Pbds 720

Digital Economy

NOTE: This is representative of the syllabi for this course. It is not necessarily the syllabus being used in any one semester.

Introduction

The impact of the digital revolution is felt in a number of areas,how we make a living, how we govern ourselves, and how we create values for ourselves. The course has two goals: to provide students with an understanding of the way the digital economy creates a unique business culture and establishes (and reflects) a network of new economic values; and to prepare students to effectively invest their time, talent, and imagination in the new culture and economy of digital technology.

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Course Overview Background, Course Work, Readings and Class Work

Background

This course is required for all students in the Doctor of Communications Design program, who will ordinarily take it at the beginning of their course of study. It offers an overview of current thinking about economic issues and social impacts relating to doing business in an age of digital networks. The course may also be of interest to students in the Master of Arts in Publications Design who are developing projects for the Final Seminar, and to students in the Master of Science in Interaction Design and Information Architecture who want to establish economic and social impact contexts for their technological work.

This year's course focuses on the maturing nature of the digital economy now that it is recovering from the aftermath of the Internet Bubble. We will examine economic theory, new technologies that are changing the way we do business and the legal and global issues of doing business "online." As we explore the larger historical and intellectual contexts, we will attempt to understand the future potential of the digital economy and have an opportunity to look at both its bright and dark sides.

As we move from the heyday of frontier entrepreneurism into more complex times, we need to take account of the ways in which material and economic relations intersect broader social themes such as identity, value systems, social obligations, and political rights. We'll focus most immediately on aspects of the digital economy, but will regularly connect these concerns to larger and longer-term issues. For example, we will come to understand the actual and possible changes to our everyday lives in a digital economy and its effects on people left out of that economy.

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, you will understand:

• How technology impacts the economy
• Network theory and its impact on the Internet
• E-commerce strategies, issues and impacts
• How the digital economy impacts the law, individual and public rights
• The promise and failure of the Internet and related technologies
• How the Internet is changing the economic behavior of consumers and businesses

Course Work

Each assignment is given a designated number of points. These assignments plus class participation add up to 100 points. Each assignment is defined below. Due dates are provided in the syllabus. Each assignment will take the form of a paper and a class presentation. Topics may be chosen from a suggested list or one of your own with the approval of the professor. Each paper must be researched and contain a bibliography of at least 5-10 credible sources. The length of the paper should not exceed 10 pages.

• [30] #1: Technology Assessment Paper which explores the potential, issues and economics of an emerging hardware or software technology.
• [30] #2: Social/Cultural Impact Paper which takes an existing technology and explores how it has affected or not affected the behavior of institutions, groups or individuals in a society.
• [30] #3: Application Paper in which you (and your partner) apply what you have learned to discover why a local technology project/company was or was not successful.
• [10] Class Work through presentation of assigned reading material and participation in discussions.
  
  

Required Reading

Linked, The New Science of Networks by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi
Perseus Publishing:Cambridge, MA, 2000

The author traces the fascinating historic of connected systems from the late 1700's to today. This work reveals how Google came to be the Internet's most popular search engine, and how Vernon Jordan's social network affects the American Economy as a whole.

Rethinking the Networked Economy by Stan Liebowitz
Amacom: New York, 2002

The author examines the present dot-com reality, exploring the interaction of traditional business models with e-commerce and the myths and realities behind such concepts of network effects, economies of scale, winner take all, lock-in and first movers.

The Support Economy by Shoshana Zuboff and James Maxmin
Viking: New York, 2002

The premise of this book is that Internet technologies and the corporations that provide them have failed people and the potential such technologies is lost. Individuals who compose to day's society want much more than can be delivered today. The solution is "distributed capitalism" where the individual consumer, not the corporation is the center of value creation.

After the Gold Rush by Clayton Christenson
Online, Innosight, LLC, 2000

This paper defines how the Internet can be used most effectively as a disruptive or sustaining technology to compete successfully in the marketplace. Note: This article is available online.

The Future of Ideas by Lawrence Lessig
Vintage Books: 2001

The author explores how the Internet revolution has produced a counter revolution of potentially devastating power and effect. Lessig argues have established themselves as virtual gatekeepers of the Net while Congress has rewritten copyright and patent laws to stifle creativity and progress.

Additional Readings: There will also be some use of photocopies and Web-accessible texts for this class. Copies or URLs will be given out at least a week before they are scheduled for discussion. You are responsible for obtaining the reading if you miss class.

Class Work

Part of your graded work for the course includes an in-class reading response. This is a brief document intended to stimulate and guide class discussion of an assigned text.

Please limit yourself to a single page. Make enough copies for the instructor and all class members. Be prepared to distribute your response at the beginning of class on the night your assigned text is discussed.

There are several ways to approach this task. You may write a series of questions (no more than five) that you feel the class ought to consider. Or you could briefly summarize (in a paragraph or two) any thinking you have about the reading. Or you could quote an excerpt from the reading and raise particular questions about it. Whatever you choose, your response should represent a thoughtful engagement with the text, and it should provide the basis for productive discussion.

An example of a good discussion question on Bush's "As We May Think:" "Vannevar Bush envisions an information technology for use by scientists and academic researchers. The World Wide Web started out to do the same thing, but all sorts of people in diverse walks of life now use it. What would Bush think of the Web today?"

An example of a poor question on the same text: "What did Bush think about information technology?"

Syllabus: Fall 2003

1:Sept. 8 Introduction

What is technology? What is technology diffusion?

