Communications Technology

Introduction to Technical Communication

NSF Guide to Grant Proposal Writing
A detailed guide to NSF requirements for grant proposals, explaining what information is needed and how it should be presented.

Stephen's Guide to Logical Fallacies
Excellent list of logical fallacies you must strive to avoid, along with examples.

NSF Grants Overview
Page with news about the granting process, links to the NSF directorates, etc.

U. Mich. Proposal Writing Guide by Don Thackery
Guidelines for resume and cover letter in online version of  The Mayfield Handbook of Technical and Scientific Writing.

Ethics in Science and Technology

This section features the various reading material for the subject. Readings range from articles to case studies to sample papers.

What is Technology? What is Ethics? Case Discussion: The Hyatt Regency Walkways Collapse
Hyatt Regency Case description and   pictures

Discussion of "The Science of Scientific Writing"
Gopen, George D., and Judith A. Swan. " The Science of Scientific Writing." American Scientist 78 (November-December 1990): 550-558.

Overview of Sample Literature Reviews, Structuring the Paper (Writing the Introduction, Body, and Conclusion)
Language and Gender: A Brief Literature Review
Apes and Langauge: Literature Review ( PDF) from the official Web site for Diane Hacker, author of A Pocket Style Manual Adolescent Depression ( PDF) from Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)

Writing Links
Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)
The Mayfield Handbook of Technical and Scientific Writing
3M Meeting Network
This site provides a number of resources for facilitating meetings and delivering presentations.

Ethics in Technology Links
Engineering Ethics Companion Site
The Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science at Case Western Reserve University
"Our mission is to provide engineers, scientists, and science and engineering students with resources for understanding and addressing ethically significant problems that arise in their work, and to serve those who are promoting learning and advanci ng the understanding of responsible research and practice in science and engineering."
Codes of Ethics and Conduct
Compilation of a great number of Professional Societies' Codes of Ethics. Professional Ethics in Engineering Practice: Discussion Cases
"These cases present situations that raise ethical questions common in engineering practice and research. They are based on o riginal
cases brought to the BER (Board of Ethical Review) of the NSPE (National Society of Professional Engineers) for review. The NSPE BER reviews cases with the specific purpose of making an ethical judgment on the actions of (only) the engineers in the cases, ba sed solely on the NSPE Code of Ethics."
National Science Foundation
Main Web site for the NSF.
Conferences on Science and World Affairs: Pugwash Online
"The Conferences on Science and World Affairs mission is to bring scientific insight and reason to bear on threats to human security
arising from science and technology in general, and above all from the catastrophic threat posed to humanity by nuclear and o ther weapons of mass destruction."

Explorations in Scientific and Technical Writing

TechComm Web
This is the companion Web site to the required text for this course, Technical Communication by Mike Markel.
The Mayfield Handbook of Technical and Scientific Writing
Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)
Writing: Style/Usage Manuals
Choosing a style

  • Ask your professor or TA which style s/he prefers for the course.
  • Consult a  style guide for examples of using various citation styles to create in-text citations, bibliographies and reference lists, or use  citation software to assist you in tracking sources used and building in-text citations and bibliographies.
  • Use a standard style, such as APA, and be consistent with it throughout your paper.
  • Ask for citation and paper-writing assistance at the  Mapua Libraries

Style guides to consult
Academic organizations and some disciplines outline their own styles of how to cite sources and format research
papers. You may have heard of or used some of the styles before.   Consult these print and online style guides for examples
of citing sources in the text of your paper and in a bibliography or reference list. See also information about  citation software packages supported by the Mapua Libraries.

