Assignments

Deliverables

Your work is due at midnight on the date posted on the course calendar. If you are unable to meet a commitment due to an emergency, please contact me as soon as possible to re-schedule. There is a 5%/day late penalty for work submitted past the midnight deadline.

Country Studies

Our course is based around a Global Technology Policy Committee (GTPC) that studies and discusses information technology as it impacts our countries' economics and societies. Each of you will choose a country you wish to represent to the GTPC by the second week of class. As representative of that country, you will need to understand its characteristics, special needs, resources, and national interests vis a vis information technology.

To help you understand IT issues in your country, you will create a web page ( initial page due by the second week of class) comprising five links to the assigned profile topics that promote your country's assets and describe the issues. In addition to the five links, this page will provide information on demographics, currency, trade characteristics and other unique attributes you feel contribute to the nation's effective adoption of information technology in a global economy as well as a report on the first topic, IT Infrastructure. The remaining country profiles you develop during the semester for this web site will reflect information on the topics of the current week. For example, Profile #2 will describe the country's language & culture, the preparedness of its workforce for the IT economy, and how it observes and enforces intellectual property rights (see this excellent example of a completed web site for Germany). You will represent your country in the weekly discussions and participate according to its best interests, as you understand them based on your research.

The six topical profiles should be organized as follows:

• Title, author, date created (each profile is a self-contained report)
• Introduction to the topic that compels the reader to continue reading
• Definitions of concepts and terms as appropriate
• Global overview of the topic as it generally affects all countries
• Local overview of the topic as it affects your country
• Annotated references including links, title, date and author (or organization)

Remember that anybody on the Internet can visit your web pages, so each page should stand on its own. You should embed links and include pictures, charts, etc. to provide additional depth and credibility to your report. Depending on the font and layout, each profile will be 2-3 printed pages. Remember, you should summarize or synthesize information from other sites and periodicals; do not copy and paste information verbatim (i.e. don't plagiarize! The first instance of plagiarism earns a score of 0 (zero), the second is an automatic course failure).

Here is a link from the Library of Congress to country information.

Searchbank is the online version of Infotrac, with on-campus access to full text of articles.

And of course, Google is always your friend. Just remember to verify the information you find.