyse and Kritik 28.

Xie, Y. (2008) Who do you trust 2.0: Building better preference predictions. In Ars Technica. (Optional.)

Problem and Justification for Final Project assigned (due 7 Oct 2008).

Week 6

Tue 30 Sep :: Media Richness — slides

Dennis, A.R., and S.T. Kinney. (1998) Testing media richness theory in the new media: The effects of cues, feedback, and task equivocality. In Information Systems Research 9 (3).

Walther, J.B., & Slovacek, C., & Tidwell, L.C. (2001) Is a picture worth a thousand words? Photographic images in long term and short term virtual teams. In Communication Research 28 (1), 105-134.

Wed 1 Oct :: Distinguished Lecture by Jonathan Grudin, 4 to 5:30 pm, 110 South Hall

Thu 2 Oct :: Guest speaker: Jonathan Grudin

Donath, J. (2001) Mediated Faces. In M. Beynon, C.L. Nehaniv, K. Dautenhahn (Eds.). Cognitive Technology: Instruments of Mind: 4th International Conference.

Gaver, W.W. (1997) Auditory Interfaces. In Helander, M.G., Landauer, T.K., and Prabhu, P. (Eds.), Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd edition. (Optional. Especially check out the first 3 pages.)

Week 7

Tue 7 Oct :: Visual Interfaces — slides

Donath, J.S., & F. Viégas. (2002) The Chat Circles Series: Explorations in designing abstract graphical communication interfaces. In Proceedings of Designing Interactive Systems.

Erickson, T., and W.A. Kellogg. (2000) Social translucence: an approach to designing systems that support social processes. In ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 7 (1). (Read sections 1 and 2 only, up to middle of p. 65. The rest is optional.)

Erickson, T. (2003) Designing visualizations of social activity: six claims. In Extended abstracts of ACM Computer-Human Interaction.

ASSIGNMENT DUE: Problem and justification for final project.

Thu 9 Oct :: Analytic Visualizations — slides

Monmonier, M. (1996) Chapter 3: Map Generalization: Little White Lies and Lots of Them. In How to Lie with Maps. Chicago, Ill.: University Of Chicago Press. (In reader.)

Monmonier, M. (1996) Chapter 10: Data Maps: Making Nonsense of the Census. In How to Lie with Maps. Chicago, Ill.: University Of Chicago Press. (In reader.)

Viégas, F., Dave, K., and M. Wattenberg. (2004) Studying Cooperation and Conflict between Authors with History Flow Visualizations. In Proc. ACM Computer-Human Interaction.

Viégas, F., Golder, S., and J. Donath. (2006) Visualizing Email Content: Portraying Relationships from Conversational Histories. In Proc. ACM Computer-Human Interaction. (Optional.)

Week 8

Tue 14 Oct :: Reputation — slides

Yamagishi, T., Matsuda, M., Yoshikai, N., Takahashi, H., Y. Usui. (2004) Solving the Lemons Problem with Reputation: An Experimental Study of Online Trading.

Thu 16 Oct :: Reputation — slides

Resnick, P., Zeckhauser, R., Swanson, J., and K. Lockwood. (2006) The Value of Reputation on eBay: A Controlled Experiment. In Experimental Economics 9 (2).

Donath, J. (2008) Is Reputation Obsolete?. The Publius Project.

Fiore, A.T., Lee Tiernan, S., and M.A. Smith. (2002) Observed Behavior and Perceived Value of Authors in Usenet Newsgroups: Bridging the Gap. In Proceedings of ACM Computer-Human Interaction. (Optional.)

Week 9

Tue 21 Oct :: Collective Action — slides

Bimber, B., Flanagin, A.J., and C. Stohl. (2005) Reconceptualizing Collective Action in the Contemporary Media Environment. In Communication Theory 15 (4).

Hardin, R. (2003) The Free Rider Problem. In E.N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2003 Edition). (Skim.)

Thu 23 Oct :: Information Pools and Incentives in Collective Action

Cheshire, C., and J. Antin. (2008) The Social Psychological Effects of Feedback on the Production of Internet Information Pools. In Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13 (3).

