The best ways to reach me are by phone or in my office. Generally, speaking, I am in my office from at least 9-4 T-F. You should also feel free to contact me at home if you have a pressing question. While I do check email during the day at work, realize that it is at work, and that may delay a response. Contacting me directly will get an immediate response.

• Bell, Cybercultures Reader
• Gibson, Idoru
• Gibson, Neuromancer
• Stephenson, In the Beginning
• Stephenon, Snow Crash

All texts should be available at the Rutgers University Bookstore; however, you can also easily order them from an online retailer such as Amazon.

There are a number of goals for this class:

• Explore the ways that cyberspace has been imagined in print literature by reading canonical works of cyberpunk literature.
• Learn to read and write about new media texts analytically and critically, including Web sites and shockwave movies.
• Examine the ways in which genres form by looking at new and emerging genres on the web.
• Develop a critical vocabulary for discussing cyberspace and cyberlit.
• Read some really cool stuff and then do some really cool stuff with it.

• You should have access to a stable internet connection. By that I mean that you should have a computer you can count on to get you online.
• You should be comfortable using basic web technologies such as browsers and email.
• You must have an email account. An eden account is perfectly acceptable; otherwise, you can get a free account with Hotmail or Yahoo.
• You should have access to a printer. Some of the readings are easier to read when printed.
• Though you should be able to use any browser you'd like, I highly recommend IE 5+. It simply is a better surfing experience. Mozilla works as well, but if you're going to use Netscape, upgrade to 7.X. Also, you'd do well to have a screen resolution of 1024x768.
• Whatever browser you choose, you must have the Flash and Shockwave plugins, available from Macromedia.
• You must also have Adobe's Acrobat PDF plug-in.

If any of these present problems for you, please speak with me immediately. We'll see if we can find a way for you to work around whatever problems you have.

• Regular attendance is expected. If you have 4 or more absences, your final grade will be adversely affected.
• Regular class participation is also expected. This is NOT a lecture based class. If you do not participate in discussion, your final grade will again be adversely affected.
• Complete all readings. If I feel the class is not reading the assigned texts, I'll start giving quizzes.
• Grading will be based, roughly, as follows:
• 40%: final project which explores the issues of the class through either a 7-10 page print paper or a web-based or new media project. See the sample projects from Cyberlit 1.0 for examples.
• 30%: midterm. The class will decide whether this will be a 5-6 page paper or an exam.
• 20%: short papers practicing skills with reading new media and web texts. These will be 1-2 pages each.
• 10%: Six constributions to the class collaborative story (each a minimum of three sentences), class participation, and quizzes.