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Informatics 162W: Organizational Information Systems


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Citing Sources - Using APA

You are asked to use a standard style manual.  Helpful hints for all are located on the Research Guide for Citations. The goal is to be CONSISTENT and follow one standard form. The standard citation for a Journal article in APA format includes: Author (Last, FM. (Date). Title of Article. Journal Title, Volume #,(Issue #), Pages .

The References page should conform to the APA Style (American Psychological Association).  The latest edition of the APA's Publication Manual was released in July 2019. These links are for the 7th edition of the manual.  See all Libraries at BF 76.7 .P83 2020.

Locate an available doi here! A doi is a set of numbers (sometimes letters, too) that helps you locate specific texts or objects. Anything can have a doi, but dois are often used to identify articles.

Find out about software to make citing sources easy here.

Three Short Papers

Read the directions for each assignment carefully.  Your paper should be between 3-5 pages and be organized with the following outline:

  • Title page
  • Abstract
  • Main Body
  • References

You are going to incorporate ZotGPT in your papers. For each of the three major papers, you will turn in a screenshot of the prompt(s) you feed ZotGPT and a brief revision note about  how you want to use its output in your paper. For instance you may use a prompt that says: Help me write a 3-5 page paper or essay on techno-optimism vs. tech's sexism problem - this is very general and the more specific you can be the less revision you may have to conduct. If you want the bot to define terms or you disagree with the definitions used then that is an opportunity for you to revise. Usually you get an outline of the passage that is being generated.

You will also include the transcript of whatever ZotGPT produced along with your final paper. This presumes that you appropriately cite your use of AI in each assignment. The final paper incorporates the first three assignments, but if you use AI again in some way that has not been accounted for in earlier assignments, you should also include the output and a revision note.  

Paper 1 - Due January 24 - Techno-Optimism vs. Tech's Sexism Problem

Get into the mindset by reading:

Andreessen, M. (2023). The Techno-Optimist Manifesto.  Andreessen Horowitz. 

O'Mara. M. (2022). Why can't tech fix its gender problem?  MIT Technology Review, September/October. 

For this 3-5 page paper or essay, search strategies may include permutations of the following terms that will retrieve citations to research and experiences covered in the following resources: 

                  Sexism, Harassment, Chauvinism, Bigotry, Discrimination, Social Inequality, Bias

                  AND 

                 High-tech, Computerized, 

                  Sectors, Environments, Work-Environments, Organizations

Membership organizations often track this information such as:

You will likely retrieve journal articles, conference papers/proceedings, dissertations/theses, working papers, and documents that will not all be peer reviewed but come from industry sources.

 

 

 

Paper Two - Due Feb 14 - Pipelines and Whiteness

You may find the following books, Artificial Whiteness: Politics and Ideology in Artificial Intelligence by Yarden Katz (Columbia University Press, 2020);  White Freedom: The Racial History of an Idea by Tyler Stovall (Princeton University Press, 2021) of interest.

Class reading may inform you of public policy issues:  Daniels, J. (2021, July 27) The manifest destiny of computing.  Public Books.

The following subject headings may lead you to other books:

  • White supremacy movements
  • White people - Race identity

Elements of a search strategy may include Diversity; racism; whiteness; Silicon Valley; tech industry

Example of a retrieved article may be Diversity, Disrupted: A Critique of Neoliberal Difference in Tech Organizations by Alfrey in Sociological Perspectives, 2022 - https://doi.org/10.1177/07311214221094664

Paper Three - due March 5 - Extraction, Greenwashing and Surveillance Capitalism

 

Another 3-5 page essay that explores Black Feminist approaches to writing about technology.  Topics may include privacy, censorship, book banning, access to technology/resources, exclusions, and hosts of other themes.  For some inspiration, review:

Noble, S.U. (2016). A Future for Intersectional Black Feminist Technology Studies.  S&F Online, 13(3).

February is Black History Month and you may find the list of resources to celebrate this history of interest - remember only titles from the most recent 5 years are included in this abbreviated list which also includes videos.

Background Sources where you may find individual chapters of special interest:

Greenwashing Culture (2018)

Surveillance Capitalism in America, (2021)

Beyond Privacy: People, Practices, Politics. (2025). - new book that addresses privacy in the digital sphere focusing on people, practices and politics.

The Black Digital Elite: African American leaders of the information revolution, 2006.  Langson Library E185.615 .B297 2006

Subject headings to search may include:

Information technology - Social aspects - United States

Capitalism - Technological innovations

Capitalism - Social aspects

Data privacy

Data protection

 

 

Term Paper - due March 18 - Culture, Fit, Work-Readiness

This 4,000 word essay (approximately 12-13 pp) should follow the same outline and allows you to investigate deeper questions. 

A search strategy may focus on the recruitment & retention of the high tech workplace or examine the cultural, ethnic, racial identities of its workers OR sense of belonging, employee well-being.  Huge set of options when we consider training, socialization, backgrounds, expectations, fear of failure, and whatever else contributes to organizational commitment, job satisfaction, work-readiness, etc.

You may be exploring some of these issues:

  • cultural conflicts in the workplace
  • what role culture plays in the conflict over young people joining the tech workforce

Sources that may be helpful: