Appendix C: Sample Syllabi

This appendix provides three sample syllabi for teaching Archaeobytology at different levels:

• 101 Level: Undergraduate survey course (Introduction to Archaeobytology)

• 200 Level: Intermediate undergraduate/early graduate (Digital Preservation Methods)

• 300 Level: Advanced graduate seminar (Building Sovereign Institutions)

Each syllabus is designed for a standard 15-week semester and can be adapted for quarter systems or intensive formats.

Sample Syllabus 1: ARCH 101 — Introduction to Archaeobytology

Course Level: Undergraduate (100-level)
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
Format: Lecture + Lab (2 hours lecture, 1 hour lab per week)

Course Description

What happens when digital platforms die? When GeoCities shut down in 2009, 30 million websites vanished overnight. When Vine closed in 2017, 200 million videos disappeared. This course introduces Archaeobytology—the study and practice of preserving murdered digital culture and building alternatives that resist future murders.

Students will learn to:

• Classify digital artifacts using the Archaeobyte Taxonomy

• Apply ethical triage frameworks (the Custodial Filter)

• Understand the Archive/Anvil dual practice

• Analyze digital sovereignty through the Three Pillars

• Conduct basic digital preservation (web scraping, metadata creation)

No technical background required. Course combines theory, ethics, and hands-on practice.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

1. Explain what Archaeobytology is and why it's needed as a distinct discipline

2. Classify digital artifacts as Archaeobyte, Vivibyte, Umbrabyte, or Petribyte

3. Apply the Custodial Filter to make ethical triage decisions

4. Evaluate platforms using the Three Pillars framework (Declaration, Connection, Ground)

5. Conduct basic web archiving using tools like Webrecorder

6. Analyze case studies of platform death and preservation efforts

7. Design a simple preservation project or sovereign alternative

Required Texts

• This textbook: Archaeobytology: Digital Culture and the Art of Resistance (available open access at archaeobytology.org)

• Doctorow, Cory. The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation. Verso, 2023.

• Schneier, Bruce. Data and Goliath. W.W. Norton, 2015. (Selected chapters)

Recommended Readings

• Kirschenbaum, Matthew. Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination. MIT Press, 2008.

• Chun, Wendy Hui Kyong. Programmed Visions. MIT Press, 2011.

Course Schedule

Week 1: What Is Archaeobytology?

Topics: Platform death, GeoCities case study, discipline overview
Readings: Textbook Ch. 1 (Introduction)
Lab: Tour of Internet Archive's Wayback Machine

Week 2: The Archaeobyte Taxonomy

Topics: Four categories of digital mortality
Readings: Textbook Ch. 2 (Taxonomy)
Lab: Classify artifacts from your own digital life
Assignment Due: Digital Life Audit (500 words)

Week 3: The Archive and the Anvil

Topics: Dual practice—preservation + creation
Readings: Textbook Ch. 3 (Archive/Anvil)
Lab: Explore Archive Team's projects

Week 4: The Three Pillars (Part 1)

Topics: Declaration and Connection
Readings: Textbook Ch. 4 (Three Pillars, first half)
Lab: Set up a personal domain (optional hands-on)

Week 5: The Three Pillars (Part 2)

Topics: Ground and sovereignty audits
Readings: Textbook Ch. 4 (Three Pillars, second half)
Lab: Conduct sovereignty audit of social media
Assignment Due: Three Pillars Analysis (1,000 words)

Week 6: Triage and the Custodial Filter

Topics: Ethical decision-making in preservation
Readings: Textbook Ch. 5 (Triage)
Lab: Triage simulation exercise

Week 7: Discipline Formation

Topics: How Archaeobytology became a field
Readings: Textbook Ch. 6 (Discipline Formation)
Guest Speaker: Practitioner from Internet Archive or Archive Team (if available)

Week 8: Midterm Exam

Format: Take-home essay exam (3 questions, choose 2)

Week 9: Excavation Methods

Topics: Site reconnaissance, scraping, APIs
Readings: Textbook Ch. 7 (Archaeological Methods, first half)
Lab: Introduction to web scraping with wget

Week 10: Digital Forensics

Topics: Metadata extraction, format analysis
Readings: Textbook Ch. 7 (second half) + Ch. 8 (Forensics)
Lab: Analyze file metadata, examine dead formats

Week 11: Platform Death Case Studies

Topics: GeoCities, Vine, Google Reader, Tumblr NSFW purge
Readings: Selected case study articles (provided)
Lab: Research a platform death of your choice
Assignment Due: Case Study Presentation (10 minutes)

