Read first! [Ethical and Proper Use of Computer Accounts at the UW: A Tutorial [ and here (Click!)]

E-Mail Use in this Class: Every student in this class should have an e-mail account as soon as logistically possible (hopefully by the end of the first week).

E-Mail will be used for communication which is

1. urgent
2. of a personal and confidential nature (but only when you cannot see me in person)
3. has a relative short "shelf life" (i.e. the information contained in the message is ephemeral and can be deleted soon)

• before, during or after class;
• during my office hours.
• on your own class-related Web page; or

We should avoid (but I realize that is often difficult) to send lengthy articles to each other by E-mail. If such "papers" have a URL, we will exchange that address by E-mail or explain other ways to get hold of it. Class contributions and assignments should not be distributed by E-mail, but placed into your Project Page.

Browsing the World Wide Web (WWW): Lost in Cyberspace?

Ideally, we would be able to attach some "Checkpoint Charlie" type cautionary message to all hyperlinks which leave our class-related system of Web pages, something like "Caution: You are now leaving the safe environment of your instructor's own Web system". Since this is impractical, I need to encourage you to watch your own steps: Plan ahead, impose time limits on unstructured searches which may stray too far afield into cyberspace; learn from Hänsel & Gretel: Be sure you are able to find your way back home. Otherwise, let's never forget the fact that we are dealing with a new technology and that the "Internet (is) not (yet) living up to all its speedy promises" (Seattle Times, March 23, 1997).

You also need to be aware that after you leave the Economic & Business Geography Web site (whether knowingly or not) you accept full responsibility for any material that you encounter. Last, not least, be aware that the Internet may be detrimental to your (mental) health. A few years ago, a study found that "the more hours people spend on the Internet, the more depressed, stressed and lonely they feel..."

Home or Portfolio Page: We will make every individual or collective attempt possible to activate our student Web capability for everyone in the class. This second (Web subdirectory [public_html]) is also "free" and is needed to create our own portfolio pages.

For class purposes, your Portfolio Page can, for example, be used for providing access to your

• Personal Introduction: What would you like the rest of us to know about you, your interests, background, past experiences, skills and plans which you feel might be useful for the class and create a better learning environment for you. Feel free to add any special needs you may have or challenges you are seeking (or tell me about those personally). Of course, we would also be eager to learn what your special skills and contribution to the class might be... remember JFK's "Don't ask what..".
• Drafts of your assignments or other Portfolio components (there are ways to shield your drafts, generally or selectively, from the view of others during the initial stages of your writing)
• Your "Resource Page" (possibly annotated) with access (hyper-links) to Internet materials which have been important for your learning experiences and work in this class.
• Your responses or contributions to class discussions
• Your suggestions and comments on the projects of other class members

IN THIS CLASS, THE ACTIVE USE OF THE INTERNET (for E-Mail, Access to Resources and Creating your own Web Site) IS INTENDED TO:

1. Provide "hands-on" experience in a modern, still evolving mode of communication. Communication represents a major focus of our studies in Economic Geography.
2. Save class time by enabling instructors to distribute written information about class logistics and selective substantive content.
3. Enable students to ask questions about class logistics and content thereby improving communications and reducing travel time and for in-office consultations.
4. Facilitate the distribution and collection of class assignments
5. Facilitate the formation of discussion-, study- and interest groups among students in this class.
6. Facilitate other individual communication between students in this class.
7. Facilitate the use of the library and computer-based learning resources and reference systems and the interface with the WWW.
8. Facilitate communication with geographers and other interesting persons or institutions at other locations in the United States and abroad and thereby to become a more experienced user of the 'Internet'. We encourage the formation of INTERNET-groups. Please share your INTERNET findings and favorite class-related sites directly with your peers or with me for possible distribution to the class. Thanks!
9. Save trees? Probably not.

If you already have your Internet accounts and feel comfortable around computers, would you consider offering some assistance to a classmate? Please help in trying to bridge the "Digital Divide" in this classroom. Thanks!

Area students score in Web site contest Seattle Times, Tuesday, June 9, 1998 by Eric Sorensen; Puget Sound area high-school students have cleaned up in a statewide scholarship competition to develop ways for the Internet to enhance learning, help business and empower their communities.

Internet Explosion:

• NUA Internet Surveys
• Productivity surge: It's the Internet, stupid; Seattle Times, July 1, 1999 by Leslie Helm, Los Angeles Times

  .. technology has been winning increasing credit for its role in the current economic boom, ... By tying hundreds of millions of computers together into a common network, the Internet has turbocharged the U.S. economy and is helping to generate long-elusive improvements in productivity, ... A close look at how companies are using the Internet to save billions of dollars in distribution and transaction costs reveals a global productivity revolution in the making. From online self-service systems for employees and customers to direct sales to remote management of far-flung facilities, the Internet is changing the way business is done.

• Article: Surprises on the Web: Results from Usability Testing Note: This article was originally published in our September/October 1996 newsletter. Since then, we've finished our research and written a book (Website Usability: A Designer's Guide) and developed a course. Check them out! We recently conducted a pilot research study to find out what makes a web site usable. The results are still preliminary, but we thought you might like a peek at some of the findings that surprised us during our usability testing.
• Is the Internet dead? CNN Interactive, October 27, 1998 by Bob Metcalfe, InfoWorld Columnist [Bob Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet, enlightens us about the future of the Internet and the next generation of Internet technologies.]

  "The Internet is incorporating one service after another. The original Remote Login Internet was followed by the File Transfer Internet, the Electronic Mail Internet, and the Newsgroup Internet. Then, with the World Wide Web, we got the Web Publishing Internet. Now, it's the Electronic Commerce Internet. What next? The Telepresence Internet? These Internets aren't arriving neatly one after another, which is complicated...."

