Readings and assignments are subject to change. Please always check the online syllabus.

CS 6470: Design of Online Communities

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Date Topic Readings & Online Sites
1/8 Introduction  
1/10 Community: Face to Face and Online Reading: Recommended: Online Sites:  
1/15 Third Places Reading: Online Site: Due:
1/17 Research Methods Reading: Recommended: Online Site:
1/22 Research Ethics Reading: Recommended: Online Site: Please do not miss this class. If you do miss this lecture, you must watch a video of class and meet with the TA.
1/24 No class  
1/29 Ethics Continued:
Disguising Subjects in Published Accounts
Reading: Online site: Due:
  • Obtain ethics certification via the online course, if you do not already have certification.
Please do not miss this class. If you do miss this lecture, you must watch a video of class and meet with the TA.
1/31 Design Factors Eric Gilbert's class will be joining us.
Reading: Online Site: Due:
2/5 Theory of Identity Reading: Online Sites:
  • Dooce (Warning: site is known for being irreverent and using strong language.)
  • TVNewser
Due:
2/7 Lecture by Dan Cosley Dan suggests you check out the site before doing the reading.

Reading:
  • It's Complicated: How Romantic Partners Use Facebook by Xuan Zhao, Victoria Schwanda Sosik, and Dan Cosley, Proceedings of CHI 2012
  • The Many Faces of Facebook: Experiencing Social Media as Performance, Exhibition, and Personal Archive by Xuan Zhao, Niloufar Salehi, Sasha Naranjit, Sara Alwaalan, Stephen Voida, Dan Cosley. Proceedings of CHI 2013, available as a resource on T-Square
Online Site:
2/12 Identity Online Reading: Online Site:
2/14 Gender Online Reading: Online Site:
2/19 Guest lecture: Sunah Su from Etsy (tentative) Reading:
2/21 Leadership and Hosting Reading: Recommended: Online Site:
2/26 No class  
2/28 The Social, the Technical, the Political Guest lecture by Casey Fiesler
Reading:
  • Do Artifacts Have Politics? by Langdon Winner. (in The Whale and The Reactor)
  • Code v2.0 by Lawrence Lessig. Chapters 3, 6, & 7. (Available free online, but you may wish to buy it anyway.)
Online Site: Due:
  • HW: First interview transcript
3/5 Deviant Behavior Reading: Recommended: Online Site:
3/7 Governance Reading: Recommended: Online Sites: Due:
  • HW: Second interview transcript
3/12 Social Roles Reading: Online Site:
3/14 Participation and Lurking Reading:

Recommended:

Online Site: Due:
  • HW: Third interview transcript
3/19 & 3/21 Spring break--no class  
3/26 Constructionism Reading: Recommended: Online Site:
3/28 Crowdsourcing & Citizen Science Reading: Online sites:
4/2 Community Study Presentations Due:
4/4 Community Study Presentations, continued
4/9 New Designs for Online Communities Eric Gilbert's class will join us.

4/11 Intellectual Property and Online Remix Guest Lecture by Casey Fiesler

Reading: Online Site:
4/16 Online Privacy Reading: Recommended:
  • "Privacy policies as decision-making tools, an evaluation of online privacy notices." by Carlos Jensen and Colin Potts. Proceedings of CHI 2004. (ACM DL)
Online Site:
  • Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Privacy (browse)
  • Read the privacy policies of two online sites you use. List your sites on the wiki, making sure no one else in the class has picked your sites. Come to class prepared to discuss those policies.
4/18 Design Presentations Due:
4/23 Online Cooperation and the Open Source Movement Reading: Online Site:
4/25 Wikipedia and the nature of "truth" Reading: Online Sites:

Readings and assignments are subject to change.

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