UCI ICS 80W Syllabus, Summer 1995
Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval
Class meetings:
M-F 1-3p.m., Engineering Lecture Hall 110 and
Computer Sciences 364
Class E-mail Address: aisi@ics.uci.edu
Instructors:
Stephen Franklin,
franklin@uci.edu and
Lyle Wiedeman,
wiedeman@uci.edu.
Teaching Assistants:
Steve Chen,
yschen@uci.edu and
Leonard Megliola,
lmegliol@uci.edu
Text:
The World Wide Web Unleashed, Second Edition by
John December and Neil Randall, 1995,
Sams Publishing (Indianapolis, Indiana, USA), ISBN 0-672-30737-5.
Course URL:
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~aisi/80W
What this course is about
The world-wide Internet has become a massive repository of information and
a tool for communication. This course will explore a range of information
resources and communication tools available through the Internet, with
emphases on the organization of computer networks and the information
they provide.
As part of this exploration, participants will learn about the
the technical and organizational issues involved in providing
information in this environment and will themselves
become information providers ``on the Web.''
Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (NIDR) is the generally
accepted term in the networking community for the variety of resources,
techniques, and underlying concepts surrounding remotely accessible
information.
``How-to'' details about using the various tools for NIDR are
not a principal part of this course, although students will learn
them ``along the way'' through their laboratory work.
Instead, the course focuses on
concepts and issues underlying the network, its resources, and access
tools.
For example, using a World Wide Web browser,
one can examine such
issues as these: What is a network protocol, why are protocols
important, what protocols are used by various information providers?
Many fundamental issues in systems architecture appear clearly
when examining network-based applications: the interaction of various
separate sequential processes, the role of cache and cache management,
achieving reliability in the face of errors, building systems at
successive levels of abstraction, various interface issues (both human
and between systems), and so on.
Networked information access systems provide
concrete examples which take such concepts out of the realm of
unmotivated, disconnected abstraction
into an arena of broad, immediate discourse.
Course Structure
- The course is divided into 2 approximately equal parts.
- The first part will focus on a general conceptual and technical
overview of the Web based on readings, lectures, discussion and
structured experimentation.
The labs will concentrate on establishing in all participants
basic fluency in fundamental electronic communications and
information access tools and techniques.
- The second part will examine the conceptual and technical underpinnings
of the Internet and the World Wide Web ("the Web'')
from the perspective of information providers.
Readings and discussions will focus on analytic understanding of
fundamental issues
and concepts in network and information-server architecture.
Labs will cover specifics of being an information provider.
- Lab work will be done in structured teams of 2 to 3 students working
at 2 to 3 adjacent workstations.
- Each student will keep an individual course notebook recording
course activities, questions, observations, homeworks, etc.
These notebooks will be reviewed on a regular (weekly) basis
and evaluation of them will be a component of the final grade.
- There will be regular homework assignments and periodic
(announced) ``mini-quizzes'' on the readings
and the lab work. All will be "open book."
- The final grade will be based on homework, "mini-quizzes,"
the course notebook, and class participation.
Class Participation
Class participation includes both verbal and written communication
with the instructional staff and with other students.
As hard as it may seem to ask a ``foolish'' question,
the most foolish question is the one which remains unasked
because of concern about ``how I will appear to others.''
Each person in this class should feel ``It is my responsibility
to say when I do not understand something, because if I know
enough to know that I do not understand, then surely there must
be someone else in the class who is no better off than I am
and may not even be aware that there is an issue here.
(Heck, they may not even be able to understand that last sentence!)''
Current as of 26 June 1995.
Please send comments to aisi@ics.uci.edu