MIS 556 Syllabus

UMKC Bloch School Syllabus Fall, 1998

MIS 556 V0A "Distributed Information Technology"

Thursday 7:00 - 9:45 P.M. in Bloch 4

Office: Bloch Room 237

Voice: (816) 235-2336

FAX: (816) 235-6506 or 235-2312

Hours: I do not maintain specific office hours. Appointments will be scheduled for our mutual convenience and drop-ins are fine. I am in and out of my office most weekdays 9:30 - 5:00 and will be happy to see you if I'm in. It is usually best to call to be sure I'm in to save yourself an unproductive trip. If you use my voice mail, please dictate your phone number slowly and clearly.

Textbooks: Doug Comer, Computer Networks and Internets, Prentice-Hall, 1997.

Chuck Musciano & Bill Kennedy, HTML: The Definitive Guide, O'Reilly & Associates, 1997.

Other sources: Some lecture material will come from the following additional sources:

Uyless Black, Emerging Communications Technologies, Prentice-Hall, 1994.

Bryan Carne, Telecommunications Primer: Signals, Building Blocks and Networks, Prentice-Hall, 1995.

William R. Cheswick & Steven M. Bellovin, Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker, Addison-Wesley, 1994.

Doug Comer, Internetworking with TCP/IP, Prentice-Hall.

Jerry FitzGerald & Alan Dennis, Business Data Communications and Networking, Wiley, 1996.

Richard W. Hamming, Coding and Information Theory, Prentice-Hall, 1980.

Ravi Kalakota and Andy Whinston, Frontiers of Electronic Commerce, Addison-Wesley, 1996.

William Stallings, Data and Computer Communications, Macmillan.

William Stallings, Networking Standards: A Guide to OSI, ISDN, LAN, and MAN Standards, Addison-Wesley, 1993.

William R. Stanek, Web Publishing Unleashed, Sams.net, 1997.

Larry Wall and Randal Schwartz, Programming PERL, O'Reilly.

Prerequisite: MIS 502 or equivalent

Objectives:

Understand basic principles of data communications.
Understand fundamental Internet capabilities and limitations.
Be able to publish information using HTML.

Past syllabi: This course has evolved rapidly; each offering is substantially different from the offering the year before. If you are curious about how the course has been taught in the past, the syllabi are still on-line (however, some of the links within them are out of date):

Attendance: You are responsible for everything that happens in class, whether you are there or not.

ADA: If you have any questions about disability or desire accommodation under the Americans With Disabilities Act, please contact the Office of Disabled Student Services at 235-1083.

Grading: Your grade will be computed from performance in two equally-weighted exams plus written assignments. All written assignments together equal one-quarter of an exam.

Borderline grades will include a heavier consideration of homework, class attendance, and other subjective factors. Plus/minus grades will receive occasional use.

On effort: Performance may be affected by your effort, which in turn may be affected by the grade you need to receive. However, only performance directly affects your grade.

Exams: The primary evaluative device in this course is the exam. There will be two of them on the dates given in the schedule below. Each examination will cover material from lecture and corresponding readings from the book (in approximately equal parts). Exams will focus upon recent material, but portions will be cumulative. Exams will be open book and open notes.

Makeups: A makeup exam will be given if you miss an exam due to documented causes beyond your control. Both conditions must exist. The makeup exam will not necessarily be similar to the exam given to the rest of the class. If you know of a problem in advance, please discuss it as early as possible.

Assignments: There will be up to eight assignments over the course of the semester. Together, they count for one-ninth of your grade. They are intended more for instruction and less for evaluation. Assignments will be announced during the semester.

Late Assignments: Assignments are due at the beginning of class. After that, they are late. Assignments will be accepted up to one week late with a 20% per business day penalty. FAX transmission of written assignments is acceptable. Make sure you include a cover page with my name on it. E-mail attachments are not accepted.

Computer Assignments: There will be several computer-oriented assignments in this class. If you do not have an e-mail address and access to USENET newsgroups by some other service, you should apply for a UMKC computer account (which includes an e-mail address) during the first week of class. You can do this by going to Bloch 110 with a student ID card with a current fee sticker. The student assistant on duty can create an account for you. You need to do this by September 3.

Cheating: Assignments are expected to be substantially your own work. However, you may work together to a limited extent. If cooperation seems excessive, you'll be given an opportunity to show that you can do the work by yourself.

No form of cooperation during exams is allowed. Copying, consulting texts, nor consulting notes are not allowed during closed-book in-class exams. Those engaging in any of these practices will receive a grade of zero on the exam.

Flagrant or repeated violations will result in additional disciplinary action.

Document your grade!: I occasionally make errors in entering grades. Keep all graded homework and exams until after you receive your official grade report from the university.

Incomplete: I am allowed to give incomplete grades to students who have been unable to complete the work of the course because of illness or serious reasons beyond their control. This work must be completed within one calendar year to avoid the incomplete grade lapsing to a F. Discuss problems in advance when it is possible to do so.

