This course is reading-intensive and writing-intensive.  You are not likely to succeed in this course unless you devote several hours each day to the course. Please familiarize yourself with the Course Calendar, which is posted in the "Assignments" section of Blackboard.  The Course Calendar lists the due dates for all of the assignments.  If you use an attachment to post an assignment, you must use one of the following types of files: "doc," "docx," or an "rtf" file.  Do not expect late assignments to be accepted. Completion of the assignments should help you achieve the course's expected learning outcomes.  The expected learning outcomes of this class are:
A. To determine the subject matter and theme of an individual work.
B. To recognize the conclusions of a given work and determine whether the conclusions are warranted.
C. To improve the student's ability to differentiate between knowledge and data.
D. To enhance the student's ability to understand the importance and uses of knowledge in an emerging knowledge paradigm.
E. To improve the ability to read and write critically and at an advanced level.
F. To improve the ability to frame and develop an argument logically dependent on the context.
G. To increase the level of information literacy and research acumen to make informed choices and conduct lifelong learning.
H. To develop the ability to deal with ambiguity.
These learning outcomes are a subset of the expected learning outcomes of the MLS program.

I invite you to contact me if you have any questions about the course (or about the MLS program).  Should you begin to encounter difficulties during the summer session, please contact me sooner rather than later.
My e-mail address: amorin@fhsu.edu
My phone number: 785 628-5578

    Required texts 

Vannevar Bush. April 1945. "As We May Think." The Atlantic Monthly http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/194507/bush

Peter F. Drucker. 1994. Post-Capitalist Society. isbn: 0-88730-661-6

Simon Head. 2005. The New Ruthless Economy:  Work and Power in the Digital Age. isbn:  0195179838

Frank Webster, ed. 2004. The Information Society Reader. isbn: 0-415-31928-5

Catherine L. Mann (with Jacob Funk Kirkegaard). 2006. Accelerating the Globalization of America  The Role for Information Technology. isbn: 0-88132-390-X 

Francis Fukuyama. 2002. Our Posthuman Future  Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution. isbn: 0-312-42171-0

Don Tapscott. 2008. Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World. isbn: 0071508635

Recorded Lectures (required)

There are 23 recorded lectures, available on DVD.  The schedule for viewing these lectures is listed in the Course Calendar, available in the "Assignments" section of the course's Blackboard website.

    Suggested articles 

Theo Röhle. September 2007. Desperately seeking the consumer: Personalized search engines and the commercial exploitation of consumer data. First Monday Volume 12, Number 9 http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_9/rohle/index.html.

Mark Ward. January 2, 2008. Boom times for hi-tech criminals. BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7154187.stm

Alexis Madrigal. May 22, 2009. Food web meet interweb: The networked future of farms. Wired. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/food-web-meet-interweb/

Matt Ford. August 3, 2009. Sifting through the mounting problem of e-waste CNN.com  http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/08/02/e-waste.recycling/index.html 

Other articles may be sent to you throughout the semester.

    Course Assignments

A Course Calendar listing assignment due dates can be found as an attachment in the “Assignments” section of the course’s Blackboard website.  Each assignment must be submitted no later than midnight Central Daylight Time of its due date.  No assignment will be accepted after its due date, unless circumstances warrant it.

FIRST ASSIGNMENT: INTRODUCE YOURSELF.
Worth 200 points.   Check the Course Calendar for the due date.
You must complete this assignment in order to pass the class. This assignment should be at least one page (single-spaced)  in length.  Post your introduction in the "introduction" forum in the "Discussion Board" section of the course's Blackboard site to introduce yourself to others in the class.  Tell us:

1. Where you live
2. Your MLS concentration
3. Your profession and something about yourself
4. How your profession uses information and information technology

SECOND ASSIGNMENT: WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS.
Worth 1,500 points.   Check the Course Calendar for the due dates. 
There are fourteen weekly assignments.  For each weekly assignment, write an essay that briefly discusses what you learned from the readings and lectures assigned for the week.  The essay must be single-spaced and at least half a page in length.  In each essay you should minimize the use of quotes: put the points, information, or ideas in your own words.  Post each essay in the appropriate forum in the "Discussion Board."  You are invited to post comments on assignments submitted by other students.
Related to learning outcomes A, E, and F.

