Technology Manifesto

Draft Due: Thursday, Feb. 18
Revision Due: Thursday, March 4 (posted as a page on your blog)
Length: 500 – 1000 words

Assignment Overview
Following the lead of the three manifestos we read (“Changing Copyright,” “Negativeland’s Tenets of Free Appropriation,” and “Technorealism”), craft your own manifesto that will guide your use of digital technologies. You need to reference at least two of the course readings or videos on copyright in your manifesto. Remember that your manifesto will be a public document on your blog and your personal website, so when referencing course readings you must assume an audience who is not familiar with your sources or our discussions in class. Your audience is your reading public. The purpose of the manifesto is to establish your ethos as a responsible author who follows a carefully thought out code of ethics.

Your manifesto should define what you believe to be the importance of communicating and publishing online and what the ethical and cultural issues are when communicating/publishing online. Go on to explain what you believe is appropriate or “fair use” of other’s work when composing in the digital age. Finally, based on what you have written include a list of policies that will govern your work. The objective is to declare your beliefs regarding authorship in the digital age; then, based on that, explain what you believe is an appropriate application of copyright that will allow you to effectively communicate and create in the digital age.

Peer Response
In order to receive feedback on your manifesto before revising, you will bring three copies to class on Thursday, Feb. 16—one for me and a copy for two other classmates. You will read and comment on two classmate’s drafts during class that day (response instructions to follow).

Revising
After receiving feedback from your classmates and me, you will revise your manifesto textually and visually because you will be posting it on your blog and personal website. Thus, when you revise you will have to think about how to visually design your manifesto and whether or not you want or need to link to other information on the web to support your arguments. The visual design should enhance or add to the message you are communicating with your words. For example, when publishing on his website, a past student designed his manifesto to mimic the look of an original copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence because in the written text of the manifesto he was “declaring his independence from current copyright law”. Your blog template will limit the visual design of your manifesto—you will have to work within its constraints. Similarly, when you publish the manifesto on your website your design will be limited by your level of technological knowledge. You will post your revised manifesto on your blog on xxx. Instructions for publishing the manifesto on your website will be included in the website assignment.

Here is a link to the U.S. copyright office’s explanation of fair use if you would like to reference it: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html