Comtech aims to equip the orgcom student with an understanding of technological changes that are affecting society. As a future communications professional, the orgcom student must be able to assist organizations how to survive and even thrive in the technologically-driven revolution. The course becomes of greater concern to the orgcom student as this period is being defined by rapid developments in information and communication technologies. (See PRSA definition of public relations.)

In addition to exposing the student to a background on the Information Society, the course also has a laboratory component in which the student learns how to create and publish content on the World Wide Web, the medium that currently defines this new age.

Objectives

To introduce the orgcom student to the principles, technologies as well as some key issues behind the Internet and the Web.

To apply this understanding in a Web project that advances an organization's communication goals.

Course outline

Week	topic	lab
1	Overview. House rules.	Lab rules. E-mail list. Website accounts.
2	Technological determinism. Innis. McLuhan. Toffler. Read: The Medium is the Message, McLuhan. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: Bantam, 1965. The DNA of Information, Negroponte. Being Digital.	Formatting text. Lists. Hyperlinks.
3	Toffler: Six Principles of the New Media; 21st-century skills	Using images. Applying color to text and background. Swatches.
4	A Brief History of the Internet and Related Networks How the Internet works Quarterman and Salus animation Packet-switching animation Delivery of data using an Ethernet Ethernet traffic	Layouting with tables
5	The World Wide Web Gillies & Cailliau Berners-Lee (read his first chapter) How web servers work.	Cascading style sheets. Special characters.
6	Getting the most of free Internet
7	Education	Creating own images
8	Governance	Mapping images
9	Advocacy	Image animation
10	Cyber fraud	Fillout forms
11	Cyber ethics: intellectual property, plagiarism	Layouting with frames
12	Cyber ethics: privacy, spamming	Java applets

Requirements

June 21: A home-page usability test. 10%

July 5: A book report on the information society. 5-page summary and discussion. Choose from this book list. 10%

An oral presentation on any of the topics listed after midterm. Groups of three 20%

Exercises 30%

August 23: a public relations-oriented website for a prospective client organization. 30%

House rules

Maximum allowable absences is two and a half. Tardiness is counted as a half-absence

Deadlines shall be respected.

The M215 lab shall be used only for exercises and projects directly related to COMTECH. The computers, printers, scanners and other equipment are not to be used for any other purposes, including student clubs or organizations, thesis proposals, theses, term papers, other assignments, and the like.

Read the lab rules.