MLA: Modern Language Association [Humanities]

APA: American Psychological Association [Social Sciences]

CMS: Chicago Manual of Style [various subjects]

ACS: American Chemical Society

  • ACS Style Guidelines (online from UW-Madison Libraries, providing examples for citing references in the text and the bibliography of a research paper)

CBE: Council of Biology Editors

IEEE: Institute of Electronics & Electrical Engineers

NLM: National Library of Medicine or AMA: American Medical Association

Various styles - the following resources provide examples of citing sources in several styles

Communicating in Technical Organizations

Perelman, Les, et. al. The Mayfield Handbook of Technical and Scientific Writing
Essay by Tufte, Edward. The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint.
Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press, LLC. 2003. Mackenzie, Adrian. "The performativity of code: Software and cultures of circulation."
Kittler and Blog Debates.  There is No Software

Principles and Practice of Science Communication

Why Bother with Science Communication?
Thomas, G., and J. R. Durant. "Why should we promote the public understanding of science?" Scientific Literary Papers 1 (1987): 1-
14. (Courtesy of Dr. G. P. Thomas. Used with permission.)
How Do Scientists Communicate with Each Other? Medawar, Sir Peter. "Is the scientific paper a fraud?" The Listener 70 (September 12, 1963): 377-378.
Watson, J. D., and F. H. C. Crick. "A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid." Nature 171 (April 25, 1953): 737-738.
Who's on the Receiving End of Popular Science? Durant, J. R. "A New Agenda for the Public Understanding of Science." Durant, J. R., et al. "The Public Understanding of Science." Nature 340 (July 6, 1989): 11 -14.
National Science Board. "Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Understanding ." Chapter 7 in Science and Engineering
Indicators 2004. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation, 2004.
Making Science Shows for Radio     Talk of the Nation: Science Friday, March 31, 2006 segments.   Hour One: Avian Flu Vaccine / Sleep and Teens and Hour Two: SpaceX Setback / Prescription Drug Ads
Case Study 2: The GM Food Debate in the UK, 1994-2004 "Report of UK National Consensus Conference on Plant Biotechnology." 1994.
UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. "The Great GM Food Debate: A Survey of Media Coverage in the First Half of
1999." Report 138, House of Commons, London, UK, May 2000. (PDF)
GM Nation: This Web site documents the UK national public debate about GM food and GM crops organized in 2003. Case Study 4: The Debate over 'Intelligent Design'   Intelligent Design (Wikipedia entry)
The Evolution Debate (New York Times coverage of Intelligent Design)

Communications & Information Policy

Technology
Clark, David D. "An Insider's Guide to the Internet"
———. "Architecting a Networked Application"
  ———. "Readings on Alternative Futures for the Internet"
Agilent Technologies. "Digital Modulation in Communications Systems - An Introduction." Application Note 1298, 2001.

Policy Rationale and Methods
Bray, Hiawatha. "Groups mobilize against fees for bulk e-mailings: YAHOO®, AOL target spam." Boston Globe, February 28, 2006.
Blogging Policy Proposal

Spectrum Policy
Hazlett, Thomas. "The Wireless Craze, The Unlimited Bandwidth Myth, The Spectrum Auction Faux Pas, and the Punchline to Ronald
Coase's "Big Joke" An Essay on Airwave Allocation Policy." AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, Working Paper 01-01, January 2001.
Faulhaber, Gerald, and David Farber. "Spectrum Management: Property Rights, Markets and the Commons." Wharton School Working Paper, University of Pennsylvania, 2003.
FCC Spectrum Policy Task Force; Paul Kolodzy, director. "SPTF Report." ET Docket No. 02-135 (November 2002).
Kwerel, Evan, and John Williams. "A Proposal for a Rapid Transition to Market Allocation of Spectrum." OSP Working Paper 38, Federal Communications Commission, November 2002.
Lehr, William. "Economic Case for Dedicated Unlicensed Below 3GHz." 2004.
Benkler, Yochai. "Some Economics of Wireless Communications." Presented at TPRC October 2002.
Cave, Martin. " Reforming UK Spectrum Policy." White Paper prepared for UK Spectrum Management Review,
Lehr, William, and Jon Crowcroft. "Managing a Spectrum Commons." IEEE DySPAN 2005, Baltimore, November 2005.
Lehr, William, Sharon Gillett, and Fuencisla Merino. "Software Radio: Implications for Wireless Services, Industry Structure, and Public Policy." Communications and Strategies, IDATE, no. 49 (1st Quarter 2003): 15-42.
Lehr, William, and Lee W. McKnight. "Wireless Internet access: 3G vs. WiFi?" Telecommunications Policy 27, no. 5-6 (June-July 2003): 351-370.
UK Radiocommunications Agency. " Strategy for the future use of the Radio Spectrum in the UK." UK Spectrum Strategy Report, March 2002.
Werbach, Kevin D. "Supercommons: Toward a Unified Theory of Wireless Communication." Texas Law Review 82, March 2004. (Available at SSRN.)