Week 12: Building Alternatives (Institutional Design)

Topics: Internet Archive, Mastodon, cooperative platforms
Readings: Textbook Ch. 11-12 (excerpts on Archive and Anvil institutions)
Lab: Explore Mastodon federation

Week 13: Policy and Advocacy

Topics: Right to Archive, platform accountability laws
Readings: Doctorow, The Internet Con (selected chapters)
Lab: Draft model legislation or policy brief

Week 14: The Future of Digital Sovereignty

Topics: Post-platform future, movement building
Readings: Textbook Ch. 18 (Forging the Third Way)
Lab: Final project work session

Week 15: Final Presentations

Format: Students present final projects (10 min each + Q&A)

Assignments and Grading

Final Project Options:

1. Preservation Project: Archive a small dying platform or personal website collection (with ethics statement)

2. Sovereignty Audit: Comprehensive analysis of a platform using Three Pillars + recommendations

3. Alternative Design: Propose a sovereign alternative to an existing platform (with business model)

4. Research Paper: Deep dive into a platform death case study (3,000 words)

Course Policies

Attendance: Lab sessions are mandatory. Miss more than 2 unexcused absences and your grade drops one letter.

Late Work: 10% penalty per day, up to 3 days. After that, no credit without prior arrangement.

Academic Integrity: Cite all sources. Plagiarism = automatic F. But: Collaborative work is encouraged in labs (just acknowledge your collaborators).

Accessibility: Accommodations available through Disability Services. Contact me in first two weeks.

Technology: You'll need a laptop for labs. Chromebooks okay for most exercises. Loaner laptops available if needed.

Sample Syllabus 2: ARCH 200 — Digital Preservation Methods

Course Level: Upper-level undergraduate / Early graduate
Credits: 4
Prerequisites: ARCH 101 or permission of instructor
Format: Seminar + Lab (2 hours seminar, 2 hours lab per week)

Course Description

This intermediate course focuses on the practical methods of digital preservation. Students will learn technical skills (web scraping, forensic recovery, emulation) alongside ethical frameworks (consent, triage, access policies).

By the end, students will be able to independently conduct a complete preservation project—from site reconnaissance through final archival delivery.

Learning Objectives

1. Conduct site reconnaissance and mapping of digital platforms

2. Execute web scraping using multiple tools (wget, HTTrack, Webrecorder, custom scripts)

3. Perform digital forensics (metadata extraction, format analysis, chain-of-custody)

4. Apply advanced triage using the Custodial Filter

5. Design metadata schemas for preserved collections

6. Implement access policies balancing openness and ethics

7. Complete a full preservation project with documentation

Required Texts

• Textbook Chapters 7-10 (Excavation & Forensics section)

• Owens, Trevor. The Theory and Craft of Digital Preservation. Johns Hopkins, 2018.

• Selected readings on web archiving methods (provided)

Technical Requirements

• Laptop with admin access (for installing tools)

• 50GB free storage (for preservation exercises)

• GitHub account (for submitting code/documentation)

Course Schedule

Weeks 1-2: Review and Advanced Triage

• Week 1: Review of taxonomy, Archive/Anvil, Three Pillars

• Week 2: Deep dive on Custodial Filter with complex ethical cases

• Lab: Triage war games (teams compete on difficult scenarios)

Weeks 3-5: Excavation Methods

• Week 3: Site reconnaissance, architecture assessment

• Week 4: Static site scraping (wget, HTTrack)

• Week 5: Dynamic sites (Selenium, Playwright, Webrecorder)

• Lab: Scrape progressively harder sites each week

• Assignment 1 Due (Week 5): Scraping portfolio (3 sites, documented methods)

Weeks 6-7: Digital Forensics

• Week 6: Metadata extraction, EXIF data, file signatures

• Week 7: Format analysis, obsolete formats, emulation basics

• Lab: Forensic analysis of provided artifact collection

• Assignment 2 Due (Week 7): Forensic report on mystery artifacts

Week 8: Midterm — Preservation Simulation

Format: 48-hour take-home "rescue mission"

• Scenario: Platform announces shutdown in 72 hours

• You have limited resources

• Make triage decisions, execute scrape, document everything

• Graded on: speed, coverage, ethics, documentation

Weeks 9-10: Metadata and Organization

• Week 9: Metadata standards (Dublin Core, METS, PREMIS)

