CSE P 590TU: Information Technology & Public Policy  Autumn 2004

Welcome to Information Technology & Public Policy, Autumn 2004
University of Washington CSE P 590TU
UC Berkeley PP 190/290-009
UCSD CSE 291 (C00)

Instructors:
Ed Lazowska, UW Computer Science & Engineering
Steve Maurer, UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy

Lazowska office hours: Mondays, 11-12, CSE 570 / 206-543-4755, or by appointment, or by email
Maurer office hours: Fridays, 9-10, 307 GSPP / 510-848-3593, or by appointment, or by email

UCSD:
Geoff Voelker, UCSD Computer Science & Engineering, email

Thanks to our outstanding tech staff:
Rod Prieto and Fred Videon (UW); Marvin Motley and Arthur Yeap (UC Berkeley); Steve Hopper (UCSD)

This course will introduce various information technology policy issues including the IT innovation ecosystem; Internet governance and use; electronic voting; intellectual property law and economics; technology transfer, intellectual property policies; antitrust; IT workforce issues; computer security and critical infrastructures; privacy and encryption; legislative threats; network markets, interoperability, and standards.

The course is a 4-site distance-learning experiment involving the University of Washington, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, and Microsoft. Lead instructors will be Ed Lazowska (UW Computer Science & Engineering) and Steve Maurer (UCB Goldman School of Public Policy).

The course will meet Thursday evenings from 6:30-9:20 (the UW classroom is CSE 305; the Berkeley classroom is 290 Hearst Mining Building; the Microsoft classroom is 113/1159; the UCSD classroom is AP&M 4301), with two 15-minute breaks at approximately 7:20 and 8:20. The first course session will be Thursday September 30. The final course session will be Thursday December 10. There will be no class on November 11 (Veterans Day) and November 25 (Thanksgiving). There will thus be 9 3-hour course sessions.

Course requirements will include substantial reading, active class participation (to the extent possible given the crufty electronic format), and a substantial term project that is essentially a "balanced policy brief" on some topic related to IT policy.

[ Announcements | Administrivia | Readings/Schedule | Lecture archive | Project | Wiki ]

Announcements

• 10/31/04: Our current best guess at term project teams is located on the Wiki here. We would like to finish the shuffling by Tuesday. Be sure to email Tap regarding changes.

  Also, please remember, amidst all the flurry regarding term projects, that there is reading assigned every week! Thanks!

• 10/23/04: By Friday the 29th, every student who intends to fulfill the course project requirement must have signed up on one of the four "site-specific" Wiki pages, and student teams that want to avoid a "shotgun marriage" must have created and linked a team Wiki page. See Tap's email.

• 10/14/04: Course project information is available (pdf here)!

• 10/11/04: We have re-ordered some class content. The result is additional readings for this Thursday! Please consult the reading list and course schedule (pdf here). Apologies for the late notice.

• 10/11/04: Create a Wiki account here! We are about to lock the account creation function (after which you will have to come groveling to Tap).

• 9/25/04: Two additional readings for the first class session: S. Maurer and S. Scotchmer, "Database Protection: Is It Broken and Should We Fix It," Science May 16, 1999; S. Maurer, P.B. Hugenholtz and H. Onsrud, "Europe's Database Experiment," 294 Science 789 (2001) [password protected; password available on course email archive]

• 9/11/04: The topic of the first class session will be "Innovation Incentives." Please prepare by reading S. Maurer and S. Scotchmer, "Procuring Knowledge," Advances in the Study of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Economic Growth 15:1 (2004).

• 8/28/04: Please join the class mailing list! Instructions here.

Administrivia

• Class schedule: Thursdays, 6:30pm - 9:20pm, September 30 - December 10 except November 11 and 25.

• Class locations: UW: CSE 305 // UCB: 290 Hearst Mining Building // Microsoft: 113/1159 // UCSD: AP&M 4301

• Office hours: See above.

• Instructions for joining the class mailing list.

• Archived class mailing list.

Readings/Schedule

• Chasing Moore's Law: Information Technology Policy in the United States; William Aspray, editor

• Reading list and course schedule (pdf here).

Lecture archive

• Transparencies, video, etc., available here. (Also, instructions for accessing the live webcast of the class.)

• Course technology overview (pdf here).

Project

• Project schedule and guidelines (pdf here).
  

• Project Wiki.

• The projects themselves!

Wiki

Computer Science & Engineering University of Washington Box 352350 Seattle, WA  98195-2350 (206) 543-1695 voice, (206) 543-2969 FAX [comments to lazowska at cs.washington.edu]