THIRD ASSIGNMENT: CRITIQUE DR. MORIN'S MEASURE OF THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
Worth 500 points. Check the Course Calendar for the due date of the research paper.
I will post a very short paper that proposes a measure of the digital divide.  The major purpose of the paper is to illustrate how to take data (information from the CIA's World Factbook) and turn it into knowledge (a measure of the digital divide).  Your task will be to critique the strengths and weaknesses of the measure that I develop and apply.
Related to learning outomes C, D, E, and H.

FOURTH ASSIGNMENT: RESEARCH PAPER
Worth 3,000 points.  Check the Course Calendar for the due dates of the various components of this assignment.
Write a fifteen-page paper (not including the title page or References section) on one of these topics: biopiracy, blogs, cyborgs, identity theft, intellectual property, nanotechnology, phishing, or survellance and privacy.  The paper must be typed and double-spaced with one-inch margins and 10-point New Times Roman font.  You must use a minimum of fifteen sources.  Do not use Wikipedia or blogs.  You may use professional journals, academic journals, books, articles from the major newspapers, and other appropriate sources.  The paper must have the highest quality of writing: no plagiarism; well-organized; excellent analysis; and no spelling, punctuation, citation or other errors.  Please follow the "Instructions for a Formal Research Paper," provided below.  The paper will be evaluated on the basis of these four criteria: quality of analysis, quality of writing, quality of sources, and citations and reference section. To facilitate the research and writing of your paper, you will be required to:
(a) submit a list of twenty potential sources. Write a single-spaced bibliographical essay about these twenty sources.  This bibliographical essay should list the sources alphabetically and include no more than a one-third page description of each source.  If you fail to submit this part of the assignment you will not receive any credit for your research paper.
(b) submit the first draft of the References section of your paper.  Remember that you must use at least fifteen sources.  If you fail to submit this part of the assignment you will not receive any credit for your research paper.   
(c) submit a draft of the first five pages of the paper. The first page must introduce the topic of the paper and briefly describe the major sections of the paper.  If you fail to submit these three parts of the assignment you will not receive any credit for your research paper.
(d) submit your research paper; remember to include a title page.
Related to learning outcomes A, D, E, F, G, and H.

FIFTH ASSIGNMENT: CRITIQUES OF RESEARCH PAPERS
Worth 600 points (200 points each).  Check the Course Calendar for the due date of the critiques.
You will be assigned three research papers that you will be required to critique.  Base each critique on these four criteria: quality of analysis, quality of writing, quality of sources, and citations and reference section.  Post each critique in Blackboard, underneath the paper being critiqued.
Related to learning outcomes A, B, D, E, G, and H.

SIXTH ASSIGNMENT: RESPONDING TO CRITIQUES  OF YOUR  RESEARCH PAPER.
Worth 300 points (100 points each).  Check the Course Calendar for the due date of the responses.
Respond to each of the three critiques of your research paper.  If you disagree with a critique, explain why.
Related to learning outcomes E, F, and H.

1. How are the changes experienced in the information society shaping how we  know?  How are the changes experienced in the information society shaping how we learn? How are the changes experienced in the information society shaping how we grow?  What will the information society look like in the future, and how will this shape how we know, learn, and grow? 
2. What are the four most important things you learned because of this class.
   
   Instructions for a Formal Research Paper 

3. Begin writing the paper.  Don't be afraid to write the middle before you write the beginning and end.   Don't be afraid to revise.  In fact, the less you revise, the more likely you are to have problems with your paper.  You might find it helpful to create an outline at some point in the process that will help you understand the direction and emphasis of your paper. See also http://www.fhsu.edu/~amorin/MLS_Writing.html

4. Research, write, revise, write, revise, think, think, think, write, revise; consult with me if you wish.

5. Write the paper.  Assume that the audience for the paper is relatively intelligent but has NOT taken IDS 803.  Typically you would follow the basic organizational format: introduction and purpose of the paper; explain how the paper will be organized; body of paper; conclusion; and references section. 

