CS73N

Spring 2010 Schedule

CS73N Freshman Seminar

The Business of the Internet

Instructors: Gio Wiederhold, Avron Barr, and Shirley Tessler. (Email all instructors at cs73n-instructors@aldo.com.)

Class times: Thursdays, 4:15 to 5:05pm
                    Fridays, 2:15 to 4:05 pm

Location: Gates 100

Note: The course is graded, based on class participation, oral presentations, weekly written assignments, and a substantial website of your design.  This course can provide PWR2 credit. This syllabus reflects those requirements.

Weekly Topic Schedule 

Initialized for 2010 on 17 January (Avron). Subject to change when class discussions prompt new areas of inquiry. 

Note: Readings may be added, class topics changed, or assignments modified so it would be best to subscribe to e-mailed change notification or RSS on this wiki when you register.

See description of Final Project here. In addition, descriptions of class assignments and homework due dates are included in the schedule below.

 

  Date 2009 Topic Readings Assignment Due
1 Thursday
1 April
Course overview, approach.
Writing emphasis and your project.
Business aspects and breadth.
Spring 2008 Notes00. Also Thinking About Tomorrow, Wall Street Journal, 28 Jan, 2008.  
2 Friday
2 April

Creating web pages. Course wiki.

Content and search complement each other. Privacy and location detection.

Discuss initial project ideas.

Spring 2006 Notes01Notes on Internet Technologies. Also review How to Write for the Web.

Be prepared to discuss your initial project ideas in class.
3 Thursday
8 April


HTML. Data, information, knowledge.

Actionable information and your web sites.

Advertisment income.

Spring 2006 Notes03

Income

 Present questions about Writing for the web.

Reminder: students must self-enroll in Axess to be officially enrolled in your seminar.  (The FSP application system is separate.)  The deadline to add courses is April 19.  If they experience problems with enrollment, students can contact FSP at froshsophprograms@stanford.edu or 723-4338.

4 Friday
9 April

Some notes on writing for the Internet.

Education and the Internet.

Note Education

Note 3 for this class, with comments on assignment 1.  Earlier information: Spring 2006 Notes02. Also see notes from previous semesters: Past Notes 09, Past Notes 12, Past Notes05

Assignment #1 Due
Write up a page or two about the general area of your project and about how that part of the world will look 4 years from now. (For more detail on assignment, see Notes02.)
5 Thursday
15 April

Project research: on-line resources beyond Google and Wikipedia, and tools for organizing research materials.

Notes04

 
6 Friday
16 April

Brief history of the Internet - military, academic, commercial.

Collaborative brainstorming exercise: What is the internet?

Net Neutrality, Patents, Medicine. Trust.

In the break we will tour Stanford and computing history exhibits in the basement of the Gates Building.

Notes 05


Assignment #2 Due
Write a one-page outline of your project presentation, organized so that one central motivating point is clear and well supported.

7 Thursday
22 April
Business and Business Plans; Ongoing cost, market, trust as part of a business plan.

Notes07

Note on Business Plans

Students will present their project ideas in class on April 30th and May 7th and 8th. (For more detail on assignment, see Notes03.) The presentation of project ideas is considered Assignment #3.

Also note availability of Oral Communications Tutor:  for help preparing for or practicing oral presentations, students can sign up for an appointment here: OCT Support for Undergraduates

8 Friday
23 April

The technology of the web.


Note on Internet Technologies;

HTML

By now you should have developed an accessible website for your topic.

 

Thursday
29 April

Student project presentations, peer feedback. Assessment of criticism, and how to make it constructive. 

Avron on travel today.

 

Assignment #3 (oral presentations) start today! Each student will make a 10 minute presentation of their project in class, with feedback from the class.

Student Speaking Assignments 2009


10

Friday
30 April

Making Good Web Pages, a presentation by Chris Madison and Mike Hopkins of WiredMoon.com (designers of many Stanford websites)

 Notes12

Slides and readings - 2009.

Assignment #4 Due
Prepare a 2-3 page plan for your project that shows, like a Business Plan would, a certain level of thinking through the possibilities and preparation about the users (customers) and about the costs and operation of the project. See Notes07.
11

Thursday
6 May

Student project presentations, peer feedback.

  Sign up for Student Critiques in class. Critiques of your project and website are due next week. It is time to get something out there to critique, if you haven't already, even if it is partly placeholders.
12 Friday
7 May

Student project presentations, peer feedback.

Constructive criticism.



13 Thursday
13 May
Candidate Topics:  Virtual Nations; Business requirements for selling products and services;    
14 Friday
14 May
HTML, what's good: flexibility! versus Word docs, PDF on-line.  Dynamic HTML with javascript. Now [XML] for semantic markups.  Data representation Note Representation, Notes06, Past Notes 06.

Discussion of market analysis, competitive analysis, and positioning. Demographics for market size. Approaches to income generation on the Internet. Business to business (B2B) on the Internet.

Notes09

Assignment #5 Due
Write a critique of two students' projects, per the sign up sheet from last week. Each critique should be at least 200 words.

Critiques are to be constructive (see Wikipedia), but honest and frank. Cover all aspects of the project: concept, audience definition, project plan, site organization, clarity of writing, ethics, potential risks/problems, etc. Suggest ideas about website design, clarity, navigability, etc. and about the student's project itself. If the student you are reviewing is not very far along in building the website, then discuss his or her writing assignments and class presentation -- and you can interview them if you have questions. You may include URLs to suggested other reference sites they might find useful.

Feel free, as always, to review previous years' work: Student Critiques 2008; Student Critiques 2007; Student Critiques 2006. (Please note how students linked their critique to this table of assignments.)

15 Thursday
20 May

Web 2.0  - Interaction versus publishing and search. Social networking.

International relations and the Internet

See Browsers -- effectiveness of search engines. See Note13.

Gio in Washington, D.C.

 Notes14  
16 Friday
21 May

Writing notes: Assertiveness, collective nouns, parenthesized expressions.

Sharing website tips and tricks.

Reprise: Healthcare and Internet.

Web 3.0: semantics and ontologies to automatically match searches and processes.   Notes16, Past Notes 07

Hendler, Web 3.0 Emerging

Assignment #6 Due
Examine some other websites in your space. For these competitors or complementary sites, explain why your site is unique or better.

17 Thursday
27 May

Writing notes: Gerunds.

What if there were no Internet. Maurer: The Paranet? 

The Deep web, databases, image and video management.  Also Past Notes 08,

What is IP? Stock Market Valuations.

   
18 Friday
28 May
Final project discussions. Note IP protection. Also see Note13Past Notes 10. Protecting your work and its IP: Patents, Copyright, Trade secrets;  Importance of IP as part of the value of a company. Valuing IP. Outsourcing. Not-for-profit uses of the Internet. Past Notes 18  
19 Thursday
3 June
Dead week.
No class, but instructors available.
 

 
20 Friday
4 June
    Final projects due by today!
Turn over of any missing or incomplete project web pages in Gates 436.

 


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Last Modified 2010-01-17