MS&E 130/231: Information Systems, Autumn
2005-06, Stanford University
MW 11--12:30, Building 200, Room 105
Announcements: HW 4 is now online (due 12/9/2005). The
instructor will have extended office hours next week (1-3:30). We will put
practice problems online on Fri 12/9/2005. The final exam is on Wed 12/14/2005, from 9:30-11:30 in
200-105 (please arrive 5 minutes early). Please plan on a 12 minute
presentation (and 2 minutes for questions).
Staff and Contact Information
Class-email:
msande130-aut0506-staff @ lists.stanford.edu
Instructor: Ashish Goel,
ashishg @ stanford.edu. Office Hours: M 2:30-3:30, and by appointment.
650-724-1463.
Course Assistant (TA): Subie Patel, subhash.patel @ gmail.com . Office hours
Thu 3-4pm. Location Terman 401. Ph: 650-736-2445 during office hours.
Who to contact for what: Please use the class-email for all email unless there is a very specific reason to send email to only the instructor or only the TA. For grading related questions, it is best if you drop by during the TA's office hours. For technical questions, it is best if you drop by the Instructor's office during office-hours.
Essential Class Information
Class Objective: To understand the technology behind modern
information systems such as the Internet, the web, and peer-to-peer systems; to
study tools and techniques for extracting information and value from these
systems; to study how markets and technology co-evolve to shape these systems.
Grading: There will be a 75-minute, in-class, closed book
midterm on Mon Oct 24th, and a 2-hour, comprehensive (i.e. will
include material from both before and after the midterm), closed book final
exam in the regularly scheduled slot (9:30-11:30, Wed Dec 14th).
There will be a project and 4-5 homework assignments. The assignments will have
a weight of 20%, the midterm of 25%, the final of 35%, and the project of 20%.
Collaboration Policy: Limited collaboration may be allowed on the homework
assignments. Each assignment will specify what level of collaboration is
allowed. Please be warned: no collaboration will be allowed in assignments
involving programming.
Prerequisites:
Students must have completed CS 106B
or CS 106X, or have equivalent programming expertise. At least one of the
homework assignments will have a (simple) programming component.
Required Textbooks and
class notes:
1) Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet by James F. Kurose and Keith W. Ross, 3rd edition, Addison Wesley.
2) A First Course in Database Systems by Jeffrey D. Ullman and Jennifer Widom, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall.
The course assistant will scribe class notes, and we will typically post them a week after the lecture. We recommend using them only to supplement the detailed class notes you make yourself.
Make-up class: There will be no class on Wed Sep
28th since the instructor has to go to a conference. Instead, there
will be a make-up class on Fri Sep 30nd from 11-12:30 (location
TBA). If you cannot make it to the make-up class, please let us know in advance and the course assistant will hold a make-up session for
the make-up class.
Is
this class right for me?
First, read the detailed syllabus and the prerequisites. If you are already knowledgeable about much of the material, or find it uninteresting, then clearly this class is not right for you. If you find the material interesting and relatively new, then ask yourself the following questions:
Are you planning to take
several advanced courses that will cover networking, databases, the web,
information retrieval etc. in detail? If yes, then this course might not be
very helpful for you.
Are you afraid of
programming/technology or believe that this low level stuff is not useful? If
yes, then again this is not the class for you.
Are
you interested in understanding the basic technology underlying the design and
use of modern information systems in sufficient depth that you can make
informed policy and management decisions about these fields? If yes, then you
are likely to benefit from this class.
A (*) denotes material which
will be treated in significant technical depth. The remaining material will be
discussed with varying degrees of informality.
1) Networks + Security (3
weeks)
Network architecture --
ISPs. Access Points
Network functioning --
TCP/IP, DNS, Router functionality (*)
The end-to-end principle
-- implications for security, peer-to-peer systems
The Client Server model
-- the WWW
Email; issues with SPAM
Authentication, Public
Key Cryptography, Digital cash (*)
2) Information Retrieval from
the Web (1week)
Binary search
Web search technology --
Reverse indices and crawlers (*)
Semantic vs. syntactic
search
3) Reputation Systems (1 week)
Importance -- anonymity,
reputation as currency
PageRank – the
rating system used by Google (*)
Other reputation systems
(HITS, EBay, Kazaa, bizrate)
Reputation system
vulnerabilities
4) Database Systems (2 weeks)
SQL and the relational
model (*)
Creating and querying
databases (*)
Database design
principles
Database interfaces
5) Peer-to-Peer Systems and
their implications (1 week)
Definition, applications,
and examples: multicast, IRC, file sharing, Bit Torrent
Relevance of reputation
systems to P2P
Should all functionality
be distributed or some centralized?
-- reputation system, for example?
--
hybrid systems such as Kazaa, BitTorrent, OKBridge
-- who owns the centralized system for P2P, who pays, who is liable?
