Your essay should be printed out on paper and posted on a WEB page somewhere (clam, geocities or wherever). Be sure the WEB address shows on the paper, which it should if you simply print it with Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Explorer. If you have difficulty posting it on the WEB, you may give it to me on a 3.5" IBM formatted floppy disk, saved in html format.
 

Your essay may cover the same material as your class presentation, although this is not required. For a top grade, you should use the WEB sites you have examined as examples of one or more of the theoretical concepts examined in this course. The essay I wrote on Monopoly and Competition on the Internet should be used as a sample.
 

Here are some theoretical questions you might address in your essays:
 

• Are these sites in competition with each other? What factors would cause some to survive and others not? Are new forms emerging as part of this process? How might new forms develop in the future?
• How do these sites make use of hyperlinks? What sites are they linked to? To what extent are these sites part of a network? What role does the network play in their operation? How might they use network connections better?
• Who created these sites? Are they tied into large corporations or government agencies which control the domain (hierarchy) or are they part of a large group of independent actors?
• Do any of these sites include agents, or do people interact with them through agents? An example is the personal search mechanism on the New York Times site or the mechanism which recommends books on the amazon.com site.
• How are the sites designed? Do they look like print magazines or catalogs, or television programs? Do they resemble computer programs available on disks? Or do they have a unique design reflecting the net? Do they use frames, graphics, animation, video, audio, search engines? Does the multimedia aspect of the net enhance them, or distract from their function? What might they do that would be better?
• Do the sites seem to be evolving toward a certain pattern or attractor? Does this resemble an attractor you might find in another media such as print, radio, television, telephone?
• Is any kind of Artificial Intelligence used? Could it be or is it likely to be in the future? Can any examples be found?
• Do these sites make use of the interactive nature of the internet? Is it interaction between two people at a time, or is group interaction used (e.g., the collective writing projects using hyperlink texts). This relates to Peirce and Jung's archetypal patterns. What is required of the user of these sites?
• Do these sites display any aspects of "intelligence"? How might they become more intelligent?
• Do these sites reflect a distinctive "internet culture" in any way? Or are they part of a Madison Avenue culture similar to what we find on commercial television? Do they differ in this respect
• How do these sites seem to be used? What role do they play in people's lives? This is particularly relevant to Internet Communities. How does the nature of the medium effect the interaction which takes place?
• Does this site reflect the culture and/or needs of the particular group that uses it? Is it accessible or friendly to women, minorities, or other groups? Is it international or national?