How does the Internet work? See the Movie

e.commerce economics, VanHoose, chapter 1

2: Sept.15 The Fall of the Dot Coms

"Precipitating Factors: The Internet, the Baby Boom and Other Events," from Irrational Exuberance, Shiller

"Shakeouts in Digital Markets," Day & Fein

"The Fear Economy," Krugman

Rethinking the Network Economy, Liebowitz, 1-57

3. Sept.22 The Digital Economy Begins with Networks

Linked, Barabasi, 1-108

"A Network of Peers," Peer-to-Peer, ed. Oram

4. Sept.29

Linked, Barabasi, 109-226

"The Ethics of Collective Intelligence," Collective Intelligence, Levy

Paper #1: Due at beginning of class October 6th [See reqts.]

5. Oct.6 Digital Economy Basics

After the Gold Rush , Clayton Christenson, Presentation

Rethinking the Network Economy, Liebowitz, 58-95

e.commerce economics, VanHoose, chapter 2

6. Oct.13

e.commerce economics, VanHoose, chapters 3 & 4

Rethinking the Network Economy, Liebowitz, 96-120

7. Oct.20 Information, Advertising and Innovation in the Electronic Marketplace

e.commerce economics, VanHoose, chapters 5,6

Rethinking the Network Economy, Liebowitz, 121-144

"Welcome to the Attention Economy," Attention Economy, Davenport & Beck

8. Oct.27 Money and the Digital Economy

e.commerce economics, VanHoose, chapters 8, 9 & 10

Paper #2: Due at beginning of class Nov. 3 [See Reqts.]

9. Nov. 3 Regulation, Rights, Access and Control

The Future of Ideas, Lessig, 1-142

See the Lessig Movie

Rethinking the Internet, Stan Liebowitz, pages 144-214

e.commerce econmics, VanHoose, chapter 7

10. Nov. 10

The Future of Ideas, Lessig, 143-268

11.Nov. 17 Policy Implications: Crime, Taxes and World Trade

e.commerce economics, VanHoose, chapters 11,12,13,&14

12. Nov. 24 Looking to the Future: A Different Point of View

The Support Economy, Zuboff & Maxmin, 1-174

13. Dec. 1

The Support Economy, Zuboff & Maxmin, 175-383

14. Dec. 8

Student presentations of Paper #3 [DRAFT]
Paper #3 due at AC200H December 15 [See Reqts.]

Assignments

Paper 1 Technology Assessment Paper

Having seen the Internet explode in less than 10 years from an academic file sharing system to a major force in today's economic environment, identify an emerging technology, or an application of such technology, which you believe holds significant promise for economic development during the next ten years. Assess its potential.

In 8-10 pages, answer the following questions:

What is the technology? What are its salient features/functions?

Who is developing it?

Why is it important?

How is it different from what exists today?

Where does this technology add the most value? Who may benefit from it most? (what does or will competes with this technology?)

What factors may inhibit/ enhance the adaptation of this technology?

What may be the unintended consequences of this technology?

Would you invest in this technology? Now or later, explain why?

Research is required. Be prepared to back up factual assertions with citations. Include citations and a list of references used in the development of this paper using the APA standards or MLA standards.

Please get approval for your technology selection. Possible technologies include:

Wireless (wi fi)

Home appliances

Blogs

Nano technology

Peer-to-peer computing

Wearable computing

DRM (digital rights management)

E-services (.net)

802.16-based metropolitan area networks (MANs)

Paper 2 Social/Cultural Impact Paper

Identify a technology that has had an impact on a culture or failed to have an impact on our culture. Assess its impact on cultural values, individual and group behavior as it attempted to from being an innovation to becoming embedded in our daily lives. If the technology has failed to become embedded, explain why this occurred.

In 8-10 pages, answer the following questions:

What is the history of this technology's adoption?

What was the original intent of the technology?

What were the unintended consequences of this technology?

How have societal values, individual and group behavior changed as a result of this technology?

Where does this technology add the most value? Who has benefited from it most so far?

What have been the barriers to adoption of this technology?

What do you predict for the future of this technology?

Research is required. Be prepared to back up factual assertions with citations. Include citations and a list of references used in the development of this paper using the APA standards or MLA standards.

Please get approval for your technology selection. Possible technologies include:

Online pornography

E-mail

File sharing

Cell phones

Database web sites

Digital cameras

Online auctions

Picture telephone

Search engines

Politics- voting on through the Internet

Security and privacy systems

Home schooling and the Internet

Gaming and violence

Gambling

Open source adoption

Paper 3 Application Paper

For this paper you may work with a partner. Your charge is to conduct primary and secondary research on a technology project/organization in the local area. By finding the answers to the following questions you will identify key "lessons learned" about what works and does not work in the real world of the digital economy.

In 8-10 pages, answer the following questions:

What is the technology and its application?

What issues was this application supposed to solve?

What was the business proposition? Where is value added?

To whom is the application targeted? What was the marketing strategy?

How was the application developed (funding, creators, purchase, timing, etc.)?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the organization behind the application?

What are the opportunities and threats external to the organization?

Hindsight is 20/20 - If you were to "redo" this application, what would you do differently to leverage strengths and diminish threats?

What do you predict for the future of this application and the organization?

Research is required. Please attempt to conduct interviews with key players behind the application. Be prepared to back up factual assertions with citations. Include citations and a list of references used in the development of this paper using the APA standards or MLA standards. A presentation on the issue will take place at the end of the semester.

Please get approval for your technology application. Possible projects/organizations include:

Technology initiative in a low-income community (e.g. Department of commerce TOP initiative)

Website application targeting a new audience or an existing audience in a new way

Database building or data mining initiative by an organization to acquire and use new sets of information

Government initiative to make new information available to citizens

Advocacy project/group that uses technology (e.g. nonprofit or political organization

Media (TV, radio or newspaper) innovative use of technology

Banking, real estate or financial industry use of technology innovation

Arts and education use of technology innovation