CS 701: Electronic Commerce

Note-Taking Guidelines

• You are to work either individually or as a team (depending on your assignment) in producing an HTML document for the notes.
• Your notes are due two weeks after the lecture.
• Many speakers will have slides: you are encouraged to ask the speaker of your assigned lecture for their slides to help you with note-taking. You are also expected to jot down notes during the assigned lecture.
• Essentially, we want a coherent, easy-to-read and self-contained account that captures almost all the key points in the assigned lecture.
• Let's take an example. Consider a lecture that covers 20 slides. Assuming about 2 paragraphs per slide, you might create a document with 40 paragraphs, organized into sections and also include: a contents page, a "further reading" or "web resources" list (based on your own search on the web), and additional writing to create a smooth, flowing text equivalent to the lecture.
• The following example is the wrong way to write:

  The speaker, Ms. Smith, then went on to discuss ecommerce server technologies. She then listed four criteria as paramount: (1) speed, which she said was tantamount to realtime response, (2) cost,...

  It is better to write:

  According to at least one expert [2], ecommerce technologies are usually evaluated according to several criteria, such as:

  • Speed. The speed factor usually refers to the response time for a user accessing the site. For example,... [Create your own example]
  • Cost...

  Thus, you will write in the third-person and not refer to the particular speaker in the text (a reference is appropriate, as above).
• Do not simply write one large blob of text. Be sure to break your text into sections with appropriate HTML formatting. However, do not go overboard with the formatting (try to avoid fancy colors, javascript etc).
• Submission: Email Prof. Simha your HTML file (and accompanying images, if any).