Writing II Course
First Proposal
Communicating on the Internet: Tools and Strategies
Francis Steen
Communication Studies Program
steen@commstds.ucla.edu
(310) 472-7129
28 April 2001

Course information

Catalog entry: INTERNET COMMUNICAT
Units: 5
Enrollment: 40
TAs: 2
Format: two hours of lecture by instructor, two hours of discussion section taught by TAs
This is a new course.
I expect to offer this course once a year on an on-going basis, in the Winter quarter.

Registrar's Course Description

Lecture, two hours; discussion, two hours. Enforced requisites: English Composition 3 or 3H. Introduction to personal, academic, and commercial modes of communication on the Internet. Analysis of the evolving interplay of structural design and functional outcomes. Satisfies Letters and Science Writing II requirement. Letter grading.

Introduction

The Internet has made global communication cheap, simple, efficient, tailored to individual needs, and available to a vast number of people. These features have revolutionized communication world-wide -- a revolution still in progress. Its integration of textual, graphic, and audio communication was made possible by the invention of the telegraph, the telephone, television, and the computer. Yet the Internet itself is unprecedented: at once an on-demand broadcasting system, a vast marketplace, and a medium for personal and group communication, all on a global scale. These functions and their implementations exist in a dynamic and evolving relationship. In its basic design, the Internet still reflects its origins as a missile launch control system: a digital, massively redundant, fault-tolerant network. This design has turned out to be extremely useful for new and different purposes. At the personal, cultural, and political levels, the possibilities and consequences of the Internet are still unfolding. In this course, we explore the practice of communicating on the Internet from the perspective of changing tools and strategies, looking back in time as well as forward into the future.

Objectives

This course is designed to fulfill two primary objectives. The first is to examine the development of the Internet as a medium of communication and control from its inception until the present. The focus is on the dynamic feedback between function and structure: early decisions regarding network architecture were based on local needs and purposes, yet the technological implementations opened for unexpected uses, which in turn prompted software and hardware innovations. The second objective is to develop your abilities to write organized and well-argued social science papers. In the papers you write for this course, the task is to explore some specific example of the shifting interplay between structure and function, tools and strategies. You will be able to take a historical perspective, examine a contemporary phenomenon, and develop proposals for future forms of Internet communication.

Readings

The required reading will be available in a course reader.

Sections

This is a workshop class, which means that we will be doing a lot of in-class writing, discussing, and reviewing. Participation includes bringing the required drafts to class.

Grades

Grades will be based primarily on completed writing assignments, along with participation in classroom discussion and group work. Some weight will be given to the midterm and final exam.

COMMUNICATING ON THE INTERNET: TOOLS AND STRATEGIES

Schedule of Topics

I. The Making of the Internet

Week 1

A. Introduction to the course
B. Imagining the Internet: From the Galactic Network to ARPAnet

Week 2

A. Making it all work: protocols and measurements
B. IP, e-mail, ftp, telnet, gopher, lynx, mosaic

Week 3

A. Functional consequences of the structure of the Internet
B. Censorship, national law, state control

First paper topic

Select a specific example to discuss the historical, cultural, or political consequences of the Internet's structural design. Suitable topics include instances of censorship on the Internet, scope and applicability of national legal systems, and conflicts between the Internet and personal, cultural, or national interests.

II. Academic and professional uses of the Internet

Week 4

A. Integrating a cornucopia of networks: the Internet Society
B. Software implementations: the open source movement

Week 5

A. Strategies of information retrieval and processing: search engines and databases
B. Academic freedom, copyright, online publications

Second paper topic

Select a specific example to discuss the impact of the Internet on academic or work-related research. Suitable topics include the design and consequences of projects that make large amounts of information available to researchers, conflicts over ownership of and access to databases, library budgets and online subscriptions, and discussions on the relative merits of online and print-based science journals.

III. Personal uses of the Internet

Week 6

A. Formats of personal interaction
B. Social identity, social interaction, and relationship formation on the Internet

Week 7

A. Public space in cyberspace
B. Virtual communities

Third paper topic

Select a specific example to discuss the impact of the Internet on personal identity, social interactions, and relationship formation. Suitable topics include cyberspace as public space, virtual communities, and the structure and quality of interactions in personal e-mail exchanges, discussion groups, instant messaging, and moos. Interactions may be examined in different cultural spheres, such as hobbies, dating, and investing.

IV. Commercial uses of the Internet

Week 8

A. Opening the Internet to commerce
B. Commercially driven functional innovations: Microsoft vs. W3.org

Week 9

A. The dot com phenomenon
B. Failed and successful business concepts on the Internet

Fouth paper topic

Select a specific example to discuss the impact of the Internet on commerce. Suitable topics include the design and success or failure of commercial projects, distribution of entertainment content, possible or actual strategies for commercial development on the web, and the impact of web advertising.

V. Outlook: the future of the Internet

Week 10

A. Hype and reality: the galactic network, the global brain
B. Conclusion

Note: I may ask Prof. Leonard Kleinrock to make a guest appearance. He is behind many of the central innovations that made the Internet possible and has ideas for its future.

COMMUNICATING ON THE INTERNET: TOOLS AND STRATEGIES

Course Readings (target around 100 pages per week)

I. MAKING THE INTERNET (Weeks 1-3)

1. Introduction

An article that provides a theoretical background for the interplay between structure and function in technological development (to be determined).

2. Early history of the Internet

Selections from Hafner, Katie and Matthew Lyon (1996). Where wizards stay up late: the origins of the Internet. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Brand, Stewart (2001). Founding Father. Wired March 2001, pp. 144-153.

II. ACADEMIC USES OF THE INTERNET (Weeks 4-5)

1. The World Wide Web

Selections from Kaye, Barbara K. and Norman J. Medoff (2001). The World Wide Web: a mass communication perpective. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.

2. Information processing

Eveland, Jr., William P., and Sharon Dunwoody (2000). Examining information processing on the World Wide Web using think-aloud protocols. Media Psychology 2. 3: 219-244.

III. PERSONAL USES OF THE INTERNET (Weeks 6-7)

1. Social identity, social interaction, and relationship formation

McKenna, Katelyn Y. A. and John A. Bargh. (1999). Causes and consequences of social interaction on the Internet: A conceptual framework. Media Psychology 1. 3: 249-269.

2. Communities

Selections from Schuler, Douglas and Jamie McClelland (1999). Public space in cyberspace: library advocacy in the information age. New York, NY: Libraries for the Future.

Selections from Rheingold, Howard (2000). The virtual community: homesteading on the electronic frontier. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000.

IV. COMMERCIAL USES OF THE INTERNET (Weeks 8-9)

1. Internet commerce

Selections from Shapiro, Carl and Hal R. Varian (1999). Information rules: a strategic guide to the network economy. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1999.

2. Advertising

Selections from Kaye, Barbara K. and Norman J. Medoff (2001). Just a click away: advertising on the Internet. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

V. OUTLOOK: THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET (Week 10)

Selections from Dertouzos, Michael L. (1998). What will be: how the new world of information will change our lives. San Francisco, CA: HarperEdge.

Selections from Levinson, Paul (1999). Digital McLuhan: a guide to the information millennium. New York: Routledge.

Please send comments to Francis Steen <steen@commstds.ucla.edu> or call (310) 472-7129.