• Week 10: Organizing collections, creating finding aids

• Lab: Create metadata schema for your midterm collection

Weeks 11-12: Access and Ethics

• Week 11: Access models (open, restricted, tiered, embargoed)

• Week 12: Privacy, consent, takedown policies

• Lab: Design access policy for controversial content

• Assignment 3 Due (Week 12): Ethics case study + access policy (2,000 words)

Weeks 13-15: Final Project

• Week 13: Project proposals (pitch to class for feedback)

• Week 14: Work session + mid-project check-ins

• Week 15: Final presentations + archive delivery

Assignments and Grading

Final Project Requirements:

• Identify endangered platform or content collection

• Conduct full preservation workflow (recon → scrape → metadata → access)

• Deliver: Archive files + documentation + ethics statement

• Minimum 100 artifacts or 1GB data

• Must address ethics explicitly (consent, privacy, harm)

Sample Syllabus 3: ARCH 300 — Building Sovereign Institutions

Course Level: Graduate seminar
Credits: 4
Prerequisites: ARCH 200 or significant preservation experience
Format: Seminar (3 hours per week)

Course Description

How do we build institutions that survive 50 years? This advanced seminar focuses on institutional design—creating organizations, platforms, and movements that embody digital sovereignty while resisting capture, collapse, or co-optation.

Students will analyze successful and failed institutions (Internet Archive, Mastodon, ENS, failed platforms), apply governance theory (Ostrom, Benkler), and design complete institutional systems as final projects.

This is a capstone course—expect to produce graduate-level work suitable for publication or real-world implementation.

Learning Objectives

1. Analyze institutional failure modes (heroic founder, platform landlord, volunteer burnout, speculative capture, complexity collapse)

2. Apply Ostrom's 8 principles to digital commons governance

3. Design sustainable business models for sovereignty (avoiding surveillance capitalism)

4. Develop 10-20 year movement-building strategies

5. Create complete institutional prospectus (governance, funding, technical architecture, risk mitigation)

6. Critique existing institutions through Archaeobytological frameworks

Required Texts

• Textbook Chapters 11-16 (Institution Building + Systems & Movements)

• Ostrom, Elinor. Governing the Commons. Cambridge, 1990.

• Benkler, Yochai. The Wealth of Networks. Yale, 2006.

• Doctorow, Cory. The Internet Con. Verso, 2023.

• Schneier, Bruce. Click Here to Kill Everybody. W.W. Norton, 2018.

Course Schedule

Module 1: Institutional Diagnosis (Weeks 1-3)

Week 1: The Institutional Void

• Reading: Textbook Ch. 11 (Sustainable Archives), Module 0 (Institutional Void)

• Case: Why did Google Reader die? Why did Delicious almost die?

• Assignment: Diagnose one failed platform using 5 failure modes

Week 2: The Business of the Archive

• Reading: Textbook Ch. 11 + Internet Archive case study

• Case: Internet Archive's 30-year sustainability

• Guest Speaker: IA staff member (if possible)

Week 3: The Economics of the Anvil

• Reading: Textbook Ch. 12 (Economics of Sovereignty)

• Cases: Basecamp, Ghost, WordPress

• Assignment: Business model analysis (choose 1 platform, evaluate sustainability)

Module 2: Governance and Commons (Weeks 4-6)

Week 4: Ostrom's 8 Principles

• Reading: Ostrom, Governing the Commons (Ch. 3-4)

• Case: LOCKSS network (applying Ostrom to digital preservation)

Week 5: Distributed Commons Governance

• Reading: Textbook Ch. 13 (Seed Bank)

• Cases: Mastodon federation, IPFS, BitTorrent

• Assignment: Apply Ostrom's principles to Mastodon (critique)

Week 6: Memory Institutions

• Reading: Textbook Ch. 14 (Haunted Forest)

• Cases: Strong Museum of Play, 9/11 Digital Archive, GeoCities Archive

• Field trip: Local museum or archive (if feasible)

Module 3: Infrastructure and Sovereignty (Weeks 7-9)

Week 7: The Sovereignty Stack

• Reading: Textbook Ch. 15 (Political Economy of Ground)

• Cases: DNS/ICANN, ENS, Tor

• Assignment: Redesign one layer of the stack (proposal)

Week 8: Protocol Wars

• Reading: Lessig, Code 2.0 (selected chapters) + ActivityPub docs

• Cases: Email (success), XMPP (failure), ActivityPub (ongoing)

• Discussion: Why do some protocols win and others lose?

