Essay deadline

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I have struggled a little with what to do about the essay deadline, but after having talked with some colleagues I think I have a solution that will satisfy most:

- We can have an essay deadline as late as Jan 20. I will not have graded all the exams at that point in time.

- You don't have to write an essay for Jan 20, because there will be a second deadline, on April 20.

- You can thus wait and see how many points you have scored on the seminar assignments + home exam - and only then choose if you want to complete the essay (for April 20).

To summarize; there is one deadline for the essay on Jan 20. There is a second deadline for the essay on April 20 if you don't hand in the essay in January.

Home exam available in Bilda

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The home exam is available in Bilda now. Please hand it in tomorrow morning (before 08.00) at the latest.

If you have any questions about the exam, please post them here (in the form of comments). I will check in a couple of times during the day and the evening to answer questions, but I will not be available between 14.00 and 19.00.

Good luck!

Seminar 6 concept documents available in Bilda

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I have uploaded all the concept documents from seminar 6 to Bilda. They are in the seminars/seminar 6 concept documents folder.

Some ideas are promising. I think a few could be the basis of a design-oriented thesis project for someone who has some programming/human-computer interaction/design skills.

Summary of readings

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At your request, here is a summary of all the texts we have read during the course (to help you find the texts and prepare for the home exam).

Benkler, The wealth of networks:

- Chapter 1-4 (lecture 2 - the networked information economy)

- Chapter 5 (lecture 5 - participatory culture)

- Chapter 6 (lecture 7 - mass media and citizen journalism)

- Chapter 7 (lecture 3 - network theory)

- Chapter 8 (lecture 5 - participatory culture)

- Chapter 10 (lecture 6 - critique)

Lecture 3 - network theory:

- Ramos (200X), "Linked: The new science of networks"

- Shirky (2003), "Power laws, weblogs and inequality"

Lecture 4 - guest lecture

Lecture 5 - participatory culture

- Jenkins (2006), "Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars? Grassroots creativity meets the media industry" (Chapter in the book "Convergence culture") OR

- Jenkins (2003), "Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars? Digital cinema, media convergence and participatory culture"

Lecture 6 - critique

- Harmon (1998), "Researchers find sad, lonely world in cyberspace"

- Postman (1990), "Informing ourselves to death"

- Carr (2008), "Is Google making us stupid?"

- Lundblad (2004), "Privacy in a noise society"

- Bardi (2009), "The spike and the peak"

- Anderson (2009), "Peak oil primer" (background info, helpful for understanding some other texts - will not be part of the exam)

- Greer (2009), "The end of the information age" and "The economics of decline"

Lecture 7 - mass media and citizen journalism

- Witt (2006), "Constructing a framework to enable an open source reinvention of journalism"

- Leetaru (2009), "New media vs. old media"

- Gillmor (2006), "We are all reporters now"

Lecture 8 - guest lecture

Essay deadline might have to be earlier than Jan 20

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I have found out that it might be the case that the results of courses in period two (second half of the autumn) must be reported earlier than Jan 20 - so there might be a problem with having a deadline that late.

You will not have to hand in your essays before Christmas or before New year, but the date in January might have to be altered.

As this could be of great interest to you, I post this message already now - even though I do not have all the information to make a decision at the moment.

I will get back when I know more (probably in the beginning of next week).

Essay deadline moved to Jan 20

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I talked with a group of students after one of the seminars today and understood that quite a few students were quite stressed about course load in this and other course in December (exams, labs, essays, assignments etc. etc.).

So, I agreed to move the essay deadline forward in time all the way to the second half of January and the new deadline for the essay is Wednesday January 20. This means:

- You have more time to write the essay, you can choose to do it in January and concentrate more on other, more immediate tasks in December

- My goal is to grade and comment all seminar assignments in December (preferably before Christmas). You will thus get feedback on your seminar assignments (both comments on content and on points awarded) and also perhaps a better idea of how much time and effort to spend on writing the essay.

- You of course don't have to wait until Jan 20 to hand in your essay if you for some reason want to finish this course as soon as possible.

I hope that decreases some stress and helps you to better manage the examination in this and other courses you have in December.

Seminar assignment 6 deadline

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Please send the (group) seminar assignments to me by e-mail. I don't really need them the day before the seminar, it is enough that I have them the same morning. I will then print, copy and distribute them at the seminar.