MGT 8100: Exploring the Digital Globe

Fall 2006 Semester Syllabus

Instructor: Antonie Stam
Last Revised: 9/12/2006

Class Time, Room: Tuesdays 6-9 pm, Cornell Hall 211.
Office Hours: Mondays, Wednesdays, 9:30-10:30 am, or by appointment on Mo-We-Fr.
Office: 418 Cornell Hall, phone (573) 882-6286; home (preferred) (573) 446-8457; e-mail stama@missouri.edu.
Department: Management, 403 Cornell Hall; (573) 882-7374.
Course Web Page: Go to www.courses.missouri.edu, click Blackboard, click on our course.

Tentative Schedule

Week 1 (Tuesday 8/22): Dr. Antonie Stam: Introduction; Ten Principles of the New Economy.

Part I: Journalism

Week 2 (Tuesday 8/29): Dr. Wayne Wanta (Journalism): News Sources on the Internet.

Week 3 (Tuesday 9/5): Dr. Charles Davis(Journalism): E-Democracy.

Week 4 (Tuesday 9/12): Dr. Kevin Wise (Journalism): Getting There and Being There: Atributes of Interactive Media.

Week 5 (Tuesday 9/19): Dr. Antonie Stam: IT Revolution? and Freedom of Information and the Internet.

Week 6 (Tuesday 9/26): Dr. Glen Cameron (Journalism): The Internet and New Technologies in PR and Health.

Part II: E-Business (HES: TAM, Environmental Design; Business)

Week 7 (Tuesday 10/3): Dr. Jana Hawley (HES - TAM): E-Culture.

Week 8 (Tuesday 10/10): Dr. So-Yeon Yoon (HES - Architecture): Human-Computer Interaction for New Media.

Week 9 (Tuesday 10/17): Dr. Antonie Stam: Decision Support Systems, Data Mining, AI and CRM.

Part III: Law

Week 10 (Tuesday 10/24): Dr. Patricia Fry (Law): Licensing, Contract Formation and Enforcement, E-Commerce Law.

Week 11 (Tuesday 10/31): Ron Frazier: Topic to be announced.

Week 12 (Tuesday 11/7): Dr. Antonie Stam: Ethics, Privacy, Security and Business Community.

Week 13 (Tuesday 11/14): Student Presentations - First Batch.

Week 14 (Tuesday 11/21) Thanksgiving Break – no class.

Part IV: Business and Student Presentations

Week 15 (Tuesday 11/28): Dr. Suraj Commuri (Business - Marketing): The People Versus Marketing.

Week 16 (Tuesday 12/5): Student Presentations – Second Batch, Course Wrap-Up (Dr. Antonie Stam).

Week 17: Final Exam – take-home, online (to be posted online, details later)

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Major Requirements and Deliverables

Weekly student preparation for some probing/challenging questions (usually, these questions will be posted in advance on the Discussion Board) by the instructor and/or guest lecturers that will enrich the class discussion and will stimulate your thinking about the topic at hand.
Weekly active student participation in the class discussions about the topic of the week.
Each student group will deliver one formal 15 minute in-class presentation (PPT) on a topic of his/her choice related to the Digital Globe – the presentation may focus primarily on a single of the four areas, but does need to be meaningful to an interdisciplinary audience (your classmates).
Weekly student posting (on discussion board in Blackboard) of a 1-2 page thought piece ("original" posting) on the topic that will come up next (a.o., using materials/links posted on Blackboard ahead of time, some of these materials will be readings provided by the guest lecturers) Each week, you also need to post at least one response (This posting may be much shorter than your "original" posting.) to another student's posting (This is to enhance the interactive aspect of the discussions.). ("Pre" postings). You need to post your comments by midnight on the Sunday before the date of the topic.
Weekly student posting (on discussion board in Blackboard) of a 1-2 page Commentary/Critique/Thought piece ("original" posting) of the previous week’s topic (half summary of what was discussed; half own thoughts about what was discussed and extension). Each week, you also need to post at least one response (This posting may be much shorter than your "original" posting.) to another student's posting (This is to enhance the interactive aspect of the discussions.). (“Post” posting). You need to post your comments by midnight on the Sunday after the date of the topic.
General student postings (on discussion board in Blackboard) on general topics related to the course (but not necessarily to the presentation topics) that catch your attention (at least one original relevant posting per month Sep-Oct-Nov; and at least onerelevant reply to someone else’s posting per month Sep-Oct-Nov).
Final Exam – Short Essay Questions (All will relate directly to topics/issues discussed in class. Some questions may be provided by the guest lecturers).

