CLS98 - Pre-Semester Planning
This is an invitation to dinner (requesting a response from you) and a bit of a heads up about the forthcoming Cyberspace Law Seminar.
The fact that you are getting this message does not commit you to taking the seminar. It is going to all who have so far expressed some interest as well as those who are formally registered.
(1) For starters, I am interested in knowing if you check your e-mail often enough to make this a useful way of communicating with the group. So, if you do, please give me a reply of some kind once you get this.
(2) We have considerable flexibility as to what we do with our semester together (within the bounds of reason and academic standards). I am anxious to hear your preferences as early as possible for a variety of reasons -- not the least of which is that, if most of you want to just meet weekly and go through a casebook I have some work to do between now and January 14th. (I have written a casebook, with a former CLS student, David Loundy, but it would need updating.) A graduate school seminar ought to be something you help shape, that enables you to pursue a genuine interest of yours, about which you have some enthusiasm, and from which you derive some fun as well as a sense of professional satisfaction. (Another reason for getting a jump on some of these preliminaries is that it now looks like I'll need to go back to the Former Soviet Union for a week or so sometime in mid-January and I'd like for us to have your independent research assignments worked out before I go.)
(3) FYI, based on the discussions I have had with you so far, the emerging default (subject to revision, or rejection, depending on additional input) would involve (a) an early group discussion of the _range of categories_ of legal issues created by cyberspace (e.g., "privacy," "jurisdiction," etc.), (b) the selection of one of those by each participant, (c) some training in the use of the Web for research, and the creation of Web pages, (d) the creation of what will become a class-created, integrated, online cyberlaw reference site, linking to resources on the Web, (e) with each participant responsible for (and identified as the author of) the page/s relating to her/his selected issue area (and my preparing some general links, and the integration), much of which will have to be created anyway in the course of researching and writing the seminar paper, (f) with the option (but not requirement) of preparing one link to a personal Web page (with resume, ultimately a copy of the seminar paper, photos, or whatever), and, of course, (g) the creation of a seminar paper, and (h) its revision (both are law school requirements for a seminar) that will be, ultimately, (i) "published" on the Web.
(4) Needless to say, I'm not suggesting "assignments" to intrude on your deserved, and needed, winter break. But there are some things you can do that will take no time or real effort on your part. If you see a newspaper or magazine article that you're reading anyway and looks relevant to the seminar, tear it out and save it (if it's your magazine!). If you're "surfing the Net" for fun, and come upon by accident what looks like a relevant Web site, consider making a bookmark of it so you can find it later.
(5) Now for the dinner invitation/s. This is just to get to know each other a bit before the semester begins, get a free meal, have an enjoyable evening, and discuss a little of what you'd like to do. It is, in no sense, a "must attend." I assume that many of you will be out of town over the holidays. That's fine. Have a good one. We'll get together again sometime during the semester. But, if you are going to be around, and would like to come to the house, my wife (Mary Vasey) and I are setting aside the Monday evening/s of December 29 and January 5 for the purpose.
So, please give me an indication of whether either -- or both -- of these evenings works for you. Again, if it creates even the slightest conflict or inconvenience don't hesitate to say so.
[19971211]
Note: This Web page contains links to memos related to the Cyberspace Law Seminar taught by former FCC Commissioner Nicholas Johnson in the Spring 1998 semester. It is intended for use by students at the University of Iowa College of Law, Iowa City, Iowa, USA, enrolled in the Cyberspace Law Seminar [Catalog: 91:624].
If you are not enrolled in this seminar, although you are not forbidden to examine this page and its links, you are requested to maintain the privacy of those who are enrolled. You will find the pages primarily to be administrative in nature, rather than providing many useful links to substantive material (which can be found, however, on the pages headed "Cyberlaw Research Resource Sites" and, from Nicholas Johnson's Home Page the link to Web Pages, 800 Useful Sites).
-- N.J.
Nicholas Johnson's e-mail address is: 1035393@mcimail.com
[19980112]
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