Communications and Information Systems--
Structures and Policies

Course Information INFOSYS 39A; Control Number 42703

Professor: Yale M. Braunstein

Office: 203-B South Hall
642-2235

e-mail: yale@sims.berkeley.edu

Course web page:
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/courses/descriptions/f98/is39a.html

Class meetings: M-W 2:00 – 3:00 in 205 South Hall
(No classes August 31 & September 2)

Links: Weekly schedule, References

Description:

This seminar will explore the various institutional and legal structures of communications and information systems. We shall examine the logic underlying private and public ownership, legal regulation, and common-carrier status of organizations and networks. These systems may help in the production, dissemination, and use of information. We shall analyze many of the social and legal frameworks developed for the control of communications and information. Topics will include intellectual property (copyright, patents, and trade secrets), censorship, and pricing. When possible, we shall compare the alternative approaches to operation and control of communications and information systems that exist in the world.

Assignments:

1. Research paper on an existing communications or information system. The paper should include sections on the technology, system users and usage, policy issues, etc. You may focus on early or later periods in the life of the system, compare how the technology is implemented in different countries, etc. (This may be done individually or by a small group.) Due dates: Proposal--9/30; Paper--10/28.

2. Oral presentation of key aspects of your paper to the class. (Specific dates to be announced.)

3. Research paper and "think piece" on a system of the future. You may choose one of the new technologies now being discussed and implemented (e.g., personal communications devices with "take-with-me" 500 numbers) or describe a possible technology not yet invented. Sections of the paper might include the infrastructure required for the system, who the users are likely to be, policy issues, etc. (Again, you may work individually or small groups.) Due dates: Proposal—11/4; Paper--12/4.

 

WEEKLY SCHEDULE

(Tentative)

Date

Subject

Readings

Aug. 24

First class meeting

 

Aug. 26 & Sept. 9

1) How to classify systems: technology, organization, users, ownership, communications vs. information, etc.
2) What can be owned?

Pool (1983),Ch.1-3
Mosco, Ch. 1-3
Branscomb, Intro.

Aug. 31, Sept. 2,7

NO CLASSES

 

Sept. 14-16

Printing & publishing as systems

Baker, Compaigne
Pool (1983), Ch. 4

Sept. 21-23

Telegraph and telephone (common carriers)

Lucky,
Rubin, Ch. 6
Pool (1983), Ch. 5

Sept. 28-30

1) Computer-based information systems:
LANs, WANs, Public services, etc.
2) Proposal #1 due Wednesday, Sept. 30

Vallee, Ch. 1 & 5
Stoll

Oct. 5-7

1) Broadcasting—an introduction
2) Effects of content on the public

Pool (1983),Ch.6-7
Mosco, Ch. 9
Haight, Ch. 3

Oct. 12-14

Alternative video distribution technologies: cable, satellite, video dialtone, etc.

 

Oct. 19-21

More new systems: introduction to narrow-casting; pay-per view, multimedia, etc.; "convergence" is coming real soon now.

Pool (1983), Ch. 8
IIS, selcted chap.

Oct. 26-28

1) Alternate national views
2) Paper #1 due Wednesday, Oct. 28

Nora & Minc
Rubin, Ch. 3

Nov. 2-4

1) Encryption—an introduction
2) Proposal #2 due Wednesday, Nov. 4

Handout

Nov. 9-11

   

Nov. 16-18

   

Nov. 23-25

   

Nov. 30-Dec. 2

   

Dec. 4

Paper #2 due Friday, Dec. 4

 

 

 

PRINCIPAL REFERENCES

C. Edward Baker, Advertising and a Democratic Press (Princeton, 1994)

A. W. Branscomb, Who Owns Information? (New York: Basic Books, 1994).

B. M. Compaine, Who Owns the Media?, (2nd. ed., White Plains: Knowledge Ind. Publ., 1983).

T. Haight, ed., Telecommunications Policy and the Citizen (Praeger, 1979).

Institute for Information Studies, Crossroads on the Information Highway: Convergence and Diversity in Communications Technologies (Aspen Institute, 1995).

R. L. Lucky, "The Evolution of the Telecommunications Infrastructure," in National Research Council—CTSB, The Changing Nature of Telecommunications/ Information Infrastructure (Washington: National Academy Press, 1995).

V. Mosco & J. Wasko, ed., The Political Economy of Information (Madison: U. of Wisconsin Press, 1988).

S. Nora & A. Minc, L'informatisation de la Societe  (La Documentation Francaise, 1978); translated as The Computerization of Society (MIT Press, 1980).

M. R. Rubin, Information Economics and Policy in the U.S. (Littleton, CO: Libraries Unltd., 1983).

I. de Sola Pool, Technologies of Freedom (Harvard University Press, 1983).

C. Stoll, Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway (New York: Doubleday, 1995).