Syllabus

NOTE: Syllabus subject to change

Social Media Technologies in Organizations | CIS 3750 | Fall 2014

Section: PMWA

Time: Tuesday Thursday 7:30pm – 8:45pm

Location: VC 4-190

Instructor: Anderson Evans

Email: [email protected]

Office Hours: By Appointment

Course Blog: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/newmediacourse

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Course Description:

“This course presents an intensive survey of Web 2.0 technologies–social networking, blogs, wikis, microblogging, virtual communities, video sharing, social bookmarking, recommendation systems, etc.–and their impact on both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. Topics covered include the history of and major influences on today’s social media; convergence of technology; trends toward increased democratization and globalization; recommendation systems; crowdsourcing; concerns relating to privacy and confidentiality; and the implications for business in today’s highly interconnected world. The use of social media technologies in the service of organizational learning will be explored in depth.” –from official course catalog.

I will add that we will be framing this class as a class that examines cultural software, in other words the types of software that creates the content that drives social media, from images, to video and audio deliverables. Our textbook, Software Takes Command, is written by Lev Manovich, a figurehead in New Media theory and currently a professor at CUNY GC. This book is not a textbook specifically about “social media,” however we will frame much of our in-class conversation around “social media” aspects of any software up for discussion.

Another big difference between this and a typical “new media” class is that, in this class, we will have a significant number of in-class visits from experts in the field (Buzzfeed editors, Gawker editors, various community managers, and other social media experts).

Every Tuesday we will discuss either passages from our text, an assigned video, or an assigned reading. Every Thursday I will demonstrate the use of various open source software packages that can be used, if the student desires, in the course’s final project (and in life).

You are not expected to know any programming, or even any markup (HTML/XML/MD, etc). And while you will have the option to use techniques demoed in class as part of your final, less technologically inclined students will have the option to write a paper on one or several of the topics covered in the discussion portion of this class.

Course Objectives:

1. * Understanding the workflow that goes into “social media” based professions/projects
2. * Exploring avenues of computer mediated content creation
3. * Familiarization with open source software packages
4. * Engagement with computer based technological praxis
5. * Finding ways of using the computer to create “shareable content”

Textbook: Software Takes Command by Lev Manovich
Creative Commons Free Online Edition: http://www.2m7.nl/softwarestudies/software%20takes%20command.pdf
[will move a copy to local server — This is the version I will be using]
Amazon physical codex: http://www.amazon.com/Software-Command-International-Critical-Aesthetics/dp/1623567459

In addition to the textbook, you will need a Blogs@Baruch account, a pen, and a composition book for class sessions.

The Baruch Policy on Academic Honsety [available at: http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/academic/academic_honesty.html] defines plagiarism as “the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research or writing as your own.” If plagiarism is detected, I will have to take action which would include failing and reporting to the college.  For a full rundown on what constitutes plagiarism, visit http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/tutorials/plagiarism/summary.htm.

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Assessment:

Homework	20 points
Attendance	10 points
Mid-Term Proposal	20 points
Final Project	50 points

 

Attendance:

According to the Baruch College Attendance policy (Undergraduate Bulletin, p. 41), “All students are required to attend every session of their courses. If a freshman or sophomore is absent in excess of twice the number of class sessions per week, the instructor must give the student a WU grade, which counts as an F. The instructor may give a junior or senior a WU grade (the equivalent of an F) for excessive absences. The WU grade may be given by the instructor at any time.”

You can miss 2 classes without any recourse, if you miss 3 classes you will receive 10 points off of your final grade.
If you miss 4+ classes you will receive a WU, unless there is an emergency scenario you discuss with me that I buy into.

If you arrive late (more than 10 minutes) more than once you will lose attendance points.

 

Discussion Prompt:

Each day during the first ten minutes of class I will give you a prompt on the board that relates to your homework.  I ask that you bring a pen and paper every day, so that you can respond to this prompt and turn it in.  This will always be open notebook, but not open book, and not open computer.  I’m not looking to QUIZ you with these prompts, more to think about the work you were assigned and as a way to get class discussion going right out of the gate.

 

Midterm Proposal:

Proposal A
The midterm proposal will be a 4 page outline of what you plan to do for your final project. I am looking for you to be very specific with what you plan to do, more on this later. I will make notes and try to be as clear as possible as to what I need you to further explain in your second draft. UPDATE: BECAUSE MOST OF YOU CHOSE TO DO BLOG POSTS IT HAS MADE THE A+B AVERAGING CLOSE TO IMPOSSIBLE.  THOSE THAT DID POORLY ON THE PROPOSAL WILL HAVE A CHANCE TO RESUBMIT, BUT A MANDATORY PROPOSAL B IS NO LONGER REQUIRED FOR ANYONE WITH A GRADE OF B OR ABOVE.

Proposal B
I will grade you on how well you have followed my instructions for revision.

 

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Final Project: SEE THIS PAGE FOR MORE SPECIFIC RUNDOWN

Using your midterm proposal as a guide, you will create a final New Media project that should fall under
one of the following categories:

• Paper

a 12 page (double spaced, Helvetica or Arial font sized 11pt) with at least six sources in MLA format on a topic of your choice

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• Website

– You can either follow my prompt or pitch your own website idea
Prompt: A website written in HTML, dedicated to sharing 25 pieces of New Media content on a specific theme styled with some CSS

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• Screencast

– Using demonstrated free/open source video screen recording techniques walk a user through new media content creation

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• Video Presentation

– 10 minute video presentation on New Media topic of your choice.