CS 431 Architecture of Web Information Systems Spring 2005 General Information

Schedules

Lectures:	Monday and Wednesday - 1:25-2:15 - Olin 165
Discussion Section:	Friday - 1:25-2:15 - Olin 165
Instructor:	Carl Lagoze, lagoze@cs.cornell.edu Information Science, 301 College Ave. 255-6046
Instructor's Office Hours:	Wednesday - 2:30-4:00 or by Appt.
Instructor's Assistant:	Anat Nidar-Levi, anat@cs.cornell.edu Information Science, 301 College Ave. 255-5925
Teaching Assistants:	Andy Scukanec, ags@cs.cornell.edu 5162 Upson Hall
TA Office Hours	TBA

Assumed Background

Course Structure and Student Responsibilities

Lectures

I try to make my lecture style as interactive as possible. My goal is to engage students in the lecture process and encourage questions and comments. At times I will spontaneously ask for input, thinking, and opinions from students in lecture. You should come to lecture prepared to think about the materials presented and how they relate to the overall course content, and recognize that your role in lecture is a reflection of your overall scholarly presence in the course.

Readings and Discussion Section

The subject of the course is a dynamic area. Most of the material in the course is the result of research and implementation over the past 3-5 years. Fortunately almost all of this work is available through papers on the open-source Web. Readings are assigned for each week's discussion section are listed in the reading schedule.

Students are expected to approach each week's readings critically. Are the ideas sound? What are the alternatives and trade-offs? How well do the ideas fit into the larger information context? What are the barriers to success: technical, social, legal, and economic.

Weekly sections are meant to be a forum for discussing these critical reactions, driven by student participation and NOT by instructor or teaching assistant presentations. Readings are meant to compliment the lecture content, and students are expect in discussions to demonstrate knowledge of both lectures and the assigned readings. The amount of section participation and the degree to which it represents critical and content-based thinking is an important criteria of grading.

Reaction Papers

Reaction papers are another vehicle for critically evaluating readings. These papers are an opportunity for students to critically evaluate two papers, one of which is chosen from assigned readings and another chosen at the discretion of the student. The schedule for reaction papers is on the syllabus. Details about them are given on the assignments page.

Programming Projects

Work in the area of web information systems requires the ability to understand and use protocols and work with a number of XML-related tools. The course projects provide you with the opportunity to gain expertise in these areas. Students will work in groups of 2. Grades will be awarded based on the final product of the group and each student's contribution to the work of the group. Project details are available on the assignments page.

Books

Grading

Feedback Responsibility

Like any Cornell course, the goal of CS431 is to provide the context for students to learn about a subject area that the instructor finds relevant and interesting. Students should expect that the course meets their expectations, is stimulating, and worthy of their time. I hope to convince many of you that you might want to engage in future work in this area. It is your responsibility to tell me if the course fails to meet these expectations - your feedback is necessary to making this semester successful.