454: Communication and Technology
Syllabus

We will attempt to stick as closely to this schedule as possible. It is expected that you willcomplete the reading material on the date assigned and be prepared to discuss these essays in class. The instructor urges you in the strongest possible terms to keep on schedule with the assigned readings and exercises. If you don't, you will probably have to work much harder to keep up with missed work. Additionally, in a small discussion class such as this one, it is often quite obvious who has and has not completed the readings. Students who try to participate in the discussion without having completed the readings tend to degrade the intellectual experience for the other students.

| Aug 26 | Aug 28 | Aug 30 | Sept. 2 | Sept. 4 | Sept. 6 | Sept 9 | Sept. 11 | Sept. 13 | Sept. 16 | Sept. 18 | Sept. 20 | Sept. 23 | Sept. 25 | Sept. 27 | Sept. 30 | Oct. 2 | Oct. 4 | Oct. 7 | Oct. 9 | Oct. 11 | Oct. 14 | Oct. 16 | Oct. 18 | Oct 21 | Oct 23 | Oct 25 | Oct 28 | Oct 30 | Nov 1 | Nov 6 | Nov 4 | Nov 8 | Nov 11 | Nov 13 | Nov 15 | Nov 18 | Nov 20 | Nov 22 | Nov 25 | Nov 27 | Nov 29 | Dec 2 | Dec 4 |

Reading Sources:

Aug. 26: Course Introduction. The Problem of Technology.Why Communication? Why Technology? Brief overview of issues in technology and communication.

Aug. 28: GIGO and RTFM: A Brief Introduction to Learning to Use the Internet. On Being a Cyber-Citizen in this Classroom. Practical Issues for the semester.

Aug. 30: Medium and Message. The public sphere. The global village. Technological Determinism.

Required Readings:

McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage (selections; RDR 1-31)

URLs of Interest:

• McLuhan Quote - O - Rama
• Who was Marshall McLuhan?
• The McLuhan Probes

Sept. 2: LABOR DAY - NO CLASS

Sept. 4: Medium and Environment. The "Information Age."

Required Readings:

Golden, et al., "Marshall McLuhan on the Medium and the Message" Gary Wolf, "Channeling McLuhan" ( RDR 32-75)

Sept. 6: Towards a History of Communication and Technology. The Internet: An Introduction. Issues of Language and Jargon.

Sept 9: Enduring Problems and Issues.

Required Readings:

Universal Movement Trinity, "CyberTribe Rising" ( RDR 76-79) Jacques Leslie, "Mail Bonding" ( RDR 80-85)

Sept. 11: Critical Perspectives on Communication and Technology

Iain A. Boal, "A Flow of Monsters: Luddism and Virtual Technologies" RVL (3-16) Herbert I. Schiller, "The Global Information Highway: Project for an Ungovernable World" RVL 17-34

Sept. 13: The Political Economy of the Internet: Global Village or Corporate Villa?

Stanley Aronowitz, "Technology and the Future of Work" RDR 86-93 Schiller, "Media, Technology, and the Market: The Interacting Dynamic" RDR 94-101 Marc Cooper, "class.war@silicone.valley" RDR 305-310

Sept. 16: From Science Fiction to Romantic Realism: The Invention of Cyberspace

Required Readings:

William Gibson, Neuromancer (NOTE: The entire book need not be completed, as we will not spend much time discussing plot or character development; however, you should read enough to have a useful grasp of the style, language, and narrative assumptions of the text.)

• William Gibson Information
• Netropolitan Life
• EFF "Net Culture" Archive
• The Culture of the Internet and Usenet
• Virtual Societies: Their Prospects and Dilemmas

Sept. 18: The Invention of Cyberspace (continued)

Required Readings:

Peter Fitting, "The Lessons of Cyberpunk," RDR 217-227.

Sept. 20: Cyberspace and the Internet. History, Background, Assumptions.

Required Readings:

Howard Rheingold, "Visionaries and Convergences: The Accidental History of the Net" RDR 102-124.

Sept. 23: NO CLASS MEETING (Yom Kippur).

(Note that this represents a change from the original syllabus. Reading assignments, however, remain the same.)

Required Readings:

Gary Chapman, "Making Sense Out of Nonsense: Rescuing Reality from Virtual Reality" RDR 125-128. Theodore Roszak, The Cult of Information (COI) xiii-44.

Since we are not meeting to discuss these as a class on Sept. 23, discussion of these readings will continue on Sept. 25. URLs of Interest:

• History of the Internet
• Community Memory (Internet History Mailing List Archive)
• Brief History of the Internet
• Internet 25th Anniversary
• How the Internet Came to Be
• A Short History of the Internet
• The History of Apple Computer

Sept. 25: Technology and Consciousness: Ideology

Required Readings:

COI 47-86.

Sept. 27: Technology and Consciousness (continued).

Required Readings:

COI 87-129.

URLs of Interest:

• New Modes of Information
• City of Bits
• INFORMATICS: A SHORT PRESENTATION
• The Network Nation Revisited

Sept. 30: The Computer and the Counterculture

Required Readings:

COI 130-155. Timohy Leary, "Themes Which Define Cultures," RDR 304.

Oct. 2: "Information" Revisited

Required Readings:

COI, 156-201.

Oct. 4: TBA

Oct. 7: Cyberspace and Surveillance

Required Readings:

Oscar Gandy, "It's Discrimination, Stupid!" RVL 35-48. David Banisar, "Big Brother Goes High-Tech," RDR 326-332.

URLs of Interest:

• Electronic Privacy Information Center Home Page
• Social Implications of Information Technologies
• Chris Chesher, Colonizing Virtual Reality

Oct. 9: Luddism and Resistance to the Technocratic Machine

Required Readings:

Roszak, 202-234.