P2P and piracy (*)
Trusted computing
6) Selected topics in
Internet Commerce (1 week)
Search marketing (*)
Pricing of digital goods
7) Project presentations and guest lectures (1 week)
The projects should be done
in groups of three to four, preferably four. Please form teams and choose a
project by Mon Oct 17th. At most two teams can choose the same
project. Each project will involve a report and a presentation. Project
presentations will be on Dec 7th, and the reports are due on the
same day.
A preliminary draft (or a
detailed outline) of the report will be due on Mon Nov 14th. The
preliminary draft should clearly describe your approach, and mention any
further work you are going to do before the final submission. You will get
comments on the preliminary draft back on Nov 17th.
Choose one of he following
projects, or devise something of your own by Oct 17th,
and let us know.
1) Reputation Systems: Study the reputation systems used
by eBay, Amazon, and epinions (feel free to substitute or add another
reputation system). Point out the salient features, the advantages, and the
vulnerabilities of each. Choose one of the three, and explain how it could be
made more robust (within the context where it is used).
2) Social Networks: A variety of social networks (eg.
LinkedIn) have sprung up online. Perform a survey of the most commonly used
social networks on the web. Identify the advantages and the shortcomings of
each social network surveyed. In particular, reason for or against the
following statement: Special purpose social networks (such as one for software
professionals, one for Giants fans, etc.) are more useful than general purpose
social networks.
3) Tackling email SPAM: Present a pragmatic solution for
tackling email SPAM which has the following features: (a) There is no (or
negligible) cost associated with sending legitimate email. (b) Sending SPAM
results in some financial costs. (c) Identifying the source of SPAM is easy,
making prosecution of spammers feasible. DO NOT make a prototype. Just explain
the technical design of your system, and the financial and legal mechanisms
needed to ensure that it works smoothly.
4) Publishing: The world of publishing as we knew it is
under fire for two reasons: (a) online piracy, (b) self-publishing (eg. via
blogs, web-pages, electronic journals). Pick one of the two reasons and present
a report on the technical and marketing responses of the publishing industry to
this challenge.
5) Survey the various pricing models currently in use to
sell digital content over the Internet. What are the major obstacles (technical
as well as those related to marketing/consumer behavior) to implementing
micro-payments?
1) A small Unix
Tutorial assembled by Sanatan Rai
2) Homework 1 (due 10/13/2005)
3) Homework 2 (due
10/21/2005)
4) Practice problems for the
midterm
5) Solutions to HW 1 – not available online
6) Solutions to HW 2 – not available online
7) Solutions to practice problems – not available
online
8) Solutions to midterm problems – guess what
– not available online J
9) Homework 3 (due
11/28/2005)
10) MySQL tutorial
11) Homework 4 (due
12/9/2005)
12) Solutions to HW 3 -- not available online
13) Practice problems for the
final
Grades
Code hw1 hw2 midterm
33 47 50 49
203 49 50 41
1201 42 45 41
1203 46 45 41
1313 37 40 40
2000 44 50 50
2405 38 37 33
4744 45 48 48
5320 48 50 46
5989 44 40 49
6351 30 48
6452 44 42 42
7359 45 48 50
7479 49 42 49
8406 40
8599 49 45 45
9/25/2005: Welcome to the class. Please read the class web-page
carefully.
9/25/2005: There will be no class on Wed Sep 28th
since the Instructor is going to be away to attend a conference. There will be
a make-up class on Fri Sep 30th from 11-12:30. Please let us know in
advance if you can not make it to the make-up class and the TA will schedule a
make-up section for the make-up class.
9/25/2005: Please send a 4-digit number to the TA. We will use
this to post your grades on the web-page.
10/3/2005: Lecture 1 is now online. Please make sure you can
access the lecture notes directory.
10/6/2005: HW 1 is now online.
10/14/2005: HW 2 is now online.
10/16/2005: Special office hours in Terman 311 on Fri 10/21 from
1:00-2:30. Please note that this will be your last opportunity before the
midterm exam to get your questions answered.
10/20/2005: Practice problems for the midterm are now online.
11/14/2005: Homework 3 is now online.
11/14/2005: The instructorÕs office hours are changing to Monday
2:30-3:30.
11/14/2005: Handout 10 (a quick MySQL tutorial) is now online.
12/2/2005: Homework 4 is now online.
12/5/2005: Extended office hours (1-3:30) on Monday 12/12.
12/5/2005: Final exam: 9:30-11:30 on 12/14, in the regular class
room (Bldg 200, room 105). Please arrive 5 minutes early since we will start at
9:30 sharp.
These notes are scribed by
the course assistant, with minimal feedback from and verification by the
instructor. Please do not rely exclusively on these notes or use them as a
replacement for the textbook or your own lecture notes. Further, these notes
are only available to Stanford students.
Click here to get to the notes, after you have read the above
(notes will typically be posted a week after the lecture).
