HW1: Demo and Critique
Demo Assignment
This assignment is worth 7% of your grade and consists of two parts: (1) a critique of a social computing system and (2) a presentation demonstrating the system and providing a critical analysis of it. You are allowed to use late days on the write-up but not the presentation itself. The write-up is due by 11:59pm the day of your demo.
Prerequisite: You must speak with me — either during my office hours or over email — before you finalize the system that you want to demo. If it is a system that most people in the class may be familiar with, I'll ask you to choose a different system.
Sign Up Link: You can sign up for a demo slot at this link. You'll need to find a partner for this assignment. Do not change the date that you signed up for. If you need to change the date, please find someone to switch with and email me cc-ing the other group.
Critique and Presentation Submission: Submit your critique as a PDF and the slides for your presentation using this form.
Clas Feedback Survey: You can provide feedback to the team giving a demo at this link. Feedback is essential to improving your work. After your demo, your classmates will fill out a survey. I will share an anonymized, filtered version with you and your partner. Part of your grade on this assignment is based on class feedback.
Part 1: Critique
Write a critique of between 1,000 to 1,200 words containing:
- A justification for why you chose that particular system
- A description of the system you are demonstrating (you can include visuals to help, but also add alt-text)
- Where this system fits into the social computing landscape (e.g., who the competition is, what its history is, etc.)
- Identify two areas where it works well and two ethical issues
- Describe in detail one of the ethical issues and how it can be fixed as well as how it can be made worse (solution/anti-solution). The mechanism can be social, technical, or sociotechnical.
Your description must clearly indicate what type of social computing system it is, how and why someone would use it, who the users are, who gets to make decisions about how the system functions, and any other relevant details. Feel free to include up to 3 screenshots or images to help illustrate your points.
The ethical issues you identify must be distinct and clearly articulated, including identifying why it is a potential issue, how the system would cause that ethical issue, and who it may harm. Your proposed solution/anti-solution must also clearly address each of these aspects. See the rubric for more details.
Critique Rubric:
| Category/Value | Needs Improvement (8 pts ea.) | Good (9 pts ea.) | Excellent (10 pts ea.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality and Organization | The writing is not organized in a logical manner and/or ideas are not articulated clearly. Has many grammatical and other writing errors. | The writing is somewhat organized in a logical manner and/or ideas are articulated to some extent. Has some grammatical and other writing errors. | Free of grammatical and other writing errors. Writing is very well organized and the ideas are clearly articulated. |
| Breadth of Critique | Does not identify at least one ethical issue and one area where the system works well. | Identifies at least one ethical issue and one area where the system works well. | Identifies two different ethical issues and two different areas where the system works well. |
| Depth of Critique and Solution | Not clear what the ethical issue is, how the system would cause that ethical issue, or who it may harm. Solution does not address each of these aspects. | Ethical issue is identified but may not be well-articulated and/or it is unclear how the system would cause that ethical issue. Solution may not clearly address each of these aspects. | Ethical issue is clearly articulated, including identifying why it is a potential issue, how the system would cause that ethical issue, and who it may harm. Solution also clearly addresses each of these aspects. |
Part 2: Demo
Your presentation should be 12 minutes in length, with at most 5 minutes for demonstrating the system itself. The remaining 7 minutes will be for providing background about the system and a critical analysis. There will also be a 3 minute Q&A afterwards that doesn't count towards your 12 minute time limit. Your demo must be a live or pre-recorded demonstration of you actually using the system — don't just use a slide deck with static images. If the system is too complex to demonstrate live, you can pre-record a video or fill in some elements ahead of time.
You will be evaluated on the clarity and organization of your presentation, your ability to time your presentation accurately (5 minute demo + 7 minutes for background/critical analysis), handle the Q&A and answer questions about the system, as well as the class' feedback on your demo. See the rubric for more details.
Demo Rubric:
| Category/Value | Needs Improvement (8 pts ea.) | Good (9 pts ea.) | Excellent (10 pts ea.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality and Organization | Presentation of the system, its capabilities, and the critique was very confusing and/or lacked organization. | Presentation of the system, its capabilities, and the critique was somewhat confusing and/or lacked organization. | Presentation of the system, its capabilities, and the critique was clear and well-organized. |
| Timing | Presentation was severely over or under the time limit for either the demo (5 minutes) or background/critical analysis (7 mins). | Presentation was within 1 minute of the time limit for either the demo (5 minutes) or background/critical analysis (7 mins). | Presentation was within 30 seconds of the the time limit for the demo (5 minutes) or background/critical analysis (7 mins). |
| Q&A | Could not adequately answer class' questions and/or did not manage Q&A well. | Answered some of the class' questions well and managed Q&A well. | Answered most of the class' questions well and managed Q&A well. |
| Class Feedback | Total score of 1-3 | Total score of 4 to 7 | Total score of 8 or greater |