A three-quarter (fall 2000, winter 2001, spring 2001) program; 8 credits per quarter (12 may also be possible)
Faculty:
    Randy Groves (randy@scn.org; 425.868.6014)
    Doug Schuler (dschuler@evergreen.edu; 206.634.0752)
Divisional Emphasis: Scientific Inquiry and Social Science
Level: Upper Division
Class Size Limit: 50
Program Meeting Times: Wednesday evenings, 6 -10 + four 8 hour Saturday daytime sessions.
Office Hours: 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM on every Wednesday when we have class.
Program e-mail list cis@scn.org

CIS Schedule
CIS Resources
Class Pictures Program Description

This is a three-quarter half-time program that develops web-based software for a community. Some of these communities will be local and some will be in other places in the world; Argentina, Pakistan, Sarawak, Russia, Mason County, Mexico, Oregon, Idaho and Italy are possibilities. The basic themes for the program are participatory design, software development, community informatics, social networks and globalism. This program has some similarities to Student Originated Software, a full-time program that is offered every other year, especially as it involves developing computer applications for a "real" client. We will be constraining the guidelines in this program in many ways. The first is that the faculty will be selecting the "communities" in advance. Also, students will be working with the same suite of public domain tools (which will include Perl, Apache, HTML, Linux and MySQL). The use of technology is not open-ended -- we will be working with those tools only.

Learning Objectives

The learning objectives for this program are:

• To understand the definition, motivation, theory, and uses of "Community Information Systems."
• To be able to work effectively with people in communities and other cultures on projects.
• To become adept in the systematic development of software.
• To be able to work effectively in groups.
• To learn organizational, research, cognitive skills that are necessary in pursuits like this.
• To become proficient with Perl and other PD web programming tools and approaches.
• To understand and be sensitive to the social issues involved with software technology (and the Internet specifically) and its role in a historical context.
• To inform and strengthen the Center for Community Partnerships.

A longer version of the learning objectives can be found at http://www.scn.org/edu/tesc-ds/2000-2001/fall/objectives.html.

Basic Quarter Plan

Fall

• Technology: Systematic development of software, introduction to Perl, web programming, and databases
• Other content: Community Information Systems: motivation, examples, directions
• Partnership Project: Delivery of preliminary plan

Winter

• Technology: systematic development of software, Perl, web programming, and databases
• Other content: community and advocacy networks, globalism
• Partnership Project: Database designed and implemented; utility functions in Perl; user interface design completed.

Spring

• Technology: Application development, documentation
• Other content: movements, evaluation
• Partnership Project: Completed web application; public software fair

 

Readings

The schedule for completing the readings can be found on the schedule.

• New Community Networks: Wired for Change ( chapter 1, e.g.).
• Shaping the Network Society (selected chapters), proceedings of Shaping of the Network Society symposium, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, Palo Alto
• Perl in a Nutshell by Siever, Spainhour, and Patwardhan. O'Reilly; Elemments of Programming with Perl by Johnson; or equivalent. The Nutshell book is a reference book. The Elements book is highly recommended for those who are just learning Perl.
• Other artlcles
  • The Strange Disappearance of Civic America, Robert Putnam
  • Beyond Bowling Together: SocioTechnical Capital, Paul Resnick
• We will also maintain a resource page (http://www.scn.org/tesc-ds/2000-2001/fall/resources.html) that contains other useful information.

 

Meeting Times

1. [Week 1] Wednesday September 27, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM.
2. [Week 2] Wednesday October 4, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM.
3.            Saturday, October 7, 9:15 AM - 5:00 PM.
4. [Week 3] Wednesday October 11, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM.
5. [Week 4] Wednesday October 18, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM.
6.            Saturday, October 21, 9:15 AM - 5:00 PM.
7. [Week 5] Wednesday October 25, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM.
8.            Saturday, October 28, 9:15 AM - 5:00 PM.
9. [Week 6] Wednesday November 1, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM.
10. [Week 7] Wednesday November 8, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM.
11. [Week 8] Wednesday November 15, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM.
12.            Saturday, November 18, 9:15 AM - 5:00 PM.

    No school this week. Thanksgiving break.

13. [Week 9] Wednesday November 29, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM.
14. [Week 10] Wednesday December 6, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM.
15. [Evaluation Week] Wednesday December 13, 3:00 PM - 9:00 PM.

The detailed schedule for fall 2001 can be found at http://www.scn.org/edu/tesc-ds/2000-2001/fall/schedule.html

 

Partnership Project

The partnership project is an important part of this program. In this project student teams will be working with communities all over the world. Please see the partnership project page (http://www.scn.org/edu/tesc-ds/2000-2001/fall/partnership_project.html) for more information. Also please see the partnership proposal form (http://www.scn.org/edu/tesc-ds/2000-2001/misc/partners-survey.html) to see the information we solicited from potential partners. The three quarter project will culminate with a "Community Information Systems Partnership Fair" (better name TBD) on June 6, 2001.

 

Case Study

Each student working with three other students will participate in a case study over the course of fall quarter. The case study is a fairly small application for implementing a collaborative application on the web. As with the Partnership Project we will be using public domain technology including HTML, CGI, Perl, and MySQL. The main case study description can be found at http://www.scn.org/edu/tesc-ds/2000-2001/fall/case_study.html

 

Seminars

Seminars are an important part of the Evergreen educational philosophy. Everybody neeeds to be an active participant in seminars and people need also to take care to let everybody speak. It is critical for everybody to read all the readings that are expected by the time of the seminar. Beyond this, it is important to actively read the readings. This means having a dialogue with the material as you go along. Don't accept what you're reading blindly! Ask questions of the material. Mark it up. There will be a journal question (see the online schedule) that you will need to discuss in writing for each seminar. This short essay (1 - 2pages) will be turned in at the end of each of the five seminar sessions. It must be typed.

 

Program Covenants

Covenants are essentially social contracts. Each student must sign the student covenant and abide by it to receive credit for the program. The convenant can be found at http://www.scn.org/edu/tesc-ds/2000-2001/fall/covenant.html

 

Related Programs

There are other computer related offerings in the part time studies area this Fall at Evergreen. Please see the Foundations of Computing program page for more information on that program.