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TC 505 : Computer Mediated Communication

This class is an overview of computer-mediated communication as it applies to the range of information and communication technologies available today. When computer technologies were largely constrained to text-based interfaces, CMC provided a useful way for thinking about how individuals interacted with technology and with one another. Two significant shifts over the past ten years have affected how CMC can be used as a way of understanding humans' interaction with computers: (a) the shift from text-only to a combination of text and graphical and, (b) the growth of networking so that even computer games are increasingly based around multiple players communicating within and around the gaming experience.

This course will situate information and communication technologies within a historical context, and we will look at older, text-based technologies as well as blogs, wikis, and cellphone-based text-messaging. The course also emphasizes the importance that design plays in shaping users' expectations for technologies, and, subsequently, helps influence usage patterns for different technologies. Students in the class will have the opportunity to explore design first-hand by completing a design project

 

Syllabus

Course Schedule

Note: The schedule below is subject to change. In particular, I may supplement the assigned readings with specific URLs or other resources. You can safely assume that any supplemental resources will not take more than 30 minutes of your time per class; for most sessions we will not have any additional materials. Unless otherwise indicated, the readings below are required.

 

Week 1: Monday March 26 th and Wednesday March 28 th

Topics: Introduction to Computer-Mediated Communication; Overview of past 20 years of CMC technologies; CMC and Technical Communication research and practice

Reading (recommended):

  1. Barry Wellman. (2004). “The three ages of internet studies: ten, five and zero years ago.” New Media and Society 6 (1)

Week 2: Monday April 2 nd and Wednesday April 4 th

Topics: Overview of CMC genres (business/CSCW; educational; social; gaming); Importance of design in establishing norms for users and usage

Readings :

CMC cluster

  1. Susan Herring. (2004) “Slouching toward the ordinary: current trends in computer-mediated communication.” New Media and Society 6 (1).
  2. De Souza, Preece (2004). “A framework for analyzing and understanding online communities.”
  3. Joyce Lamerichs, Hedwig F.M. te Molder, (2003) “Computer-mediated communication: from a cognitive to a discursive model” New Media and Society 5 (4) .
  4. (recommended) Bowers and Churcher. (1988). “Local and global structuring of computer-mediated communication: developing linguistic perspectives on CSCW in COSMOS”

Design cluster

  1. Brenda Laurel “Design Principles for Human-Computer Activity” in Computers as Theater
  2. Donald Norman, excerpt from The Design of Everyday Things
  3. T.L. Taylor, “Intentional Bodies: Virtual Environments and the Designers Who Shape Them”

Week 3 Monday April 9 th and Wednesday April 11 th

Topics: Elements of CMC Interaction (trust, identity, anonymity, etc.) Part 1

Readings :

  1. Aoki and Woodruff. (2005) “Making Space for Stories: Ambiguity in the Design of Personal Communication Systems”
  2. Zhou. (2005). “An Empirical Investigation of Deception Behavior in Instant Messaging.”
  3. Rigelsberger et.al. (2005). “The mechanics of trust: A framework for research and design.”
  4. Lee. (2004). “Effects of gendered character representation on person perception and informational social influence in computer-mediated communication.” Computers in Human Behavior .
  5. Paniaras. “Virtual Identities in Computer Mediated Communication”

Week 4: Monday April 16 th and Wednesday April 18 th

Topics: Older CMC environments (Babble, Chat Circles, MUDs, GVRs)

Readings :

  1. Elizabeth Churchill, Jonathan Trevor, Sara Bly, Les Nelson, Davor Cubranic, “Anchored Conversations: Chatting in the Context of a Document”
  2. Fernanda Viegas and Judith Donath, “Chat Circles”
  3. Tomas Erickson and Wendy Kellog, “Social Translucence: An Approach to Designing Systems that Support Social Processes”
  4. Erin Bradner, Wendy Kellog, Thomas Erickson, “The Adoption and Use of ‘Babble'” A Field Study of Chat in the Workplace”
  5. Chip Morningstar and F. Randall Farmer, “The Lessons of Lusasfilm's Habitat”

Week 5: Monday April 23 rd and Wednesday April 25 th

Topics: Elements of CMC Interaction (trust, identity, anonymity, etc.) Part 2

Readings :

