Class 01 - Introduction

Watch: Tripod Performs at Comedy Festival.

Talk:

• watching Google vs. watching TV
• time shifting
• video games and relationships

Review the syllabus.

Discuss: black box or black box

Take apart a computer.

Explore OS X and learn some keyboard shortcuts.

Learn how to take screenshots.

Download images from:

• search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN)
• http://flickr.com
• Library of Congress
• archive.org
• ibilio.org
• many others places ...

Class 02 - Photoshop - Pixels

DUE:

• download 10-20 online (digital) images for self-portrait project
• collect 1 physical (analog) image of your favorite celebrity that is scratched/damaged [you can provide the scratches]

read:
- "Overture" from Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality by Randall Packer & Ken Jordan
- "Chapter 1 & 4" from The Reconfigured Eye by William J. Mitchell

Class 03 - Photoshop - Cosmetic Surgery

DUE: Cosmetic Surgery

Collect 1 physical (analog) image of your favorite celebrity that is scratched/damaged [you can provide the scratches]

For this project you will need to turn in three .psd files:

1. Scan your image using one of the scanners in the Digital Media Lab. Crop/resize this image so that it is 800x600 at 72dpi. [cosmetic-scan.psd]
2. To the best of your abilities, repair the scanned image using Photoshop. [cosmetic-repair.psd]
3. Give your celebrity some cosmetic surgery: play with tools, brushes, filters to transform the original image. [cosmetic-improve.psd]

Class 04 - Photoshop - Self-Portrait

DUE: Self-Portrait

Using a minimum of 10 different images, create a composition that explores collage to make a representation of your self identity. The image should be 800x600 pixels.

read:

• "Chapter 8: Computer Collage" from The Reconfigured Eye by William J. Mitchell

Class 05 - Photoshop - Propaganda

Assignment: Propaganda

Develop a piece of propaganda and deliver it to your intended audience. For this project you will need to develop both a message and a distribution strategy. The message should involve images and text and should use at least one of the tactics indicated below. Your aim is to influence the opinions of people, rather than impartially providing information. You should design the message with your distribution strategy in mind. Think about your audience. What is the best way to reach them? You can use email, mailboxes, cell phones, walls/bulletin boards, etc., etc. You could choose to spoof a form of propaganda that you have found (please share the original with me) or you could develop your own from scratch.

References:

Propaganda Critic

Wikipedia Propaganda page

Think Again - activist artists

German Propaganda Archive

Propaganda Re-Mix Project

Chinese Propaganda posters

Adbusters Posters

Propaganda is a specific type of message presentation directly aimed at influencing the opinions of people, rather than impartially providing information. You could view advertising as a form of propaganda whereby a company tries to convince a certain demographic to buy their product. The government and other groups use propaganda to encourage/discourage types of behavior (stop smoking, wear seatbelts, be Jewish). Perhaps the most powerful forms of propaganda come in times of war where it is used to created hatred towards a supposed enemy or to try and undermine the enemy's resolve. Propaganda uses various tactics:

WORD GAMES
Name-calling - The use of names when referring to groups or individuals (usually negative) - commie, fascist, pig, yuppy
Glittering generalities - The use of adjectives to describe in a positive way - Makes the product, event, person sound better then they are.
Euphemisms - Using language that attempts to pacify the audience in order to make an unpleasant reality more palatable. During wartime, civilian casualties are referred to as "collateral damage," and the word "liquidation" is used as a synonym for "murder."

FALSE CONNECTIONS
Transfer - A device by which the propagandist carries over the authority, sanction, and prestige of something we respect and revere to something he would have us accept.
Testimonial - The use of an important person to testify to the importance of the product, event, or person even if that person may not be an expert in the matter.

SPECIAL APPEALS
Plain Folks - The use of common language "Normal Folk" to describe the product, event or person to make it seem as if its already been accepted by the masses.
Bandwagon - The use of "Everybody's doing it" so you should to.
Fear - By playing on the audience's deep-seated fears, practitioners of this technique hope to redirect attention away from the merits of a particular proposal and toward steps that can be taken to reduce the fear.

Class 06 - HTML - Cut-Up

DUE: Cut-Up

Select an original text[s] or poem[s] (this can be written by you or by another author). Using what you know of HTML and any other means at your disposal (language translation software, the cut-up machine, Google searches, surfing, etc.) create your own cut-up Web page of this original text[s]. You can write your own HTML code and/or use "View Source" to copy & paste code from other websites. Make sure to turn in the original text[s] with your assignment. Remember that the goal of a "cut-up" is not complete randomness, but is rather a means to disrupting conventional linear narrative to arrive at meaningful new connections.