Copyright and Information
Holson, Laura M. "Ice-T's Take on Napster, the Law and Morality ." The New York Times on the Web; August 7, 2000; nytimes.com; accessed Jan 28, 2005.
Zittrain, Jonathan. "The Copyright Cuffs." CIO Magazine, October 15, 2003.
Netanel, Neil W. "Copyright and the First Amendment; What Eldred Misses - and Portends." In Copyright and Free Speech: Comparative and International Analyses. Oxford University Press,
Lessig, Lawrence. "The New Chicago School." Journal of Legal Studies 27, no. 2 (June 1998).
"Privacy and Piracy: The Paradox of Illegal File Sharing on Peer-to-Peer Networks and the Impact of Technology on the Entertainment Industry."
Biddle, P., P. England, M. Peinado, and B. Willman. "The darknet and the future of content distribution." 2002 ACM Workshop on Digital Rights Management. Washington DC, November 18, 2002.
Stallman, Richard. "The Right To Read." Communications of the ACM 40, no. 2 (February 1997). Netanel, Neil. "Copyright and a Democratic Civil Society." 106 Yale Law Journal 283 (1996). Bowman, Lisa. " Programmers enroll in political training." CNet News, June 10, 2002.
Samuelson, Pamela.  Economic and Constitutional Influences on Copyright Law in the United States. -- A formal discussion of the differences between U.S. and European copyright law.
Mann, Charles. "The Heavenly Jukebox." Atlantic Monthly (September 2000).
European Union Copyright Directive from the Campaign for Digital Rights.
The Statute of Anne. From The History of Copyright: A Critical Overview With Source Texts in Five Languages, a forthcoming book by Karl-Erik Tallmo.
Lemley, Mark A. "Property, Intellectual Property, and Free Riding." Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper No. 291 (August 2004). (Available at SSRN.)
Wu, Tim. "Copyright's Communications Policy." Michigan Law Review 103 (November 2004): 278. (Available at SSRN.)
Anderson, Chris. "The Long Tail." Wired (October 2004).
Love, Courtney. "Love's Manifesto." Salon.com (June 14, 2000).
Solum, Lawrence B., and Minn Chung. "The Layers Principle: Internet Architecture and the Law." University of San Diego Public Law Research Paper No. 55. (Available at SSRN.)
Cave, Damien. "Chained Melodies." Salon.com (March 13, 2003).
Lessig, Lawrence. "The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach." Harvard Law Review 113 (1999).
This article is a highly compressed version of the basic content of Lessig's Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, which includes more examples and is in a somewhat more approachable style.
Boutin, Paul. "See you on the darknet." Slate (January 28, 2004).
Hansell, Saul. "Crackdown May Send Music Traders Into Software Underground." The New York Times, September 15, 2003. Boyle, James. "The Second Enclosure Movement and the Construction of the Public Domain." 66 Law and Contemp. Probs. 33 (Winter/Spring 2003).
Carroll, Michael W. "The Struggle for Music Copyright." Villanova Law/Public Policy Research Paper No. 2005-7. (Available at SSRN.) Grimmelmann, James. " Regulation By Software." Yale Law Journal 114, no. 7 (May 2005).
Madden, Mary. "Artists, Musicians and the Internet ." Pew Internet and American Life Project (December 5, 2004).
EFF's MGM v. Grokster Archive
MGM v. Grokster, U.S. Supreme Court No. 04-480 (slip opinion, June 27, 2005).
Electronic Frontier Foundation. "RIAA v. The People: Two Years Later." November 2, 2005.
May, Christopher. "Digital rights management and the breakdown of social norms ." firstmonday, no. 8 (November 2003).
Barlow, John Perry. "The Economy of Ideas." Originally appeared in Wired Magazine, 2.03; March 1994.
Bollier, David.  Introduction and   Excerpts from Brand Name Bullies, The Quest to Own and Control Culture . New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 2005.
McLeod, Kembrew. Freedom of Expression®. New York, NY: Doubleday; 2005. This text on intellectual property was released under a Creative Commons license.

