Your term project will be a 1000 word analysis of the future impact of the Internet on some aspect of social life.  You may use any of the methods discussed in the paper on Methods and Approaches of Future Studies.    That is to say, your analysis can be a trend analysis, a cyclical pattern analysis, a scenario, a backcast, an environmental scan, a technological forecast or a visioning report.  Whichever method you use, you should link to at least ten sources.  These sources may be documents you have used as models or sources of inspiration (other people's scenarios, visions, technological forecasts, etc.) or they can be sites which illustrate technologies and trends you talk about, or which provide sources of data.

To repeat, your project must include ten links to WEB sites relevant to your topic.

On October 29, you should hand in an outline of your project.  This should be similar in form to the lecture outlines I have been posting, or to the sample presentation on Hypertext Fiction.   It should include ten links.  You should also place a link to your outline on your home page and in your Internet Diary.

The final version of your presentation should be posted on your WEB site and handed in on paper on December 3.  You should also place a link to your final paper on your Home Page and in your Internet Diary.

Group Projects: You may receive up to five points of EXTRA CREDIT by organizing your term project as a group project.  Group leaders who organize a group of at least five students will receive 1% extra credit for their organizing work.  They will have the responsibility of posting an introduction and table of contents to the group project on their WEB site.  The papers in the group must be organized in a coherent sequence, and they must include links so the reader can go from one to the other in sequence.  One individual from the group should be assigned to make a brief presentation to the class as a whole on the group's work.

If you wish to organize a group project, it is up to you to recruit participants.  They may be from your support group, but need not be.  You can announce your idea on the Yahoo Club if you wish.

Proposals for group projects must be submitted by the project leader on October 22, listing the names of the participants and the title of each participant's contribution.  There must be a one paragraph description of the project.  Projects must be approved by the instructor to receive extra credit.

Each individual in the group should hand in her or his outline on October 29 and final paper on December 3, along with those students who are not in a group.  Your paper should be of the same length as those written by students who are not part of the group.  The only difference is that your outlines and papers will be organized and linked together.

     Hint:  As you think about projects, you might find it useful to check out some of the projects students did last semester.