6. Check citations and quotes for accuracy.  When citing sources, use either in-text citation technique, end-notes, or footnotes.  Don’t plagiarize – see http://www.fhsu.edu/~amorin/MLS_Plagiarism.html. See also FHSU’s academic honesty policy at http://web.fhsu.edu/universitycatalog/gen/academichonesty.asp. Make sure to use quote marks when you are quoting.  Follow the ‘string of four’ rule (which is: use quote marks when you use four or more of the same words in the same order as found in a source you used).  Include a citation in the following instances:  whenever you quote (include the citation immediately after the quote), whenever you use information or an idea that you got from someone else, and whenever you paraphrase or summarize someone's argument, information, etc.  If you use graphs or tables, place them between the body of the paper and the “References” section.  It doesn’t make sense to use graphs or tables unless you refer to them in the body of the paper. Make sure that all of your sources are cited in the paper; make sure that all of the sources cited in the paper appear in your "References" section at the back of the paper.  If you list a resoure from the Internet in the "References" section, then you must include the date that you accessed that source.  Failure to follow the instructions in this step could result in a “U” in the class.

7. Print the paper.  Read the paper, looking for spelling and other mistakes (technical and analytical).  Revise. Aim for technical perfection - I expect the paper to be free of spelling, punctuation, and other ‘technical’ errors. 

8. Re-print, re-read, re-vise. Aim for technical perfection - I expect the paper to be free of spelling, punctuation, and other ‘technical’ errors. 

9. Print final version. Aim for technical perfection.  The paper should have a title page, the body of the paper, and a “References” section that lists all of the sources cited in the paper.  Sources in the “References” section should be alphabetized, following the ‘author, date, title’ format. Beginning with the first page of the paper, pages should be numbered.  The title page should not be numbered.  The “References" section should not begin at the bottom of the last page of the body of the text.  Rather, the "References" section should start at the top of a new page.  Make two copies of the research paper: one for you and one for me.  

Guidelines for Written Work

Your paper should be free of spelling and punctuation errors.  If there are five or more spelling or punctuation errors, then the paper may not receive an "A."  Generally speaking, the more numerous the spelling and punctuation errors, the lower the grade.  Other characteristics that are important: clarity of writing, organization, originality, analysis, and sentence and paragraph structure.  Word choice can also affect the grade on the paper.

Here are the directions for obtaining "Off campus access to library resources" http://www.fhsu.edu/forsyth_lib/offcampus.shtml

The online search services available in FHSU library's website will give you access to FirstSearch - a very good way to locate articles.  Go to http://www.fhsu.edu/forsyth_lib/electronic/alphadata.shtml then click on FirstSearch Database.  Please note that the initial FirstSearch webpage also gives you access to Worldcat, where you can find books.  Also, check out http://www.fhsu.edu/forsyth_lib/resources.shtml 

Here is the library's page with links to search engines and other features http://www.fhsu.edu/forsyth_lib/ref/search/ 

Here is the website for digital libraries  http://www.fhsu.edu/forsyth_lib/digital/digital.shtml  

To access many, many, many other libraries, go to “LIBWEB Library Servers via WWW” at http://lists.webjunction.org/libweb/ You can use the interlibrary loan service of your local library to borrow books from other libraries. 

 See also “Blue Skyways” at http://skyways.lib.ks.us/about/sitemap.html

 
Other Books and Sources of Interest

Abramson, Bruce D. October 2007. The Secret Circuit:  The Little-Known Court Where the Rules of the Information Age Unfold. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN: 0-7425-5281

Baker, John C., Beth E. Lachman, Dave R. Frelinger, Kevin M. O'Connell, Alexander Hou, Michael S. Tseng, David Orletsky, Charles Yost. 2004. Mapping the Risks  Assessing the Homeland Security Implications of Publicly Available Geospatial Information. Santa Monica: RAND. ISBN: 0-8330-3547-9 

Balkovich, Edward, Tora K. Bikson, Gordon Bitko. 2005. 9 to 5: Do You Know If Your Boss Knows Where You Are? Case Studies of Radio Frequency Identification Usage in the Workplace. Santa Monica: RAND. ISBN: 0-8330-3719-6