Interconnection of Service Providers
Sicker, Douglas. "Further Defining a Layered Model for Telecommunications Policy." October 2002.
DeGraba, Patrick. "Bill and Keep at the Central Office As the Efficient Interconnection Regime." OPP Worki ng Paper Series No. 33, Federal Communications Commission, December 2000.
Kende, Michael. "The Digital Handshake: Connecting Internet Backbones." OPP Working Paper Series No. 32, Federal Communications Commission, 2000.
Intven, Hank, ed. "Interconnection." Module 3 of Telecommunications Regulation Handbook. Prepared for infoDev Program of the World Bank, 2000.
UK Office of Communications. "Effective Competition Review of Internet Connectivity." August 23, 2001.

Broadband Access Technology and Policy
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. "Developments In Local Loop Unbundling."
DSTI/ICCP/TISP(2002)5/FINAL. September 10, 2003, pp. 1-14.
Ikeda, Nobuo. "How the 'Japanese Miracle' of Broadband Came About." 2003.
Computer Science and Telecommunications Board. Broadband: Bringing Home the Bits. Washington DC: National Academies Press, 2002.
Johnston, David, and Hassan Yaghoobi (Intel® Corp.) "Peering into the WiMax Spec." Especially part I. CommsDesign, January 20, 2004.
Johnston, James H., and J. H. Snider. "Breaking the Chains: Unlicensed Spectrum as a Last-Mile Broadband Solution." New America Foundation, Spectrum Policy Program Issue Brief #11, June 2003.

Broadband Access - Case Studies: VoIP, Municipal Broadband
Terena (Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association). "Regulatory/Legal Considerations." In IP Telephony Cookbook. 2004.
Oram, Andy. "The State of VoIP." O'Reilly Network, October 22, 2004.
Gillett, Sharon, William Lehr, Marvin Sirbu, and Carlos Osario. Collected research papers on Municipal Broadband. Broadband
Working Group, MIT Communications Futures Program.
Thierer, Adam D. "Risky Business: Philadelphia's Plan for Providing Wi-Fi Service." Progress and Freedom Foundation, April 2005.

Broadband Access - Network Neutrality
Wu, T. "Network Neutrality and Broadband Discrimination." Journal on Telecommunications and High Technology Law 3, no. 69.
Farrell, Joseph, and Phil Weiser. "Modularity, Vertical Integration, and Open Access Policies: Towards a Convergence of Antitrust and
Regulation in the Internet Age." Harvard Journal of Law and Technology 17, no. 1 (Fall 2003). (Available at SSRN.)
Felten, Ed. "Managing the Internet" Blog Postings. In Freedom to Tinker. See in particular the postings on March 2, 7, 13, and 21, 2006; but feel free to browse the older entries as well.
van Schewick, B. "Towards an Economic Framework for Network Neutrality Regulation." Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, September 20, 2005.
Lemley, M. A., and L. Lessig. "The End of End-to-End: Preserving the Architecture of the Internet in the Broadband Era." UCLA Law Review 48, no. 4 (2001): 925-972.
Center for Digital Democracy. "The Assault on Network Neutrality." Multiple postings. On this site, Cisco Systems' "Deploying Premium Services using Cisco Service Control Technology" is one of the better white papers for getting a feel for vendor offerings in this space.
Senate Commerce Committee Hearings on Network Neutrality, February 7, 2006.

Media Education & the Marketplace

Back to Top