• Sites: Net figures; By Cary Griffith [Computer User, October 1998] [with extensive links] [saved] "How many people use the Internet? That depends. Are you talking about worldwide users or just in the United States? And do you count anyone with Internet access as a user? Or are your rating requirements more stringentand if so, how stringent? To be considered a user do you have to access the Internet once, twice, 20 times a month? Or daily?"

• Headcount (http://www.headcount.com) Headcount provides Internet marketers with a number of invaluable statistics. It bills itself as a company that “summarizes market research reports giving you quick, easy access to the size of Internet markets worldwide.” With a couple of clicks, you can review the latest Internet statistics by country, language or region. The site also provides users with a variety of current awareness news items regarding Internet markets and use. And if you cant find what you want from any of the sites existing information, you may want to submit a question to the Expert of the Month or review any of the questions past experts have answered.

• If you are curious about how some of future statistics about the Web are generated, check out The Irresponsible Internet Statistics Generator ( http://www.anamorph.com/docs/stats/stats.html ). Based on growth statistics quoted in 1995, users can enter a date (e.g., May 1, 1998) and have this site give you the number of Web sites potentially available. In this case the numbers were “113,246,208,000 sites on the World Wide Web,” or “18.87 Web sites per person.”

• The Georgia Techs Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center produces twice a year the World Wide Web Study (http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/ user_surveys). The most recent statistics (October 1997) show a significant increase in the number of female Internet users, as well as a variety of other statistics.

• State of the Internet; By Nelson King [Computer User, October 1998] "Its not guns and its not butter. In a sense, its nothing more than information whizzing around the world in tiny electrical fragments. Yet 100 million people seem to care enough to use it; many millions use it every day. It is the Internet, of course, and its hard to believe that as a widely known medium of communication, it is barely five years old. Only half a decade! Yet many people talk about an Internet year being the same as a dog yearequivalent to seven human years. What makes this public efflorescence of the Internet seems like 35 years? What has happened to the Internet, and to us, to justify measuring time like that?"
• Highlight: THE INTERNET IN TWENTY YEARS: CYBERSPACE, THE NEXT FRONTIER? By Riel Miller; OECD: International Futures Project "Few dispute the very strong likelihood that within twenty years the global information infrastructure often referred to as the Internet or the Net will become as generalised, indispensable and invisible as today's phone or electrical networks.(2) Many commentators also expect this digital web to become the host for cyberspace, the next frontier."

  Digital Divide (Click!)

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  Other Newspaper Clippings:

  • Build a protective wall to keep e-mail above the law Seattle Times, November 05, 2000 By Charles Bermant Special to The Seattle Times

  • The 10 commandments that rule e-mail etiquette Seattle Times, Sunday, October 17, 1999 by Charles Bermant

    Interest in e-mail and this column has increased since we began just a few months ago, but we are starting to get questions to which we have already provided the answers. So, class, it's time for a review; outlining the rules of e-mail at this particular moment.

  • Study: 320 million Web pages, and counting Seattle Times, Friday, April 3, 1998 by Paul Recer The Associated Press WASHINGTON - The Internet has exploded to more than 320 million Web pages, and even the most dedicated surfer using the best search system would be able to find barely one-third of the pages, a study reports today. It will not get easier soon, because the number of Web pages is expected to grow 1,000 percent in a few years. "Hundreds of pages are being added constantly...."

  • Web will be part of life for new generation, by Bill Gates ("Gatesway") Business Times (South Africa, Aug.3, 1997)

  • Ban urged on Internet gambling Seattle Times, Tuesday, July 29, 1997, by Kasper Zeuthen Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON - Internet gambling is poised to become a billion-dollar industry that will bring increased fraud and addiction, a Senate panel was told yesterday.
  • A virtual resting place for virtual `pets' Seattle Times, Tuesday, July 29, 1997, by Murthy Andavolu The Poughkeepsie Journal "If your child's digital pet is "dead," there's now a virtual mortuary to bury him or her. Or it. Looking to provide a final resting place for digital pets, those bleeping, buzzing gadgets that are a hit with many kids, Woodstock, N.Y., multimedia entrepreneur Bob DeSiena created a World Wide Web site that lets kids bury their dead pets with a eulogy."
  • Maginot Line in cyberspace sought Watchdog groups want to force use of French on Internet sites Seattle Times, Jan. 7, 1997, by Nicolas Marmie "In a landmark court case, French language watchdogs are pushing for a crackdown on the use of English by building a Maginot Line in cyberspace. Using a little-enforced law, the Association for the Defense of the French Language and the Future of the French Language went to court yesterday to press a Georgia Tech campus in eastern France to translate its Internet site."
  • Schools hooked up to the net: now what? California needs training for teachers , Seattle Times, March 18, 1996, by Larry Slonaker SAN JOSE, Calif. - Now that thousands of California schools have been wired in NetDay96, a large and troubling issue remains: How do teachers make the Internet work in the classroom?

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  Literature:

  Katie Hafner & Matthew Lyon. Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet. NY: Simon & Schuster 1996,

  from Sunday's New York Times Book Review: "On Oct. 1, 1969, I.M.P. No. 2 was installed at S.R.I. International in Menlo Park, Calif. From I.M.P. No.1 at the University of California, Los Angeles, it received the word "LOG" and immediately crashed. The Arpanet was born."

  Seabrook, John. Deeper: My Two-Year Odyssey in Cyberspace," (Simon & Schuster 1997)

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