Instructor: Xiaolong Zhang

Introduction
Information technology has dramatically changed many aspects of our life,
and also expanded the roles of information professionals in providing
services. Information professionals work more and more like consultants to
provide guidance and services to people. This requires a better
understanding of information technologies and their relationships with
people. This course is designed to offer introductions to the basic
concepts and applications of computers and Internet-related information
technologies and the relationship between information technologies and
people at the various social levels. The topics in this survey course
include computing basics, network applications, human computer
interactions, computer-supported cooperative work, the adoption of
information systems in organizations, and some economic and legal issues
related to digital services and products.

Textbook

TBD between Robert E. Molyneux, The Internet Under the Hood and
David Messerschmitt, Understanding Networked Applications: A First Course.

John R. Anderson, Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications

Readings
Additional readings will be posted weekly on the course web site or
distributed in class.

Tentative schedules

Week 1 Computing Basics: data, processing, and I/O

Week 2 Computing Basics: operating systems and programming languages

Week 3 Architecture: infrastructure, hierarchy, modularity, and layering

Week 4 Communication links and protocols

Week 5 Information retrieval and presentation on the Internet, database,

Week 6 Human information processing and graphic user interfaces

Week 7 Human information retrieval and the user interface design of online
services

Week 8 Groupware: conceptual foundations

Week 9 Groupware in the real world and its implication for information
services

Week 10 New directions of collaboration technologies:
collaboratories, collaborative virtual environments, augmented reality

Week 11 Information systems in organizations: Conceptual foundations

Week 12 Information systems in organizations: Adoption issues

Week 13 Information society: information flooding, social capitals,
privacy, etc.

Week 14 Inforamtion technology, information economics and intellectual
properties