In the Clickstream (fiction)

At a military academy set twenty minutes into the future, student writing circulates through a public, tracked database and the faculty read the clickstreams. A cadet whose essays rank among the most cited on campus is accused of plagiarism and goes to a professor for help. The 2007 speculative serial imagines what database composition might become, and sets links and citations as the contested ground where secrecy and disclosure contend over authorship.

  1. In the Clickstream, Part 1

    A cadet arrives at her writing instructor’s office to report that she’s facing an honor board.

  2. In the Clickstream, Part 2

    The accusing clickstream traces to a counterterrorism center down the hall, and to the cadet’s widely cited work on Sri Lanka.

  3. In the Clickstream, Part 3

    An essay on networked information warfare cites the wrong source. The plagiarism charge shades toward treason.

  4. In the Clickstream, Part 4

    The cadet writes an essay. The military police visit the professor’s office.

  5. In the Clickstream, Part 5

    The professor deflects and counters secrecy with disclosure.

  6. In the Clickstream, Part 6

    The cadet’s essay relocates the argument from captured technology to the management of information and affect.