Background:
The "cut-up" is a technique created by Brion Gysin and made famous by the writer William Burroughs. In one approach, a page of text is cut down the middle and then across the middle to create 4 sections. These sections are then rearranged to create a new page. The method has its roots in collage and randomness, approaches to visual art that were initially embraced by the surrealists. In many ways Burroughs' approach to writing can be considered a precursor to hypertext, non-linear narrative and computer-based multimedia storytelling. We actually experience the "cut-up" in many aspects of our daily routine such as when we channel hop between television stations or when we "surf" the Internet. Burroughs argued that the cut-up is not just randomness for the sake of randomness, but a means to discovering unexpected associations between words and ideas. In this way it can be thought of as a valuable tool in many disciplines.

References:
The Cut-Up Machine

Babel Fish Translation

Dialect Translation - search for your own!
http://rinkworks.com/dialect/
http://www.ighetto.com/html/jive.shtml
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~jbc/home/chef.html

Mark Napier
http://www.potatoland.org/
http://www.potatoland.org/shredder/

Class 07 - HTML - False Identity

DUE: False Identity

Develop a false or fictional identity. Create a website (3 page minimum) for this identity that acts as a dating profile (who are you, what are you looking for in an ideal mate, what are your interests). Your web site should use only "shared" or found images and should incorporate links to external sites.

Background:

In Sherry Turkle's chapter "Identity Crisis" she discusses how the ability for people to easily create multiple online personae challenges our notion of fixed identities. In the past, a strong identity was associated with stability and clear boundaries. But Turkle argues that in today's world, this concept is being replaced by a notion that celebrates flexibility and mutability. She suggests that the "home page" is a compelling manifestation of "new notions of identity as multiple yet coherent". When working on this assignment, consider your own online identity. What are the freedoms and risks associated with your online life? Are there things that are safer and easier to explore online rather than in RL [real life]?

References:

Basic HTML tags

Web Color Codes:
http://www.visibone.com/colorlab/
http://www.webmonkey.com//reference/color_codes/
http://html-color-codes.com/

Web sites:
http://www.thing.net/~cocofusco/
http://geobodies.org/
http://www.blacknetart.com/
http://www.nancyburson.com/

Class 08 - Animation - Exquisite Corps

DUE: Exquisite corpse

For this assignment you should create 3 separate animated GIF files that when stacked on top of each other create the complete body of a person - or - creature - or - animal - or - thing - or - robot. The 3 images should portray the head, torso and legs of your "being". Each file should have dimensions 300 pixels wide by 200 pixels tall. Save each body part both as a .psd file and "Save optimized as" a .gif file. You should turn in:

head.psd, head.gif
body.psd, body.gif
legs.psd, legs.gif

Background:
Animations attract attention and can enliven a web page design. Animation techniques can include motion, zooming, fading [in or out], spinning, color changes, selective revealing and more.

Exquisite corpse is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. It is a technique invented by Surrealists in 1925, and is based on an old parlor game called Consequences in which players wrote in turn on a sheet of paper, folded it to conceal part of the writing, and then passed it to the next player for a further contribution. Later, perhaps inspired by children's books in which the pages were cut into thirds, the top third pages showing the head of a person or animal, the middle third the torso, and the bottom third the legs, the game was adapted to drawing and collage.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exquisite_corpse

http://blueballfixed.ytmnd.com/

http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/

Do a Google search for "animated gif" to find many archives of free images.

http://k10k.net
under issues select "Font Cockpit" and "Fun Fun Fun"

http://www.cadavre-exquis.net/eng/Accueil/accueil.php

http://tiles.ice.org

Class 09 - Dreamweaver - portfolio

In class

• layout continued
• navigation, architecture, sitemaps
• imagemaps
• rollovers

DUE: Personal Portfolio

Using Dreamweaver create a personal portfolio website for the projects you've completed so far in class. You can design the website anyway you like, but it should include the following elements:

• A homepage with some basic information about you and what this website is for, this file should be called "index.html".
• Six additional pages, 1 for each of the previous projects - include a title and brief description about your project [cosmetic surgery, self-portrait, propaganda, cut-up, false identity, and exquisite corps] *note - for cut-up and false identity you can simply link to the pages you've already made
• Navigation - every page should have links to every other page

!! Important !! - Don't remove any files from your original projects folders - instead, duplicate any files that you need for your portfolio. (ie you should still have your original files in your folders for project 1, project 2, etc.)

