From Triumph of the Nerds #1: Impressing Their Friends: (available from the transcript at the website if needed)

The meaning of the title
The transition from computers based on tubes to transistors to microprocessing chips--the significance for the development of the PC
Intel's failure to invent the PC business
The Altair and the year it was introduced
The significance of the California counterculture in the development of the PC
Apple II and the first "killer app" (Visicalc)
The year Apple went public and created the first PC instant millionaires
Names to recognize: Ed Roberts, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Paul Allen

From Wellman and Hogan, "The Internet in Everyday Life"

the internet's first "killer app"
their two "ages" of the internet
the problem with much analysis of the internet in the first stage
basic trends and findings in the second stage
glocalization
the importance of atemporality (asynchronicity), bandwidth, ubiquitious connectivity and portability.
the concept of networked individualism--what kind of social change it represents

From Dibbell, "A Rape in Cyberspace ..."

LamdaMOO and MUDs
VR and RL: the issues the article raises about the distinction and the relationship between the two
w hat happened in the aftermath of the "rape" and what the second part of the article title means
what the experience taught Dibbell about RL rape and about the "magic" of LambdaMOO

From Lessig, Free Culture, pp. xiii-79

what Lessig means by saying that his book is about the troubles the internet causes even after the modem is turned off.
permission culture vs. free culture, and Lessig's basic argument about them
the general point of the introduction. The Causbys and airiplanes, RCA and FM. The stakes involved.
Lessig's section on "piracy"--regarding p2p, Disney, photography, blogs, RIAA and search engines, how film, records, radio, and cable TV were born of "piracy"
the web as "the first medium that truly honors multiple forms of intelligence" (p. 46)
Hollywood, VCRs and the Supreme Court
Lessig's general conclusion about how to move forward on the issue of "piracy"

From Lecture:

The digital revolution. Digital convergence.
binary code
bits and bytes
multimedia and comingled bits
William Gibson's original definition of cyberspace

From Triumph of the Nerds #2, Riding the Bear

understand the meaning of the title
why IBM's entry into the PC market was so important
what the killer app was for the business PC market
the open architecture of the IBM PC and how it led to "clones"
reverse engineering
how the IBM PC ultimately made Bill Gates a billionaire
the importance of operating systems
who Gary Kildall was

From Rheingold, "A Slice of Life in My Virtual Community"

what he means by virtual community
the WELL and its significance
what he means by saying that virtual communities are both like and unlike other communities
the "sense of place" in a virtual community
the internet as a gift economy
think about how Rheingold's description relates to the various periodizations of the internet and internet studies found in other readings

From Silver, "Introducing Cyberculture"

be familiar with his three stages of scholarship on cyberculture and the characteristics of each
think about Rosanne Stone's definition of cyberspace as "incontrovertibly social spaces in which people still meet face-to-face, but under new definitions of both 'meet ' and 'face'."
Rheingold and Turkle as second stage enthusiasts
the importance of digital design and interface

From Wellman, "Little Boxes, Glocalization, and Networked Individualism

be familiar with the distinction between and sequence of groups>glocalization>networked individualism
understand the different possible relations of CMC (computer mediated communication) and networks
what changes in the transition from groups to networks
what participation in online comunity usually displaces the most
the broad social effects of these changes (note the five tables in the appendix)

From the lab: what HTML is and how it works

From The Internet: Behind the Web

The importance of Sputnik and the Cold War for the origins of the internet
who created the internet
packet switching
demand access and distributed control
ARPANET
the year astronauts landed on the moon and the first computers were networked
ARPANET's killer app
the internet's open architecture
what TCP/IP does
Tim Berners-Lee
Mark Andreesen

From DiMaggio et al.

the internet as a "moving target"
be familiar in a general sense with the overall findings for the five "domains" the authors identify

From Fallows, The Internet and Daily Life

what proportion of the US population is "now online"
the two most popular online activites
the general attitude of Americans towards the role of the internet in their everyday lives

From Warschauer, Reconceptualizing the Digital Divide and class discussion

the lessons of the three failed projects
problems with the digital divide concept
technology for social inclusion
what can be learned from study of literacy

NTIA and the problem of using the "telephone paradigm"
Issues in defining access, in measuring "divide," and measuring both the quantity and quality of use

From Lessig (rest of book; items below apply only to multiple-choice section of exam)

copyright: its constitutional basis and purpose; how it has been changing in the past 30 years
fair use: how it modifies copyright ownership
what Lessig means by the piracy of the public domain
the level of corporate concentration in the media (p. 162)
"property fundamentalism" and the relevance of the AIDS crisis (pp. 257-267)

From Nerds 2.01, #3: Wiring the World

CERN and Tim Berners-Lee
Mark Andreeson and Mosaic, then Netscape
How most websites make money
The city that is the Silicon Valley of India
James Gosling and Java
Bill Gates and Microsoft: belated recognition of the internet, then the challenge to Netscape. The battle of the browsers. The U.S. government's antitrust suit against Microsoft.
A statement worth pondering at the end of the film: ARPANET was the best investment the U.S. ever made except maybe the Louisiana Purchase