In this week's lecture there is a a brief introduction to the major themes of the course: cybercommunication, the concept of the network society, divergent opinions on the social consequences of computer-mediated-communication--a foretaste of coming attractions!. We also go over the requirements for the course. You'll find these detailed on the Course Description. It is very important that you understand what is expected of you--so check this out carefully!
, Fuzzy Logic: Dispatches from the Information Revolution, by Matthew Friedman (Vehicule Press, 1997), from the University Bookstore. Browse it a little, and read the Introduction.
Make sure your university on-line computer account is set up.
Brush up on your basic Internet skills. You may want to consult some of the many 'how to' books on Internet use: the Canadian Internet Handbook, by Jim Carroll and Rick Broadhead (Scarborough: Prentice Hall, 1996) is a popular favourite
Check some on-line resources. If you haven't already done so, go to the Fuzzy Logic - Links Web Page, which provides a selected list of sites to supplement the course text. Over the coming weeks we'll look at many other WWW sites, but a couple worth going to right now are the Voice of the Shuttle: Cyberculture Page , and Netropolitan Life -- on on-line course about the net offered from York University.
If what you hear in lecture catches your interest and you feel you must know more right away, here are two recent books, both good, both by Canadians, but with very different views of the social significance of computer networking: