LIS3353 - Technologies for Information Professionals

Welcome to the course!

The first front page - in Canvas - is the primary source of material for this course; everything you need for the course will be available here. Many links go through http://jrm4.com (including a mirror of tLIS3353his page for backup and emergency purposes); feel free to browse that as well. Links to all tools and readings will be available from the front page.

The official methods for contacting me are in person during class, or via email, at jmarks@fsu.edu .

Note: I'm also a big fan of Discord. It is in no way required, but I will make my semi-private (non-profit) Discord server available to you all, with a channel dedicated to this class. You may use this for class-wide discussions, as well as a meeting point for team work.

No textbooks are required, and nothing is due for the first class. Feel free to browse the assignments and readings on the side (or below if you're on your phone), but unless they are LINKED DIRECTLY FROM THIS PAGE, they are from the previous semester. This means they are likely to be similar this semester, but may change and should not be relied on as official. If you'd like to browse regardless but you can't see them now, go here and look: https://jrm4.com/FSU_Courses/LIS3353.html

Here is the Official Syllabus - but About the Class is probably more useful to you.

See you in class!

Week 9 - Social Media and Privacy

https://jrm4.com/FSU_Courses/LIS3353/2023-Fall%2015%20-%20LIS3353-Social%20Media.pdf
https://jrm4.com/FSU_Courses/LIS3353/2022-%20LIS3353-PrivacyFULL.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20250313203719/https://slate.com/technology/2025/03/reddit-elon-musk-luigi-mangione-censorship.html

Privacy, broadly
https://robindoherty.com/2016/01/06/nothing-to-hide.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/09/the-clouds-my-mom-cleaned-my-room-problem/245648/
https://www.philzimmermann.com/EN/essays/WhyIWrotePGP.html
https://jacquesmattheij.com/if-you-have-nothing-to-hide

Little Brother?
https://eyes.daylightingsociety.org/
https://defaultnamehere.tumblr.com/post/139351766005/graphing-when-your-facebook-friends-are-awake

Social Media Is a Denial-of-Service Attack on Your Mind
Death of the private self: how fifteen years of Facebook changed the human condition | Facebook | The Guardian
Taibbi on Facebook: Can We Be Saved From the Social Media Giant? - Rolling Stone
Battling coronavirus misinformation in the age of social media | Coronavirus | The Guardian
Why RSS Still Beats Facebook and Twitter for Tracking News
RSS Is Better Than Twitter

https://www.forbes.com/sites/anishasircar/2024/11/21/bluesky-vs-x-can-the-decentralized-platform-dethrone-elon-musks-x-twitter/
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/tiktokers-speculate-meta-tiktok-ban/

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-11-facebook-dystopian-whistleblower-leaks-experts.html
https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/29/22752850/mastodon-trump-truth-social-network-open-source-gab-legal-notice

Week 8 - Anonymity and Social Surplus

https://jrm4.com/FSU_Courses/LIS3353/FALL-2022-%20LIS3353-anonymity-AND-social-surplus.pdf

Tech Guides:On Docker

In the news:
http://mashable.com/2017/03/31/isp-claim-wont-sell-browsing-history/#t0iFiYqefiqw
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/28/so_my_isp_can_now_sell_my_browsing_history_what_can_i_do/

Tor
http://lifehacker.com/what-is-tor-and-should-i-use-it-1527891029
http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/4/4802512/nsa-failed-to-compromise-tor-network-but-exploited-browser-vulnerabilities

Anonymity?
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2011/09/21/why-pseudonymity-is-such-an-important-concept-and-what-anybeat-is-doing-about-it/

Voting:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2012/11/06/estonians-get-to-vote-online-why-cant-america/

https://biznology.com/2018/01/online-communities-best-thing-internet-not-worst/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/technology/how-the-internet-is-saving-culture-not-killing-it.html
https://www.wired.com/story/why-teens-arent-partying-anymore/

Playing with toys while people are dying?
https://medium.com/@mode7games/playing-with-toys-while-people-are-dying-f8ed35ef8b25

Social Surplus
http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/06/clay-shirkys-cognitive-surplus-is-creating-and-sharing-always-a-more-moral-choice-than-consuming/

Flashmobs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob
http://www.smartmobs.com/2006/10/03/ice-cream-politics-flash-mob-in-belarus/
http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/twiki/bin/view/CompPrivConst/HereComesEverybody (read only the Chapter 7:Faster and Faster bit)

Networked Production
https://www.wired.com/2017/02/craigslist-is-ugly-janky-old-schooland-unbeatable/
https://www.opendemocracy.net/media-copyrightlaw/benkler_3487.jsp

"Slacktivism"
http://www.meta-activism.org/2013/03/its-not-slacktivism-if-it-changes-culture/

Week 7 - Algorithms and Milkshakes

https://jrm4.com/slides/Algorithms_and_Milkshakes.html

this just in...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/15/encryption-lose-privacy-us-uk-australia-facebook

How Encryption Works
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/05/how-internet-encryption-works

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/encryption3.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_hash_function
A little more on SSL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_key_certificate
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6088583/which-symmetric-key-algorithm-does-ssl-use

Summary of NIST's Rules — surprised?
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/08/18/nists-new-password-rules-what-you-need-to-know/
https://www.govtech.com/security/Widely-Used-Password-Advice-Turns-Out-to-Be-Wrong-NIST-Says.html

Apple's Method
http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2014/10/why-cant-apple-decrypt-your-iphone.html

Hashing for Verification
http://www.howtogeek.com/67241/htg-explains-what-are-md5-sha-1-hashes-and-how-do-i-check-them/

https://tiptopsecurity.com/what-is-cryptographic-hashing-md5-sha-and-more/

Week 6 - Advanced Linux, Languages, and Tech

https://jrm4.com/slides/LIS-3353_-_Linux,_The_GUI_and_the_Command_Line.html
https://jrm4.com/slides/LIS-3353_-_Beyond_Linux_-_Languages_and_Platforms.html

https://opensource.com/resources/virtualization

https://www.dell.com/en-us/blog/emulation-or-virtualization-what-s-the-difference/
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/virtualization-vs-containerization/

https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/

For the Practical ☺
https://adtmag.com/blogs/dev-watch/2016/07/bash-salaries.aspx
https://alexpetralia.com/posts/2017/6/26/learning-linux-bash-to-get-things-done

https://www.codecademy.com/resources/blog/what-is-bash-used-for/

https://www.ubuntupit.com/snap-vs-flatpak-vs-appimage-know-the-difference/
https://www.linux.com/topic/desktop/how-install-and-use-docker-linux/

Week 5 - Binary and The Internet

https://jrm4.com/slides/LIS-3353_-_The_Internet.html
https://jrm4.com/FSU_Courses/LIS3353/3353-binarynew.pdf

The history:
http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/OR/ConsumerGuides/internet.html
http://sixrevisions.com/resources/the-history-of-the-internet-in-a-nutshell/

The barriers
https://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/08/28/15404/how-big-telecom-smothers-city-run-broadband

https://www.datafantic.com/how-much-time-do-we-waste-waiting-for-websites-to-load/

DIY? Mesh, et al
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37974267
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/how-a-diy-network-plans-to-subvert-time-warner-cables-nyc-internet-monopoly
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/08/man-who-built-isp-instead-of-paying-comcast-50k-expands-to-hundreds-of-homes/

The net; today:
https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/09/a-decentralized-web-would-give-power-back-to-the-people-online/
https://backchannel.com/the-end-of-the-internet-dream-ba060b17da61#.y01ca2r1d

Censorship?
https://web.archive.org/web/20220209053205/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/technology/8chan-cloudflare-el-paso.html

P2P
https://ipfs.io/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent

Week 4 - Linux and the Command Line

https://jrm4.com/slides/LIS-3353_-_Linux,_Text,_and_Power.html

https://www.linux.com/what-is-linux/
https://opensource.com/resources/linux

This week will be a bit different, we will focus on getting you a working version of Linux.

If you like VIDEO, this goes into detail on most everything - Videos
(The virtualbox.org site is cleaner looking now, but the fundamentals are the same)

If you prefer READING and going on your own, see the below.

Default method: Virtual Install.

A "virtual install" is a completely non-destructive, completely reversible way to do "real Linux" on your computer. It's not much different from installing an app, though the process is a little more involved:

For a virtual install, you will need VIRTUALIZATION SOFTWARE and A LINUX DISTRIBUTION

VIRTUALIZATION SOFTWARE

Most of you can still use https://www.virtualbox.org/
New fancy M1 mac people, you can't, but you can use https://mac.getutm.app/ - watch for which type, usually you'll want the specific Ubuntu flavor
VMware and others are also acceptable; https://www.ubackup.com/enterprise-backup/linux-vm-on-windows-10.html

LINUX DISTRIBUTION

A "distribution" or "distro" is just a version of a full Linux Operating system, and there are a bunch of them:
Presently I recommend one of the following — but LITERALLY ANY WILL DO.
https://mxlinux.org/
https://linuxmint.com/
https://ubuntu.com/ as a last resort for new computers?

Or again — ANYTHING here, check the leaderboards!
https://distrowatch.com/