Special problems in architecture studies

Lectures: 1 session / week, 3 hours / session

The E-Commerce Architecures seminar will explore the information architectures of virtual spaces. This seminar provides an academic as well as practical approach to architecting e-Commerce systems, with special emphasis on the fast emerging web-based education market.

The course will investigate e-Learning systems from a business, policy, technical and legal perspective. The issues presented shall be tackled by discussion of the design and structure of the various example systems. The connection between information architectures and the physical workplace of the users will also be examined. There course will be comprised of readings, discussions, guest speakers and group design sessions. Laboratory sessions will be focused on implementation tools and opportunities to create one's own working prototypes. Students will learn to describe information architectures using the Unified Modeling Language (used to specify, design and structure web applications) and XML (to designate meaningful content).

A cross-disciplinary approach will be taken; students with background in architecture, urban planning, law, cognition, business, digital media and computer science are encouraged to participate. No prior technical knowledge is necessary, though a rudimentary understanding of web page creation is helpful. The final project may be a paper or computer implementation.

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