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This is a class about groups. It is about supporting and extending
group dynamics using software, and it is about making software
in groups: you will spend most of the semester working with 2-3
other students to produce and refine a single project. Your group's
goal will be to build software (and, if required, hardware) that supports small-group collaboration
of the sort that often goes on at ITP -- brainstorming, decision
making, group conversation, and annotation of ideas. (Part of the goal
in collaborating on building collaborative tools is to allow you to
test your projects in your own group.)
Your project does not necessarily need to support purely online collaboration; software that operates as an adjunct to physical work (e.g. using Wifi networks to tie users in the same room together) would fit the class goals as well. The most important part of the course is the production work: designing and making social software, testing it with real users, and presenting the results of this work. In addition, you will present your work to a group of industry practitioners, once at midterm and again in the final class. Though it is a production class, it is not a technique class, because there are so many technologies that can be brought ot bear on solving social dilemmas or imporving social communications. Instead, the focus in class will be on understanding existing social software and theories of social software and group dynamics, and presentation and critique of your projects. The course will culminate in a presentation of the software to outside reviewers at the final. In addition to the production work, the class will include an overview of the history and current practice of social software generally, and readings in the literature of collaboration. Students will be expected to maintain project weblogs documenting their work throughout the semester. A Note on Projects: Social software requires relatively shallow engineering, but deep commitment to putting working prototypes in the hands of live users. The means that the design/build/test/alter cycle is heavily weighted towards test and alter. Accordingly, projects that require large scale construction or long design cycles are not appropriate for this class -- our focus is going to be on getting something working into the hands of the users in the near term. Likewise, because the class is in part about collaboration and group creativity, the project your group works on will be designed as part of the class itself. Though project ideas you may have prior to the start of the class will be useful as inputs in the brainstorming process, those ideas will inevitably be altered, probably beyond recognition, as your group works towards a shared goal. Grades: Your overall grade will come from three places -- your individual class participation will make up 50% of the grade, your group's midterm presentation will make up 20%, and your group's final presentation will make up the final 30%. SCHEDULE
September 13 - Assignment: A) Work in your groups to uncover something
interesting about one (and only one) of the sites or tools
listed at http://stage.itp.nyu.edu/~cs97/wiki/wiki.cgi?FirstAssignment
September 20 - Assignment: A) Work in groups to propose at least three
changes to one (and only one) of the sites or tools
listed at
http://stage.itp.nyu.edu/~cs97/wiki/wiki.cgi?SecondAssignment, in
order to improve the collaborative effectiveness of the tool.
September 27 - Assignment: As its first task your group should come up with 3 possible project ideas.
October 4 - Assignment: Work on your project. Name your group.
October 11 - Assignment: Work on your project. (By this point, you will know better than I how to advance the project you have chosen, so the assignment is simply to begin that work, and to be prepared to discuss it in week 6.)
October 18 - Assignment: Work on your project
October 25 - Assignment: Work on your project
November 1 - Assignment: Work on plans for getting user feedback.
November 8
November 15 - Assignment: Get user feedback
November 22 - Assignment: Work on your project; prepare for walkthrough with the class
November 29 - Assignment: Work on your project
December 6 - Assignment: Finish your project, and prepare to present the results.
December 13 |
Links:
Class Wiki |