Instructors
Dr. Xiaolong (Luke) Zhang
RM 6, SIRLS
(520)621-5219
xiaolong at u dot
Office hours: Wednesday
Teaching
Assistant
Trevor Smith
Office hours: TBD
Time & Place
Tuesday,
Introduction
Information technology has
dramatically transformed the world. We rely more and more on computers and the
Internet in many aspects of our life, from information retrieval, to
interactions with others, to the delivery of services and products. The roles of
information professionals have dramatically expanded, and they work more and
more like consultants to provide guidance and services to people. This requires
information professionals to have a basic understanding of information
technology and its relationship with people, organization, and society. This
course is designed to introduce the basic concepts and applications of
Internet-related information technology and its impact on individual users,
groups, organizations, and society. The topics in this survey course include
computing basics, network applications, human computer interactions,
computer-support cooperative work, social aspects of information systems, and
some economic and legal issues related to digital services and products.
Objectives
After this course, you
should be able to:
Textbook
Required:
Robert
E. Molyneux: The Internet Under the Hood: An Introduction
to Network Technologies for Information Professionals
John
R. Anderson: Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications, Worth Publishing; (This book just got its 6th edition out. For this class, any edition after the 3rd is fine.)
Carl
Shapiro, Hal R. Varian: Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network
Economy, 1998.
Optional:
David
Messerschmitt, Understanding Networked Applications: A First Course. Morgan
Kaufmann, 2000. (The topics of this book are much broader than the Molyneux’s. If you are interested in knowing more about the
network computing, you may need a copy.)
All
these books are in UofA bookstores right now.
Additional readings are
available in the course web site.
Class Participation
Attending class is required.
If you cannot come, please let the instructor know beforehand. You will be
expected to engage in class discussion actively and to participate in
asynchronous discussions through class BBS. Since this is a course surveying
information technologies and their interactions with social systems, I
encourage you to read various resources, such as information technology trade
press or technology section in newspaper, to know the current hot issues. You
are also encouraged to use weblogs, or blogs, to keep personal journals of your readings and share
your journals with others.
Homework
Homework should be submitted
online before each class. Solution sets will be available after. The purpose of
homework is to help you to learn, rather than to help the instructor to assess.
Therefore, a different grading scheme will be adopted in this course: you will
grade your own homework assignment. With the solution sets, you will have one
week to identify and correct all errors. Please don't just copy the answers
from the solution set. You are expected to analyze the errors you have or
justify your answers if they are different from those in the solution sets.
Then, bring your original homework and your grading comments to the class in
the week following. Each homework will be worth 1
point, no partial credit.
You
are strongly encouraged to form study groups. Learning from peer students is
critical. (Please let the instructor know if you have problems to get one
started.) However, while you are encouraged to discuss homework questions
and general approaches to solutions, but not specific answers, with other
students, you must write down answers by your own. Also, please let the
instructor know with whom you collaborated and the nature of your discussions
in your homework. Occasionally, there may be some group homework. Then,
different collaboration policies will be provided specifically. Standards of
professional and academic ethics must be respected.
Project
The group project will involve
analyzing existing information systems or software applications. The purpose
behind the project is to help you understand the concepts of the course and
apply them in real-life situations. Each group will have 3 to 4 members, and
three progress reports are required. Each group will give a short presentation
at the end of the semester and hand in the final report.
Exams
There will be a take-home
midterm exam.
There will be a close-book final exam.
Grades
Homework
30%
Project
30%
Midterm
20%
Final
15%
Class participation
5%
A=90-100
B=80-89
C=70-79
D=60-69
F=59 and below
Schedules
|
Week |
Topic |
|
Homework |
Due |
|
1 |
Introduction
to the course; Computing basics
|
·
Molyneux: Chapter 1, Lab 1(pp. 55- 60), and Chapter 17 |
HW1: Data representation |
|
|
2 |
Operating
systems, programming languages, networks;
|
·
Howstuffworks.com:
How Operating Systems Work ·
Molyneux: Chapter 2, 14-16, ·
Joel Spolsky:
Biculturalism ·
Evolution of High-Level Languages ·
Internet Structure ·
Internet History |
HW 2: Operating systems
and programming languages |
HW1 Students fill out team
forms |
|
3 |
Architecture:
infrastructure, hierarchy, modularity, and layering
|
·
Molyneux: Chapter 3; ·
Messerschmitt:
Chapter 5, 6.2 |
HW 3: Architecture and
layering |
HW 2 |
|
4 |
Communication
links and protocols
|
·
Molyneux: Chapter 7-11 |
HW 4: Communication links and
network protocols; |
HW 3 |
|
5 |
Information
retrieval and presentation on the Internet, database, security
|
·
Molyneux: Chapter 18,19; ·
XML
basics (Skip the Sections from XML Validation to Displaying XML with CSS as well
as the section of Microsoft XML Parser) ·
Database
basics ·
Computer
Viruses |
HW 5: XML and security |
HW 4 Project progress report I:
project proposal |
|
6 |
User
interface technologies and human perception
|
·
|
|
HW 5 |
|
7 |
User
interface technologies and knowledge representation
|
·
Chapter 4 (pp. 107-116,
122-127) Chapter 5 (pp. 136-144,
151-165) Chapter 6 (pp. 175-199) Chapter 7 (pp. 207--230,
236-238) |
HW 6: Write a short paper
(less than 2 pages) to ·
Identify
a problem in a user interface; ·
Drawn
on readings to explain why it does not work well; ·
Suggest
new designs to address the issue |
|
|
8 |
Information
retrieval and online services
|
·
Furnas,
G.W., et al. (1987) The vocabulary problem in human-system
communication. Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery, 30
(11), Nov 1987: 964-971. ·
Bates,
Marcia J. (1989) The Design of Browsing and Berrypicking Techniques for the Online Search Interface.
Online Review 13 (5):409-424 ·
Pirolli, Peter, and Card, Stuart, (1995) Information foraging in information
access environments. Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems. CHI'95. ·
Robertson,
G. G., et al. (1993) Information visualization using 3D interactive animation.
Communications of the ACM. ·
Mackinlay, J. D., et al. (1995) An
organic user interface for searching citation links Human Factors in
Computing Systems. Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems. CHI'95. |
Take-home midterm |
HW 6 Project progress report
II: the choices of the target system and users |
|
9 |
Computer-supported
cooperation work (CSCW)
|
·
Bush,
V. As We May Think. ·
Engelbart’s demo ·
Olson,
G., and Olson, J. Groupware and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. ·
Ackerman,
M. The Intellectual Challenge of CSCW: The Gap Between
Social Requirements and Technical Feasibility. Human-Computer Interaction, 15
(2-3). 181-205. |
|
|
|
10 |
CSCW applications
and its implication for information services
|
·
Kiesler, S., et al. (1984) Social psychological aspects of computer-mediated
communication. American Psychologist, 39, 1123-1134. ·
Herbsleb, J.D., et al. Introducing Instant Messaging and
Chat in the Workplace. CHI’ 02. ·
Paul
Dourish, John Lamping and Tom Rodden.
"Building Bridges: Customisation and Mutual
Intelligibility in Shared Category Management." In Proceedings of the
ACM Conference on Supporting Group Work, GROUP '99 ·
Olson,
G.M., & Olson, J.S. (2000) Distance matters. Human-Computer Interaction,
15, 139-179. ·
Benford, S., et al. VR-VIBE: A Virtual Environment for Co-operative
Information Retrieval, Eurographics'95. |
HW 7: Short paper:
Implications of Groupware for Library (Information) Services |
|
|
11 |
Information
systems in organizations: Conceptual foundations
|
·
Kling,
R., "What is Social Informatics and Why Does it Matter?," D-Lib
Magazine ·
Eason,
K. (1997) Understanding the organizational ramifications of implementing information
technology systems. In M. Helander, T.K. Landauer & P. Prabhu
(Eds.), Handbook of HCI. Elsevier. Pp. 1475-1495 |
|
Group project progress
report II: data collection |
|
12 |
Information
systems in organizations: co-evolution
|
·
Orlikowskim W. J.: Evolving
with Notes: Organizational Change around Groupware Technology, Internet.
· Molz & Dain: Chapter 4-5 |
HW8: Short paper:
Information, About the change of information technologies and libraries |
HW 7 |
|
13 |
Information
goods, privacy and security
|
·
Shapiro
& Varian: Chapter 1-3, 5, 7 ·
How
Internet Cookies Work |
|
|
|
14 |
Information
society: privacy, security, and digital divide
Conclusion
|
Libraries and Patriotic Act ·
The
·
The
·
Intellectual
Freedom Principles for Academic Libraries: An Interpretation of the Library
Bill of Rights ·
Make
Sure You Are Privacy Literate ·
Privacy:
An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights ·
Resolution
on the ·
In
Defense of Freedom at a Time of Crisis ·
New
Encroachments Recall Old Ones ·
The
ideological librarians ·
Falling
Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide (Executive Summary) ·
Furnas,
G. W.: Design in MoRAS ·
Brown
& Duguid: Preface, Introduction, Chapter 1, 7, 8. |
|
HW8 |
|
15 |
Project
presentation and final exam
|
|
|
Final project report |