SI 575 Community Information Corps Seminar

Professor Paul Resnick

Winter 2004

Syllabus

Last revised 02/16/05 (PR).

Meets Wednesdays 6:30-8  in 409 West Hall
Schedule
email list: si.cic.575.seminar (I have deliberately not made it a link, so that automated programs won't be able to figure out the full address and send us SPAM. It's @umich.edu).

This 1-credit seminar course offers reading, reflection, and social networking experiences for students who are engaged in projects or considering careers as public informationists, (i.e., organizing information flows in support of communal and public interests).

The special theme this winter is the use of ICTs for local social and political organizing. We will examine a number of trends in technology or techniques for making use of technology, and try to connect those to the "big idea" themes of the CIC (social capital; public goods; inequality; diversity, identity, and power; citizenship; the institutional landscape of public interest work). Compared to fall semester, we will do more exploration of technologies and trends, rather than trying to assimilate key theoretical concepts.

This seminar serves as a focal point for the School of Information's Community Information Corps, a loosely organized  interest group of faculty, doctoral and master's students, alumni, and outside "friends". Several faculty will be dropping in, and students who do not wish to sign up for credit are welcome to come for those sessions that they find interesting.

You are encouraged to participate for multiple semesters (you can take it for credit up to four times). In fall semesters, we'll keep revisiting the key themes, but there will be minimal overlap in the readings and guests adjacent years. The faculty coordinator will rotate as well, leading to slightly different emphases in different semesters. Winter semesters typically focus on some theme of interest to the faculty coordinator (and, hopefully, a large fraction of the CIC-affiliated students!)

There will be frequent opportunities to learn about other students' projects and to meet some of the national leaders of the community information movement (social networking) and possibly to travel to relevant conferences and workshops. We will spend a couple of sessions "networking" among ourselves to help each other find jobs and internships doing public information work.

Early in each semester, there will be announcements about project opportunities with faculty and Directed Field Experience opportunities and other volunteer projects. Students will be encouraged to reflect on their project experiences in the class. Academic credit for these projects, however, will not be arranged through this class. DFEs will be administered through the PEP office. Workshop courses have their own course numbers. Other projects will be arranged as independent study directly with the supervising faculty member, or as non-credit activities. This seminar is one of the focal points for the CIC, but it is not the only way to be involved with CIC.

Pre-requisites

None officially, but the discussion will often assume that students are familiar with the key concepts covered in fall semesters. See the CIC Fundamental Concepts document. (Note: you will need to log in to the CIC web site before the actual link to that document shows up.)

Objectives

After participating in SI 575, you should be able to:

• understand some of the interesting developments in ICTs for local social and political organizing and mobilization
• connect these developments to the "big idea" themes of the CIC
• find a job or internship as a public informationist

Readings

Readings will be handed out in class, or available on the Web. You will need to read materials before class so that we can have lively discussion (see reaction paper assignments below).

Assignments and Due Dates

This is a 1-credit class. Class meets for an hour and a half each week. You should spend, on average, about two and a half hours each week outside of class.

Each week, you will be expected to:

• explore the assigned technology or technology use, through a combination of assigned reading and exploring on the web
• read the designated discussion leaders' summary and questions and send a response by Tuesday evening.

Once during the semsester, you will be expected to:

• Act as facilitator/discussion leader. There may be a team of leaders for particular weeks. Specific duties include:
  • posting a short summary and specific questions by Monday evening
  • reading all the students comments and preparing a discussion plan
  • meeting with me late on Wedensday afternoon to review and revise your discussion plan
  • perhaps helping to host the visitor, if there is one (e.g., pick up at airport; take to lunch or dinner)
  • leading the actual discussion
  • Within one week after the class session, hand in a summary, 5-10 page paper that not only captures the key ideas of the class discussion but serves as an introduction to the topic for other CIC-type people who were not part of the class discussion (alums, people outside SI, next year's students, etc.). Peter and I will comment on this writeup and you will have one more chance to revise it. The final version will be posted to the public CIC website. Over time, I expect the accumulation of these writeups to be a significant resource for the CIC.

In general the class discussion, and the summary writeups, should cover the following kinds of questions:

• What are the key features of this technique or technology?
• Where is it heading?
• What are the opportunities for or threats to the public interest (social capital; public goods provision; inequality)?
• Are there any implications for action for current CIC students, individually or as the CIC?
• Are there any implications for action for public informationists more generally?
• Are there any internship or job opportunities?

There will be no exams, and no end of semester papers.

Grading

This class must be elected pass/fail (satisfactory/unsatisfactory). Satisfactory performance is being a good participant on a weekly basis and creating a final, approved summary writeup for your week that will be posted on the CIC website.

Office Hours

Paul Resnick, 3210 SI North, Mondays 4-5PM, Tuesdays 2-3PM. Or email me at presnick@umich.edu

Peter Keller-Transburg, 406 West Hall, by appointment or drop-in. Or email at  peterkt@umich.edu

Support for Summer Jobs

Last year we were able to supplement summer salaries for public interest jobs and internships. We hope to have money to do that again this year. Watch for more information on this year's program in the coming months.

Travel and Social Networking

If you find a conference that's worth going to and that you think will help you in assessing or developing job prospects or developing project ideas for future semesters, you can ask for travel funds. We don't have much right now, but try making a case and we'll what we can find. You'll have to

• justify why this conference is appropriate as a learning or networking opportunity for you as a public informationist;
• be frugal to keep expenses down;
• share a trip report with your classmates when you get back

Please take advantage of this great opportunity!

About ACT and Its Relationship to CIC

ACT, the Alliance for Community Technology (www.communitytechnology.org), conducts a number of catalytic activities at the nexus of academia, community serving organizations and social investors. These activities include environmental scanning, convening discussions and framing emerging issues such as the potential role of open source software and ASPs for non-profit organizations, incubating innovative projects such as digital libraries for Native American Tribal Colleges. developing new knowledge about community technology through research, and training the next generation of public interest and community informationists.

This last activity, grooming the next generation, is where CIC fits in. CIC is the identifier for the suite of ACT activities involving students and alumni. For obvious reasons, the CIC name is somewhat more prominent inside SI, while the ACT name is more prominent in external relations with with organizations that may have less direct contact with students. ACT is the overall entity; CIC is a part of ACT.

Session Schedule

This schedule is likely to be juggled significantly after the semester begins. Please consult the online version for the latest.

(Note: I will be soliciting feedback from students at the first session about a number of topics. The remainder of the schedule after the first two weeks will be filled in based partly on student input from that first session.)