COS 597E: Civic Technologies

COS 597E: Civic Technologies

Digital technologies have great promise for improving public policies and public life, by increasing government transparency, connecting citizens to policymakers, facilitating analysis of government data, and improving the effectiveness of public programs. This course will study the technologies that make this possible. Students will read and discuss the literature, examine existing civic technologies, and work on course projects.

The majority of time and effort will be spent on course projects. Students will work alone or in small groups, to design and prototype new technologies for use in the U.S. or internationally. This will be a hands-on technical course, aiming to build projects that are ready for real deployment and use by the end of the semester.