Spring1999

INFS 470 Special Topics: Scientific Literature and Communication in the Sciences
Project 2 Guidelines

Goal of Project 2: To experience informal communication among scientists

Objectives of Project 2:

• Learn about professional discussion lists*
• Select discussion lists
• Subscribe to and lurk on discussion lists (Do not send messages to the lists!)
• Write a 3-5 page paper that describes, compares, and contrasts two (2) lists
• Present a 5-minute oral report on the project

*discussion lists, electronic mailing lists, Internet mailing lists, e-mail discussion groups, mailing lists, and lists are terms used interchangeably.

Important Dates:

1. Due March 23: Project 2, Part 1 -- Learn about and select discussion lists

2. Due April 27: Project 2 -- Turn in completed project (paper)

3. Due May 5: Project 2 -- Do 5-minute oral report on Project 2.

Requirements:

1. Learn about and select discussion lists [Turn in assignment called Project 2, Part 1 -- March 23].

2. Prepare written paper [Turn in completed paper -- April 27]

3. Present 5-minute oral report on Project 2 [Do oral report -- May 5]

Guidelines:

1. Paper will be

• well-written -- thoughtful, grammatically correct, etc.
• 3-5 pages in length

2. Paper will describe, compare, and contrast 2 lists. You will:

• describe the two lists
• analyze their content (for example: number of messages, topics discussed, etc....),
• analyze their participants (for example: professionals/students?; helpful/snobs?; etc.…),
• compare and contrast the lists (for example, in terms of content, participants, intended audience, tone of discussions, quality, usefulness, etc.…)

3. If you use direct quotes from discussion list messages, you must cite your sources.

4. Oral report will

• be well-presented -- thoughtful, well-organized, etc.
• be 5 minutes long.
• present the same content as the written paper.

Clarifications:

1. Some lists are inactive or barely active. You need to have at least two lists which are active enough to provide you adequate messages to analyze. If you find during the first week after subscribing to a list that you have selected an inactive list, you will have to find a more active list to replace it. If you wait too long to do this, you won't have enough data to analyze.

03/14/99 RLS