Announcements

A tradition of COM5101 is that we finish the lecture in week 13 earlier (around 8pm) and then have an happy hour to celebrate the end of the teaching weeks, either going to a restaurant, bar, or staying right in the classroom. The happy hour is always organized by the class representatitives with suggestions and helps from all other students. It's your turn now.

Q1: Our group will be working on XXX theory for the research paper. For Part 2 of the paper (application of the theory), we are thinking to construct a quantitative or qualitative survey in order apply the theory. Do you think we should do a quantitative research (survey) or a qualitative research (like Focus group)? If we do quantitative research, we are afraid that our sample size will be small (around 100 interviewees) as we will not have enough time to do the research. Would you please advice what we can do to minimize the small sample size?

A1:Neither quantitative or qualitative data collection is required as the application part of the paper can be done based on library/Internet research. However, if your group feels that some first-hand data may help enhance your paper, please feel free to do so within the time and resources available to you. Given the time constraint, focus groups might be a better choice.

Q2For reference information, we found it quite difficult to find the reference information of XXX theory e from the Wiley you suggested and in the library. May I have your suggestion on some other research about this?

A2This is exactly what I was referring to – I’ve seen a lot of relevant studies there; the reason you didn’t see is that you have not used the right search strategies as I suggested in class. For example, try to see what will happen if you search “james webster television” in google scholar. If you want me to provide any further suggestions, I could easily do that but would have to deduct credits from your paper at the end, to be fair to other groups because I carry out part of your research paper. If all groups want similar help from me, I would have to deduct credits from everyone. Remember, learning how to do library/online literature search is part of the course.

The time of the guest lecture by Bob McCann of University of Southern Californina is changed to 8:30-9:30pm on 3 Nov in Lecture Theatre (LT) 10. We will do regular lecture in P2631 in 6:40-8:15pm and then move the class to LT 10.

To facilitate group papers, the lecture notes for weeks 10-12 have all been uploaded.

Repost: as of today (10.24), 16 groups have been formed. Each group has been randomly assigned a theory for review. Three students have not taken any action yet. Please act immediately before further penalty applies.

Q: I have written a tech update about xxx, but I'm little confused about its technological categories – should it be identified as software or service? It would be great if you could give me some advice.

A: As I explained in class, the line between software and services is sometimes indeed blurring. Your case is however not that difficult to decide. I certainly can tell you what I think. However, that will completely defy the purpose of this exercise -- forcing you to develop problem-solving skills in dealing with new media technology. Please use your best judgment to make a choice and justify your decision through the description of the tech item.

Q1: I have already submitted the technology update. However, I found that other students can read it without my password. I am not sure if this is a practice for the previous years. To protect the copyright of the early submissions, is it possible to block the submissions before the deadline?

Q2: I found my proposed topic is the same as another classmate. Do I need to work on other topic OR it is fine for me to work on the same topic?

A: Yes, it has been the practice over the years to make all the submissions public before the deadline, to facilitate exchanges of initial ideas among students. Students are assued that mechanisms have been built in the system to give due recognition to original work. Submissions of similar topics are graded on the merits of each submission alone. Furthermore, if there is substantial portion of similarity in the writing between two submissions, the system is smart enough to detect which is original and which isn't. Therefore, you don't need to worry about your idea or content being taken by others as long as your work is indeed independent and original.

Q: I want to write for tech updates XXX but don't know if it is too futuristic. I wonder whether it is suitable for tech update.

A: As I said in class, it's difficult for me to comment on any topic before reading the full story. Please use your judgment, based on the readings, lecture notes, and discussion questions, to decide whether a topic is appropriate. After all, this is exactly the purpose of this assignment -- to train your ability to identify important trends in new media technology with real impact.

Q: I uploaded my tech update topic without any problem. After that, I wanted to use "revise' button to log-in again to add some content. It seem doesn't work on it. Did I make any mistake in the steps?

A: Can you try again and, if the problem persists, send me a copy of the error message page (i.e., using "Print Screen" key on your keyboard to save the screen of error message page into an image file)?

Q: Would you please tell me the date of final exam?

A: At CityU, the date of all final exams is decided by the Academic Regulations and Records Office (ARRO) based on the availability of classrooms and students (i.e., day-time vs evening students). ARRO will announce the information sometime in late Octor or early November in your epotal.

The broken link to the article "Should you invest in the Long Tail?" by Elberse in week 4 has been repaired. Two additional links have also been added there to the debate between Anderson and Elberse on the issue after the publication of Elberse's short article.

Thanks a lot for the student who brought to my attention the broken link. You're all encouraged to keep me posted about similar or other errors on the course website.

The broken link to the article "Should you invest in the Long Tail?" by Elberse in week 4 has been repaired. Two additional links have also been added there to the debate between Anderson and Elberse on the issue after the publication of Elberse's short article.

A list of additional references has been added at the end of readings page to assist the writing of research papers.

The deadline for group research papers (for MACNM students) and individual research papers (for PhD students) has been revised to 29 Nov 2009. See coursework page for details.

The following news article reported the findings of a study that "Facebook enhances intelligence but Twitter diminishes it": http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/6147668/Facebook-enhances-intelligence-but-Twitter-diminishes-it-claims-psychologist.html.
Please read it before next Tuesday. We will discuss it briefly in class in connection to our lecture, readings, and group discussions on research methods. How good or bad do you think the findings are?

Since some of you have found difficulties in getting access to the e-version of our text book, I've asked the Library to add more licenses of the book. The library is considering two alternatives: either more licenses or more hard copies. At the same time, they advise us on the following:

1. There is a hard copy available at the reserve section of the library (http://lib.cityu.edu.hk/record=b1529831~S8).
2. When you finish reading the e-book, click the “Close Item” link on the upper left corner of screen, which will releases the ebook immediately for another user. Otherwise, the book might be "locked up" in the server for a few hours before another user can access it again.

A temporary password (for you to login "Student Zone" to download and upload course materials) has been sent to your student email account. If you can't find it, go to "Student Zone" and enter in the "Password Request Form" your electronic ID.