Budd, Leslie and Lisa Harris, eds. e-Governance: Managing of Governing?. Routledge. ISBN: 978-0-415-96518-7. $41.95

Cammaerts, Bart and Leo Van Audenhove. 2003. ICT-Usage among Trans-national Social Movements in the Networked Society: To Organize, to Mediate & to Influence, Key Deliverable The European Media and Technology in Everyday Life Network, 2000-2003. http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/EMTEL/reports/cammaerts_2003_emtel.pdf

Cammaerts, Bart and Nico Carpentier, eds. 2007. Reclaiming the Media: Communication Rights and Democratic Media Roles. European Communication Research and Education Association Research Series.  Bristol, UK and Chicago: Intellect.

Caplan, Arthur L. December 2007. Smart Mice, Not so Smart People: An Interesting and Amusing Guide to Bioethics. Rowman & Litlefield. ISBN: 0-7425-4175-x

             Carona, Leonel, Jerome Doutriax, and Sarfraz A. Mian. 2006. Building Knowledge Regions in North America  Emerging Technology Innovation Poles. Edward Elgar. ISBN: 1-84542-430-5

             Cammaerts. Bart and Nico Carpentier, eds. 2007. Reclaiming the Media: Communication rights and democratic media roles. Bristol, UK and Chicago: Intellect.. ISBN: 978--84150-163-5

            Castells, Manuel, editor. 2005. The Network Society: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN: 1-84542-435-2 (paperback).

             Chadwick, Andrew. 2006. Internet Politics  States, Citizens, and New Communication Technologies. Oxford University Press.

             Christou, George and Seamus Simpson. 2007. The New Electronic Marketplace: European Governance Strategies in a Globalizing Economy. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN: 978-1-84542-274-5. $100.00

             Dean, Jodi, Jon Anderson, and Lovink Geert, eds. 2006. Reformatting Politics  Information Technology and Global Civil Society. Routledge. ISBN: 0-415-95298-0

             Der Derian, James. 2008. Virtuous War: Mapping the Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment-Network. Routledge. ISBN: 978-0-415-77239-6. $26.95

             Drori, Gili. 2005. Global E-Litism: Digital Technology, Social Inequality, and Transnationality. Worth Publishers. ISBN: 0716756730 [relevant to the digital divide]

             Etc group. January 2007. "Extreme Genetic Engineering  An Introduction to Synthetic Biology." http://www.etcgroup.org/upload/publication/602/01/synbioreportweb.pdf 

             Florini, Ann, ed.. 2007. The Right to Know:  Transparency for an Open World. Columbia University Press. ISBN: 978-0-231-14158-1

             Gorman, Sean P. 2005. Networks, Security and Complexity  The Role of Public Policy in Critical Infrastructure Protection. Edward Elgar. ISBN: 1-84376-952-2

 Hafkin, Nancy and Sphia Huyer. 2006. Cinderalla or Cyberella?  Empowering Women in the Knowledge Society. Kumarian Press. ISBN 978-1-56549-219-6

Hern, Greg and David Rooney, eds. January 2008. Knowledge Policy: Challenges for the 21st Century. Edward Elgar Publishing. SIBN: 978-1-84542-186-1. $90.00

 Henderson, Jason and Bridget Abraham. 2004. “Can Rural America Support a Knowledge Economy?” Economic Review, Third Quarter, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

Humphreys, Peter and Seamus Simpson. 2005. Globalisation, Convergence and European Telecommuications Regulation. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN: 978-1-85278-931-2. $100.00

.Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. Generic Top-level Domains http://www.iana.org/gtld/gtld.htm

Naam, Ramez. 2005. More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement. Broadway. ISBN: 0767918436

Netanel, Neil Weinstock. 2008. Copyright's Paradox. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0-19-513762-0

Norris, Pippa. February 2004. Building Knowledge Societies: The Renewal of Democratic Practices in Knowledge Societies. UNESCO World Report. http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~pnorris/Acrobat/UNESCO%20Report%20Knowledge%20Societies.pdf [relevant to the digital divide]

Phillips, Peter W.B. 2007. Governing Transformative Technological Innovation: Who's in Charge? Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN: 978-1-84720-237-6. $135.00

Pole, Antoinette. 2008. Blogging the Political: Political Participation in a Networked Society. Routledge. ISBN: 978-0-415-96342-8. $25.95

Roberts, Alasdair. 2006. Blacked Out: Government Secrecy in the Information Age. Cambridge University Press.