Oct. 11: The Virtual Classroom

Required Readings

Monty Neill, "Computers, Thinking, and Schools in 'The New World Economic Order" RVL 181-194. Neil Postman, "Virtual Students, Digital Classroom," RDR , 191-195.

URLs of Interest:

• The World Lecture HallU.S. Department of Education
• California Department of Education
• Internet Education Resources (Gopher)
• Education Resources
• Chronicle of Higher EducationTimes Higher Education Supplement Internet Service
• Algonquin College - Educational Technology
• Department of Education
• Education Sites
• Los Angeles Metropolitan Project
• The College Choice Website Homepage
• Apple Education
• EduCom Resources Gopher

Oct. 14: The Virtual Classroom (continued).

Oct. 16: Cyberspace and Political Space.

Required Readings:

Howard Rheingold, "Electronic Frontiers and Online Activists," "Disinformocracy," and "Afterward", RDR 137-172.

URLs of Interest:

• Howard Rheingold, A Slice of Life in my Virtual Community
• Howard Rheingold on Virtual Communities
• Howard Rheingold's Virtual Worlds Resources
• The Revolution will be DIGITIZED!
• Virtual Societies: Their Prospects and Dilemmas
• Politix Page
• Charlotte's WWWeb: Government Reform
• Grand Old Page Directory of Political Sites
• Cultural Formations on the Internet

Oct. 18: Cyberspace and Political Space: The Media Monopoly.

Required Readings:

Keith White, "The Killer App: Wired Magazine, Voice of the Corporate Revolution" RDR 173-176. Editor, Reign of Toads, "Bring The Noise" RDR 177-179. Jesse Hirsh, "The Information Institution: Oligopoly, Monopoly, and Power" RD R 180-190.

Oct 21: Cyberspace and Political Space (continued).

Oct 23: Alternative Models of Technology and Communication.

Required Readings:

William S. Burroughs, "The Invisible Generation" RDR 196-202. McLuhan, "Notes On Burroughs" RDR 203-205.

Oct 25: Alternative Models Continued. The "Virus." Resisting the Virtual.

Required Readings:

Douglas Rushkoff, "Communicable Diseases: Infecting the Established Media" RDR 206-208.

Oct 28: Alternative Models: Resisting the Virtual (continued).

Required Readings:

Langdon Winner, "Three Paradoxes of the Information Age" RDR 209-216. Jesse Drew, "Media Activism and Radical Democracy" RVL 71-84

Oct 30: The Computer Hacker: Misfit or Criminal?

Required Readings:

Emmanuel Goldstein, "No More Secrets" RDR 228-229. Robert Wright, "HackWork," RDR 320-325.

URLs of Interest:

• Hacker Crackdown
• Computer underground Digest WWW Site
• The New Hacker's Dictionary
• Cypherpunks Topics
• 2600 Magazine
• The DataHaven Project - Table of Contents
• Chaos Info Pages
• The World of Hacking
• PHRACK MAGAZINE HOME PAGE
• GNN I-Media Center: Links to Mitnick

Nov 1: Cyberpunk and the Hacker Aesthetic.

Required Readings:

.net, "Breaking Into Heaven" RDR 230-233. Andrew Ross, "Hacking Away at the Counterculture" RDR 234-249.

Nov 4: The Computer Hacker (continued): Online (In)Security.

Required Readings:

TBA (Online Sources).

Nov 6: Gender and Sexuality in Cyberspace.

Required Readings:

Laura Miller, "Women and Children First: Gender and the Settling of the Electronic Frontier" RVL 49-58

URLs of Interest:

• Julian Dibbell, A Rape In Cyberspace
• Shannon McRae, Coming Apart at the Seams: The Erotics of Virtual Embodiment
• In Your Face: Subversive Gender Activity on the Net
• Feminist Activist Resources on the Net
• GENDER-RELATED ELECTRONIC FORUMS
• Feminist Majority Foundation
• Cybergrrl Welcomes You!
• Women's Room
• FeMiNa - Web Search For Women and Girls
• Men's Issues Page
• Feminism and Women's Studies

Nov 8: Gender and Sexuality (continued).

Required Readings:

Claudia Springer, "Sex, Memories, and Angry Women" RDR 250-261

Nov 11: Gender and Sexuality (continued).

Required Readings:

Gerard van der Leun, "This is a Naked Lady" RDR 262-263. Susie Bright, "The Virtual Orgasm" RDR 264-69. Anne Balsamo, "Feminism for the Incurably Informed" RDR 270-285.

Nov 13: Pornography and the Communications Decency Act

Required Readings:

Rogier van Bakel, "How Good People Helped Make a Bad Law," RDR 311-319

Nov 15: Privacy, Property, and Profit

Required Readings:

Pamela Samuelson, "The Copyright Grab" RDR 286-293. John Perry Barlow, "The Economy of Ideas" RDR 294-403.

URLs of Interest:

• Electronic Privacy Information Center Home Page
• Bacard's Privacy Page
• The World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Cryptography, PGP, and Your Privacy
• The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto
• The Cypherpunk Manifesto
• The Center for Democracy and Technology
• NIST Computer Security Resource Clearinghouse
• Network/Computer Security Technology
• DigiCash ecash - getting ecash
• Netscape: Legal Beat
• Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams
• SAIC Security Library
• mechworld
• Remailer list
• W3 - Based Anonymous Remailer Interface
• Computer and Network Security Reference Index
• Services of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Cryptography and Computer Security

Nov 18: Privacy, Property, and Profit (continued).

Nov 20: Technology and Communication: Drawing Conclusions in a Postmodern World.