I taught a course at Ryerson University here in Toronto in 1998. Here's a quote:

"The course runs for 13 weeks, and is intendend to operate as a cross-disciplinary, 'hands-on' seminar, exploring the archetypes of 'Interactivity and Networking'. The course seeks to embody the subject matter, while adapting to the current cultural environment. Emphasis is placed on the social appropriation of technology and participation through interaction and networking."

Check out the full Course Syllabus. I often think I should update this course and find somewhere else to teach it.

course @ ryerson: interatcivity and the networks
jesse hirsh (jesse@openflows.net)
Tue, 13 Jan 1998 12:21:21 -0500

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Course Outline for NPF551
Interactivity and Networking

Tuesdays 3pm -6pm - Room 108 Image Arts Building - 122 Bond St.

The course runs for 13 weeks, and is intendend to operate as a
cross-disciplinary, 'hands-on' seminar, exploring the archetypes of
'Interactivity and Networking'. The course seeks to embody the subject
matter, while adapting to the current cultural environment. Emphasis is
placed on the social appropriation of technology and participation through
interaction and networking.

Calendar Description:
NPF 551 Media Studies: Interactivity and Networking.

Students studying the new media, and innovative aspects of film and
photography, have available to them as an aspect of their production
practice the relatively new communications discipline of interactivity, most
typically by means of high-speed computer-controlled cable and wireless
systems. Interactive and/or networked media and media systems will be traced
from their beginnings up to the current state of ultra-high-speed computing
and optical signal processing. By means of selected historical and
contemporary case studies the interrelated cultural phenomena of
interactivity and networking will be studied as both first-order paradigms
of communicative-behavioural change and as applied creative and expressive
modalities for new-media makers. Lect: 3 hrs.

Evaluation: 20% small paper/project
40% large paper/project
40% participation (seminar presentation)

Note on Timeline:
The following 8 sections are meant to cover the 13 - 3 hour sessions, actual
dates are not specific to allow flexibility and room to pursue class
interests. The 8 sections will flow over the 13 days incorporating student
presentations and participation.

Introduction: The Network Society
Issues: Access/Literacy, Environmentalism/Ecology, Culture Jamming, Hacking
Reality, The Toronto School of Communications

Readings:
Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society, Blackwell, 1996.
Manuel Castells, The Power of Identity: The Information Age - Economy,
Society and Culture, Blackwell Pub, 1997.
Ellul, Jacques; The Technological Society; Alfred A Knopf, New York, 1964

Berg, Dreyer; Cambridge and Toronto: The Twentieth Century Schools of
Communication, The Canadian Journal of Communication, 1985, Vol 11 No. 3,
pp. 251-267
de Kerckhove, Derrick; McLuhan and the 'Toronto School of Communication',
Canadian Journal of Communication, Special Issue

The Global Village
Issues: Holism and Paradox, Old and New, East meets West, Glocalization
(Globalization meets Localization), Speed and Cultural Accelleration,
Privacy and the Surveillance Society

Readings:

Huxley, Aldus; Brave New World; Penguin Books, New York 1932
McLuhan, Eric, & Frank Zingrone; The Essential McLuhan; House of Anansi,. 1995
McLuhan, Marshall & Powers, Bruce; The Global Village; Oxford University
Press 1989
Orwell, George; 1984
Negroponte, Nick; Being Digital, MIT Press 1995
Gilder, George; Microcosm, Simon and Schuster, 1989
William Greider, One World Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global
Capitalism, Simon and Schuster, 1997.
Gibson, William; Idouru; Victor Golloncz Ltd., 1996 London
Gibson, William; Mona Lisa Overdrive; Victor Golloncz Ltd, 1988 London
Gibson, William; Count Zero; Victor Golloncz Ltd, 1986 London
Gibson, William; Neuromancer; Victor Golloncz Ltd, 1984 London

Convergence
Issues: Digitization, Computerization, Militarization, Divinity and
Mortality, Body and Mind, Millenial Madness, and the Religion of Technology

