Intro to Digital Age

Week 11: Web 2.0 (Nov. 12 to Nov. 18) All work must be completed by Tuesday, Nov. 18 at midnight

Read:

• “The Long Tail” (Anderson) – Chapters 5 to 14 • What Is Web 2.0? (O’Reilly) (available online)

• Post one blog post – a reading response or notes on a Facebook strategy you would implement for a client or cause

• Add two articles or blog posts to the class del.icio.us feed

• Participate in online discussion about readings through Google Group for class: o Post at least one question o Respond to at least one question posted by someone else

Our classmate Kelly had a great experience with her Word of Mouth campaign last week – I encourage you to ask her about it on the Google Group. Anyone else have interesting results from their campaign?

The test will go live at midnight Nov. 5. You have 2 hours to take the test online through WebCT.

You don’t need to blog this week. You do need to discuss the reading and your papers through Google Groups, and post to Delicious.

Week 9: Collaboration Media & Trusted Networks (Oct. 29 to Nov. 4)
All work must be completed by Tuesday, Nov. 4 at midnight

Read:
•     “Wikinomics” (Tapscott & Williams) – Introduction to Chapter 5. Read the wikinomics blog.
•    “Here Comes Everybody” (Shirky) – Chapters 1-5
•    Watch the ninth screencast – “Collaboration Media & Trusted Networks”
•    Post one blog post about your paper topic
•    Build a word of mouth campaign about your paper topic using Twitter and Facebook (have friends and family and classmates comment on your topic)
•    Add two articles or blog posts to the class del.icio.us feed
Also, there is a quiz next week. It will test reading comprehension and will mostly multiple choice with a few short answer questions. More details to follow via email.

Hi everyone! There is one very important assignment for this week: please prepare a summary of your paper topic, email it Morra, and schedule a call to discuss it with me! if you’re still mulling over ideas, give me a call or drop me a note and we can discuss some ideas.

Week 8: Open Source & Creative Commons (Oct. 22 to Oct. 28)
All work must be completed by Tuesday, Oct. 28 at midnight
Read:
•    “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” (Raymond) –  (available online in “Course Documents”)
•    “Groundswell” (Li and Bernoff) – Chapters 1-6. Read the Groundswell blog
•    Watch screencast for week eight/nine
• Prepare a summary of your paper topic (minimum 500 words)
•    Schedule a call with Nicco or Morra to discuss your paper topic before Tuesday, Oct. 28
•    Add two articles or blog posts to the class del.icio.us feed
•    Participate in online discussion about readings through Google Group for class:
o    Post at least one question
o    Respond to at least one question posted by someone else

Hello! This week we continue with online advertising and we continue reading The Search. The screencast for this week covers both weeks 6 & 7- it’s from last year but you’ll still find it highly relevant. If you have questions about AdWords, the screencast discusses this.

Also, please note that this week you DO have to write a blog post!

Week 7: Online Advertising (Oct. 15 to Oct. 21)
All work must be completed by Tuesday, Oct. 21 at midnight
Read: “The Search” (Battelle) – Chapters 7 through Epilogue
Check the Announcements for required blog reading.
•    Watch the screencast for week seven – “Google”
•    Post one blog post – a reading response
•    Add two articles or blog posts to the class del.icio.us feed
•    Participate in online discussion about readings through Google Group for class:
o    Post at least one question
o    Respond to at least one question posted by someone else

Week 6 – First, there is no quiz! It’s a typo from last semester. Many apologies.

(1) Start reading The Search by John Battelle – Chapters 1 to 6

(2) For blog reading, check out John Battelle’s blog, the Search Engine Watch blog, the official Google blog, and Jeremy Zawodny’s blog.

(3) Please download and review this Google handout.

(4) Check our Google Zeitgeist. How does it relate to Battelle’s “database of intentions”?

(5) There is no screencast this week. If you have questions about purchasing Ad Words after reviewing the Google resources, please contact Morra

(6) Your assignments this week include:

• Be prepared with a credit card in order to purchase some Google Adwords – approximately $5.00.
• Add two articles or blog posts to the class del.icio.us feed
• Participate in online discussion about readings through Google Group for class:

• Post at least one question
• Respond to at least one question posted by someone else

Thanks – Nicco and Morra

Week 5!

(1) Finish reading Naked Conversations by Shel Israel and Robert Scoble- pp. 147-272

(2) Keep reading Pressthink by Jay Rosen, PaidContent.org and GigaOm. You should check them every day; they generally have one or two short blog posts a day.

(3) Watch the screencast for this week on Vimeo, or download it from JHU WebCT. You can also download the powerpoint for this week from WebCT.

(4) Your assignments this week include:

• Post one blog post per class instructions – a reading response
• Add two articles or blog posts to the class del.icio.us feed
• Participate in online discussion about readings through Google Group for class:

• Post at least one question
• Respond to at least one question posted by someone else

As always, contact me with any questions.