References:

http://netdiver.net/ - a great directory of innovative web design for inspiration

Class 10 - Sound

In Class

• basic concepts - sampling rate, frequency, file formats
• how to capture/record/digitize/download audio & sounds [Audio Hijack Pro]
• basic sound editing, loops, and FX [Garage Band]

DUE:

‚ÄúSitemap‚Äù - Develop a sitemap and 1 page written proposal for your final project

Class 11 - Video

In class

• basic concepts - frame rate, aspect ratio, CODECs, file formats
• how to capture/record/digitize/download video
• basic editing, effects, transitions, audio [iMovie]

DUE

Photoshop layouts

Class 12 - Open Lab

Work on your final project in class

Class 13 - Final Class

• in class critique of final projects
• wrap-up and what comes next! Flash teaser [brief tour]

Class 01 - Introduction - First Memory

In Class:
* introduction, syllabus, etc
* review/intro to GarageBand
* in class exercise - share first memories with your partner

Links:
http://www.theyrule.net
http://escapelab.com.au
http://svt.se/hogafflahage/hogafflaHage_site/Kor/hestekor.html
http://becominghuman.org
http://teddiesinspace.com
http://homestarrunner.com

places to download sound effects and loops:
http://sounddogs.com
http://flashkit.com

Class 02 - Setting the Stage

In Class:
+ critique “retell” assignment
+ tour of the Flash authoring environment
+ the Stage - movie properties
+ using text - static, broken, dynamic

Links:
http://www.yhchang.com
http://www.6amhoover.com

DUE:

Read:
‚Äì ‚ÄúChapter 2: The Vocabulary of Comics" from Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

Assignment:
"retell" ‚Äì In class you will partner with a classmate and share your first distinct memory. Using GarageBand, "retell" their story in a 1-2 minute audio piece. Your project should be based on this memory, but you are not required to retell the story exactly as it was told to you - you have creative license to embellish, exaggerate, extrapolate, interpolate the story to generate a compelling narrative. That said, you should try to respect the original story (and the person who told it) so as not to misrepresent them. Turn in an MP3 with filename like "retell_your_last_name.mp3" (retell_schwartz.mp3)

Class 03 - drawing a Tween - remix culture

In Class:
+ The Timeline - layers, framerate, keyframes
+ Shapes - properties, grouping, ungrouping breaking apart
+ Tweens - shape, motion [position, scale, color, alpha]

read:
‚Äì ‚ÄúGeneration Flash‚Äù by Lev Manovich

watch:
http://www.whitehouseanimationinc.com/kunstbar.htm
http://www.noiserover.com/thetakeoverscreen.html
http://www.lowmorale.co.uk/

DUE:

t e x t
Select one word and animate it. Your piece should utilize both static text boxes as well as "broken" text. Think about some meanings of the word animate (to enliven, bring to life). To the best of your ability, try to bring to life the meaning of the word your have chosen

Turn in a .fla and a .swf file with the "assignment_lastname" convention (i.e. text_schwartz.fla).

Class 04 - Peanut Butter and Culture Jam

In Class:

• importing artwork from illustrator/photoshop
• creating masks
• using motion paths and guides

Culture Jamming

DUE:

Black Boxes ‚Äì A ballet in 3 parts.

In this exercise you will experiment with changes in timing to suggest different emotional or physical effects.

1. The Set: Create a document in Flash, 400 by 300 pixels, 24 fps.
2. The Characters: Make three black squares, 80 x 80 pixels, 60% alpha. Convert each square to a symbol. Place each square on its own layer; place each square in the center of the screen.
3. Three Acts : Produce three different parts/acts/phases that use time to convey distinctly different attitudes. In addition to changing the timing of the events, you can change alpha, tint, or the horizontal or vertical scale of the squares. Before you begin you might you may want to write up a brief ‚Äúback story‚Äù.
4. The piece should be a perfect loop (it should end how it begins).

For example, a narrative:

Act 1 – the lovers meet
Act 2 – the betrayal
Act 3 ‚Äì reunited, happily ever after

or more abstract/emotional

Act 1 - frenetic
Act 2 - sad
Act 3 - calm

! no words/text allowed ‚Äì try to communicate everything visually and temporally

Turn in a .fla and a .swf file with the "assignment_lastname" convention (i.e. blackboxes_schwartz.fla).

