ASSIGNMENTS for:
Copyright and Community:
The Future of the Information Society
SIMS 296A, Section 2. Fall 1997. Professors Lyman and Samuelson.
You will be expected to do a major paper for this course as well as several shorter papers. The major paper should be a focused synthesis of your understanding of the issues we are studying in the course. We do not expect you will need to do any additional research beyond the assigned and recommended materials. While the focal point for your major paper is up to you, you may want to consider as a default writing an alternative White Paper on Intellectual Property and the National Information Infrastructure to what we'll be studying on September 15.
Or you might want to adopt a particular country and write a white paper on behalf of that nation about its intellectual property policy and national information infrastructure. Please make sure to include discussion of a social theory of the information society in such a paper and develop your ideas on the various issues discussed in the course. We are open to a wide range of foci for the major paper (e.g., an analysis of the information society envisioned in William Gibson's Neuromancer or an economic analysis critical of, for example, particular models for electronic commerce).
Below is a list of the writing requirements for the course. We prefer to have you submit the "papers" to us electronically at Pam Samuelson and Peter Lyman . We expect you to post the 1-2 page papers on the course listserv. We encourage you to share other papers with the rest of the class as well, but will understand if you'd prefer to limit their distribution.
Eventually we'd like to put some of your papers on the course website so that others might have the benefit of seeing them. We will consult with you before doing so.
| September 8 |
1-2 page synopsis of what you find promising or disturbing about one of the theories of the information society in the Webster book |
| September 29 |
3-5 page analysis of the U.S. White Paper, the European Green Paper, or some other government document, considering it from the standpoint of one of the information theorists discussed in the Webster book |
| October 20 |
prospectus for major paper due (a sufficiently developed statement of the issues and themes that you will explore so that we can help you develop strategies for pursuing these issues and themes into a coherent final paper) |
| November 3 |
3-5 page response to one or more of the information-wants-to-be-free readings |
| November 24 |
1-2 page synopsis of what you find promising or disturbing about Mark Stefik's essay "Letting Loose the Light." |
| December 18 |
final draft of major paper due (based on prospectus and short papers) |