LIS 419: Knowledge in a Digital World

We do all sorts of things with information technology: we play games, we listen to music, we watch movies, and we communicate with other people. But one of the main things that we use information technology for is to learn things. Toward this end, we visit Wikipedia, Ask.com, The New York Times, and other such sites. Or we just Google stuff that we want to know about.This course is about how information technology is affecting the ability of individuals and institutions to acquire and share knowledge. We will look at the following sorts of questions: * What impact are Google, iPhones, and iPads having on how we know things?* Should we trust the information that we find on social networking sites like Wikipedia and Ask.com?* How do people try to deceive us on the web?* Do intellectual property laws, such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, promote or impede our ability to acquire knowledge?* Can we really be informed citizens if the blogosphere completely replaces traditional journalism?* In a digital world, what things do we have a right to know and what things do we have an obligation to know?