CS47N: Computers and the Open Society
Assignment 1. Choosing your expert topic
- Due by noon, Monday Oct. 1
Over the course of the quarter you will become an expert on a topic of your choice related to the course. You will create a blog in which you post weekly (or more if you want) entries on what you have learned and what is going on of interest in the world. You will also comment on the blogs of your fellow students. For more details on the content and process, see CS47N Expert Blog
This initial assignment is to help you choose an appropriate topic.
- By noon on Oct. 1 email to winograd@cs.stanford.edu a short proposal containing three different topics you would be interested in.
For each of these topics, give the following:
- A one-liner saying what the topic is (e.g., Video Surveillance)
- A brief description of the issues of debate in this topic (e.g., The treadeoff between privacy rights for individuals, and security for organizations that need to watch what people are doing for public safety) - there may be more than one main issue.
- A list of the stakeholders whose interests are germane to the topic (e.g., in this case, law enforcement, the public in general, people exercising political rights (like in demonstrations), criminals, repressive governments,....). These can be overlapping, but the goal is to use the list to draw out some of the potential issues.
- During the week of Oct 1, I'll schedule individual short meetings with each of you to discuss your topics and choose one. The meetings will be in my office, Gates 388. Please sign up for a time on the google spreadsheet, first-come first-serve. If you can't find a time that works for you, send me an email and we'll fit it into the week.
To get you started, I've appended a list of possible topics. Also take a look at the topics from last year. You aren't limited to these at all. Take a look at what we'll be covering in the course. Read your favorite daily sources. Pick anywhere there is an interesting technology being developed and/or applied, which raises questions of effects on potential stakeholders. Use search engines, blogs, tweets, etc. to find out what's going on.
Example blog topics (just for starting ideas)
- Data mining
- RFID uses and abuses
- Control over use of the wireless spectrum
- Location tracking
- Photo face identification
- Software development - open source
- Social network sites
- Identity in cyberspace / anonymity
- Security through cryptography
- Computing in the developing world
- Mobile phone interfaces
- New ideas in interaction design
- New kinds of digital cameras
- Location-based computing
- Cloud computing
- Crowdsourcing
- Internet circumvention technologies (avoiding censorship and tracking)
- Digital divide
- Future of brain interfaces
- Identity Theft
- Open government / citizen participation
- Online voting
- Viruses / malware
- Cyberwarfare
- Personalized advertising
- Communications in repressive regimes
- Computers used for social/political organzing (e.g., the "Twitter revolution").
- Home robots
- Military Robots
- Digital medical records
- Computer sensors for health care
- Sensor networks
- Biometrics
- Surveillance cameras
- Public Journalism
- Ubiquitous computing
- Security and user interfaces
- Online financial transactions (banking, stocks...)
- Internet in closed societies (e.g., China, Iran)
- ...