11/23/99

Student Papers Now Going Up on the Web: see http://transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu/courses/liu/english165/student.html#student-papers Please submit any revisions to me.

Critique of Team Projects:

Each team will critique the project of the team immediately beneath theirs on this list (with the last team critiquing the first in the list). The medium for this critique will be a "threaded" Web discussion forum (enabled by the Transcriptions Exchange Server program). You post your comments through a Web browser, and others can respond or append to the thread of discussion you have started about a particular team project. The critique should begin the week after Thanksgiving.

Instructions for pointing your Web browser to Exchange and joining in a discussion. (Your userid for Exchange is your last name in lowercase; your password is first-initial, perm number, last-initial, e.g., "r1234567g" The URL for Exchange is http://transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu/exchange/) When you enter the Exchange environment, navigate to the "public folder" named English165CI. Then set your view to "By Conversation Topic" and respond to the thread that has been set up for each topic. (If necessary, go to page 2 of the window to view more threads by using the arrows in the top frame of the Exchange interface.)

If possible, you should practice in Exchange before or during the Thanksgiving break to get a feel for the system. There is a "Test Message" thread in the English165CI public folder for trial postings, responses, etc.

11/19/99 Due to the fact that we are now short one class (after the class I had to cancel for medical reasons), I have decided to revise the schedule of readings/classes for the rest of the quarter. The following schedule overrides the schedule that is on the course web site. Essentially, we will be pushing everything back by one class and cancelling the class on virtual reality:

-- Class 16 (Nov. 23): We'll finish up our unit of discussion on "SEEING/DESIGNING." If you haven't done so already, please read for this class the section of Fredric Jameson's chapter on the Frank Gehry house and the chapters from Steven Johnson's book (these materials were previously listed for Class 15)

-- Class 17 (Nov. 30): WORKING: the readings previously listed for Class 16 (Senge, Boyett and Conn, Davidow and Malone)

-- Class 18 (Dec. 2): WORKING (CONTINUED): the reading previously listed for Class 17 (Manuel Castells). Cancel all the readings previously listed under the topic "(Simulating) Living"

-- Class 19 (Dec. 7): Beyond the Information Society (no change from previous schedule)

-- Class 20 (Dec. 9): Formal Presentation of Team Projects (no change from previous schedule)

11/13/99 Due to the missed class last week, I will need to simplify the material we will be covering in the next week as follows:

FOR CLASS 14 (Tue.):

--Concentrate on the online essay by Matt Kirschenbaum titled "A White Paper on Information". Note: this online essay is presented in "frames." You can print the whole essay (except for the stunning visuals) by printing the individual frame that holds the sections of the article text. In Internet Explorer 5, right-click on the frame you want, choose "print," and then accept the default for printing only the text in that frame. Then go to the next section of the essay and repeat. I'm not sure if Netscape has a similar feature (I converted to IE about a half year ago). If not, right-click on the frame you want, choose "open in separate window" (or however it is phrased), and print from that separate browser window. (Perhaps someone using Netscape can post instructions if they are different from I indicate above).

--Look only at the pictures in the Paul Rand material.

--Read quickly the articles by David Tomas and Roy Ascott and try to get a sense of what they mean by "postphotographic."

FOR CLASS 15 (Thur.):

--Concentrate on the Steven Johnson assignment (chaps. 2-3 from his book, Interface Culture)

--Read only the following pages from the Fredric Jameson assignment: pp. 107-117, 126-127

--Skip the articles by Kim Veltman and Lev Manovich. (That is, I can cutting out all of the unit of thought on "perspective." If you are interested in this topic, you can read Manovich for a quick sense of what is involved.)

--Skip Borgmann's Chap. 10 (the team working on cathedrals, however, will be interested in this chapter) See you Tuesday.

P.S. Please bring to class on Thur. the materials you read for last week (e.g., the Heidegger essay in the Druckrey volume, the Borgmann, and the pieces on graphic design history in the reader).

