Draft: Syllabus
Tapping into the Wisdom of Crowds through Internet
One Credit Skills Course
Instructors:
Peter Fleck
Office Hours:
Sarah Lindeman
Office Hours:
Course Purpose
The Web 2.0 skills course focuses on the wisdom of crowds through social networking,
blogging, wikis, tagging and other Web 2.0 applications. It is intended to prepare students for
strategizing, determining when to use and how to organize groups through the use of Web 2.0
applications when doing nonprofit, advocacy and/or campaign work.
Web 2.0 is an on-line interactive experience for the users to connect with others; applications
include social networking, wikis, blogging and tagging. O’Reilly.com defines a critical
characteristic of Web 2.0 as the wisdom of crowds—online websites are built for participation
and harnessing collective intelligence for peer production (http://www.oreilly.com). Common
examples of websites that demonstrate this concept are E-bay, Kiva, Facebook and Wikipedia.
Even though the academic literature reveals little on how the use of Web 2.0 internet
communities shapes public dialogue, today use of Web 2.0 applications to communicate and
organize people by advocacy groups, political campaigns, and nonprofits is widespread. As a
result, understanding how to effectively utilize Web 2.0 applications is a skill that leaders and
managers must have in order to be effective when spearheading a campaign, especially one
which targets a younger demographic.
Course Objectives
Students will:

Survey the different Web 2.0 applications, and analyze there capabilities.

Examine how public, nonprofit and political agencies use Web 2.0 applications to
advance their mission and connect with their target population. When do
organizations use Web 2.0 technology? How do they organize groups on-line?

Study when organizations’ web 2.0 activity is and is not effective in achieving the
intended purpose.

Examine the pitfalls and risks when utilizing Web 2.0, and how to manage these
pitfalls.
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Student Responsibilities and Grading
Students will demonstrate their learning by:
1. Interviewing an organization that actively uses web 2.0 technologies and post a 2-3 page
paper about the interview on the class web site. 10% of grade.
Due date: Bring interview notes to the first day of class.
Paper due date: Second Session of class.
2. Participating in three the webinars. 10% of grade.
3. Participating in the on-line discussion by: 20% of grade.



Blogging on one of the readings required for class. (You will be assigned the first
day of class)
Leading one class on-line discussion after the webinar. (You will be assigned to
one of three groups to lead the blogging conversation)
Responding two times to other blog postings.
4. Participating in one web 2.0 activity outside of class and blogging about the experience.
10% of grade. The instructors will provide a list of activities from which you can choose.
5. Complete a final project and do a class presentation for session six. Students will create a
proposal and present it to the instructors. Team projects are acceptable. 50% of grade.
Due date: Last day of class.
Examples are;
 Write a 7-10 page paper about a political campaign or advocacy campaign and its
strategy for using Web 2.0 applications.

Write a 7-10 page paper on the role Web 2.0 applications played in the
presidential campaign.

Develop a proposal for a nonprofit or organization on how to effectively utilize
web 2.0 technologies to advance its mission.

Organize a webinar for a nonprofit or organization, execute it and write paper
about the experience pulling in key points learned in class.
Readings
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Class Format
The class is built upon the philosophy behind Web 2.0, which is building upon the collective
intelligence of the group—panel experts will share their experience and knowledge, students will
share their research and key learning, and the teachers will frame the course, teach the use of
applications and facilitate the group learning.
The course will be offered over 6 weeks, 10 hours will be face-to-face instruction. The
remaining activities will be online webinars and blogging.
Week One: Face-to-face (5 hours)
Pre-assignment: Interview an organization using web 2.0 technologies. Identify how they use
them; how this use fits within their overarching strategy; ask about barriers to use; ground rules
for use; problems they have experienced; how they attract people to their activities; and how they
measure success of use.
First half:
Welcome and Review of class
Student expectations from the course and experience with Web 2.0
Instructor presentations on:
 The Current Landscape: What is web 2.0?
 Review Web 2.0 applications
Examples of use: Students present on how are organizations using Web 2.0 today? (pre-class
assignment)
Second half:
Webinar Panel on strategizing for use of Web 2.0 to advance the mission
Panel debrief
Next sessions and student assignments
Week Two: Online Conversation (1.5 hours)
Pre-assignment: Students prepare one question to ask the panel and read …. Some students will
be assigned to blog about the reading 1 day prior to day.
Assignment due: Post interview paper before class.
Conversation with Nonprofit Experts Using Web 2.0
After an online conversation lead by group 1 will occur.
Week Three: Online Conversation (1.5 hours)
Pre-assignment: Students prepare one question to ask the panel and read …. Some students will
be assigned to blog about the reading 1 day prior to day.
Conversation with Political Campaigns Using Web 2.0
After an online conversation lead by group 2 will occur.
Week Four: Online Conversation (1.5 hours)
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Pre-assignment: Students prepare one question to ask the panel and read …. Some students will
be assigned to blog about the reading 1 day prior to day.
Conversation with Government and Citizen Media Using Web 2.0
After an online conversation lead by group 3 will occur.
Occurs During Week Three and Week Five: Online Participation
Students will participate in one on-line activity outside of class and will blog about this
experience.
Week Six: Face-to-face (5 hours)
First half:
Instructor presentations on:
 What have we learned so far?
 Web 2.0’s potential, its influence and its future (Web 3.0)
World Café Exercise
World Café Debriefing
Second half:
Presentations by students on Class Projects
Class Evaluation
Closing
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