On to week 4 – for this week:

(1) Start reading Naked Conversations by Shel Israel and Robert Scoble- pp. 1-133

(2) Keep reading Pressthink by Jay Rosen, PaidContent.org and GigaOm. You should check them every day; they generally have one or two short blog posts a day.

(3) Watch the screencast for this week on Vimeo, or download it from JHU WebCT.

(4) Your assignments this week include:

• Start a Google Reader account and share at least one blog post with me. Instructions are in the screencast.
• Post one blog post per class instructions – a reading response
• Add two articles or blog posts to the class del.icio.us feed
• Participate in online discussion about readings through Google Group for class:

• Post at least one question
• Respond to at least one question posted by someone else

There are a bunch of great Google Reader resources, including this video and the Google Reader Blog.

As always, contact me with any questions.

Excellent – everyone in the class now has a blog! You’ll notice them in the right hand column of the class blog – all listed there under “Fall 08″. Great job!

For this week:

(1) Read chapters 7 through 12 of We The Media by Dan Gillmor. You can buy it on Amazon or read it free online. You’ll need to scroll down to download the PDFs of each chapter individually.

(2) Keep reading these three blogs over the course of the next week: Publishing2.com, Scripting.com, and BuzzMachine.com. You should check them every day; they generally have one or two short blog posts a day.

(3) Add to your required blog reading Pressthink by Jay Rosen, PaidContent.org and GigaOm.

(4) Keep watching the video blog Webb Alert every day for the next week. It’s short and informative – it’s essentially a news show about what’s happening on the internet this week. Notice the text links to relevant articles underneath the video.

(5) Watch the screencast for this week on Vimeo, or download it from JHU WebCT.

(6) Read through this special animation about what happens to your blog post when you publish it: The Life Cycle of a Blog Post, From Servers to Spiders to Suits — to You

(7) As described in the screencast, go through the Gawker Media pitch deck (available on WebCT).

(8) Your assignments this week include:

• Post one blog post per class instructions – a reading response
• Add two articles or blog posts to the class del.icio.us feed
• Participate in online discussion about readings through Google Group for class:

• Post at least one question
• Respond to at least one question posted by someone else

As always, contact me with any questions.

Congratulations on a great first week! Now we’re going to pick up the pace and really start to rock ‘n’ roll. This week the PDF of the powerpoint for the class is pretty important because you won’t be able to read the slides clearly enough in the screencast – so be sure to download them from WebCT at the bottom of the Week 2 lesson.

For this week:

(1) Read the forward, introduction, and first six chapters of We The Media by Dan Gillmor. You can buy it on Amazon or read it free online. You’ll need to scroll down to download the PDFs of each chapter individually.

(2) Read the first chapter of Essential Blogging by Cory Doctorow, Shelley Powers, J. Scott Johnson, Rael Dornfest, Benjamin Trott. You can buy it on Amazon or download it here for free. Cory Doctorow noticed it was assigned reading last semester and graciously emailed me a copy for everyone’s use. It’s also available on the JHU WebCT system, see below.

(3) Read these three blogs over the course of the next week: Publishing2.com, Scripting.com, and BuzzMachine.com. You should check them every day; they generally have one or two short blog posts a day.

(4) Watch the video blog Webb Alert every day for the next week. It’s short and informative – it’s essentially a news show about what’s happening on the internet this week. Notice the text links to relevant articles underneath the video.

(5) Watch the screencast for this week on Vimeo, or download them from JHU WebCT. It was so large we broke it into two chunks – part 1 and part 2.

Screencast #2: Part 1 [on Vimeo here] is more a lecture, where I explain:

• The difference between analog and digital
• Binary
• Hardware, Software, Platforms, and Applications
• The Internet and the World Wide Web
• What happens when you visit a website
• URLs, IP addresses, and Domain names
• A brief explanation of HTML

Screencast #2: Part 2 [on Vimeo here] is more of a tutorial, where I cover a lot of how-tos:

• Quick Review of required blog reading
• Use-case for LinkedIn
• How to use class del.icio.us feed (there is a quick guide here, too)
• How to setup a WordPress.com blog
• How to purchase a domain
• How to forward the domain to your WordPress.com blog

We have also provided a PDF of the Powerpoint from each Screencast for you to download and follow along. This will be especially helpful for the tutorial section.

(6) Your assignments this week include:

• Buy your domain per class instructions
• Setup your blog per class instructions
• Post one blog post per class instructions – a reading response
• Add two articles or blog posts to the class del.icio.us feed
• Participate in online discussion about readings through Google Group for class:

• Post at least one question
• Respond to at least one question posted by someone else

(7) MOST IMPORTANT: when you’re done, email us your blog’s URL so that we know where to find you online.

This week is one of the harder weeks during the semester – there is a lot of work we have to do up front to get your blogs up and running, and we want you to understand what’s going on behind the scenes, too.

PLEASE note that the slides and screenshots may look a little different from your actual experience – especially Del.icio.us, which just launched a re-design. Feel free to email or call Morra or myself if you run into any trouble.