Welcome to CS 1951V!
Hypertext/Hypermedia: The Web Was Not the Beginning and the Web Is Not the End
Fall Semester 2020
Wednesdays, 3pm-5:30pm
Zoom For Lectures: https://brown.zoom.us/j/99593383177
Professors: Andy van Dam
Norm Meyrowitz
CSCI1951V, “Hypertext/Hypermedia: The Web was Not the Beginning and the Web is Not the End,” is a new seminar that will look at hypertext systems that came before and after the Web as a basis for discussing what next generation hypertext systems should look like. Students will be doing writing assignments, reading, annotating, and writing technical papers, and developing software prototypes. The class will be part lecture and part discussion, and students will learn not only about hypertext, but will use that knowledge to develop full-stack applications using modern technologies and high-level software architectures as they try to design systems of the future.
The course will be co-taught Andy van Dam and Norm Meyrowitz and assisted by Rosemary Simpson. Andy is most well-known for computer graphics, so you may not realize he co-created one of the first hypertext systems and interactive screen-based word processors in the late 1960s. Brown's early history in Hypertext and some visions for the future are described in A Half-Century Of Hypertext (Brown Conduit). Norm was an HTA for Andy’s intro course back in the Cretaceous period, so he knows the ropes. He later was Co-Director of Brown's Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship (IRIS). In the late 1980s, IRIS created Intermedia -- one of the best-known hypertext systems -- which influenced the development of the Web. He went on to be President of Products at Macromedia (acquired by Adobe) where he oversaw the design and development dozens of products like Dreamweaver, Flash, Director. Rosemary is a hypertext information designer who created the Gateway hypertext system in the mid-1980s at Lisp Machines, Inc.
Feel free to contact Andy (avd@cs.brown.edu) or Norm (nkm@brown.edu, Phone/Text 415-505-9115) if you have any questions about this seminar. We are looking forward to making the seminar engaging and fun with your participation.
Course Structure
Enrollment is capped at 24 students, so that we can have the Zoom-equivalent of an engaged, round-table classroom environment. The TAs will provide 1-on-1 TA hours as well as sections (for extra topics, labs, discussions, etc.) via Zoom. Andy and Norm will have regular Zoom drop-in office hours as well as individual appointments. See the calendar below for scheduled hours.
Programming assignments will consist of a small number (3-4) of short, individual assignments covering various topics of modern web development. For the Final Project, 2-3 students will form a group and take what they've learned throughout the course to develop their own hypertext/hypermedia system.
Written assignments will include short papers, online annotation of technical papers, and online annotation of your classmates' annotations. Why written assignments in a CS class? Consider the following. If you go out into the real world and work for a company (startup or established), you will have to be great at writing crisp, easily-understandable, focused documents to get your ideas heard and adopted. They may be documents describing your high-level ideas, a competitive analysis of other products, requirements, a product spec, briefs for marketing and PR folks, draft press releases, etc. If you go into academia, you will be writing project proposals, grants, abstracts for conferences, papers for journals, etc., and the ones that are better written have a higher chance of getting accepted. We will read and critique your papers, so you will get real feedback, not just a grade. Consider writing these short papers a feature, not a bug.
Handling Covid-19
This seminar includes lectures, discussions, and projects. We may provide a replay of the Zoom session for those whose time zone prevents them from attending synchronously, with a TA or Instructor live for questions. Assignments include building a multimedia hypertext, building one or more trails through that content, and a small group project to implement a hypertext system. Enrollment is capped at 24 students. TAs will provide 1-on-1 TA hours as well as reception/lab/conceptual hour sections via Zoom.
Software Stack
By completing the course you will have gained valuable experience not only as a writer but also in developing full-stack applications for the web using the MERN stack - MongoDb, Express, React, Node.
We will be encouraging students to use Typescript. We settled on the MERN stack so that our small staff can provide high-quality support to students working on assignments and the final project.
We recognize there are many great libraries, frameworks, and languages out there that could be used to implement a hypertext / hypermedia system. If you are interested in using another technology
for the final project please reach out to us ASAP and we will be happy to consider it.
To learn more about the MERN stack check out this article.
Lectures, Readings, and Resources
Assignments
Course Calendar
Grading
| Participation and Annotations | 10% |
| In-class Participation and TopHat questions | 5% |
| Annotations | 5% |
| Papers | 2 papers at 12.5% each = 25% |
| Programming Projects | 65% |
| Projects 1 - 3 | 3 assignments at 13% each = 39% |
| Final Project | 26% |
Staff
Professors
Support
Teaching Assistants
