English 307 Writing for the Internet
Resources
The collection here is going to be a little idiosyncratic: I'll add in various items as I come across them.
First Stops
The companion website for Cyberreader contains a lot of good stuff: links to other sites, including bibliographies, webographies, homepages of authors we'll read, research aids, etc.
Here's some miscellaneous advice about writing that I've been collecting.
The Purdue University Online Writing Lab has a number of very good handouts about General Writing Concerns (including invention and arrangement tools), Grammar, Research, Professional Writing (including resume writing), etc.
Overcoming Procrastination.
"The Ethics of Persuasion: Some Guidelines," by Edward Bernays
Cyberspace News
3/12/02: Nanotech Soldiers from MIT; see also Ripping Off a Comic Book to Get the Contract for Nanotech Soldiers from MIT
1/13/03: Operation Desert Spam
1/20/03: Switzerland starts fiddling with cyber-democracy.
2/7/03: Debris from the Shuttle Columbia advertised on eBay.
3/24/03: The world's biggest geek has been located and tagged.
General Histories/Overviews of the Internet
Timeline of Internet History
From ABEND to zorkmid: a glossary of internet, hacker, and general computer slang/jargon. More than a little dated, but has most of the basics.
Cyborgs and Cyberpunk
Christian Kirtchev's Cyberpunk Manifesto.
William Gibson -- cyberpunk hero, inventor of the term "cyberspace," author of novels (Neuromancer) movies (Johnny Mnemonic) and TV scripts ("The X-Files") has a homepage here.
Hakim Bey on how he developed the idea for the Temporary Autonomous Zone, and a British zine writer giving some examples of TAZ.
Check out The Digital Human -- a work in progress -- courtesy of the Federation of American Scientists.
Background on Communication, Rhetoric, Genre, and so on, and so forth
re: McLuhan: Is PowerPoint Satan? Yes, PowerPoint is Satan, at home and work. In fact, PowerPoint was Satan 140 years ago.
Simon Blackburn on relativism and absolutism.
Plato's "Allegory of the Cave," from The Republic. Read up through 518c.
Freedom/Censorship
The Center for Democracy and Technology's "Overview of the Communications Decency Act."
CNN's Page on the CDA and Reno v. ACLU
Privacy and Security
The Electronic Privacy Information Center keeps on top of privacy issues and other civil liberties issues better than anybody else I've found. If you haven't had a good scare lately, try their page on the Total Information Awareness Program. There was a recent win for the home team, but the TIA program is still rolling as a division of the Info Awareness Office at the Pentagon. They've removed the scary logo that has caused so much comment.
An article from the Boston Globe, "A Nation of Voyeurs," about Google and its social effects. This material runs parallel to what some of you wrote in your tech autobiographies.
Re: Projects 2 and 3
Photocopied sign I spotted 2/12/03: No valentine? Join the circle. BUCircle@hotmail.com