Zhang, M., and F. Zhu. (2006) Intrinsic motivation of open content contributors: the case of Wikipedia. Working paper, MIT.

Lanier, J. (2006) Beware the Online Collective. In Time Magazine, 12 Dec. 2006.

Cheshire, C., and J. Antin. Order, Coordination and Uncertainty: A Field Study of Contributions to an Online Information Exchange System. (Optional.)

Week 10

Tue 28 Oct :: Guest speaker: Marc Smith (Collective Action in CMC) — slides

Welser, H.T., Gleave, E., Fisher, D., and M. Smith. (2007) Visualizing the Signatures of Social Roles in Online Discussion Groups. In Journal of Social Structure 8.

Turner, T.C., Smith, M.A., Fisher, D., and H.T. Welser. (2005) Picturing Usenet: Mapping computer-mediated collective action. In Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 10 (4).

Thu 30 Oct :: Information Pools and Collaborative Editing — slides

Rafaeli, S., and Y. Ariel. (2008) Online motivational factors: Incentives for participation and contribution in Wikipedia. In A. Barak (Ed.), Psychological aspects of cyberspace: Theory, research, applications. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Viégas, F., Wattenberg, M., Kriss, J., and F. van Ham. (2007) Talk Before You Type: Coordination in Wikipedia. In Proc. 40th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

Antin, J., and C. Cheshire. (2007) Designing Social Psychological Incentives for Online Collective Action. In Proc. General Online Research, Leipzig, Germany. (Optional.)

Week 11

Tue 4 Nov :: In-class strategy game — slides

IPDLX software.

Thu 6 Nov :: In-class design exercise

Week 12

Tue 11 Nov :: Veteran's Day Holiday

Thu 13 Nov :: Guest speaker: Jeff Hancock

Hancock, J.T. (2007) Chapter 19: Digital deception: Why, when and how people lie online. In Joinson, A., McKenna, K., Postmes, T., and U-D. Reips (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. (In reader.)

Week 13

Tue 18 Nov :: Intimate Relationships

Whitty, M. (2007) Chapter 3: Love letters: The development of romantic relationships throughout the ages. In Joinson, A., McKenna, K., Postmes, T., and U-D. Reips (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. (In reader.)

Ellison, N., Heino, R., and J. Gibbs. (2006) Managing Impressions Online: Self-Presentation Processes in the Online Dating Environment. In Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 11 (2).

Thu 20 Nov :: Intimate Relationships

Norton, M.I., Frost, J.H., and D. Ariely. (2007) Less Is More: The Lure of Ambiguity, or Why Familiarity Breeds Contempt. In Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 92 (1).

Fiore, A.T., Taylor, L.S., Mendelsohn, G.A., and M.A. Hearst. (2008) Assessing Attractiveness in Online Dating Profiles. In Proc. ACM Computer-Human Interaction.

Week 14

Tue 25 Nov :: Games

Smith, J.H. (2006) The Games Economists Play — Implications of Economic Game Theory for the Study of Computer Games. In Game Studies 6 (1).

Golder, S.A., and J. Donath. (2004) Hiding and Revealing in Online Poker Games. In Proc. ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work. (Optional.)

Ducheneaut, N., Yee, N., Nickell, E., and R.J. Moore. (2006) "Alone together?": exploring the social dynamics of massively multiplayer online games. In Proc. ACM Computer-Human Interaction. (Optional.)

Smith, J.H. (2007) Tragedies of the ludic commons — understanding cooperation in multiplayer games. In Game Studies 7 (1). (Optional.)

Thu 27 Nov :: Thanksgiving Holiday

Week 15

Tue 2 Dec :: Final Project Presentations

Thu 4 Dec :: Final Project Presentations

Week 16

Tue 9 Dec :: KTHXBYE: OMGWTFBBQ

Week 17

Tue 16 Dec :: Final project deliverables due: TWO COPIES by 4 pm in Coye's mailbox, 102 South Hall