Class 05 - incorporating Sound

In Class:

• Finding sounds online
• Importing sound, recording sound in the classroom
• Event sound, streaming sound

http://sounddogs.com
http://flashkit.com

DUE:

“Banner Ad Jam”: Think about the ad banners on websites as public spaces similar to billboards, posters, signs & other advertisements. Plan & design a 468x60 (24 fps) Ad Banner in flash that utilizes images and text and incorporates a corporate logo. The banner can advertise your love for something or someone, can express a political message, can be humorous - keep in mind that this is meant to be presented in a public places. You should be able to make the argument that your piece is an example of Culture jamming.

Link to archive of corporate logos

Class 06 - Animation Tricks

In Class

• Animation techniques: easing, blur, gravity
• Working with MovieClips

DUE:

‚ÄúMy Life‚Äù - Animate your life story in 30 seconds or less (bunnies optional). For next week, have a storyboard and at least 10 seconds of animation.

Bunny movies in 30 seconds

Class 07 - Loops

In Class:

• nested MovieClips
• making animated loops
• programming loops

Introducing Variables

Xiao Xiao: Stick Figures
Odd Todd
http://www.themeatrix.com/

DUE:

‚ÄúMy Life, take 2‚Äù - final draft of My Life.

Class 08 - adding Interactions

In Class

• Creating buttons
• Using Behaviors
• Using ActionScript

DUE: How-To script/storyboard

Links to How-To examples

Class 09 - navigation

FUN:
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/end
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/animator

DUE: How-To rough cut

Class 10 - video

Links:
http://fsk.deviantart.com/art/Line-Rider-beta-40255643
http://www.beonlineb.com/click_around.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnvyIfeevW4
[https://www.cicatriz.se/]
http://www.the-landjugend.com/?p=2027
http://www.gettheglass.com/
http://specials.washingtonpost.com/onbeing/
http://www.flight404.com/blog/

http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/

http://www.kirkshouse.com/

august strindberg & helium
http://www.strindbergandhelium.com/

stop motion studies
http://www.stopmotionstudies.net/

donniedarko.com
http://www.donniedarko.com/

momento
http://otnemem.com/index.html

requiemforadream.com
http://www.requiemforadream.com/

samorost
http://www.amanitadesign.com/samorost/

DUE: How-To

Class 11

DUE:Final project proposal:

• project description (include any relevant background info)
• discuss your intended audience
• discuss your visual/aesthetic strategy
• discuss at least 3 URLs of other projects/websites relevant to your project
• Sitemap or Storyboard as appropriate

Sep 04 - Introduction

Greetings

Review syllabus

Sharing exercise #1 - swap fest

give - swap - share

Sep 11 - Blogorama

Workshop:

• The language of blogging.
• Setting up a blog.

Watch:
Al Gore on Charlie Rose
the show with zefrank

DUE:
Register an account at http://sodacity.net/user.

Write a 1-page brainstorm for your blog project. It should include:

• Generate at least 3 possible names for the blog.
• Identify at least 2 and no more than 4 topics that you plan to blog about (its ok if they are only loosely related). Spend some time thinking about this. You will be asked to make at least one post on your blog every week of the semester... so choose things that you are interested in and care about so that you don't get bored. The point here is NOT to recreate what you are already doing on MySpace, Facebook, etc. - so topics can't include things like what you did with your friends last Saturday night...
• Research and identify at least 3 other blogs that deal with similar material. They don't have to agree with you (in fact it would be more interesting if they didn't) but the things they write about should be fairly obviously related to some of the things you plan on writing about. The point here is to find some "massive conversations" that are happening online and join them. Briefly describe each one.

