CS 6470:
The Design of Online Communities
This syllabus will definitely be revised over the course of the semester. Please
check online regularly for the most current assignments.
Texts
Required:
- Community
Building on the
Web, by Amy Jo Kim
- Code and Other Laws of
Cyberspace, by Larry Lessig
- Interviewing as
Qualitative Research,by
I.E. Seidman
- Communities in
Cyberspace, edited by Marc Smith and Peter Kollock
- Life on the Screen,
by Sherry Turkle
Recommended:
Currently out of print, but useful if you can find a copy:
- Cyberspace, First Steps,
edited by Michael Benedikt
- Cyberville,
by Stacy Horn
One good place to try to buy out of print books on the web
is Powell's Bookstore.
Books are for sale at the Georgia Tech bookstore, or you can also buy them
from my Amazon page. Profits
from course books sold from this page will be used to buy pizza, etc. for
class.
Online Sites
In addition to the required reading, there is at least one online community
to examine for each class. You will be given access to the Intel cluster on the
first floor of CCB. For Ultima Online, you need a CD.
I encourage you to buy your own copy (it's only $19.99 or you can pick up older
versions for less). However, you may also borrow the CD from the GVU office,
CCB 244, during business hours. If you borrow it over night, please return it
first thing the next morning.
Focus of the Course
Online communties are becoming an increasing part
of how we work, play, and learn. But how are they designed? What are they
really good for? Why are some communities more successful than others? What are
the key issues in this field of research?
At the completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Understand important
features of online interactions,
- Analyze online interactions
critically,
- Design an online community,
and
- Understand the research
issues in this field.
While students will not actually found a new community as part of this class,
students whose designs are promising may be invited to do so either as an
independent study or as sponsored research over the summer or next fall.
However, please keep in mind that starting such a community implies an ongoing
commitment to the real people who chose to become members.
This course counts for the HCI component of the graduate breadth
requirement; however, if you have any real interest in HCI, I recommend that
you take the graduate HCI class in addition to this class.
Assignments and Grading
Your grade is based on one short paper, two longer papers,
two presentations, a final exam, and class participation:
- Short
paper (2-6 pages): What are your best and worst experiences in a
virtual community? (10%)
- Midterm
paper (20 pages): Participate in a virtual community for a significant
amount of time (at least 10 hours) and observe it. Interview at least 3
community members. Analyze how the commmunity is
designed and in what ways it is successful. (25%)
- In-class presentation of
midterm paper. (5%)
- Final
paper (20 pages): Design a virtual community for a particular purpose.
Present a detailed rationale for your design decisions. (25%)
- In-class presentation of
design project. (5%)
- Final exam. (25%)
- Class participation. (5%)
Examples of previous classwork
Course Outline
(Some readings may change.)
- (8/22) Community: Face to
Face and Online
Reading:
- "Virtual Communites are Communites:
Web Surfers Don't Ride Alone" by Barry Wellman
and Milena Gulia (in
Smith & Kollock)
- "Bowling Alone:
America's Declining Social Capital" by Robert Putnam (handout)
Surfing:
Recommended:
Reading:
- The Great Good
Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Community Centers, Beauty Parlors, General
Stores, Bars, Hangouts, and How They Get You Through the Day, by Ray
Oldenburg. Chapters one and two. (handout)
- "Introduction"
and "The Heart of
the Well," Chapter One in The Virtual Community, by Howard Rheingold
- "And Now?"
in Cyberville by Stacy Horn, pp. 1-11.
(handout)
Surfing:
Recommended:
- "The Rubberneckers" in Cyberville
by Stacy Horn, pp. 17-46.
Reading:
- Interviewing as
Qualitative Research, by IE Seidman.
Surfing:
Short papers on best/worst experiences due.
Reading:
Recommended:
Surfing:
Assignment:
Please wait to begin research on your midterm
paper until you have attended this lecture, and you have completed the training
course.
Please do not miss this class. If you do miss this lecture, you must meet with
the instructor.
Reading:
Surfing:
- (9/10) Theory of Identity
Reading:
- The Presentation
of Self in Everyday Life, by Erving Goffman.
