INFOSYS 204: Information Users and Society
Fall, 2000

READINGS FOR PART 1
updated September 26, 2000

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Instructor:
Prof. Nancy Van House
510-642-0855; 307A South Hall
office hours Tuesdays 2-3, most Thursdays 2-3, and by appointment

Teaching assistant:
Gabe Lucas
 

This course is taught in two parts. This is the syllabus for the first part of the course, through Oct 17.  The second part is taught by Prof. Pamela Samuelson.

Readings:

Required text: John Seeley Brown and Paul Duguid, The Social Life of Information, Harvard Business School Press, 2000.  (referred to as B&D below) Available at many local bookstores; NOT in ASUC textbook department. Not in reader.  Please buy.

Course reader should be available August 28 at CopyCentral, 2560 Bancroft (above Telegraph). Most readings available on the Internet are also included in the reader.    Some recommended readings are included to encourage you to read them.
 
 

News	We will hold additional, optional but highly recommended meetings in 202 South Hall: Thurs Sept 21 3:30-5 on writing Tues Oct 10 3:30-5 first part of course overview and recapitulation Writing lecture Powerpoint presentation posted [9/22]

Assignments

Assignment 1, due Sept. 14. Assignment 2, due Oct 3. A major mid-term paper  will be due October 17 at 5 pm.  Laste date for drafts is Oct 5. Guidelines for written assignments. View past students' papers

 

Grading for Part 1  (50% of final course grade)

Assignments -- 45%  Midterm paper -- 45% Class participation -- 10%

READINGS AND SCHEDULE

1.  Aug. 29 & 31. INTRODUCTION: THE SOCIAL NATURE OF INFORMATION AND INFO SYSTEMS

Tuesday: Introduction to the course

Thursday:

B&D Introduction and ch. 1 & 2

Kling, Rob. "Content and Pedagogy in Teaching About the Social Aspects of Computerization." This is not a blueprint for this course, but raises important issues.

Recommended -- if not this week, read these at some point during the semester:

Rob Kling, What is Social Informatics and Why Does it Matter?  D-Lib Magazine   (January 1999) Volume 5 Number 1

Philip E. Agre, “Computing as a Social Practice," in Philip E. Agre and Douglas Schuler, eds, Reinventing Technology, Rediscovering Community: Critical Studies in Computing as a Social Practice, Ablex, 1997.

Agre, Philip E. Institutional circuitry: thinking about the forms and uses of information. Information Technology and Libraries 14:4 (Dec 1995) p. 225-30.

Rob Kling,  "Hopes and Horrors Technological Utopianism and Anti-Utopianism in Narratives of Computerization." in Kling, Rob (Ed.), Computerization and Controversy: Value Conflicts and Social Choices (2nd Edition) Academic Press,: San Diego, 1996.p. 40-58.
 

 2.  Sept. 5 & 7.   INFORMATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN ORGANIZATIONS

 
Tuesday:
B&D ch. 3
Orlikowski, Wanda J. "Learning from Notes: organizational issues in groupware implementation." The Information Society 9 (1993) pp. 237-250.

Thursday:
Orlikowski, Wanda J. "Improvising Organizational Transformation over Time: a Situated Change Perspective." Information Systems Research 7:1 (March 1996) pp. 63-92.
 

 3.  Sept. 12 & 14.  KNOWLEDGE AND LEARNING IN ORGANIZATIONS

Tuesday:
Eugene Rochlin: Trapped in the Net. Princeton Univ Press, 1997: chapters 1 and  7; 4 is highly recommended. In the reader and online.The rest of the book is highly recommended.  Available in paper, may be in local bookstores.

Thursday:
B&D chs. 4, 5, 6.  Continued discussion of Orlikowski and Rochlin.

4. Sept.  19 & 21.   COMMUNITIES

Tuesday:

From Kiesler, Sarah, ed. Culture of the Internet.  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997:

Sproull, Lee, and Samer Faraj.  Atheism, Sex, and Databases: the Net as a Social Technology. pp. 35-51
Wellman, Barry.  An Electronic Group is Virutally a Social Network. p., 179-204
Recommended: Kedzie, Christopher R.  A Brave New World or a New World Order? p. 209-232

Thursday:

Nie, Norman H., and Lutz Erbring.  Internet and Society: a preliminary report.  Stanford University, SIQSS, Feb. 17, 2000.  Part I is the objectives and findings; Part II re-states this same information in the form of a press release.  Selected parts in reader; entire report on informal reserve in Computer Lab.

Kraut, R. Patterson, M., Lundmark, V., Kiesler, S,  Mukophadhyay,T & Scherlis, W. (1998).
"Internet paradox: A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being?" [The HomeNet project.] American Psychologist, Vol. 53, No. 9,   1017-1031.

Writing: Principles and Case Studies

5. COMMUNITIES, cont.  Sept. 26 & 28

U.S.  Dept. of Commerce.  National Telecommunications and Information Administration.  Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide.  A Report on the Telecommuncations and Information Technology Gap in America.  July, 1999.  Review Parts I, II, & III, paying particular attention to parts IC, ID, and II.
Selected parts of this report are in the reader.  Entire report is on informal reserve in Computer Lab.

More on US digital divide including PDF version of report; and yet more.

Recommended: Schon, Donald A.  Introduction.  In: Schon, Donald A., Bish Sanyal, and William J. Mitchell, eds.
High technology and low-income communities: prospects for the positive use of advanced information technology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
Available from campus IP addresses.

6. Oct. 3 & 5.  Representation & Classification

Bowker, Geoffrey C. and Susan Leigh Star.  Sorting Things Out: Classification and its Consequences.  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.  chs. 1 & 2.

Wood, Denis. The Power of Maps. NY: Guilford Press, 1992. Ch. 1.

Ball, Patrick, and Herbert F. Spirer,   Introduction and Appendices to Chapter 4.  In: Ball, Patrick, Herbert F. Spirer, and Louise Spirer, eds.  Making the Case: Investigating Large Scale Human Rights Violations Using Information Systems and Data Analysis.  American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2000.  The rest of the report is recommended -- is on informal reserve in Computer Lab.  (PDF version)

If you want to read more: Ball, Patrick.  Who Did What to Whom? Planning and Implementing a Large Scale Human Rights Data Project.  AAAS, 1996.

B&D ch. 7

Levy, David.  "Documents and Libraries: a Sociotechnical Perspective."  To appear in Ann P. Bishop, Barbara P. Buttenfield, and Nancy A. Van House, eds, Digital Library Use: Social Practice in Design and Evaluation, MIT Press, 2001. To be distributed.
 

Fuccella, Jeanette and Jack Pizzolato, Creating Web Site Designs Based on User Expectations and Feedback. ITG Newsletter 1.1 June 1998  Simple but useful overview of many methods.

Review a list of common methods, with links to descriptions and resources.

Review Nielsen's Alertbox including Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design and  "Top Ten Mistakes" Revisited Three Years Later

Added resources: IS214, Spring 1999

8. October 17: REVIEW OF PART ONE OF THE COURSE.  MIDTERM PAPERS DUE 5 pm.