GNED 1300
      First-Year Seminar

      Spring, 1999

      Curtis Brown 
      cbrown@trinity.edu
      CGC 23
      phone: 8306; Margaret Carrasco: 8305

        Schedule of Topics, Readings, and Presentations

        This schedule is tentative; we may need to make some adjustments as we go along.
      Date
      Reading Assignment and topic
      Wed 1-13 Introduction to the course
      Fri 1-15 Surveys; Requirements; Academic Integrity Rant
      Mon 1-18 Reading: Barlow, "Selling Wine without Bottles" (Ludlow, essay 1)
      Wed 1-20 Reading:  material on patents (Ludlow, essays 2, 3)
      Fri 1-22 Reading:  Heckel, "Debunking the Software Patent Myths" (Ludlow, essay 4)
      Monday 1-25 Discussion of Writing an Argumentative Paper
      Wed 1-27 Reading:  materials on hacking etc. (Ludlow, essays 7, 8, 10)
      Fri 1-29 Reading:  Denning, "Concerning Hackers Who Break into Computer Systems" (Ludlow, essay 9)
      Mon 2-1 Barlow, "Crime and Puzzlement" (Ludlow, Appendix 1)
      Wed 2-3 Reading:  materials on Carnegie-Mellon and Thomas cases (Ludlow, essays 20, 21, 22)
      Fri 2-5 Reading:  Shallit, "Public Networks and Censorship" and Godwin, "Sex and the Single Sysadmin" (Ludlow, essays 23 and 24)
      DRAFT OF FIRST PAPER DUE TO CORY
      Mon 2-8 Presenter:  Lacey Benbrook
      Topic:  Privacy and Encryption
      Reading:  Ludlow, essays 11 - 15
      Wed 2-10 Presenter: Sarah Berry
      Topic:  Broader Implications of Making Privacy Possible
      Reading:  Ludlow, essays 16 - 19
      FIRST PAPER DUE
      Fri 2-12 Presenter: Sam Brannen
      Topic:  Internet and Democracy
      Reading:  http://www.wr.com.au/democracy/intro.htm (online master's thesis!  Read the whole thing.)
      http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~eumansky/net.dem.html (explore site)
      Mon 2-15 Interlude:  constructing a web site (no presentation)
      Assignment:  1. obtain web page account from User Services;
      2. play with Netscape Composer or Microsoft Front Page;
      3. look at NCSA's Beginner's Guide to HTML at http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html
      Wed 2-17 Presenter: JamNiaBru
      Topic:  Online Communities 1
      Reading:  Ludlow, essays 26, 27, 28
      Fri 2-19 Presenter: Adam Egly
      Topic:  Online Communities 2
      Reading:  Ludlow, essays 29, 30
      Mon 2-22 Presenter:  Robbie Fleener
      Topic:  Online Communities 3
      Reading:  Ludlow, essays 31, 32, 33
      Wed 2-24 Presenter:  Rob Harrison
      Topic:  Two Styles of Thought
      Reading:  Turkle, Introduction and Chapters 1, 2
      Fri 2-26 Presenter:  Brandon Norton
      Topic:  Artificial Intelligence 1
      Reading:  Turkle, Chapters 4, 5
      Mon 3-1 Presenter:  Luke Peterson
      Topic:  AI 2 (A classic essay)
      Reading:  Turing, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" (handout)
      Wed 3-3 SECOND PAPER DUE
      (No presentation)
      Topic:  Online vs. Traditional Research
      Friday 3-5 Presenter:  Jonathan Piefer
      Topic:  AI 3 (Competing Conceptions)
      Reading:  Dreyfus and Dreyfus, "Making a Mind vs. Modeling the Brain" (handout)
      Monday 3-8 Spring Break - No Class
      Wed 3-10 Spring Break - No Class
      Fri 3-12 Spring Break - No Class
      Mon 3-15 Presenter:  Jessica Pontiff
      Topic:  AI 4 (artificial life)
      Reading:  Turkle, chapter 6
      Wed 3-17 Presenter:  Amanda Reese
      Topic:  Cyberspace in Fiction
      Reading:  Snow Crash
      Fri 3-19 Presenter:  Brad Steinke
      Topic:  Nature of the Self 1
      Reading:  Turkle, chapter 7, 8
      Mon 3-22 Presenter:  Dipali Venkataraman
      Topic:  Nature of the Self 2
      Reading:  Turkle, chapters 9, 10
      Wed 3-24 Topic:  Nature of the Self 3
      Reading:  Dennett, Consciousness Explained, chapters 13, 14
      Fri 3-26 Topic:  Cyber Body Art
      Reading:  Mark Dery, Escape Velocity, chapter 4
      Mon 3-29 Topic:  Cyber Literature
      Reading: Hyperizons and (optional) this weird online book thing
      Wed 3-31 THIRD PAPER DUE
      Discussion of final projects
      Fri 4-2 Good Friday - No Class
      Mon 4-5 Annotated Webliography Due
      Topic:  Problems for the Future
      Reading:  Floridi, "Brave.Net.World 3.1"
      at http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/~floridi/papers.htm
      Wed 4-7 Floridi, "The Internet:  Which Future for Organized Knowledge?" (see link above)
      Fri 4-9 Help session for final projects (attendance optional)
      Mon 4-12 Final Projects:  Adam, Robbie
      Wed 4-14 Final Projects:  Sam, JamNiaBru
      Fri 4-16 Final Projects:  Luke, Jonathan
      Mon 4-19 Final Projects:  Jessica, Amanda
      Wed 4-21 Final Projects:  Brad, Dipali
      Fri 4-23 Final Projects:  Lacey, Sarah 
      FINAL PROJECT DUE
      Mon 4-26 Wrapping things up
      Wed 4-28 
      Thurs 4-29
      Reading Days

       


      Last modified: March 29, 1999
      Curtis Brown
      cbrown@trinity.edu