Grading Scheme

In-class presentation (see (3) above) 10%
Weekly Pre-posting (see (4) above) 15%
Weekly Post-posting (see (5) above) 15%
Course participation 10%
General Discussion board postings (see (5) above) 10%
Final Exam (see (8) above) 40%

Course Description

Exploring the Digital Globe: 3 credits.

This inter-departmental course will introduce students to the impacts of technological change and globalization from the perspective of business, law and journalism. This course will be the first course necessary toward fulfilling the requirements for this interdisciplinary university-wide certificate. Students will be introduced to electronic commerce, digitization and globalization to prepare them to respond to the challenges of the digital globe. Students need not acquire specific technological skills; they will acquire a working understanding of how digital technologies function.

Digital technologies have revolutionized global communications. Whether from the perspective of journalism, business or the law, the impact of these new communications channels has been substantial. Students will achieve an understanding of how new media are different from print or broadcast media and the consequences of those differences. Students will be introduced to the principles, opportunities, and ethical use of electronic commerce. Digital media raise recurrent questions which call for political and social solutions. Students will be introduced to the broader issues raised by technological change, such as globalization, political boundaries, access, ownership and uses of information, marketing, etc.

The course will be taught by faculty from the journalism, business and law schools, and from the Department of Textile and Apparel Management of the College of Human Environmental Sciences. Visiting speakers, including speakers presenting programs for the Center for the Digital Globe, will meet with the class to share their research and experience.

Course Materials

The majority of readings in this course will be made available online (e.g., in the form of pdf files, Word documents, hyperlinks) on Blackboard, and consistent with the nature of this course you will do much of your background research on the web.

Most reading materials provided by the guest lecturers and the instructor will be posted on Blackboard (usually under Course documents; occasionally in the Discussion Board) at least one week prior to the presentation.

Throughout the semester, you will share materials and links on Blackboard (via discussion board).

We will discuss several readings from the text From Quill to Cursor, published by OSCE (http://www.osce.org), Vienna 2003. You will not need to purchase a “hard copy” textbook for this course; the instructor will make several hard copies available, and the text may also be available in pdf format from the OSCE website (see http://www.osce.org/fom/documents/books).

Student Peer Evaluations

You will evaluate each others’ group presentations, with respect to quality of delivery, quality of contents and how thought-provoking the presentation is. This evaluation will count towards your grade.

Faculty Evaluations

In addition to the usual end-of-term course evaluation, a mid-term faculty peer evaluation will be conducted (purpose – to identify pressure points and adjust the course in mid-stream).

Informal Presentation Feedback (both of peers and guest speakers)

Each week, you will provide the instructor with the following information (at the end of class): a) one thing you learned; b) one thing you’re going to delve into next; c) one thing you liked about the presentation/topic; d) one thing you didn’t like about the presentation/topic. This is an informal activity which serves as information that the instructor will use to fine-tune (“tweak”) the course.

Course Objectives

In a nutshell, this course seeks to broaden your perspective about how digital technology affects you and the world around you. In your studies, you are already focusing on a specific area of study. At institutes of higher learning, the material covered in – especially – graduate courses tends to go in-depth into very specific topics. As a result, students may end up knowing a lot about a specialized area of limited scope, but not so much about how this all relates to the world at large. This can be an advantage, but also a disadvantage.