Roco, Mihail and William Sims Bainbridge, eds. June 2002. Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance:  Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology, and Cognitive Science. National Science Foundation/Department of Commerce – sponsored report. Arlington, VA. http://wtec.org/ConvergingTechnologies/Report/NBIC_report.pdf 

Rose, Nikolas. 2006? The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century. Princeton University Press. ISBN: 0-691-12191-5

Rooney, David and Abraham Ninan, eds. 2005. Handbook on the Knowledge Economy. Edward Elgar. ISBN: 1-84542-684-3

Servaes, Jan and Nico Carpentier, eds. Towards a Sustainable Information Society: Deconstructing WSIS. European Consortium for Communications Research Series.  Bristol, UK and Portland: Intellect.  The acronym "WSIS" stands for "World Summit on the Information Society."  Reviewed at http://rccs.usfca.edu/bookinfo.asp?ReviewID=435&BookID=315 

            The Task Force on the Future of American Innovation. February 16, 2005.  "The Knowledge Economy: Is the United States Losing Its Competitive Edge?" http://www.futureofinnovation.org/PDF/Benchmarks.pdf 

           [Union of South Africa] Department of Trade and Ministry:  Benchmarking of Technology Trends and Technology Developments. April 2004. A report prepared by the Bluepeter Management Consulting and Access Market International (Pty) Ltd. http://www.thedti.gov.za/article/Technologydeveloptrends.pdf

            UNESCO World Report. 2005. Towards Knowledge Societies. Paris: UNESCO Publishing. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001418/141843e.pdf 

             Uniited Nations Publications. 2008? Information Economy Report 2007-2008: Science and Technology for Development - The New Paradigm of ICT. United Nations Publications. ISBN: 9789211127249. $60.00

            WIPO, “Online Forum on Intellectual Property in the Information Society” http://www.wipo.int/ipisforum/en/

            The World Social Forum http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/index.php?cd_language=2

           The World Summit on the Information Society  http://www.itu.int/wsis/index.html

Notes on other books.

    Andrew A. Adams and Rachel J. McCrindle. 2008. Pandora's Box: Social and Professional Issues in the Information Age. Chichester,  England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.  [Comment: This book is targeted at undergraduate students in computing.  However, given the breadth of topics covered in the book, it may nevertheless be a good choice.  Plus it is a 2008 publication]

    Manuel Castells, Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol, Jack Linchuan Qiu, and Araba Sey. 2007.  Mobile Communication and Society: A Global Perspective. A Project of the Annenberg Research Network on International Communication. Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press. ISBN: 0-262-03355-0. [The last chapter would be good to include in an edited volume.]

    Aaron Barlow. 2007. The Rise of the Blogosphere. Westport, CN and London: Praeger. ISBN: 0-278-98996-8 [Comment: this book's historical perspective makes it a good candidate for IDS 803.]

    Robin Mansell and Brian S. Collins, eds. 2005. Trust and Crime in Information Societies. Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar. ISBN: 1-84542-177-9

    Catherine McKercher and Vincent Mosco, eds.2007. Knowledge Workers in the Information Society. Critical Media Studies series editor Andrew Calabrese. Lanham and Boulder: Lexington Books, a division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. [The focus on 'labor' - as in 'labor unions' - makes this book too narrowly focused for IDS 803]

    Mark Poster. 2006. Information Please: Culture and Politics in the Age of the Digital Machines. Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press. ISBN: 0-8223-3839-4 [the very beginning is promising - but then drops off precipitously]

     Sverker Sörlin and Hebe Vessuri, eds. 2007. Knowledge Society vs. Knowledge Economy: Knowledge, Power, and Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.  [not for IDS 803]