Frameworks For Studying The Web
Before we can even begin exploring the who's, what's, and why's -- we need to answer the critical question of how. Indeed, the phrase "studying the web" could embrace a staggering world of possible routes to explore, even before beginning to examine its relationship with society and culture. We need something to guide us through this massive field of (very interesting!) foxholes, and link the ideas we encounter into a consistent piece. We need some kind of structure to allow us to understand what we are looking at, the same way a chemist thinks of things in terms of atoms and molecules, or a philosopher can think about things in terms of schools of thought.
This class will propose and develop one framework for the web, which will structure both the discussion and topic matter covered in the course, as well as the methodology that you should apply to your assignments.
Readings
John Perry Barlow, A Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace
Chris Locke, Doc Searls & David Weinberger, Cluetrain Manifesto (just the manifesto)
Jack Goldsmith & Tim Wu, Digital Borders
Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet - Chapters 1 & 2