Instructions for seminar 1 (Thu Sept 19 & Fri Sept 20)

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Seminar 1 will be held:

- For group A on Thursday September 19 at 10-12 in Q22

- For group B on Thursday September 19 at 10-12 in Q26

- For group D on Thursday September 19 at 13-15 in M36

- For group C on Friday September 20 at 13-15 in E33. All future seminars in the course will be held on Thursdays.

/Daniel

Instructions

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You have read texts, seen films and will by Tuesday (Sept 17) have heard two more lectures about energy and resource challenges. Beyond reading the literature connected to these lectures (here and here), you should prepare for seminar 1 by:

- 1) watching an additional movie (a 16 minute long TED talk)

- 2) reading a text

- 3) thinking about/writing a seminar question and a "position paper" and

- 4) entering your question and position paper into a Google form

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The movie (TED talk) you should watch is:

- Hopkins, Rob, Transition to a world without oil (2009).

Optional: if you want to, you can also have a look at the 16 minutes long TED talk counterargument by Peter Diamandis, Abundance is our future (2012).

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The text you should read is:

- Tomlinson, Silberman, Patterson, Pan & Blevis (2012), "Collapse informatics: Augmenting the sustainability and ICT4D discourse in HCI" (pdf file here). The paper was presented at the CHI conference last year (the largest and most prestigious conference in the field of Human-Computer Interaction) and it received the "best paper award" at the conference.

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As a starting point for your seminar question, please consider the following questions :

Is it prudent (wise) for individuals, companies and/or societies to prepare for a future of materials and energy scarcity and/or negative economic growth - or is it just plain stupid? Why? Furthermore, if these are issues that we should care and think about, do you have any suggestions for possible implications for ICT and media (production, distribution, use, disposal)?

Although it can be difficult, you might also consider what (if any) the implications are for you in the future that you personally think we are most likely to face.

Perhaps the question above is too direct and too big? Then here is an alternative, slightly more analytical and roundabout way of thinking about the same issues:

- Try to identify the Dahlin-Hagens-Pargman-course literature "discourse" (the set of interlinking ideas and underlying assumptions). You can use these four questions below as a starting point:

- What, according to this discourse, is to be considered a problem?

- What is to be considered a feasible conclusion?

- What is to be prioritized?

- What are your personal opinions as to these matters?

It is suggested that you use one (or some) of the specific questions above as your starting point when you formulate your seminar question. Your seminar question should be a question that you think is suitable to discuss in class/at the seminar. Your seminar question should be relatively brief (1-2 sentences long).

Position paper instructions:

- Make a stand (take a position) and write about it in the position paper. Your paper should be between 200-400 words long. Make sure that you in some way refer to and make use of (some of) the lecture/seminar course materials in your paper. It is not the job of the teachers to in detail query and make sure that you have prepared for the seminar - it is your job to convince us that you have.

- There should preferably be some connection between your position paper and your seminar question. Your position paper should ideally lead up to you seminar question, or, your seminar question should be "grounded" and explained in your position paper.

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Please submit your seminar question though this Google form. The deadline is 24 hours before the first seminar groups will meet, i.e. Wednesday September 18 at 10.15. Write/paste your short seminar question and "position paper" directly into the Google form. 

IMPORTANT. Since you have the chance to earn as much as 4 points for each seminar (corresponding to 8% of the total score that is possible to attain in the course), your seminar position papers will be graded (0 - 0.5 - 1 - 1.5 points). I will write a separate blog post about this but didn't have time before the weekend so keep an eye on the blog in the beginning of next week for more information.

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