5:45P-7:00P TR (25) 3 cr

COAS INTENSIVE WRITING SECTION.

TOPIC: THE INTERNET =20

This course will examine the effects of the Internet and the
World Wide Web on contemporary public life.  How does
computer-mediated communication change our ideas about what it
means to be a "citizen?"  How do such communication technologies
change our understandings of what it means to be part of a
"nation?"  To answer these questions, it will be necessary for us
to consider how computer-mediated communication is affecting our
understanding of "identity" and "experience," both public and
private.  Our readings will include attempts by contemporary
computer users to articulate the difference that computer
technologies make, such as John Perry Barlow's "Declaration of
Independence for Cyberspace."  We will, however, also compare and
contrast the forms of public life that computers make possible
with the forms of public life that print technology made possible
in the early national period, possibly using Benedict Anderson's
IMAGINED COMMUNITIES or Dale Spender's NATTERING ON THE NET.  We
will pay particular attention to the forms of "virtual community"
that emerge on computer networks, possibly using Howard
Rheingold's THE VIRTUAL COMMUNITY and Sherry Turkle's LIFE ON THE
SCREEN.  But we will also pay close attention to the importance
of writing in computer-mediated communication, in the form of
text-based virtual communities (MUDs and MOOs) and possibly
hypertext.  Depending upon the resources available, we will make
extensive use of the Internet and the Web.  In addition to
selections from the texts mentioned above, we will also read some
examples of fiction about new computer and communications
technologies, such as William Gibson's NEUROMANCER.