Readings:

We Media. Chapter 1: Introduction to participatory journalism by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis

A Definition of Sociable Media by Judith Donath [pdf]

Sep 18 - Citizens journalism

Workshop:
Extending your blog skills: commenting, link equity, search engine optimization (SEO)

Share:

DUE:

• create your blog at http://blogger.com
• write your 1st post - a couple of paragraphs introducing your blog to the world - indicate the themes, topics, debates you will be dealing with
• your 2nd post - this is your first "real" post after the intro
• email me your blog URL

Readings:

Introduction, The Assault on Reason by Al Gore [handout]

Besieged Lebanese turn to Internet by Zeina Karam

In the Midst of War, Bloggers Are Talking by Sarah Ellison

Additional resource:

Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents (read online) or download: PDF version

Sep 25 - Your privately public self

Notes:
Your Privately Public Self

Workshop:
Extending your digital self:

• Flickr
• Del.icio.us

• StumbleUpon

• MMC "Top 10" Tags

• MMC "Top 10" People Places Things

DUE:
Now that you've planted your blog, grow it:

• claim your blog on technorati.com
• weeding: try to respond to comments in a timely manner, watch out for spam
• continue to write at least 1 post per week
• experiment with promotion: post a comments on other blogs about your content, email your blog to friends and family, ask for other people to give you a boost
• create a blog roll
• experiment with another form of media: add images, audio or video

Links:
http://technorati.com
http://www.gabcast.com
http://bloglines.com
How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else)
http://www.google.com/search?q=blogger+themes
http://www.blogger-templates.blogspot.com
http://blogger-themes.blogspot.com
http://blogfresh.blogspot.com/2005/08/blogger-hacks-series.html

Readings:

"Blogging Outloud: Shifts in Public Voice" by danah boyd

"Steal this bookmark!" by Katharine Mieszkowski
Thomas Vander Wal's definition of folksonomy.
Clay Shirky discusses folksonomy

Oct 02 - Gift Economy

Workshop:

DUE:
Your private public self - part one:
Register at http://secondlife.com.
Choose a name.
Get Dressed (create your avatar).
Learn how to fly.

Register at http://del.icio.us
Choose a name.
Start bookmarking socially.

Readings:

Natalie Jeremijenko, "If Things Can Talk, What Do They Say? If We Can Talk to Things, What Do We Say?"

Pekka Himanen, ‚ÄúThe Academy and the Monastery‚Äù [PDF]

Oct 09 - Social Networks

Discussion:
Social networks have been the focus of much recent research and entrepreneurship. This discourse views social relationships as nodes and links (or ties). Nodes are individual entities (often people) and the links are the relationships between them (parent-child, student-teacher, friend-friend). The people you know are your social network. Social relationships can be characterized on a spectrum from shallow to deep. Some theorists claim that social networks with many weak ties are more valuable than ones with fewer and deeper ties. The premise is that the more connections you have, the more likely that new ideas and opportunities will be introduced to you. This seems to be the guiding principle of many of these new social networking websites. Deeper connections have greater costs in terms of time commitments, etc and tend to have redundant ties. Of particular value in these systems are nodes (people, entities) that can bridge two networks thereby brokering relationships between networks that otherwise are not directly linked.

In 1967, Stanley Milgram made the famous "small world experiment" which claimed to prove that people in the world are separated by at most 6 links. While the experiment is considered to have many flaws, the notion of six degrees of separation has persisted in popular culture.

Social network class notes

some links:
Mark Lombardi
http://oracleofbacon.org/index.html
http://www.albany.edu/museum/wwwmuseum/work/lombardi/
http://www.theyrule.net/
http://smg.media.mit.edu/projects/SocialNetworkFragments/implementation/layout/6-2.mov
http://www.buddygraph.com
http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue7_4/krebs/
Weak ties and Mark Granovetter

DUE: 4-5 page essay
This essay should grow out of your experiences in Second Life and the social bookmarking website del.icio.us.

1. Take a snapshot of your SL avatar and attach it to this assignment.
2. Describe the appearance of your avatar in Second Life in depth.

• does your avatar resemble you?
• do you change your appearance frequently or do you have one standard appearance?
• what motivated any changes your made?
• did you ask others for feedback on "how you look"?
• have you spent any money on your appearance? How much? On what?
• do you like how you look in Second Life?
• are there changes you'd like to make but can't due to lack of funds, skills, etc?

1. Conduct interviews with 2 other people in Second Life (who are not in our class).

• be sure to inform them that you are doing research for a class and that nothing they tell you will be posted publicly to the Internet.
• ask your subjects questions about their own appearance
• what motivates the way they look (certain gestures, purposefully androgynous, dressed as an animal or object)?
• summarize each subject's comments
• reflect on the role/meaning of appearance in Second Life. How does the way people form identities in this environment differ/align with Real Life. What were your expectations and how did they measure up to your actual experiences?

1. Finally, compare and contrast the experience of constructing your new alter egos - your new visual + virtual Second Life self/avatar and your new metadata del.icio.us self. Specifically address how your notion of privacy is different with these identities than in Real Life (RL).

