III. Contexts of CMC

CMC in organizations

Class session 7 (7 Mar)--Homework 5 due: Turn in a brief (1-3 pages) description of your final project.

Visit by Davis Foulger

• Sproull, L., & Kielser, S. (1991). Connections. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Zuboff, S. (1984). In the age of the smart machine. (Chapter 10: Panoptic Power and the Social Text.) NY: Basic Books. pp. 362--386.

Group interaction and decision support systems

Class session 8 (21 Mar)-- Field trip to IBM

Class session 9 (28 Mar)-- PAPER ASSIGNMENT DUE: CMC in organizations: What do we have to gain; what might we lose?

• Nunamaker, J. F. Dennis, A. R., Alacich, J. S., Vogel, D. R., & George, J. F. (1991). Electronic meeting systems to support group work. Communications of the ACM, 34(7), 40-61.
• Poole, M. S., & DeSanctis, G. (1990). Understanding the use of group decision support systems: The theory of adaptive structuration. In J. Fulk and C. Steinfeld (Eds.) Organizations and communication technology (pp. 173-193). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
• Chidambaram, L., Bostrom, R. P., & Wynne, B. E., (1991). A longitudinal study of the impact of group decision support systems on group development. Journal of Management Information Systems, 7(3), 7-25.

CMC and the academy

Class session 10 (4 Apr) -- HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT DUE: Find and critque one electronic journal, eavesdrop for a week on one academic list, or interview an instructor or 3 students who have participated in a course taught partially online.

• Harnad, S. (1991). Post-Gutenberg galaxy: The fourth revolution in the means of production of knowledge. Public-Access Computer Systems Review, 2, 29-41. (Or send an e-mail message to listserv@UHUPVM1 with the following message: Get Harnad PRV2N1).
• Publication by electronic mail takes physics by storm. (1993, Feb. 26). Science, 259, 1246-1248.
• Faigley, L. (1992). The achieved utopia of the networked classroom. In Fragments of rationality: Postmodernity and the subject of composition (pp. 163-199). Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.

CMC in society and culture

Building communities in cyberspace

Class session 11 (11 Apr)

• Rheingold, H. (1993). A slice of life in my virtual community. In L. Harasim (Ed.) Global networks (pp. 57-80). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Schuler, D. (1994). Community networks: Building a new participatory medium. Communications of the ACM, 37(1), 39-51.
• Rheingold, H. (1993). The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Chapter 5 (Multiple User Dungeons and Alternate Identities, pp. 145 - 175.
• Gurak, Laura J. "A Community Protest in Cyberspace: What Happened With Lotus MarketPlace." in Computer-Mediated Communication ed. Susan Herring. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, forthcoming 1994.
• Kramarae, Cheris, & Taylor, H. Jeanie. (1993). Women and men on electronic networks: A conversation or a monologue? In H. J. Taylor, C. Kramarae, & M. Ebben (Eds.) Women, information technology and scholarship. Urbana: Center for Advanced Study.
• Recommended: Marsden, W., McIntosh, A., Adoph, C. (1993, August 14). The Fabrikant file. The Gazette, 11-20(?).

Re-visioning democracy in cyberspace

Class session 12 (18 Apr)

Class session 13 (25 Apr)-- PAPER ASSIGNMENT DUE class: Television failed to realize its potential as a democratic medium. What can or will make the prospects better for CMC?

• Herring, S. (1993). Gender and democracy in computer mediated communication. Electronic Journal of Communication, 3(2). (Or send an e-mail message to Comserve@Vm.Its.Rpi.Edu with the command: Get Herring V3N293).
• Winner, L. (1986). The whale and the reactor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chapter 6 pp. 98-117.
• Rheingold, H. (1993). The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Chapters 9 (Electronic Frontiers and Online Activists) and 10 (Disinformocracy), pp. 241-300.
• Hess, Charles (forthcoming). Hypertext and democracy paper.

Next Course Section: Conference on CMC: Promises and Perils