CSCI E-10: Paper and Project Information

Topics must all be directly related in some manner to the theme of the course, Virtual Communities on the Internet. Within this limitation, papers and projects may be on any topic of interest to you. Some possible topics are listed below, but please do not feel limited by this list! You will either choose to write a paper, or to do a project and accompany it with a short write-up.

If you choose to write a paper:

• The general nature of a paper should be an in-depth exploration of one particular topic. You may read books or online articles on that topic and write a research paper. Or you might do some online exploration of one or more communities and write about your findings. You might even create something in a medium closer to your own field of work, such as a series of lesson plans if you are a teacher, a business plan for incorporating an aspect of virtual communities into your business, or a publishable article if you are a journalist. Several of the "extension activities and thought experiments" listed on your homework assignments might lend themselves to in-depth exploration. See also the list of sample topics, below. The paper must be your own original work; be sure to properly attribute any material you cite or paraphrase, so that it is clear which ideas are your own and which are from sources you have discovered.

• Papers should be printed out and handed in on actual paper (not electronically), should be typed and double-spaced, and must include a bibliography of any sources you have used. The bibliography may include books, articles, URLs for on-line documents cited, or any other sources you have consulted.

• If your paper refers to any specific on-line services or communities other than those introduced by the instructor, please provide detailed access information (e.g. LISTserv addresses, MUD hosts and port numbers, telephone numbers for BBS services, and so forth).

• There is no fixed length requirement for these papers. I would much rather read a short paper that makes its points clearly and concisely than a long one that makes the same points with more words. Last year's successful papers ranged in length from about 8 to 16 pages, plus bibliography and any figures or illustrations.

If you choose to work on a project:

• Projects can involve creating or participating actively in a virtual community, and can be either technical or social in nature (or both). Projects should include a write-up explaining the nature of the project, how the project was carried out, an analysis of the success of the project if relevant, and a concluding summary. Your write-up may be shorter than that of a full-length paper, due to the substantial amount of time you will be working on the project itself, but the write-up is still essential to other people's understanding of the project.

• If the project includes any components created by the student and available only on-line, detailed access and use information is essential. If the project involves an on-going observation or survey, comprehensive notes and all raw data should be provided (on paper if this is feasible, otherwise electronically, but the write-up itself must be printed out and turned in on paper).

Examples of possible paper topics:

1. Compare and contrast the community aspects of two different kinds of Internet services we have studied or read about this semester (including MUSEs, Usenet, Listserv, and IRC). What are the strengths and weaknesses of each, along all the dimensions we have considered (community formation, issues of identity, privacy, governance, etc.). Or pick a service we have not yet looked at, such as a graphical MUD system, and compare its strengths and weaknesses to services we have studied. Software for various graphical MUDs is available online; please ask me for help if you are interested in exploring these before we get to them in early April.

2. Study and write about how the techniques of virtual community are used by a particular business or industry, whether to increase customer base, foster customer loyalty, handle customer service, or for some other business-related purpose.

3. Study and write about community formation in a specific example of your favorite Internet service For instance, pick a MUSE or a Usenet Newsgroup and examine the existing or still-forming set of community values and social rules.

4. Track news stories in a major newspaper (the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, etc.) about virtual communities. To what extent are the newspapers getting the full story, and what are they leaving out? What slant do they present? (For journalists: write an article for publication in your newspaper or magazine).

5. For teachers: how would you incorporate some of what you have learned this semester into a classroom setting? Write an integrated unit, including a series of lesson plans for any academic subject you choose, that makes use of virtual communities on the Internet.

6. Compare rules of order and government in a virtual online community to those of a "real" (whatever that means) community. Must they be different? What aspects of real-world government are transferable to virtual communities? Are there new concerns of specific interest in virtual worlds?

Examples of possible projects:

1. Create a virtual community organized along particular interest lines, that does not already appear to exist. For example, select newsgroups where people who share your interest are likely to be found, search them out with appropriate postings, and work your way towards developing enough of a following that you could actually branch off and form your own newsgroup (probably in the alt.* hierarchy). If this project succeeds, you may actually be able to create the newsgroup and continue the association well past the end of the semester!

2. Establish yourself as the resident expert on a particular virtual community (e.g. a particular newsgroup in one of your fields of expertise). Respond actively to as many postings as you can. Document your success at helping this community by including with your write-up a portfolio of the letters you have sent and any thank-you letters received in return.

3. Create a virtual community by making a set of WWW pages that will attract people with a common interest, and reply actively to everyone who expresses an interest. This sort of project may lead to the creation of a mailing list, either privately run by you or public and accessible to many (a LISTserv) although such a level of success is unlikely to happen before the end of the semester. You could, however, manually update your WWW pages to include answers you receive from other interested people, and in that way create a micro-managed virtual community.

4. Create your own area in a MUSE (MicroMUSE or any other that will allow you to build) that provides well-organized information on a topic of interest to others. Invite people to visit your area and comment on it, and incorporate their comments into the area.

5. For C programmers: write a robot program that communicates with users in a MUSE and performs a useful function. For example, it might: (a) collect information and answer questions about rooms and players in the MUSE; (b) provide easy cross-indexed access to the online help and news; (c) let people port rooms and objects from one MUSE to another by creating a specification file on one MUSE, and using that file to build similar rooms on another MUSE.

In addition, many of the extension activities suggested in the homework assignments could make excellent projects if taken to a substantial depth.

Grading:

Paper/Project Due Dates

April 8, 2002

Paper or project proposals are due by this date. If you have any questions about the suitability of your proposed topic, see the instructor before or after class.

All proposals must be approved by the instructor. I will respond by e-mail as soon as I've had a chance to review your project proposal, to approve it or to discuss any concerns I might have. Every year, I receive several proposals that are interesting but need substantial revision or tailoring; please give yourselves as much time as possible to work on your projects, by giving me your proposals on time.

May 13, 2002

Students should be prepared to present their papers or projects to the class by this date, but need not have a final draft at this time. Feedback from the class may be incorporated into your final drafts.

May 20, 2001

Final versions of all papers and projects are due on this date. For papers, the final printed draft should be given to the instructor. For projects, the write-up should be given to the instructor by this date, along with pointers to any on-line sources created by the student as part of the project, or any data available electronically that was too massive to print out.

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