Impact Fall 1998 - Requirements & Assignments

Tentative Requirements and Assignments for

Impact of New Information

taught by Howard Besser

Course Requirements

45% Class and Working Group Participation: Each student will participate in a Working Group which focuses on some aspect or perspective on new information technology. (Examples include Virtual Communities, Critical Theory, Public Policy, Future of Publishing, Creative Arts, Digital Commerce, etc.) This working group will meet weekly through most of the term, and will assign and discuss its own readings, and develop and maintain a Website that is designed to both reflect the group's work and to provide useful information to anyone on the Web who is interested in the chosen aspect or perspective (see the Spring 97 list of potential working groups, as well as examples from the Fall 98 Working groups.

Besides Working Group participation, this portion of your grade also includes participation in class discussions, and interaction with a variety of other student presentations.

45% Term Paper/Project: Do a term paper or project on some aspect covered in class. This may be a follow-up to one of your earlier exercises/papers/group discussions. Please check your proposed topic with the instructor before the middle of the semester. Here are some papers from previous courses

List of papers/projects in all iterations of this class through Spring 99
Spring 99 final papers/projects (Emphasis on Cultural Heritage Institutions)
Fall 98 final papers/projects (Berkeley SIMS students)
Spring 97 final projects (class mainly undergraduate students)
Winter 96 final projects (class mainly humanities and social science students)
Fall 96 final projects (class mainly MBA students)

10% Short Assignments:

Science Fiction Assignment

Viewings

One film from the past (1950s or before) to examine whether past visions of future information technologies have come true:

Metropolis

, Things to Come

Just Imagine

Wonderful World of Tomorrow

Time Machine

War of the Worlds

Charleston

Transatlantic Tunnel

Woman in the Moon

Aelita

You Can't Get There From Here: Ephemeral Films 1946-60

To New Horizons: Ephemeral Films 1931-45

Fantastic Planet

One relatively modern film that contains visions of future information technologies:

The Thirteenth Floor

The Net

Total Recall

, Rollerball

, Farenheit 451

, 1984

, Forbidden Planet

, Solaris

, Dreamscape

, Death Watch

, Outer Limits

Emphasis on how major aspects of society will change due to new information technologies: Johnny Mnemonic (1995), They Live (1988), Wild Palms (1993), Until the End of the World (1991), Bladerunner (1982), Brazil (1985), Terminator (1984), T-2 (1991)

Examination of future societies and capabilities: The Jetsons (1990), THX-1138 (1971), Star Wars (1977, 1980, 1983, 1999), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Born in Flames (1982), Tron (1982)

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Last updated10/04/99