Week 2: Law & Internet Seminar (LAW 745)

We will have a guest lecturer: Joseph Wolfgram, Assistant Director of Computer Resources/Network Operations. Mr. Wolfgram will provide a basic introduction to HTML, share tips (you can see an example of his HTML work at the UM Law School homepage) and, best of all, answer your HTML questions.

Reading:

  1. Read enough of either Laura Lemay, Teach Yourself WEB Publishing with HTML, or the equivalent (you can find many basic guides on the Web), in order to have the understanding needed to create a very simple web page of your own.
  2. Find a copy of Zen and the Art of Internet on the World Wide Web and read it.
  3. Read the UM Computer Use Policy at http://www.law.miami.edu/~cinster/AOK/aok4use.html
  4. Read the 10 rules of Nettiquette at: http://www.bookfair.com/Publishers/1887164/samNetiquette/0963702513p35.html
  5. MIT's Promoting Network Civility
  6. MIT's Mechanisms for Reducing Computer-Based Harassment, Improper Use, and Incivility at MIT
  7. Here's a Critique of the MIT Stopit Policy.
  8. An example of why you might need a harrassment policy.
  9. Try some self-discipline, anyone?

Things to think about

  • How would you go about writing an "acceptable use" policy for a law school?
  • What risks would you be most worried about?
  • What are the interest groups involved?
  • What's wrong with UM's policy? Can you improve it?

    • Optional Reading:

    The Cross-Referenced List of HTML Tags is a great, but techie, list of HTML tags and their functions.

    The ABC's of cgi-bin scripts.

    Other Nettiquette guides and related info at http://www.screen.com/start/guide/netiquette.html

    Don't let this happen to you....

    (Required) Doing:

    1. If you have not already done so, figure out how to make your e-mail program automatically attach a "signature block" or ".sig" to each of your messages.
    2. Find the source for the document you are now reading. Print it out. (You may want to study it too, but that's optional....)
    3. Spend 30 minutes (or more) cruising the web. Find an interesting web site that was not mentioned last week. Write a short (I think 4 lines is too short...) description of the site, explaining why it's interesting, and post it to the class mailing list at least 24 hours before class. Please include the URL in your message. If you can, tell us how you found it too, please.
    4. Acquire a means of authoring an HTML document.
      1. You can do this manually using the PICO editor at the law school if you are a control freak and/or have programming experience.
      2. You can find a freeware or shareware HTML editor on the Web. (Note, however, that some of the best ones such as HotDog expire after 30 days, and this course lasts longer than 30 days.....)
      3. You can buy one (not recommended since many free ones are very good).
      4. Create a WWW directory for youself as follows:
    5. Log into cobra.law.miami.edu.
      1. Type the following at the prompt:                       mkdir public_html
      2. Now that you have created this new subdirectory, change directories to it by typing:                                                                    cd public_html
    6. Now create at least a minimalist homepage for yourself. Include the text of the "interesting WWW site" that you posted to the class mailing list (and links to the interesting web pages itself), and a link to the file that has the index of class assignments. Give your page the filename of index.html in the public_html directory that you created. (If you are using pico, you would type:                                                                                      pico index.html          at the prompt, and then manually enter the relevant HTML codes).
      If you are having troubles reading your page with a browser, try the following fix:
      Log into cobra. From the starting prompt type

      chmod 777 public_html
      cd public_html
      chmod 777 *
      cd ..
      cd ..                           [NOTE: THIS IS NOT A TYPO - DO IT TWICE]
      chmod 777 youruserid
      where "youruserid" is your login name e.g. ab12344 or whatever . This fixed my problems on my test account on cobra.
    7. You may find it useful to check your HTML coding at the WebTech HTML Validation Service or the Weblint Validation Checker.
    8. Send an email to the class mailing list advertising the existence of your homepage and stating the correct URL for the page.
    9. Print out the source code for your pages -- even (especially) if they don't work -- and bring them to class.
    10. Read the email from other members of the seminar before class.
    Go to last week's assignment. Go to next week's assignment. <BGSOUND SRC = "http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/sem97/ohdear.wav">

    Version 1.2c. Last modified: Sept. 10.