Master - Media and Technology Management: Selected Issues
'Sharing Economy'

(WS '16/'17)

C. Loebbecke

2 SWS, 6 CP

Fridays, 1:00-5:30 pm

Location: HS XXIII, WiSo-Building

Start: Oct. 21, '16, 1:00 pm

Held in English

Pre-Assignment due Oct. 19, '16, 11:00 am

Further Information

During the course, we will read and discuss up to two major pieces on the sharing economy: 'Rifkin, J. (2014) The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism' and 'Shirky, C. (2008) Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations'. The idea is to be aware of the authors' arguments and to discuss them in light of ongoing discussions in the European Union / european Commission (e.g., 'Digital Agenda 2020', see ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en).

Dates
Oct. 21, '16 (mandatory kick-off), Oct. 28, Nov. 25, Dec. 16 (all '16), Jan. 13, Jan. 20 (both '17) - max. 6 dates.

Required Pre-Assignment
Read (1) Rifkin, Chapter 1, and (2) Shirky, Chapter 2 BEFORE the 1st session and summarize those chapters (not the complete books, i.e., do not just copy book abstracts!) in about 250 words each and add another 250 words on how you expect and reason the two books to represent similar or contrasting lines of argument regarding the 'sharing economy'.

Please send ONE mail with THREE non-protected word files per eMail attachment to claudia.loebbecke <at> uni-koeln.de AND to denis.niederle <at> uni-koeln.de. We only read sMail accounts!!!!
eMail subject line: IssuesI-Lastname (lastname only, no accent etc!)
File names:
-- IssuesI-Rifkin-Lastname.doc(x)
-- IssuesI-Shirky-Lastname.doc(x)
-- IssuesI-BOTH-Lastname.doc(x) this is for the last 250 words on how you expect ....
Do not forget the hyphens, do not include spaces or anything else in the filenames!

Please make sure you have your name, Matr. Number, eMail address (sMail) and study program, and begin of program on top of the first page in EACH ASSIGNMENT FILE. Then continue typing, no need to have a cover sheet for such short pieces of work. I.e., we expect to receive three files, one page each: three times you name etc and about 250 words on the same page.

Literature

• Rifkin, J. (2014) The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism, Macmillan, New York, NY, US.

• Shirky, C. (2008) Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations, Penguin Press, New York, NY, US.

• Website and and perhaps first-hand coverage of 'Digital Agenda 2020' ─ s. for instance ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en

You can get the books online any time ... and we sent the chapters to you via eMail ─ the ones for the Pre-Assignment on Oct 1, 2016.

Grading / Credit Points

Grading will be based on

• 15%: Literature Summary / Pre-Assignment, handed out Oct. 01, '16, due Oct. 19, '16, 11:00 am via eMail to claudia.loebbecke <at> uni-koeln.de AND denis.niederle <at> uni-koeln.de,
• 15%: Literature Review, handed out latest Nov. 15, '16, due Dec. 23, '16,
• 70%: Paper, Topic handed out Dec. 28, '16, due Jan. 26, '17, 11:00 am.

It is required to at least 'pass' (grade 4.0 or better) each grading element for passing the course.

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