Readings:

de Chardin, Teilhard; The Future of Man;1964
de Chardin, Teilhard; The Phenomena of Man;1964
David F. Noble, The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the
Spirit of Invention, Knopf, 1997.
Noble, David; Forces of Production, Knopf, New York 1984
Noble, David; America by Design, Oxford University Press, Toronto 1977

Pool, Ithiel de Sola; Technologies Of Freedom; Harvard U Press, 1983
Tehraniam, Majid; Technologies of Power: Infomartion Machines & Democratic
Prospects; Ablex Publishing Corp, 1990 Norwood NJ
Wilson, Kevin; Technologies of Control, University of Wisconsin Press,
Madison 1988
Beninger, James; The Control Revolution; Harvard University Press, Cambridge
1986

Political Economy of the Networks
Issues: Governance, Electronic Money, Monopoly, Polarization, and Public Space

Readings:

Bagdikian, Ben; The Media Monopoly; Beacan Press, 1992 Boston
Chomsky, Noam; Necessary illusions: thought control in democratic societies.
Black Rose Books. 1989
Innis, Harold A.; Empire And Communications; University of Toronto Press,
Toronto 1972
Mosco, Vincent; Pay Per Soceity; Garamond Press, 1989 Toronto
Vincent Mosco, The Political Economy of Communication: Rethinking and
Renewal, Sage, 1996.
Tapscott, Dan; Digital Economy, McGraw Hill, 1996

Kroker, Arthur; & Weinstein, Michael A.; The Political Economy of Virtual
Reality: Pan-Capitalism, from CTHEORY
McChesney, Robert; "The Internet and U.S. Policy" in Journal Of
Communication, Winter 1996, pp. 98-122
Winseck, Dwayne; "Power Shift? Towards a Political Economy of Canadian
Telecommunications and Regulation" in Canadian Journal of Communications,
Winter 1995, pp. 81-106

Lasch, Christopher; The Revolt Of The Elites, 1995
Michels, Robert; Political Parties; Free Press, 1962 New York
Milliband, Ralph; The State In Capitalist Society; Quartet, 1969 New York
Mills, C. Wright; The Power Elite; Oxford University Press, 1956 New York
Domhoff, G. William. Who rules America? Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall. 1967

Postman, Neil; Technopoly; Vintage Books, 1992 New York
Roszak, Theodore; The Cult Of Information, Pantheon Book, New York, 1988

Time and Space
Issues: Navigation, Artificial and Connected Intelligence, Virtual Reality,
Mass and Molecular Society, The many Biases of Communication

Readings:

De Kerckhove, Derrick. The skin of culture : investigating the new
electronic reality; Toronto : Somerville House Pub., 1995.
Rushkoff, Douglas; Media Virus; Ballantine Books, 1994 New York

Sun Tzu; The Art of War
Bey, Hakim; The Information War
Smith, Merrit Roe. (Ed.); Military Enterprise and Technological Change, MIT
Press, Cambridge MA 1985
Thompson, E.P. and Thompson, B. Star Wars: Self-Destruct Incorporated,
Merlin, London 1985
William Bogard, The Simulation of Surveillance: Hypercontrol in Telematic
Societies, Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Sartre, John-Paul; Being and Nothingness; Washington Square Press, Toronto 1956
Sartre, John-Paul; The Psychology of Imagination; Washington Square Press,
Toronto 1966

Knowledge and Mind
Issues: Intellectual Property, Piracy, Langauge, Mapping, the Open Mind

Speaker in Class: Anna Melnikoff

Readings:

Bateson, Gregory; Mind And Nature - A Necessary Unity, Dutton, New York 1979
Apostolos-Paul Refenes (ed); Neural Networks In The Capital Markets, John
Wiley & Sons, Toronto 1995
Harris, Roy; The Language Machine; Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd., London 1987
Zuboff, Shoshana; In the Age of the Smart Machine, Basic Books, New York 1988

Ellul, Jacques; Propaganda, Alfred A Knopf, New York, 1961
Parenti, Michael; Inventing Reality, St. Martin's Press, New York 1986
Perez, Rolando; The Ideology of Information, Stranger Books, NYC 1994
Traber, Michael (ed); The Myth of The Information Revolution, Sage
Publications, London 1986

