This week in LIS 201 (week 3)

Week 3: The electromechanical control revolution

LECTURE ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17

• The control revolution and modernity

READINGS TO COMPLETE BEFORE DISCUSSION

• James Beniger, "The Control Revolution," in Albert H. Teich, ed., Technology and the Future (1990).
• Ruth Schwartz Cowan, "Industrial Society and Technological Systems," in A Social History of American Technology (1997).
• William Cronon, "The busy hive," in Nature's Metropolis (1991).

HOMEWORK TO COMPLETE BEFORE DISCUSSION

• If it's your week to write a 500-word article critique, you must post this to your section blog before your section meets.
• If it's your week to give a speech, prepare and practice!  Otherwise, prepare for a possible extemporaneous speech response.
• Post your rough draft of paper #1 to your personal wiki pages (create a separate subpage so that your peer reviewers can just "comment" at the bottom).

DISCUSSION MEETING

• First five minutes: Pop quiz? Maybe!
• Two student presentations (#3 and #4) on the readings (and two student extemporaneous responses).
• Discuss this week's lecture and required readings.
• Your TA will set up peer review groups ( 6 students in each) and post these on your discussion section wiki in case you forget.

ONLINE OVER THE WEEKEND

This week you'll explore the Prelinger Archives, which contains thousands fantastic vintage educational and corporate promotional films, some of which deal with information and communication technology. Many of these films are in color with sound, and most are short (15 or 20 minutes).

• Search the Prelinger Archives for telecommunications-related films (telephone, telegraph, etc.) and find the most interesting vintage film for a 21st century class on the "information society" that you can.
• Please note: Within each discussion section, every student needs to find a different film to post! This means you need to see what's already been posted in your section to avoid duplication! (Students who do this assignment earlier might have an easier time of it.)
• Post a link to your film on your discussion section blog and make an argument about why this film is useful to students of our modern information and communication infrastructure — what can we learn from the film you found?
• Watch at least one of your fellow students' suggested films and post a comment with your reaction.
• You must finish this online activity before next week's lecture.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

• Margo Anderson, "The Census and industrial America in the Gilded Age," in The American Census: A Social History (1988).
• James Beniger, "Introduction," in The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society(1986).
• Ruth Schwartz Cowan, "Communications technologies and social control," in A social history of American technology (1997).
• Ruth Schwartz Cowan, "Industrial society and technological systems," in A Social History of American Technology (1997). 
• Greg Downey, "Telegraph messenger boys: Crossing the borders between history of technology and human geography," The professional geographer 55:2 (2003).
• Richard R. John, "Recasting the information infrastructure for the industrial age," in Alfred Chandler jr. and James Cortada, eds., A nation transformed by information (2000). 
• Steven Lubar, "Telegraph" and "Telephone" in Infoculture (1993). 
• David Nye, "Shaping communication networks: Telegraph, telephone, computer," Social Research (1997). 
• Kevin Robins and Frank Webster, "The long history of the information revolution," in Times of the technoculture: From the information society to the virtual life (1999). 
• Oliver Zunz, "Inside the skyscraper," in Making America Corporate 1870-1920 (1990).