CS 1590: Social Implications of Computing Technology (Spring 2012)

Time: Tu Th 11:00-12:15  Place 5313 Sennott Square
Professor:  Diane Litman Office Hours: Tu 12:15-1:15, Th 1:30-2:30 (5105 Sennott Square)
Email:  dlitman at pitt.edu Phone:  412-624-8838 (Sennott Square); 412-624-1261 (LRDC)
TA: Timothy Luciani Office Hours: M W 1-3, 6510 Sennott Square
Email:  tbl8 at pitt.edu Phone:  412-624-9189

Description:

This course is intended to expose students to issues regarding the social and ethical implications of computing technology. It is also intended to help students apply critical thinking skills for the complex technology-related issues that modern society is faced with. Students will learn to: 1) understand the impact (both positive and negative) of computing technologies on society; 2) analyze the ethical questions and issues in public policies that the impact generated; and 3) apply critical thinking skills to these complex issues in the form of reading, writing, argumentation, and oral presentations.

Syllabus:

Class Topic Reading Assignments
Chapter 1: Unwrapping the Gift
Th 1/05 Course Overview and Administration

Pace of Change; New Developments

Ch 1.1-1.2

Siri

Due 1/10: Sign up for SWoRD (Student User Guide)

Due 1/10: Choose your class discussion topic (blog comment)

Due 1/09 11:59PM: Commentary (discussion board forum thread)
Instructions for commentary forums

Tu 1/10
Th 1/12
Themes and Issues; Ethics Ch 1.3-1.4

Flipped classrooms

Due 1/13+1, 15+1, 17+1: SWoRD practice exercise

Due 1/16 11:59 PM: Current Events (discussion board forum thread)
Instructions for current events forums

Chapter 2: Privacy
Tu 1/17 Privacy and Computer Technology

Big Brother

Ch 2.1-2.2

CNBC "Big Brother, Big Business" Video [2006]: note this is 2 hours!

Privacy Generations Video [2010]

PA Tax Amnesty Big-Brother TV Ad [2010]

Due 1/23 11:59PM: Commentary (discussion board)

Th 1/19, Tu 1/24 Diverse Privacy Topics Ch 2.3

Technology and the Fourth Amendment [Wall Street Journal, 2011]

OnStar Tracks Your Car Even When You Cancel Service [Sep 20, 2011]

Update: OnStar Reverses Decision to Change Terms and Conditions [Sep 27, 2011]

Class discussion: Pitt Police Video Cameras (video, policy)
Hillman webcam

Due 1/31 10:59AM (note deadline change): Current Events (discussion board)

Th 1/26 Facebook/Google F.T.C. Settles Privacy Issue at Facebook [Nov 29, 2011]

F.T.C. Said to Be Near Facebook Privacy Deal [Nov 20, 2011]

Google updates privacy policy [Google, Jan 24, 2012]

Google Revises Its Privacy Policy [NPR's All Things Considered, Jan 25, 2012]

Check out who Google thinks you are
(I am said to be male and 55-64, neither of which is right)

The World's Worst Privacy Policy [Forbes, Jan 25, 2012]

Assigned: Formal Writing Assignment 1

January 28 was International Privacy Day! Summarize, compare and contrast some personal data privacy regulations, Web site privacy policies, and law enforcement access to personal data in the US versus one or more countries. Use the ideas from Chapter 2 as a framework. Here are more details regarding the paper and rubrics.

  • 2/2: one paragraph on your topic plus a list of at least three references (submit via CourseWeb, using Assignments menu item)
  • 2/9: first draft of your paper (SWoRD)
  • 2/16: reviews of your peers (SWoRD)
  • 2/23: final draft and backevals (SWoRD)
  • 3/01: final reviews of your peers (SWoRD)
Tu 1/31, Th 2/2 Protecting Privacy, Communications

SOPA/PIPA

Ch 2.4-2.5

Readings for 2/2 (Corcoran):
Big Brother, Censorship, Intellectual Property, Technology

Due 2/7 10:59AM: Commentary (discussion board)

Chapter 3: Freedom of Speech
Th 2/2, Tu 2/7 Changing Communications Paradigms,
Controlling Offensive Speech
Ch 3.1-3.2

CIPA and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh;

Google family safety center

Class discussion: Policy for violent videos on the Web; YouTube guidelines

Due 2/14 10:59AM: Current Events (discussion board)

Th 2/9 Offensive Speech, Global Censorship Ch 3.2-3.3 (Campbell, Monaco)

See email for optional video to watch

Reviewing Instructions for Formal Writing Assignments
Tu 2/14 Spam, Twitter (offensive/global continued)
Political Campaigns
Ch 3.4 (McGarrigle) Due 2/21 10:59AM: Commentary (discussion board)
Th 2/16 Anonymity, Protections Local WikiLeaks [Jan 10, 2012]
And on a previous topic: Encryption flaw! [Feb 14, 2012]

Ch 3.5-3.6 (McCullough)

 
Chapter 4: Intellectual Property
Th 2/16 Changing Technology Ch 4.1

 
Tu 2/21 Copyright Law Articles on ebooks (2012),
electures (2010).

Ch 4.2 (Sisco)

Due 2/28 10:59AM: Current events (discussion board)
Th 2/23 Copying and Sharing

Search Engines and Online Libraries; Free Speech Issues; Free Software

Ch 4.3 (Kauffman)

Ch 4.4 - 4.6 (Calabrese)

Assigned: Formal Writing Assignment 2

What kind of intellectual property rights should be granted to the creators of software? Use the ideas from Chapter 4 as a framework. Here are more details regarding the paper.

