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Master - Media and Information Systems (MaIS):
Technologies, Applications, Economics of Digital Goods

(WS '16/'17)

C. Loebbecke

2 SWS, 6 CP

Fridays, 8:00 am - 12:30 pm

Location: HS XXIII, WiSo-Building

Start: Oct. 21, '16, 8:00 am

Held in English

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

Basic Information

The seminar will cover all the issues mentioned in the course title. Details will follow in the first session when we know the number of participants! For now, we can confirm: the focus will be on digital products and the infrastructure and systems needed for creating value with 'bits and bytes'. We require neither programming nor technical background, but some interest in technical developments and their economic impact.

We STRONGLY RECOMMEND to MTM Master Students (MeWi and WiSo) to start with both 12 CP courses, Media Economics (Prof. Muenster) and EMS (Prof. Loebbecke). One can do MaIS in parallel, though. Students in other study programs should have taken or take at least EMS before or in parallel.

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

Grading / Credit Points

Grading will be based on

15%: Literature Summary, handed out Oct. 01, '16, due Oct. 19, '16 at 11:00 am via eMail to claudia.loebbecke <at> uni-koeln.de
15%: Literature Review, handed out latest Oct. 31, '16, due Nov. 23, '16 at 11:00 am
70%: Paper, Topic handed out latest Nov. 26, '16, due
- 40%: Presentation Slides Jan. 11, '17 at 11:00 am (groups / individual)
- 30%: Paper, Jan. 20, '17 at 11:00 am (groups / individual)

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

Required Pre-Assignment
Read the attached chapter by Delong & Fromkin (2000) and do three things:
(1) Summarize Sections 1, 2 and 4 (not 3!) in about 250 words,
(2) Look through Section 3 and summarize it in another 250 words (the idea is to summarize the message, i.e. do not list subsection after subsection, and
(3) Reflect on the 'validity and relevance' of the chapter, published in the year 2000, in today's times. Ideally, in this 3rd part, you refer to one or two other, more recent, scientific (!) papers written by different authors which confirm or contrast one or two of the points presented by Delong & Fromkin (2000). Throughout the Pre-Assignment, do not refer to specific products or company websites - we are interested in arguments, general mechanisms, and economic analyses!

Literature/ Required Chapter
DeLong, J., Froomkin, A. (2000) Speculative Microeconomics for Tomorrow’s Economy, in Internet Publishing and Beyond: The Economics of Digital Information and Intellectual Property, Kahin, B., Varian, H. (eds.), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, US, 6-44.
You can get the books online any time ... and we send the chapter to student registered for the course on our website via eMail.

Please send ONE mail with ONE non-protected word file per eMail attachment to claudia.loebbecke <at> uni-koeln.de AND to bjoern.michalik <at> uni-koeln.de. We only read sMail accounts!
eMail subject line: MaIS-I-Lastname (lastname only, no accent etc!)
File name: MaIS-I-Lastname.doc(x)
Do not forget the hyphens, do not include spaces or anything else in the filename!

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. Then continue typing, do not have a separate cover sheet. We expect to 1-2 pages, try to have a header ('Kopfzeile') on page 2 with MaIS-I-Lastname.