11/11/99 Urgent: Class today (Thur., Nov. 11th) is cancelled because I have to be at the hospital earlier than expected. Please check your e-mail for further information.

11/8/99 The instructor's office hours this week only are Tue. 6:20-7:20 instead of Thursday.

10/27/99 Links to team-project home pages are now up on the "Student-Created Materials" page of the course site at http://transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu/courses/liu/english165/student.html

Alan Liu's office hours for the quarter are South Hall, 2521, Thurs., 6:20-7:20 pm.

10/15/99 The Technology Workshop for Team Projects, led by Chris Schedler (Transcriptions Research Assistant) has been scheduled for Nov. 2 at 3:30 in the Transcriptions Computing Studio (South Hall, 2509). Beginning Nov. 5th, Chris will also be available in the studio each Friday from 2 to 3 pm for consultation by students seeking technical help with English 165CI.

10/8/99 Thirty-one members of the class have filled out the online Course Entrance Survey. The results have been tabulated and put online in the course password-locked directory at the following address: http://transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu/courses/liu/english165/materials/locked/entrance-survey-results-F99.html (Use the same userid and password required for the Andy Goldsworthy pictures.) Only 23 students have so far subscribed to the Course E-Mail List. Please take this step as soon as possible.

10/4/99 As of the close of today, 23 members of the class have filled out the online Course Entrance Survey. Nineteen have subscribed to the Course E-Mail List. Students who have not yet taken these two steps should do so as quickly as possible, since they are required and needed to hold a place in the course. (If there is a technical or other problem with completing these steps, students should let Prof. Liu know.)

On a different matter: some of the students who submitted the Course Entrance Survey commented that they worried about the technical skills or equipment needed to create a Web page. It should be clarified that the only technical skills/equipment necessary to fulfill the assignments in the course are e-mail and Web browsing (plus, of course, word-processing). The "Artist of Information" assignment can be completed without knowing how to create a Web page: the Overview and other such materials may be submitted in text form for Alan Liu or a Transcriptions research assistant to upload to the Web page being created (since there are pre-existing templates for the page design). And the timeline and annotated links are entered simply by typing (or cutting-and-pasting) into a form on a Web page. (These Web forms feed information to the Filemaker Pro database on the Transcriptions server, and the database does the work of formatting the information for the Web.) Students interested in more advanced technical work, however, can request more control over their product--including direct control over uploading to their project page (through FTP). This will allow students to experiment with hypertext, graphic design, etc.

Reminder: Students without their own computer and Internet access, or those desiring faster or supplementary computing resources, may use the PC or Mac labs at Instructional Computing during the quarter (Phelps Hall 1521). Members of English 165CI can pick up priority-access stickers from 9 am to 4 pm on Oct. 7-8 in the Phelps Courtyard. Bring some proof of enrollment in the course to get your stickers.

9/16/99 English 165CI, previously scheduled for Girvetz, will now be held in South Hall 2635 (near the English Dept. office).

9/16/99 Students without their own computer and Internet access, or those desiring faster or supplementary computing resources, may use the PC or Mac labs at Instructional Computing during the quarter (Phelps Hall 1521). Members of English 165CI can pick up priority-access stickers from 9 am to 4 pm on Oct. 7-8 in the Phelps Courtyard. These stickers permit use of the labs during hours not reserved by other courses for in-lab lectures. For lab schedules, see http://www.ic.ucsb.edu or call 893-8414. Instructional Computing also offers orientation workshops during the first week of the quarter and software workshops throughout the quarter. For information about the software (including Web editors) available at the labs, see http://shg.ic.ucsb.edu/

9/3/99 Students taking English 165CI should fill out the online course Entrance Survey as soon as possible (which will provide the instructor with their e-mail address and other information). The form can be found on the Assessment page of this site. If you are registered for the course, you can fill out the survey even before the first day of class.