Individual Students will be responsible for leading the class discussion on each chapter of the various readings. The assignments are FIFO, and thus, you should send me email. The current assignments are on the Mentors Assignments page.

While each chapter is different, the following presents a list of possible topics that the mentor should consider.

• You control the discussion, so it is your responsibility to control the class responses. Any faculty are just another discussion member. You are free to call on students. If you don't, I will....
• Experience indicates that you should stand or somehow move to a point of presence/authority during this discussion and be prepared to cut people off and move to different topics.
• You MUST prepare a single overhead with at least bullets for the following info. Note: I will always bring my Mac..
  • Who is the Author of the Chapter, their background, etc.
  • Summary of Chapter
  • What is the main Thesis - note, sometimes this is technical, sometimes historical. Try to draw out why the author chose this material for a chapter.
  • Highlights of material - key points.
  • What are the questions or areas the class should discuss - base these on text from the author.
  • References to the reality of past insertion of this technology
  • Author's discussion of Historical Issues
  • Author's discussion of Social Issues
  • Author's discussion of Security Issues
  • Author's discussion of response to failure,
  • Author's discussion of scaling issues

Also each Mentor is responsible for having read in detail the Chapters before and after their assigned Chapter. Thus, Mentors should be vocal during discussion of the Chapters surrounding their Chapter. In particular they need to be able to tie the material into their Chapter.

If you think of any other general questions to ask, then be sure to send me email. It might be appropriate to add questions for particular categories of books, so think about them.

Finally, (well so far the last thing) Mentors are to create 2-3 Trival Pursuit questions concerning their Chapter. These should be reasonable as they will form the final exam, i.e., screw others, screw yourself. In particular these are to be made into a 2 web pages. The first page the question. The second page, the question and answer.

Mike Erlinger