Introduction

Welcome to the Fall 2003 session of one of the offerings of Tutorial from Grinnell College's Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. The title of this particular tutorial is Owning Bits: Intellectual Property in the Information Age. You can find out more about this particular tutorial from its blurb and about the tutorial itself from an explanatory document.

In short, this semester we'll be working on building your skills in thinking, writing, reading, speaking, and finding sources while studying intellectual property (IP) and considering the effects of information technology on IP.

Because of the skills/subject pairing, we will split most class sessions into two parts: for the first thirty or so minutes we'll discuss some issue pertaining to academic skills (e.g., a particular aspect of writing or editing); for the last fifty minutes, we'll discuss some issue pertaining to IP. We'll meet in Saints' Rest.

In an attempt to provide up-to-date information, and to spare a few trees, we are making this as much of a paperless course as we can. At the beginning of the semester, I'll provide a few basic handouts in paper form. For the rest of the term, you should look for things on the course web at http://www.math.grin.edu/~rebelsky/Courses/Tutorial/2003F/. You may also want to read the basic instructions for using this course web.

As part of our consideration of intellectual property, you will be sharing the intellectual property you create in this class more widely. In particular, you or I will post much of your work online. This requirement means that it will be accessible to your fellow students and to the broader Web community. If you have difficulty with this requirement, please discuss it with us.

Meets: TuTh 8:00-9:30 in Saints' Rest, 919 Broad Street.

Instructor: Samuel A. Rebelsky, Science 2427. Office hours TBD. Also available by appointment and for walk-ins. Tutee meetings TBD.

Affiliated Librarian: Jen Green. Burling Library. Office hours by appointment.

Grade Components:

• Class participation, including attendance (10%)
• Introductory essay (10%)
• Discussion leader (10%)
• Reflections on discussion (10%)
• Research presentation (10%)
• Research paper (10%)
• Introduction to Owning Bits, Volume 1 (10%)
• Appendix to Owning Bits, Volume 1 (10%)
• Convocation with corresponding reflections (10%)
• The best of the above (10%)