  1. Hiltz and Turoff. (1985). “Structuring Computer-mediated communication systems to avoid information overload.” Communications of the ACM .
  2. Bradner and Mark. (2002). “Why distance matters: Effects on cooperation, persuasion and deception.”
  3. Cosley et.al. (2005). “How oversight improves member-maintained communities.”
  4. Blanchard and Markus. (2004). “The Experienced ‘Sense' of a virtual community: characteristics and processes.”
  5. H.L. Weber, “Missed Cues: How disputes can socialize virtual newcomers”

HIT Lab Tour: Meet in Fluke Hall Room 215 at 2:30 PM

FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL DUE

 

Week 6: Monday April 30 th and Wednesday May 2 nd

Topics: Computer Supported Collaborative Work

  1. Guzdial, et.al. (2000). “Recognizing and supporting roles in CSCW.”
  2. Whittaker et.al. (2004). “ContactMap: Organizing communication in a social desktop.”
  3. Waldvogel, (2007) "Greetings and Closings in Workplace Email". Journal of Computer Mediated Communication. v12, i2
  4. Wellman, et. al. (1996). "Computer Networks as Social Networks: Work, Telework, and Virtual Community" Annual Review of Sociology, V22

Guest Speaker: Reza Behforooz, Tech Lead for Google Talk (May 2nd.)

Is Google to Powerful? Business Week, April 7 2007  

 

Week 7: Monday May 7 th and Wednesday May 9 th

Topics: Social CMC environments – social networking software, short messaging systems, social virtual communities, SMS, mobile phones

  1. Boyd, (2004). “Friendster and publicly articulated social networking.”
  2. Goecks and Mynatt. (2004). “Leveraging social networks for information sharing.”
  3. Garrido & Halavais (2003). “Mapping Networks of Support for the Zapatista Movement. Applying social network analysis to study contemporary social movements”
  4. Bryant et. al. (2006) IMing, "Text Messaging, and Adolescent Social Networks". Journal of Computer Mediated Communication (12)3.

Recommended (social impacts of CMC)

  1. Helland (2007) "Diaspora on the Electronic Frontier: Developing Virtual Connections with Sacred Homelands " Journal of Computer Mediated Communication (11)2
  2. Donner, Jonathan (2007) The Use of Mobile Phones by Microentrepreneurs in Kigali, Rwanda: Changes to Social and Business Networks. Information Technology and INternational Development, vol.3, number 2.

Guest Speaker: Quan Zhou (PhC in TC, University of Washington )

 

Week 8: Monday May 14 th and Wednesday May 16 th

Topics: Collaboration and CMC – blogs, wikis, podcasts…

Readings :

  1. Kolbitsch & Hermann (2006) “The Transformation of the Web: How Emerging Communities Shape the Information we consume”
  2. McFedries, “Blah, Blah, Blog.”
  3. Cherry. “The Blog of War.”
  4. Desilets et.al. (2004). “Are Wikis Usable?”
  5. Viegas et.al. (2004). “Studying Cooperation and conflict between authors with history flow visualizations.”
  6. Weiss. (2005). “The Power of Collective Intelligence.”

Recommended:

  1. Nolan, Chris (2007) "Blogging was just the beggining: Women's voices are louder online"
  2. Wei, C. (2004). Formation of norms in a blog community. In L. Gurak, S. Antonijevic, L. Johnson, C. Ratliff, and J. Reyman (Eds.), Into the Blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community, and Culture of Weblogs.

 

Guest Speaker: TBA

 

Week 9: Monday May 21 st and Wednesday May 23 rd

Topics: CMC and Games – Multi-player games, hybrid game/CMC devices

Readings :

  1. Ducheneaut and Moore. (2004). “The social side of gaming: a study of interaction patterns in a massively multiplayer online game.”
  2. Flanagan et.al. (2005). Values at play: Design tradeoffs in socially-oriented game design.
  3. Malone (1981). Heuristics for designing enjoyable user interfaces: lessons from computer games”
  4. Cornett (2004). “The usability of massively multiplayer online roleplaying games: designing for new users”
  5. (recommended) Mine et.al. (2003). “Building a massively multiplayer game for the mullion: Disney's Toontown Online.”

Guest Speaker: TBA

 

Week 10: Monday May 28 th (NO CLASS Memorial Day) and Wednesday May 30 th

Topics: Course wrap-up; project presentations

No readings.

 

 

"Why do we put up with the frustrations of everyday objects, with objects that we can't figure out how to use, with those neat plastic-wrapped packages that seem impossible to open, with doors that trap people, with chasing machines and dryers that have become too confusing to use?... Well designed objects are easy to interpret and understand. They contain visible clues to their operation"
                                                
-- Donald Norman, 2007

 

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