Internet: Knowledge and Community

Description

The Internet as we know it didn't exist ten years ago, and it's a fair guess that in another ten years it will be radically transformed yet again. How is it changing the ways people see their world and interact with each other — and how does it merely reflect how people have interacted before it existed? In this two-quarter program, we will study the origin and the structure of the Internet, its relation to other technologies, the roles that it plays in our lives, and both the opportunities and the dangers that it opens for us. In fall quarter, we will focus on the way that we construct knowledge and how the Internet affects this. In winter quarter, we will consider the nature of community including the ways that people can build communities through the Internet, and the ways that communities can make use of the Internet for their own goals.