The term paper is an important component of the course and helps students apply the knowledge gained in the course to the focussed study of a particular topic. Information about preparing term paper proposals and terms paper resources is available in this page. Term paper proposals are due Feb 5.

All term papers are due on May 5 and will need to be marked up in HTML. A brief 15 minute overview of the paper needs to be presented to the class on May 5.

Videotapes of the project presentations by the students who took the course in Spring 97 are available. I recommend that you view them early on in the semester to get a sense for what is expected.

Forming a team

Preparing the term paper proposal

The objective is to get you started on thinking about the paper and to provide me with enough information to help you produce a quality product. The proposal should be two to three pages long and should contain the following information. Refer to the Textbook and other resources page for project resources.

• What is the focus of the paper? Suggestions in the course page include the following:
  • review of technology

  • a study of how telecommunications has been or can be applied to improve organizational processes; lots of ideas in the OTA authored document on making government work and in the National Performance Review Report Reengineering through Information Technology. If strategic uses of this technology are of interest, think about the framework discussed in class on aligning technology and organizational strategy. Also revisit the telecommunications business decision sequence in the book.

  • Assessment of the economic impacts of the technology; e.g., of Electronic Data Interchange

  • Social impacts of the technology; e.g., privacy, access issues in the NII

• How do you propose to research the paper? What are an initial list of sources?

• Does the project involve working with an organization?