Ni, Hua-Ching; The Complete Works of Lao Tzu, Seven Star Communications,
Santa Monica 1975
Wilhelm, Richard; The I Ching or Book of Changes; Princeton University
Press, Princeton New Jersey 1950
Po-Tuan Chang; Understanding Reality

Humanity
Issues: Identity, Being, Cyborgs and Community

Readings:

Turkle, Sherry; Life On The Screen; Simon & Schuster, 1995 Toronto
Arthur Kroker and Marilouise Kroker, eds, Digital Delirium, St. Martin's, 1997.
Kroker, Arthur; Data trash: the theory of the virtual class, New World
Perspectives, Montreal 1994.

Edwards, Paul N.; Cyberpunks in cyberspace: the politics of subjectivity in
the computer age, The Sociological Review, 1995
Heath, Deborah; Computers and Their Bodies: Sex, War, and Cyberspace, Lewis
and Clark College 1992
Jansen, Sue Curry; "Making Minds: Sexual and Reproductive Metaphors in the
discourses of the Artificial Intelligence Movement" 1992

Boal, Iain. A; Brook James (ed); Resisting the Virtual Life: The Culture And
Politics of Information; City Lights Books, San Francisco 1995
Webster, Frank and Robins, Kevin; Information Technology: A Luddite
Analysis, Ablex, Norwood NJ, 1986

Tribalism and Nomadism
Issues: Interdependency, Shared Realities, Perspective, Privilidge, Mobility
and Nobility

Readings:

Pierre Levy, Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in
Cyberspace, translated by Robert Bononno, Plenum Press, 1997.
Brown, L. Susan; The Politics of Individualism, Black Rose Books, Montreal 1993
Kroker, Arthur, Hacking A Future
Kroker, Arthur, CTheory Back Issues
Jung, Carl Gustav, et al., Man and His Symbols, Aldus Books, London 1964
Kelly, Kevin, (1994a) Out of Control. The New Biology of Machines, Social
Systems and the Economic World. Reading, MA : Addison-Wesley

Black Elk Speaks: The Story of a Lakota Sioux

Dick, Philip K.; Valis, Grafton Books, London 1992
Dick, Philip K.; The Divine Invasion,
Dick, Philip K.; The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, New York: Timescape
Books: Distributed by Simon and Schuster. 1982.

Thompson, Hunter S.; Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas, Summit Books, Toronto
Thompson, Hunter S.; Fear And Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, Summit
Books, Toronto
Thompson, Hunter S.; The Great Shark Hunt, Summit Books, Toronto 1979
Thompson, Hunter S.; Generation of Swine, Summit Books, Toronto 1988
Thompson, Hunter S.; Songs of The Doomed, Summit Books, Toronto 1990
Thompson, Hunter S.; Better Than Sex, Summit Books, Toronto 1994

Technology: In examining the archetypes of interactivity and networking, the
course will examine various artefacts, systems, and modes of operandi
including but not exclusively: coper wire, phiber optic, and wireless
networks, analog and digital switches, adsl, isdn, trunk, and optical
connections, neural networks, expert systems, intelligent assistants,
parrallel and co-processors, sattelites, cables, mircrowaves, light and
smoke based transmission systmes, tcp/ip, http/ftp, java, unix and
mircrosoft protocols, telegraph, television, radio, telephones, electronic
banking, electronic cash, global trade and random access memory (RAM).

Due to the fact that the subject matter of the course is dynamic,
evolutionary, and has not been subject to a large degree of scientific or
objective analysis, the course material will be divided between sweeping
theoretical texts and focused corporate research and development material.
Most of the corporate material is available through the Internet via the
websites
including but not limited to: northern telecom, at&t, microsoft, intel,
motorola, teledesic, siemans, nokia, worldcom, ibm, nt&t, stentor, sgi, sun,
netscape, newbridge, digital, tci, timewarner, news corp, mondex, ericcson,
philips, sony, and other regional phone and companies.

Jesse Hirsh - jesse@openflows.net P.O. Box 108 Station P Toronto Ont M5S 2S8 Canada