Requirements & Grading

Overview • Class Discussion
Tales of PIM • Team Project
Readings • Grading • Correspondence

Overview

By default, the class is credit/no credit. But some students may need a grade for their program and have the option to take the course for a grade. All students are expected to complete the follow requirements.

Requirement	Team or Individual	Percent of Grade*
Class participation	individual	15%
Lead class discussion	individual	10%
Tales of PIM	individual	30%
Team project	team	45%

*Satisfactory completion of each requirement is expected in order to receive credit for the course. Percentages apply only for those who elect to take the course for a grade.

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Lead Class Discussion (10%)

Lead a class discussion on PIM-related topic that you a) are interested in or b) know something about or c) would like to learn something about. Think especially of tools, trends and techniques. You might find out about a cool tool (e.g., a new release of the iPhone), a significant trend (e.g., in use of wikis) or an interesting technique (e.g., in organizing information or using email).

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Tales of PIM (20%)

Find a partner – either a classmate or someone outside the class. You and your partner will each pick a project that you are each working currently. Pick projects you wouldn’t mind discussing with each other and with the class (e.g., projects should not contain company-sensitive or personally sensitive information). You should each pick a project that is “yours” – even if other people are involved, you’re in charge – it won’t happen without you. The project can be work-related or not. The project might be to plan a summer vacation for you and your family. You may need cooperation and buy-in from other members of your family but you’re in charge of putting the vacation together (where to go? Where to stay? What to do?...). Projects should be information intense and should ideally last through the spring quarter.

Each week, interview your partner and have your partner interview you. What has been noteworthy in your practices of PIM over the past week? Examples might include some special effort to re-find misplaced information or the implementation of some new scheme of organization or the acquisition and incorporation of some new tool for information management. Give special focus to your projects. How are these going? How is project-related information (documents, email, web references, etc) being managed? Also give focus to course topics recently covered in class.

Make at least one entry for yourself on the Tales of PIM discussion forum. Compare your experience of PIM with that of your partner.

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Team Project (45%)

Participate in a team project resulting in a term paper and a finals week presentation. Teams will compete with each other to establish requirements for, design, prototype and evaluate a better system of PIM.

The system does not need to involve programming or the coding of a new, improved computer-based tool. Instead, the system might focus primarily on a better scheme of organization or strategies for the better use of current tools. The two major phases of system development will correspond to the two major sections of the course:

Identify and understand current activities of PIM. For a targeted group of people, identify current problems of PIM and opportunities for improvement.
Design, prototype and evaluate system in support of better PIM in accordance with the life cycle of personal information.

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Textbook and Readings

Jones, W., & Teevan, J. (2007). Personal Information Management. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.

Jones, W. (2007). Keeping Found Things Found: The Study and Practice of Personal Information Management. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.

Readings selected by students.

In addition, guest lecturers may provide suggested readings according to the topic of their lecture.

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