Readings:

Friends, Friendsters, and MySpace Top 8: Writing Community Into Being on Social Network Sites. by danah boyd

The Rhythms of Salience: A Conversation Map by Judith Donath

Oct 23 - The Commons

Workshop:
Introducing the wiki.
Wiki 101
MediaWiki Handbook
MMC Wiki Practice Area

Wikimedia Commons Ourmedia

DUE: write and draw
1. How do people display social networks in everyday life (that is, not online)? Give 2 concrete, specific examples. Why do they do this? What are the costs of making this display? The benefits? Does honesty play in?
2. Explore two different social networking sites [LinkedIn, Orkut, Friendster, Tribe, Ryze, Facebook, MySpace and others...]. One should be LinkedIn and the other is up to you. What different aspects of your personality/identity can be expressed in these sites? How does the design of these sites facilitate networking? How does this sort of display compare to traditional means of displaying social connectedness. What are the advantages and disadvantages? Are signals of friendship here reliable? Why or why not?
3. Draw a diagram of your social network (family, friends, acquaintances) using nodes and links. Aim to have between 30 and 60 people in your network - the more complete the better. Show connections among those people whom you know know each other. As you draw the diagram, think about where you are placing people - how have you grouped them, what meaning, if any, are you giving to adjacency or top/bottom? Try to identify brokers in your social network.
+ Think about how you can draw connecting lines: they can be thicker, thinner, longer, shorted. They can be solid or dashed, dark or light, wavy, curved, straight or angular. Consider the challenge of showing people who are physically distant but personally close.
+ Think about the groups/relationships in which people participate in your network. They might range from tight knit groups like families, to loosely focused groups like a college dorm. How can you use color, shape, size to represent these different types of groupings?
+ The final result can be turned in as a digital file (photoshop, illustrator, flash) or on a physical sheet of paper. You might consider including a legend or codex for your diagram.
4. (Optional) Take part in the Small World's Research Project http://smallworld.columbia.edu and discuss your results.

Readings:
"The Wealth of Networks: Chapter 3. Peer Production and Sharing" by Yochai Benkler
"Silence is a Commons" by Ivan Illich

Optional:
"The Tragedy of the Commons" by Garrett Hardin

Nov 06 - Collective Intelligence

Lecture on crowd sourcing.

Links:
Science
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu
http://clickworkers.arc.nasa.gov/top
http://centennialchallenges.nasa.gov/
http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/overview.asp
http://www.news.com/DARPA-sees-inspiration-as-trophy-of-robot-race/2008-1014_3-6214091.html
http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

Distributed Labor
http://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome
http://www.innocentive.com/
http://threadless.com/

Steve Fossett
http://s3.amazonaws.com/fossett/thanks.html
http://www.stevefossett.com/
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15-08/ff_jimgray?currentPage=5

Art Related
http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com
http://www.tenement.org/folksongs/
http://www.ikatun.com/institute/infinitelysmallthings/corporatecommands/
http://www.geuzen.org/cgi-bin/shmoogle/shmoogle_form.cgi
http://www.chrisbarr.net/projects/thursday/
http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/view/id/86

Kevin Killian
http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/killian/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A30TK6U7DNS82R
http://www.thefanzine.com/sections.php?s=features&id=149&a=articles

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6805063692754011230

The future of R&D

APIs

Google
http://code.google.com/more/#label=ProductsAll&product=gdata

Flickr
http://flickr.com/help/website/#181
http://flickr.com/tools/

TOS - Terms of Service

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/terms.php

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Nov 20 - The Networked Public Sphere

Links:
the Evolution of Cooperation
The Prisoner's Dilemma

DUE: Wiki updates

Class Wiki

minimum:
2 substantive original entries [150-200 words each]
3 substantive edits of existing entries

Email me the 5 links to your entries by Monday night.

• note, in place of a text-based entry, you can upload a layout/image/design of your own creation. Uploading images you find online does not count here.

Readings:

The Wealth of Networks: Chapter 7. Political Freedom Part 2: Emergence of the Networked Public Sphere by Yochai Benkler

Nov 27 - The Internet of Things

Lecture notes and links

DUE: Wiki updates

http://media.mmm.edu/mmcwiki/Main_Page

minimum:
2 substantive original entries [150-200 words each]
3 substantive edits of existing entries

Email me the 5 links to your entries by Monday night.

