INLS 201

Foundations of Information Science.

Information science straddles multiple disciplines. On the conceptual level we work with philosophical, sociological and historical problems of discovering how messages acquire meaning and value; and on the technical level, we’re focus on understanding how to manipulate our messages in practical ways to achieve specific goals. This class is an introduction to the field, and as such, my goal was to introduce students to the philosophical history of the field, and have them to think about the interplay between philosophical ideas and the technical implementation of those philosophies.

Class was comprised of lectures and in-class activities. Assessments included a midterm and a final. Due to a series of disasters in 2019 and 2019 (hurricanes, broken water mains) I eventually recorded all lectures so I could devote class-time to activities focused on connecting the dots between the philosophical readings and practical applications. In-class activities included: debate-day, describe-the-meme, writing cover letters that leverage knowledge of the job-applicant algorithms, and working in teams to develop tools that maximize algorithmic decision making. Examples of our in-class activities can be found on the Extras! page.

My syllabus and readings were based on those developed by Melanie Feinberg, Ryan Shaw, Diane Kelly and Ron Bergquist. I taught this class until Spring 2020, when it became a large lecture class.

Syllabi