Often, it is beneficial to get a “different” perspective on things. You may find it surprising how differently people from different academic disciplines view one and the same issue. In this class, your perspective on technology and the digital world that we all live and work in from four distinctly different perspectives – law, journalism, human and environmental sciences and business.

Upon completion of the CDiG Certificate program, you will (hopefully) have developed a keen understanding and appreciation of various alternative digital technology-related viewpoints, perspectives and value systems. This course is your first step towards achieving this goal. The certificate program will also prepare you well for your future career – as you will likely encounter and will work with colleagues with diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise. At the short-term level, this course will lay a solid foundation for your CDiG Certificate program electives and the capstone course.

Pre-Presentation Postings

At least two pre-postings each week - one "original" and one response posting.
Length: your "original" posting - equivalent of l-2 page Word document, double-spaced. Your response posting may be much shorter in length but not void of content!
Every pre-posting ("original" and respones) is due by midnight on the Sunday prior to the presentation.
The pre-postings ("original" and response) are to be posted under the appropriate week in the Discussion Board. For your convenience, I have already created the Discussion Thread for you.
Click on the Root message in the Discussion Thread; hit “Reply,” change the heading using the following format: “Your Name, Pre-Posting for Week X.” E.g., if you are James Bond and are posting for week 7, then the heading should read: “James Bond, Pre-Posting for Week 7.” This will ensure proper credit (avoiding confusion between pre-postings and “regular” discussion board contributions).
If you want to respond to someone else’s previously posted comment, then click on their message and reply. Make sure that you customize the heading of your reply (make it meaningful).

Post-Presentation Postings

At least two post-postings each week - one "original" and one response posting.
Length: your "original" posting - equivalent of l-2 page Word document, double-spaced. Your response posting may be much shorter in length but not void of content!.
Every post-posting ("original" and response) is due after the presentation itself but by midnight of the Sunday before next week's presentation.
The post-presentation postings ("original" and response) are to be posted under the appropriate week in the Discussion Board. For your convenience, I have already created the Discussion Thread for you.
Click on the Root message in the Discussion Thread; hit “Reply,” change the heading using the following format: “Your Name, Post-Presentation Posting for Week X.” E.g., if you are Senator Clinton and are posting for week 7, then the heading should read: “Senator Clinton, Post-Presentation Posting for Week 7.” This will ensure proper credit (avoiding confusion between post-presentation postings and “regular” discussion board contributions).
If you want to respond to someone else’s previously posted comment, then click on their message and reply. Make sure that you customize the heading of your reply (make it meaningful).

General Blackboard Discussion Board Postings

You will need to post at least two general contributions to the Discussion Board during each of the months of September, October and November, for a total of at least six comments.
Each month, at least one of these comments must be an original comment (starting a fresh discussion); the other a relevant reply to someone else’s previous comment.
Comments like “I agree” and “I disagree” do not count as relevant, because they do not add to our body of knowledge. Challenging and controversial comments do count and are encouraged.
Your 1-2 page Pre-Presentation and Post-Presentation postings do NOT count as general comments.
Your replies to someone else’s Pre-Presentation or Post-Presentation posting must pass the "relevance" test; as do your replies to the “Question of the Week” that I’ll post on Blackboard to challenge your minds (These questions will be provided by the faculty serving as guest presenters.).
When in doubt, post more than two comments each month. The more you participate, the more fun it will be anyway.

In-Class PPT Presentation (Group)

Presentation length: 15 minutes. No more, no less.
Format: Use PPT.
Provide me with a copy of your PPT presentation, and I will share it with the class on Blackboard.
This is a group presentation
The topic of your presentation is totally free – provided that it fits within the general parameters of our course, broadly conceived. Whatever “makes you tick” in terms of the digital world. I will grade your presentation on contents, though ...
Submit a proposal (single paragraph) for your PPT presentation by October 3, 2006. The reason is that this will get you thinking and going early on. It also enables me to “rescue” you from picking too ambitious a topic.
The student presentations will be on November 7, 2006 and December 5, 2006. The number of presentations will depend on the enrollment figures.