• note, in place of a text-based entry, you can upload a layout/image/design of your own creation. Uploading images you find online does not count here.

Readings:
A Manifesto for Networked Objects (Why Things Matter) by Julian Bleeker

Technologies of Cooperation by Howard Rheingold

A video, podcast and other materials from a lecture Howard Rheingold gave about this topic can be found here

Dec 04 - We the participants

Commercial ReMix

Original Apple Commerical Introducing the Macintosh computer in 1984
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8

"Anti-Hillary" commercial produced by the Obama campaign
Published March 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3G-lMZxjo

Video by Astrubal critiquing the 20 year rule of Tunisian president Ben Ali
Published February 29th 2004.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsF8qQmLYo0

Links for final project inspiration:
http://geekcorps.org/
http://globalvoicesonline.org/
Dropping Knowledge
http://www.youtube.com/republicandebate
http://www.dodgeball.com/
http://twitter.com/
http://www.appliedautonomy.com/isee.html
http://www.urban-atmospheres.net/projects.htm
http://www.techkwondo.com/projects/

DUE: 4-5 page comparative essay

Compare and contrast your experience of writing an individual blog to that of co-authoring a wiki. Your essay should draw from class readings. Try to look critically at the output of both endeavors.

Some similarities and differences you might consider:

• type of content generated
• quality of the content
• structure of the resulting document
• freedom of expression
• accountability
• strengths and limitations of each
• accessibility
• interactivity, participation

Readings:

We Media. Chapter 4: The rules of participation by Dan Gillmor

Dec 18 - Final Presentations

Last day of classes - presentation and discussion of final projects.

DUE: Final Take-Home Endeavor

You must work in groups of 2 or 3.

This endeavor is meant to be an integrative exercise, covering as much of the course work as possible, and also one in which you begin to come to terms with the points of view of the readings, class discussions, small group discussions, shares, websites, projects, the course as a whole, and your own reactions to them. I ask that you show your struggle to make sense of the course work and how you relate to it personally as well as intellectually. There are no right answers, and any judgments, reservations, criticisms, rejections, acceptances, celebrations, provocative questions, hesitations, insights, etc. are acceptable as long as they are backed up by careful references to sources (readings, websites, etc) and/or thoughtful reasoning.

Part 1

The Networked Public Sphere is being designed as we speak. How this occurs will govern what you can do, what you can see, what you look like and who can gain access to what. It is our responsibility to participate in envisioning this future.

Imagine: you have been provided with 10 gazillion dollars of venture capital and a crack team of engineers and computer programmers who can make anything you design.

The Challenge: design either a new web service or personal display (handheld or wearable device) that augments/enhances social interactivity.

Questions:
+ What are you making, what does it do?
+ Who are you making it for - who is your audience?
+ What kind of identity information is emitted?
+ Is the display/service public, private, both?
+ How does it interact with other users - proximity, affinities?
+ What problem does it set out to address?
+ What are some related products/services - how does yours differ?

Format:
A 10-15 minute presentation in the form of Power Point or a webpage/blog. Please turn in either a copy burned to CD or a URL.

The presentation should incorporate the following:

1. A name for your service or device (a neologism).
2. Answers to the above questions.
3. Use cases or scenarios that demonstrate typical user experiences.
4. Visual designs - at least 4 visualizations that depict what the service/device/interface looks like and how it would be used

!!! your device/service does not have to work - but you need to explain how it would work.

Part 2

Respond to the following 2 questions - stating opinions is not enough, cite relevant authors in your discussion. I highly recommend that you write cooperatively with your classmates (as opposed to divvying up the questions and writing individually). Your answers will be stronger if you generate answers through discussing the various themes and issues raised by the course material.

Groups should write 3 pages per question.

1. Sharing and participatory culture are essential concepts for this course. Explore your understanding of what these terms mean. To do this you might consider some of the various forms we explored in class (open-source, folksonomies, gift economies, blogs, the commons, SecondLife, social networks etc, etc, etc). Which concepts do you find most compelling? Do these phenomena enhance or detract from social interaction? How are our real lives (RL) merging, intersecting, blurring with our virtual lives (VL)?
2. Yochai Benkler argues that the network allows citizens to change their relationship to the public sphere. What does he mean by this? What is the Networked Public Sphere? What is the democratizing potential (strengths and limitations) of the Internet? What is the role of freedom of expression in a democratic society?