IS 224 : Strategic Computing and Communications Technology

Administrivia

Teaching Team 

Professor David G. Messerschmitt

Professor Carl Shapiro

Course Information

School of Information Management and Systems INFOSYS 224

Electric Engineering and Computer Science EECS 224

Haas School of Business MBA 224

Engineering ENG 224

Course Dates: August 31 to December 9, 2004

Lecture Schedule: Tuesday Thursday 2:00am-3:30am in 202 South Hall

Units: 3

Grading Option: Letter Grade only

Course Texts

Required

Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy, Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian. Harvard Business School Press, 1998. ISBN: 0-87584-863-X

TOC is available under “Teaching” on the website

Software Ecosystem: Understanding an Indispensable Technology and Industry, David G. Messerschmitt and Clemens Syzperski. MIT Press, 2003. ISBN: 0262134322

Grading Criteria

80% Projects

20% In-class participation

There will be two group projects, each representing 40% of your grade, where you will collaborate with an interdisciplinary group of approximately five students. See the “projects” section for a description on the projects. Each project will be assigned a group grade (the same for all members of the group) and an individual participation grade (based on your individual contribution to the project outcome). To determine the individual contribution grades, each group member will be allocated 100 points to allocate among the other members of the group in accordance with their individual contribution to the project outcome. Each individual grade is determined by the aggregate points you receive from other group members. For each project, the group grade will be weighted 70% and the individual grade 30%. For each class, approximately three students will be asked to prepare in advance by considering the class topic and discussion topics and contributing to the class discussion more strongly. These students will also be expected to lead a discussion forum followup after class. This participation grade will be determined by a student’s performance in these tasks.

Course Work

August 31 : Tuesday

Introduction 

Lecturer: David G. Messerschmitt

September 2 : Thursday

Software Business 

Lecturer: David G. Messerschmitt

September 7 : Tuesday

Technology-business overlaps 

Lecturer: David G. Messerschmitt

September 9 : Thursday

Pricing 

Lecturer: Carl Shapiro

September 14 : Tuesday

Versioning 

Lecturer: Carl Shapiro

September 16 : Thursday

Component Software 

Lecturer: David G. Messerschmitt

September 21 : Tuesday

Complements 

Lecturer: David G. Messerschmitt

September 23 : Thursday

Multi-organizational applications 

Lecturer: David G. Messerschmitt

September 28 : Tuesday

Lock-in 

Lecturer: Carl Shapiro

September 30 : Thursday

Network effects 

Lecturer: Carl Shapiro

October 5 : Tuesday

Company collaborations 

Guest Lecturer: Steve Blumenfeld

October 7 : Thursday

Web advertising 

Guest Lecturer: Hal Varian

October 12 : Tuesday

Meeting user needs 

Lecturer: David G. Messerschmitt

October 14 : Thursday

Project presentation 

Guest Lecturer: Students

October 19 : Tuesday

Project presentation 

Guest Lecturer: Students

October 21 : Thursday

Compatibility, standard setting and standard wars 

Lecturer: Carl Shapiro

October 26 : Tuesday

Politics and standards 

Guest Lecturer: Jayrami Reddi

October 28 : Thursday

New standardization process 

Lecturer: David G. Messerschmitt

November 2 : Tuesday

Open source software 

Lecturer: Carl Shapiro

November 4 : Thursday

Software antittrust 

Lecturer: Carl Shapiro

November 9 : Tuesday

Mergers and antitrust 

Guest Lecturer: Dan Wall

November 11 : Thursday : Veterans Day

Holiday: Holiday 

November 16 : Tuesday

Digital rights management 

Lecturer: Carl Shapiro

November 18 : Thursday

Software patents 

Lecturer: Carl Shapiro

November 23 : Tuesday

Industry roadmapping 

Lecturer: David G. Messerschmitt

November 25 : Thursday : Thanksgiving

Holiday: Holiday 

November 30 : Tuesday

Telecom debacle 

Guest Lecturer: Greg Duncan

December 2 : Thursday

Debates 

Guest Lecturer: Students

December 7 : Tuesday

Debates 

Guest Lecturer: Students

December 9 : Thursday

Debates 

Guest Lecturer: Students

last updated on 2004-09-12 by Carolyn