Networks: Friends, Money, and Bytes
Mung Chiang
A course driven by 20 practical questions about wireless, web, and the Internet, about how products from companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, Ericsson, HP, Skype and AT&T work.Dear FIX,
Today's announcement is on a brand new feature I'm creating for Networks FMB:
Grand Challenge Homework: We'll throw in about 10 GCHs throughout the semester, each is an open-ended, important, and challenging project statement. Might be proving a theorem, might be creating a design, might be writing a piece of code, all about some of these 20 Questions. Associated with GCHs is
Investor and Industry Partners: In this IIP pilot program, I've talked to about 5 venture capital firms and 5 networking companies that are on the frontier of network technology innovation, and they've agreed to work with me on defining GCHs and then (after I skype the semi-finalists) talk to the finalists about their solutions to GCHs. They may fly in the finalists for an interview. This may lead to a new job, a new product, or a new company.
Here're the VCs (two in Silicon Valley, two on East Coast) in IIP with this course:
Artiman Ventures,
Hudson Ventures,
Osage Partners,
USVP.
And companies:
ASSIA Inc. (startup founded by John Cioffi, the father of DSL),
Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs,
AppliedCommunication Sciences (part of the former Telcordia/Bellcore),
HP Labs,
Qualcomm.
A couple of more soon to be confirmed.
Think of it this way: you have access to education material now, with GCH and IIP you'll have access to career-changing opportunities.
But this is also demanding (and entirely optional): I don't expect more than 100 serious GCH submissions, or more than 20 semi-finalists. But if you're interested and you pour yourself into it, you'll find it very rewarding.
Now what about the other 37900 students enrolled in the course who do well, write great blogs, help others with questions, etc? We'll soon announce a virtual reward system geared towards them.
That's it for this email.
We'll be shooting you one email every day this whole week, leading up to the Sept. 17 launch. Each day we'll talk about a feature of the course. Today's about GCH/IIP. You'll see another feature in tomorrow's announcement.
Talk to you then.
Mung Chiang (chiang.coursera@gmail.com)
and Network FMB Teaching Staff at Princeton
(Follow us on Twitter @network20q too!)
More FIX on the NET @ FIX University Cultural Campus
Dear FIX,
The textbook for this course is not written by my favorite author:
http://www.amazon.com/Networked-Life-20-Questions-Answers/dp/1107024943/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347542947&sr=8-1&keywords=networked+life
or
http://tinyurl.com/8vvq3sq
But the publisher Cambridge University Press did a great job in production quality. And it is written exactly along the lines of this course's structure: 20 Chapters, each chapter covering 1 of these 20 Questions. Each chapter follows the same arrangement: it starts with a "Short Answer" with no math at all, then a "Long Answer" with some math, then numerical "Examples", then "Advanced Material" for those who want to see more technical content.
The textbook is not mandatory. But you may find it helpful as a complement to the video lectures.
Amazon starts shipping tomorrow (the book was printed two weeks ago), $45 (and then I think Amazon sends a $5 credit to textbook buyers). Order today and it'll be delivered early to mid next week, right at the time of Lecture 1.
Now, you're going to write the companion textbook together! How? Tomorrow we'll introduce the feature of archival quality Wiki for this course. And we'll crowd-source the writing of a book about these 20 Questions based on the Wiki entries over this semester. It'll be a book by the students and for the students. It's never done at such a scale. It'll be the first of its kind. And you may become a contributor to it.
That's it for this email.
We'll be shooting you one email every day this whole week, leading up to the Sept. 17 launch. Each day we'll talk about a feature of the course. Today's about the textbook. You'll see another feature in tomorrow's announcement.
Talk to you then.
Mung Chiang (chiang.coursera@gmail.com)
and Network FMB Teaching Staff at Princeton
(Follow us on Twitter @network20q too!)
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