This is a long week because we start on Saturday, Sept 6 and the first SAKAI quiz will close at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, September 15.

We will look at the history of the Internet and the Personal Computer and some of the visions of futurists who anticipated many of the developments that are commonplace today. 

Readings:

1. George Johnson, "From Two Small Nodes a Mighty Web Has Grown", New York Times, Octobetr 12, 1999.  An historical account of the early development of the Internet.  This is on the New York Times WEB site.  You may need to open an account with them to access it.  The accounts are free and well worth having.  We will have other readings on this site.
2. Wikipedia, "The Global Brain".
   
3. Peter Russell,  "The Global Brain,"  Video a video released in 1983 based on Russell's book The Global Brain.  We did not have a chance to view this in class.  It is probably more powerful viewed in a darkened room than on a screen, but try to see it under the best possible circumstances.  You can also read a transcript of the sound track, but it wasn't written for that (as the book was) and the sound track lacks the power of the video.  You might find it useful to read the transcript after viewing it.  I have put some questions about it at the end of this page.
   
4. Barry Wellman and Bernie Hogan, "The Internet in Everyday Life."
   
5. Steve Lohr and Miguel Helft, "Google Gets Ready to Rumble with Microsoft,"  New York Times, December 16, 2007.  This discusses Google Documents, a software package we will be using.
   
6. David Pogue, "Serious Potential in Google's Browser", New York Times, September 2, 2008.

Assignments Due This Week:

Due by Monday, Sept 8: 

1.  A personal Web Page including:

1. A picture of yourself. 
   
2. At least one paragraph describing your interests, with hyperlinks to at least five relevant WEB sites.
3. Any other photos or text you would like to share with the class.
   
4. A statement of the topic you would most like to pursue for your class project in this course.   Some Suggested Topics for Interest Groups are posted here. 
   
5. When your page is ready, publish it as a WEB page by clicking on "share" and "publish as a WEB page." 
   
6. Finally, share your page with tedgoertzel@gmail.com so I will have the address and can give you credit for the assignment and make your site available to the others in the class.  To do this, click on "share" and "share with others."   If you would like me to be able to help with it, you should make me a "collaborator".  If you prefer to keep exclusive control, make me a "viewer".
7. Those of you who made a temporary, abbreviated WEB page in class have until Monday to update it.  Be sure that the updated version is published.  You should probably check the option box to have the page automatically republished whenever you change it.  You do NOT need to share it with me again, I will find it with the URL and check it for grading.

2.   A group WEB page listing the topic of your group, the names of the members and a link to each member's home page.  These will be refined later.  Most of you have already completed this assignment.
 
The group should work together on this, one member should prepare the first draft of the page, publish it and share it with the others.  Once that is done, each member can go in and add or change her or his name and link.  It should also be shared with the instructor, giving him the capability of editing it. 

Notes:

The Global Brain video is an example of utopian futurism (with a little bit of dystopian when he refers to humans as a cancer on the earth).  It anticipated a lot of issues and themes that are commonplace today, and presents a vision that still has value.  Here are some questions to think about in viewing it:

• What is an "organism"?  What characteristics of the earth as an ecosystem are similar to those of a biological organism?
• If the earth is an organism or a self-regulating system, what part to humans play?
• What are the consequences of the sheer number of humans increasing?  Does the number 10 billion have some significance?
• How valid is the analogy between the neurons in the human brain and the role of humans on the earth?  Are humans linking together into a global intelligence?
• Do we need a shift in consciousness from individualism to some form of collective consciousness?  Is this desirable?
• What does it mean to say that something is a "system"?  Are humans becoming linked together as a system?
• How does the process of evolution work?  Does societal evolution follow the same principles as biological evolution?
  
• Is this shift happening thirty years after the video was produced?  Or do the new means of communication simply exacerbate the differences between conflicting groups, violence, hostility?  Will cyberspace promote a harmonious global culture or just be another tool for discord?
• Has there been a succession of "ages" defined by a series of dominant technologies?  If so, what "age" are we in now?  When will it end?  What is next?
• Are we now in a new "spirituality age" as Russell projects?  Certainly it is not true that spirituality and brain research have become the dominant industry that shapes the economy.  Probably the next "age' will be the biotechnology age.
• What does the video communicate that the transcript does not?  How much of this would be gained if you listened rather than read the sound track?