Nanyang Technological University

Division of Information Studies

 

H6501 Information Users and Society

 

 

Course Outline

 

 

Course Lecturers

 

Assoc. Prof. Suliman Hawamdeh (Course Coordinator)

Asst. Prof. Susan Higgins

 

Venue and Time

 

Monday          9:00 am – 12:00 pm   LT 18

Tuesday          6:30 pm – 9:45 pm  LT 03

 

Course Schedule

         

 

Lecture/Tutorial

 

 

 

 

Topic

 

 

Lecture 1

 

 

 

Introduction and Course Overview

 

 

Lecture 2

 

 

 

National Information Infrastructure (NII)

Key policies in Singapore such as IT2000, Library2000, Internet and E-Commerce

 

Tutorial

 

 

 

Identify areas in which the government can play a role in the development of the Information Society in Singapore

 

 

Lecture 3

 

 

 

 

Communication and information transfer

 

 

Tutorial

 

 

 

Information dissemination within the  virtual communities regardless of borders and corporate structures

 

Lecture 4

 

 

 

 

Electronic Publishing in the Digital Era

 


 

 

Class

 

 

 

Topic

 

 

Tutorial

 

What are the threats and the opportunities that electronic publishing might bring?

 Will electronic publishing replace the exiting paper-based publishing or will it continue to run in parallel?   

 

Lecture 5

 

 

 

Digital Libraries: Content Management and Access Control

 

 

Tutorial

 

 

Discuss access control and security issues related to digital libraries

 

Lecture 6

 

 

 

Knowledge Based Society and Economy

 

 

 

Tutorial

 

Today, economic and personal development is linked to knowledge. Knowledge is the key to competitiveness and employment.Discuss the role that information specialist played in the knowledge creation process. 

 

Lecture 7

 

 

 

Intellectual Property and the Economy of Ideas

 

 

 

Tutorial

 

 

 

How to protect intangible assets. Who has the right to an Idea?

 

Lecture 8

 

 

 

Copyright and Trade Mark in the Digital Era

 

 

 

Tutorial

 

Copying a document from the cyberspace is not the same as that of making a photocopy of paper document. How Fair Use can be applied to cyberspace material.

 

 

Lecture 9

 

 

 

Education and Training in the Information Society

 

 

Tutorial

 

How can teachers and trainers be best prepared for the information age? To what extent new tools such as multimedia, information visualization and so on can encourage creative thinking.

 

Lecture 10

 

 

 

Privacy in the Information Age

 

 

Tutorial

 

 

How do you draw the line between public information and private information? Consumer information and employee information.


 

 

Class

 

 

 

Topic

 

 

Lecture 11

 

 

 

Information Standards and

Standardization activities in the information Society

 

 

Tutorial

 

 

Discuss two of the standardization activities in Singapore highlighting the impact of such standards on productivity. 

 

Lecture 12

 

 

 

Information Security and Information Ethics

 

 

Tutorial

 

To what extent ethical and moral values can help in dealing with computer security issues such as hacking and virus development

Lecture 13

 

 

Review

 

Textbook
 

Al-Hawamdeh, Suliman and Hart, Thomas (2001) Information and Knowledge Society. McGraw-Hill

 

Reading List

 

Baase, S. (1997) A gift of fire: social, legal, and ethical issues in computing. Prentice-Hall, Inc. New Jersey. Chapter 5.

 

Choo C. W. (1987)  “The National Computer Board's Roles and Activities in Standardization and Computerization of Information”, Proceedings of the Asian Forum for Standardization of Information Technology. September 14, Tokyo, Japan. http://www.cicc.or.jp/homepage/english/library/af1/1-10.html

 

Chaudhry, A. S. and Al_Hawamdeh, S. ( 1998) “National Information Infrastructure development and Internet applications in Singapore.”  Proceeding of the Conference on Achieving Excellence in Information Organization and Delivery: Strategies for the 2tst Century, 25-27 November 1998, Bahrain, Arabian Gulf Chapter of the Special Libraries Association. pp: 41-50.

 

Collection of papers on IT Standardization in Asian Countries, http://tyo-cc-server.cicc.or.jp/homepage/english/library/in_af.htm

 

Creating a user-friendly information society, http://www.cordis.lu/esprit/src/istwork.htm

 

Digital Libraries and the Practices of Scholarly Communication, http://www.slis.indiana.edu/CSI/wp97-03.html

 

Duggan, M. K. (1991) “Copyright  of electronic information: issues and questions.” Online,  Vol. 15, No. 3, pp: 20-26.

 

E-Commerce in Singapore, Electronic Transactions Act 1998, http://www.cca.gov.sg/eta/index.html

 

Information Research: an Electronic Journal, http://www.shef.ac.uk/~is/publications/infres/ircont.html

 

Information Society Forum theme paper, http://www.ispo.cec.be/infoforum/pub/themepap.html

 

IT2000 - A Vision of an Intelligent Island , http://www.ncb.gov.sg/ncb/it2000.asp