CS 278: Social Computing

Today we interact with our friends and enemies, our team partners and romantic partners, and our organizations and societies, all through computational systems. How do we design these social computing systems to be effective and responsible? This course covers design patterns for social computing and crowdsourcing systems, and the foundational social scientific and technical concepts that underpin them. Students will engage in the creation of new computationally-mediated social environments.

Week	Assignments	Monday	Wednesday
April 1–5	Assignment 1	Going Viral	Creating Bustling Spaces Rather than Ghost Towns
April 8–12	Assignment 1 due: Tuesday, April 9, 11:59pm	Designing Norms and Culture	gettingstarted.md: Prototyping and the Cold Start Problem
April 15–19	Assignment 2	Growing Pains	Strong and Weak
April 22–26	Assignment 2 due: Tuesday, April 23, 11:59pm	Group Collaboration	Super Awesome Guest Visitor
April 29–May 3	Assignment 3: Stage 1 due: Monday, April 29, 11:59pm Stage 2 due: Friday, May 3, 11:59pm	Wisdom of the Crowd	Crowd Production, Peer Production
May 6–10	Midterm Exam Week	Midterm review	Midterm
May 13–17	Final Project Proposal due: Friday, May 17, 11:59pm	Antisocial Computing	Moderation
May 20–24		Decision-making and governance	Super Awesome Guest Visitor #2
May 27–31		Memorial Day: No Class	Misinformation: Guest Visitors
June 3–7		AIs in Social Environments	Closing: Intended and Unintended Consequences Final Presentations
Finals	Final project due: June 11, 11:59pm

Lecture

Monday+Wednesday 1:30pm-2:20pm Room 300-300

Faculty

Michael Bernstein Office hours Mon. 3:45pm-5:00pm, Gates 384

Teaching assistants

Amy Chen Office hours (by appointment)
Janna Huang Office hours (by appointment)
Jeff Sheng Office hours, Tu 3-5pm (by appointment)
email all TAs click here

Social computing

April 1–5

April 8–12

April 15–19

April 22–26

April 29–May 3

May 6–10

May 13–17

May 20–24

May 27–31

June 3–7

Finals

Lecture

Faculty

Teaching assistants