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LBSC 708T/INFM 718T - Transformational Information Technologies
Spring 2007 - Section 0101
Course Description

Catalog Description

Seminar on Transformational Information Technologies; Nature of innovation, frameworks for analyzing the effects of information technology innovation on individuals and society, application to historical and emerging information technologies.

Prerequisites

INFM or MLS core complete or admission to a Ph.D. program. Required core courses must be completed by the end of the immediatey preceding Winter term. There are 4 MLS core courses and 3 INFM core courses; prior completion of INFM 620 or the management requirement (LBSC 630 or INFM 612) is not required.

Extended Description

The times in which we live are seeing the greatest sustained rate of change in technology in all of human history. We need to learn how to think about this tectonic shift and its effect on individuals and society as a whole. This course will explore the ways in which information technologies evolve, and how technologies interact with social systems, ultimately leading us to frameworks for thinking about the coupled evolution of technology and society. We'll start by looking at what people know about how to think about innovation. Then we'll work through a series of case studies, starting with those rooted most deeply in the past -- where we can learn a lot about what actually happened -- and moving towards those rooted most deeply in our vision of the future -- where we can explore the utility of our frameworks for thinking about innovation and social transformation..

Goals

Schedule

Section Days Time (P.M.) Classroom
0101 Thursdays 6:00-8:45 HBK 2119

CLIS faculty and post-candidacy doctoral students are welcome at any time without prior arrangement, but only if they have completed that week's assigned reading!

Course Materials

There is no required textbook. A syllabus that summarizes what we will cover each week, the reading list, information about student-led class sessions, and links to other useful resources can be found on the course web site (http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~oard/teaching/708t/spring07/).

Contact Information

The course mailing list, lbsc708t-0101-spr07 (at) coursemail.umd.edu, is available for use by all participants in the class.
Instructor
Name Doug Oard
Email oard (at) umd.edu
Office HBK 4121G
Office Phone (301)405-7590
My office hours this semester will be 4:30-5:30 Thursdays (e.g., before class). There will be no office hours on March 29, however. I am also happy to meet with students after class, during breaks, and at any other mutually convenient time by appointment. Email is the best way to reach me to set up an appointment, and it is also a good way to get a quick answer to a simple question. The phone is not nearly as good because I move between several offices and labs in a typical day and phone tag is not very efficient, but we can easily schedule a phone call by email if you like.

Students wishing to discuss accommodations for unusual circumstances should also come see me, and should do so at the earliest possible time.

Grading

Course grades will be assigned based on the following components:

Component Percentage Factors
Contributions to your team 40% Leadership, presentation, research
Term paper 40% Quality of analysis
Other contributions 20% Framework, discussion, blogging
Your contributions to your team will be assessed based on contributions made in class when your team is leading the discussion, and on a brief written report recapping the contributions of each member. That report will be submitted at the start of the session in each week that your team leads the class discussion. All members of the team must either sign the report or (in unusual cases) submit a minority report bearing their signature.

Each student is required to write one term paper that applies the ideas developed during the course to analyze the past development or possible future development (or both!) of some technology that is of personal interest to the student. The subject matter may not exactly match that of any class session, but selection of some subtopic that is touched on during a class session would be entirely appropriate. For example, if you pick online communities for your team's final session, you might choose to write a term paper on online medical communities that serve as support groups for patients with medical conditions. Term papers must be written individually, but the ideas that they contain may be (and should be!) discussed with anyone who can comment knowledgably on them. Review and comment on early drafts of the paper is allowed and indeed strongly encouraged, but no other person may write or edit any portion of a student's term paper. The term paper is due on Friday May 10 (the last day of class). It is expected to be about 4,000 words (which you can interpret as between 3,500 and 4,500 words), and it should written in a form and style that is suitable for publication. Indeed, you should write with a specific publication venue in mind (and you should tell me what that venue is), and you should submit your paper for publication after receiving my comments on your final draft that you submit to me on May 10 (which you can expect to receive back by May 21).

Students are expected to make substantive contributions to each week's class. This will normally be done through active discussion. Student who will unavoidably miss a class session are required to submit a (roughly) 1,000-word paper summarizing their reaction to that week's readings and suggesting discussion topics. This paper must be received by the instructor and by the team leading the discussion at least 1 hour before the scheduled class to receive credit (since papers received after that can not practically be discussed in class). Students are encouraged to record their reactions to class discussions on a blog, either during or after class. The Web address of the blog should be submitted to the instructor so that it can be linked form the course Web site. Statements made by members of the class should not be attributed by name on public Web sites without the express agreement of the person making the statement. The development of an analysis framework is an important component of the course, and students will receive credit for substantiative contributions to the development of that framework. This can be done through discussion in class, by contributions sent to the class mailing list between class sessions, or by preparing text and/or graphical summaries of the evolving framework for use by members of the course.

There will be no exams.

Doug Oard