Finally, all aspects of this class will be handled logically, sensibly, and with understanding of your situation. Exceptions can be made according to good judgement.

Date Topics Assignments

8/27 Course introduction, hex & binary number operations, transmission media, RS-232, analog & digital communications, modems, telephony and multiplexing. Read Comer Chapters 1-4. I will hand out a set of practice problems in hex arithmetic. (Master this skill by September 3 and that lecture will be easy for you.)

9/3 Packets, error detection, character codes, local area networking, Beginning HTML. Read Comer chapters 5-8.

9/10 ATM switching, layered protocols, internetworking, client/server framework. Read Comer chapter 9.

9/17 Management frameworks, layered protocols. Some html examples. Read Comer chapter 12.

9/24 Internet history, governance, and standards. IP. Read Comer chapters 13, 14, 16, 17. Find some information about Internet governance on the web; also download and read some RFCs.

10/1 UDP, ICMP & TCP, editing an html file. Read Comer chapter 19 & 20. Prepare a simple HTML document using tools of your choice.

10/8 Catch up and review. Mention intranets. The image files on this server. I'll hand out some software and have you decode some packets.

10/15 exam;

10/22 security. Read handouts: page on organization's information policy, "The Real Security Threat: The Enemy Within," "The Threat from the Net," "How Hackers Break In", Comer chapter 31.

10/29 Internet applications. Read Comer chapters 21, 24, 25, 26.

11/5 Electronic Commerce Lecture

11/12 HTML Read HTML text chapters 1-8. Read Comer Chapter 27. Hand out assignment 7.

11/19 Teaching evaluations, analysis and design frameworks, early presentations. Read: electronic commerce survey; Comer Chapter 28. (optional: Read HTML text chapters 9-11, skim chapters 13-15.) I'd like to encourage 5-10 volunteers who'd like to do the assignment 8 early tonight.

12/3 Electronic commerce case studies. Assignment 8: Go to the library or some other source and find an article or other information about a company which is doing something in electronic commerce that you view as being innovative. If you are not sure about their being innovative enough, contact me. Come to class with that case study. Make a 2-5 minute presentation on the company. Give students a one-page handout to go with the presentation. The handout should give your name, the name of the company, one or more URLs (if applicable), and the main points of your presentation. Show the company's web pages, if they are available. Please remember that your presentation must not be longer than five minutes. Otherwise, we will be here all night. You will not be penalized if you only speak for two minutes. Practice your talk so that you can efficiently cover your topic in a short amount of time.

12/10 Final exam.

12/17 8:00 pm Return exams. attendance optional

Date	Topics	Assignments
8/27	Course introduction, hex & binary number operations, transmission media, RS-232, analog & digital communications, modems, telephony and multiplexing.	Read Comer Chapters 1-4. I will hand out a set of practice problems in hex arithmetic. (Master this skill by September 3 and that lecture will be easy for you.)
9/3	Packets, error detection, character codes, local area networking, Beginning HTML.	Read Comer chapters 5-8.
9/10	ATM switching, layered protocols, internetworking, client/server framework.	Read Comer chapter 9.
9/17	Management frameworks, layered protocols. Some html examples.	Read Comer chapter 12.
9/24	Internet history, governance, and standards. IP.	Read Comer chapters 13, 14, 16, 17. Find some information about Internet governance on the web; also download and read some RFCs.
10/1	UDP, ICMP & TCP, editing an html file.	Read Comer chapter 19 & 20. Prepare a simple HTML document using tools of your choice.
10/8	Catch up and review. Mention intranets. The image files on this server.	I'll hand out some software and have you decode some packets.
10/15	exam;
10/22	security.	Read handouts: page on organization's information policy, "The Real Security Threat: The Enemy Within," "The Threat from the Net," "How Hackers Break In", Comer chapter 31.
10/29	Internet applications.	Read Comer chapters 21, 24, 25, 26.
11/5	Electronic Commerce Lecture
11/12	HTML	Read HTML text chapters 1-8. Read Comer Chapter 27. Hand out assignment 7.
11/19	Teaching evaluations, analysis and design frameworks, early presentations.	Read: electronic commerce survey; Comer Chapter 28. (optional: Read HTML text chapters 9-11, skim chapters 13-15.) I'd like to encourage 5-10 volunteers who'd like to do the assignment 8 early tonight.
12/3	Electronic commerce case studies.	Assignment 8: Go to the library or some other source and find an article or other information about a company which is doing something in electronic commerce that you view as being innovative. If you are not sure about their being innovative enough, contact me. Come to class with that case study. Make a 2-5 minute presentation on the company. Give students a one-page handout to go with the presentation. The handout should give your name, the name of the company, one or more URLs (if applicable), and the main points of your presentation. Show the company's web pages, if they are available. Please remember that your presentation must not be longer than five minutes. Otherwise, we will be here all night. You will not be penalized if you only speak for two minutes. Practice your talk so that you can efficiently cover your topic in a short amount of time.
12/10	Final exam.
12/17 8:00 pm	Return exams.	attendance optional