Week 9: Midterm — Institutional Autopsy

• Each student presents 15-minute "institutional autopsy" of one failed platform

• Must apply: failure modes, Ostrom principles, Three Pillars, sovereignty analysis

• Peer critique + revision for written version

Module 4: Movement Building (Weeks 10-12)

Week 10: From Practice to Discipline

• Reading: Textbook Ch. 16 (Movement Building)

• Cases: Digital Humanities (40 years), Data Science (10 years), STS (40 years)

• Assignment: Draft 10-year movement strategy for Archaeobytology

Week 11: Public Intellectual Toolkit

• Reading: Textbook Ch. 17 (Public Intellectual)

• Cases: Cory Doctorow, Safiya Noble, Brewster Kahle

• Workshop: Write an op-ed or policy brief (800 words)

Week 12: Policy and Advocacy

• Reading: Selected policy papers (Right to Archive, Platform Accountability Act, etc.)

• Guest: Policy advocate or lobbyist

• Assignment: Draft model legislation or testimony

Module 5: Capstone Project (Weeks 13-15)

Week 13: Project Proposals

• Each student presents 20-minute capstone proposal

• Three options: (A) Platform Alternative, (B) Institutional Infrastructure, (C) Movement + Policy Package

• Peer feedback + instructor approval

Week 14: Work Session

• Open studio format

• One-on-one consultations

• Mid-project check-ins

Week 15: Final Presentations

• 30-minute presentation + 15-minute Q&A per student

• Panel of outside reviewers (faculty + practitioners)

Assignments and Grading

Capstone Project Deliverables:

1. Written Document (6,000-8,000 words): System design, governance, funding, movement strategy, ethics, risk analysis

2. Visual Presentation (20-30 slides): Pitch to potential funders/partners

3. Prototype or Artifact: Technical demo, policy brief, or institutional prospectus

Evaluation Criteria:

• Problem diagnosis (20%): Uses frameworks from course

• System design (30%): Technical + governance feasibility

• Three Pillars integrity (20%): Embodies sovereignty

• Originality (15%): Novel contribution

• Presentation (15%): Clear, persuasive communication

Course Policies

Seminar Expectations: This is a discussion-based seminar. Come prepared to talk. Read everything before class. Silence = grade penalty.

Peer Review: You'll review 2 classmates' capstone proposals and drafts. Thoughtful critique is part of your grade.

Public Scholarship: With permission, we'll publish strong capstone projects as working papers or op-eds. This is a real-world course.

Collaboration: Encouraged for capstone (teams of 2-3 allowed). But each person must have distinct role.

Adaptation Notes for Instructors

For Quarter Systems (10 weeks)

• Compress each syllabus by ~30%

• Combine related weeks (e.g., Weeks 4+5 → one week)

• Reduce number of assignments (pick most essential)

• Consider flipped classroom (lectures as videos, class time for discussion/labs)

For Intensive Formats (Summer courses, bootcamps)

• Focus on hands-on skills (excavation, triage)

• Less theory, more practice

• Daily labs with real platforms

• Final project completed during course (not take-home)

For Online/Hybrid

• Labs can be asynchronous (students work on own time, submit videos/documentation)

• Use Discord or Slack for ongoing discussion

• Guest speakers via Zoom (actually easier to schedule)

• Peer review via shared documents

For Non-Academic Settings (Workshops, Professional Development)

• Strip out academic readings, focus on practitioner case studies

• Emphasize tools and workflows

• Certificate upon completion

• 2-day intensive format possible for 101-level content

Additional Resources for Instructors

Course Websites:

• Create landing page with syllabus, readings, assignment templates

• archaeobytology.org can host course materials

• Use GitHub for student submissions (teaches version control)

Guest Speakers:

• Brewster Kahle (Internet Archive founder)

• Jason Scott (Archive Team)

• Eugen Rochko (Mastodon creator)

• Academic Archaeobytologists (see Appendix E for directory)

Field Trips:

• Local museums with digital collections

• University archives

• Data centers (if you have connections)

• Maker spaces / digital humanities labs

Assessment Rubrics:

• Detailed rubrics for each assignment available in the comprehensive Instructor's Guide

• Adapt to your institution's learning outcomes

Teaching Philosophy: Archaeobytology courses should balance:

• Theory (why this matters)

• Practice (how to do it)

• Ethics (when not to do it)

• Action (go build something)

The goal is not just to teach about Archaeobytology, but to train people who do Archaeobytology.

End of Appendix C