Pages 1-58, intro & most of chapter 1. (handout)
Surfing:
Reading:
Surfing:
Reading:
- "The Strange
Case of the Lectronic Lover," by Lindsey
Van Gelder (handout)
- "Boyz and Gurlz" in Cyberville by Stacy Horn
- "TinySex and Gender Trouble", in Life on the
Screen by Sherry Turkle (chapter 8)
- Gender
Swapping on the Internet by Amy Bruckman
Surfing:
Recommended:
- "Will the Real
Body Please Stand Up," by Sandy Stone (In Cyberspace, First Steps
- handout).
- "Samantha,
Among Others," (Chapter 4) in "My Tiny Life" by
Julian Dibbell
- "This Is the
Chapter About Sex" in Cyberville by
Stacy Horn
Reading: Papers by Amy Bruckman:
Optional surfing:
Participating in MOOSE Crossing requires consenting to be part of an
experimental study. I'll show the site in class. Trying it out on your own is
optional.
- (9/24) Virtual Architecture
Reading:
- "Cybrids" by Peter Anders (In Convergence 4:1,
Spring 1998. Handout.)
- Marcos Novak's website
- "Liquid
Architectures in Cyberspace" by Marcos Novak. (handout; in
"Cyberspace First Steps")
Surfing:
Recomended:
- "How did My
Garden Grow" (Chapter 5) in "My Tiny Life" by
Julian Dibbell
- (9/26) The Social, the
Technical, the Political
Reading:
- "Do Artifacts
Have Politics?" by Langdon Winner. (In The Whale and The Reactor
- handout).
- Code by
Lawrence Lessig. Parts one and two, pages
3-108.
Surfing:
Reading:
Surfing:
Recommended:
- "The Purple
Guest" (Chapter 3) in "My Tiny Life" by Julian Dibbell
Reading:
Surfing:
- (10/8) Social Roles, Leadership, & Hosting
Reading:
Surfing:
Recommended:
- (10/10) Case Study: Ultima Online
Reading:
Surfing:
- Ultima Online
website
- Ultima
Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge Massively Multiplayer game (earlier
version is fine too)
Please both explore their website and try the
game. Both the website and game are PC, Windows 95/98/2000 only. Requires a CD,
account, and password.
CDs are available in the GVU office, room CCB 244,
during regular business hours. Please return the CD as soon as you are done
with it. If you keep it over night, please return it first thing the next
morning so others can use it. (It's not expensive; you may simply want to buy
your own.)
Please participate for at least two hours. You may
do so together with a classmate if you wish. Don't wait until the last minute
to do this:
A short talk on how to give a talk will be
delivered in class.
- (10/15) Holiday:
mid-semester break
- (10/22) Student
Presentations: Community Analysis Papers
Midterm papers due.
- (10/24) Student
Presentations: Community Analysis Papers (continued)
- (10/29) Student
Presentations: Community Analysis Papers (continued)
- (10/31) Student
Presentations: Community Analysis Papers (continued)
- (11/5) Children Accessing
Controversial Information
Reading:
Surfing:
- Read carefully
through the websites of two of (you do not need to install the software):
- (11/7) Participation and
Lurking
Reading:
- "Lurker
demographics: counting the silent," by Blair Nonnecke
and Jenny Preece.
Proceedings of CHI 2000, April 1
- 6, 2000, The Hague, Netherlands,
pp. 73-80.
Surfing:
- (11/12) Online Cooperation
and The Open Source Movement
Reading:
Surfing:
- Slashdot. Make sure you figure out how
the voting/rating system works.
- Kuro5hin, as slashdot
spinoff.
- (11/14) CartoonNetwork.com
Guest lecture by Chris Waldron and Justin Williams
from CartoonNetwork.com
Surfing:
Reading:
Surfing:
Recommended:
- Database Nation
by Simson Garfinkel
- "Untraceable
electronic mail, return addresses, and digital pseudonyms" by David Chaum. CACM 24(2):84-88, Feb '81.
Reading:
- net.gain
by John Hagel and Arthur Armstrong, pp. 2-40.
(handout)
Surfing:
- (11/26) Student
Presentations: Community Designs
Final papers due.
- (11/28) No class (Happy
Thanksgiving!)
- (12/3) Student
Presentations: Community Designs (continued)
- (12/5) Student
Presentations: Community Designs (continued)
Related Classes
Question welcome--email asb@cc.gatech.edu