Tu 2/28 Free Software

Issues for Developers

Ch 4.4 - 4.6 (Calabrese)

Ch 4.7 (Zielinski)

Class discussion: Copyright and Obama campaign poster

Due 3/13 10:59AM: Commentary (discussion board)

Th 3/01 Guest Speaker George H. Pike, Pitt Law School  
Chapter 5: Crime
Tu 3/13 Hacking Ch 5.1
Ch 5.2 (Garcia)
Try at home: Track Who's Tracking You With Mozilla Collusion (thanks to Evan for the Mashable article!)

Class discussion: Hacking scenario

Due 3/20 10:59AM: Current events (discussion board)

Th 3/15 Identity Theft and Credit-Card Fraud, Scams and Forgery Cars, the next victims [IEEE Spectrum, January 2012]
High tech arrests [New York Times, January 2012]

Ch 5.3 (Haddad, Yonash)
Ch 5.4 (Kang) (to be continued)

Phishing Quiz
Tu 3/20 Guest Speaker Louis Kroeck, Attorney at ACLU Presentation

Due 3/27 10:59AM: Commentary (discussion board)

Chapter 6: Work
Th 3/22 Crime Fighting vs. Privacy/Liberties, Whose Laws Rule the Web?

Fears and Questions, The Impact on Employment, The Work Environment

Ch 5.4 (Kang)
Ch 5.5, 5.6

Ch 6.1
Ch 6.2-3 (Minyon)

 
Tu 3/27 Employee Crime and Monitoring Ch 6.4
Ch 6.5 (Washington)

Hacker pleads guilty to felony cyber crimes [LA Times via Post-Gazette, 3/27/12]
Microsoft Raids Tackle Internet Crime [NY Times via Post-Gazette, 3/27/12]
Symantec Dissolves a Chinese Alliance [NY Times via Post-Gazette, 3/27/12]

Due 4/3 10:59AM: Commentary (discussion board)

Assigned: Term Paper

Here are the details regarding the final term paper.

Monitoring policy at Pitt, CS Dept

Th 3/29 Guest Speaker J. Keith Mularski, FBI (Cyber Squad)

FBI agent looks back on time posing as a cybercriminal (CNET, 2009)
Wired article (2008)

 
Tu 4/3 Class cancelled    
Chapter 7: Evaluating and Controlling Technology
Th 4/5 Information, Knowledge and Judgment; Computers and Community; The Digital Divide; Evaluations Ch 7.1-7.2 (Spurrier)
Ch 7.3-7.4 (Hoegerl)
Due 4/10 10:59AM: Commentary (discussion board)
Tu 4/10 Making Decisions about Technology Ch 7.5 Signs of the Singularity [IEEE Spectrum, 2008]

She-Bot [Time, 3/30/12]

Google Augmented Reality Glasses [NY Times, 4/4/12]

Turning Thoughts into Action [National Science Foundation, 4/9/12]

Chapter 8: Errors, Failures, and Risk
Th 4/12 Errors, Failures and Risk Ch 8.1 (Johnson)
Ch 8.2
Ch 8.3-8.4 (Marnik, Lu)
Due 4/17 10:59AM: Commentary (discussion board)

The Risks Digest

Chapter 9: Professional Ethics and Responsibilities
Tu 4/17 What is ethics? Guidelines. Scenarios. Ch 9.1-9.3 (Thomas) Privacy/Free Speech vs. Crime Fighting hits home; update [Post Gazette, 4/16-17/2012]

Collision in the Making, Self-Driving Cars [NY Times, 1/23/12]

IEEE Code of Ethics

Th 4/19 Epilogue, Presentations, Survey Epilogue, Appendix Moral Machines

SWoRD Survey

"Final Exam"
Mo 4/23 (12-1:50) Presentations (5 minutes per paper) of Final Papers *ORAL PRESENTATIONS CANCELLED* All students Due 4/23 11:59AM: Final paper - submit via SWoRD (P4D1)

Requirements:

Students will be assessed based on weekly informal writing assignments, several formal writing assignments (as authors, revisers, and peer consultants), and classroom discussions (as regular participants and discussion leaders). The shorter formal writing assignments will build foundational skills needed for the final term paper. The course is designed to meet the W-Course requirement for undergraduates. Grade basis:

Absences and Late Assignments: If an absence is unavoidable, you are responsible for obtaining any information announced during the missed class. In case of extraordinary circumstances (hospitalization, family emergency) you should contact me as soon as possible so that we may arrange an extension for assignments prior to the due date; documentation of the emergency is required. Commentaries cannot be accepted late. The formal writing assignments can be accepted up to 1 day late, with a penalty of 10%. There are NO makeup possibilities.

Academic Integrity: In addition to the University Policies, the following are specific to CS1590. Unless explicitely noted, you must do your assignments without undue help from other people. Do not present material from resources such as the Web, books, papers, and other people as your own. If even part of a sentence is not in your own words, explicitly quote it and provide a formal citation. In addition, protect yourselves from being copied by only storing your files in private directories, and by retrieving all printouts promptly. Copying or paraphrasing someone's work, or permitting your own work to be copied or paraphrased, even in part, is not allowed and will result in an automatic grade of 0 for the assignment and a report to the appropriate University authority.

Links:

Online Resources (provided by Pearson)

ACM US Public Policy Council

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Thanks:

Some of the materials used in this course borrow from the courses of Profs. Labrinidos, Hwa, Baase (and other Pearson resources), and Scott.