Information technology plays an ever-growing role in our lives, our economy, and our government, putting pressure on existing policy arrangements and raising entirely new policy issues. This course will examine a range of infotech policy issues, including privacy, intellectual property, free speech, competition, regulation of broadcasting and telecommunications, cross-border and jurisdictional questions, broadband policy, spectrum policy, management of the Internet, computer security, education and workforce development, and research funding. Assignments will consist of weekly reading, weekly writing assignments, and participation in class discussions.
This course is suitable for students without any special technical background. Both graduate students and undergraduates are welcome.
Each week, you will be expected to write a short essay of 400-500 words on some topic related to the course. Your weekly writing might discuss an issue raised in class discussion, in the reading, or in another student's weekly writing. If you like, you can raise a new issue that you think was missed elsewhere. Any topic you like is fine, as long as it relates to the subject matter of the course.
You will publish your weekly reading on the course blog, a web site readable by the instructor, other students, and the public. The site takes the form of a weblog: a sequence of entries organized by date. You'll receive an email with instructions on how to publish things on the site.
Because the weekly writing site will be available to the public, when you write on the site you'll have the option to use your real name or a pseudonym. If you choose a pseudonym, your true identity will be known to the instructor, but it will be your choice whether to reveal it to the other members of the class or to the public.
You are required to submit one essay to the site each week, except for Week 1 (and the break week). We hope to have a constant flow of essays through the week. Therefore, each student has been assigned a random day of the week on which his or her essays are due. However, you are welcome to post your essay earlier in the week. If you want to reflect on a class discussion, for instance, it makes sense to do so right away, because your memory of the discussion, and your ideas about it, may tend to fade with time. Furthermore, you may swap due dates with another member of the class, provided both students notify the instructor.
Because the web site will be organized like a discussion, we hope you will take a relatively informal, conversational tone in your essays. This doesn't mean we will ignore sloppy thinking or sloppy writing, but it does mean that we won't reward you for taking a formal tone, and we won't punish you for speaking frankly or for writing in the first person.
We will grade your weekly essays and give you brief feedback on them. We'll send you these grades and comments by email. They won't appear on the public website.