CSci 300: Social Responsibility in Computer Science
Topic and Assignment Schedule

Random Integer Sequence Generator

• Wed 26 Aug: Introduction to course
• Fri 28 Aug: No class meeting -- Prepare for next class
• Wed 2 Sep: Course themes and approaches to ethics
  1. Preparing for class:
     1. Study Chapter 1 of Sara Baase's Gift of Fire. See the course's Blackboard pages.
     2. Study Updates and Extras for A Gift of Fire Chapter 1.
     3. Prepare for Quiz 1 over chapter and discussion of ethics concepts.
  2. In class: Discuss chapter and take Quiz 1.
• Fri 4 Sep: Ethical analysis and codes of ethics
  1. Preparing for class:
     1. Study the Ethical Analysis Framework.
     2. Study the Drinking on the Job Case.
     3. Examine the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Code of Ethics.
  2. In class: Discuss Ethical Analysis Framework, Drinking on the Job Case Study, and ACM Code of Ethics.
  3. Related references on ethics:
     1. ACM/IEE-CS Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice.
     2. IEEE Code of Ethics.
     3. Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science. (This site has a number of resources such as the Drinking on the Job case study.)
     4. Research Ethics, from the SHiPS Resource Center, University of Minnesota.
• Wed 9 Sep: Privacy
  1. Preparing for class:
     1. Study Chapter 2 of the Blown to Bits textbook (http://www.bitsbook.com/).
     2. Complete Assignment #1 described below.
  2. Assignment #1 description:
     1. Find a recent (e.g., 2013 or later) popular, technical, or academic article about issues related to privacy (or security) in the use of computing or communications technologies. Choose something of interest to you personally and/or professionally. I hope every individual will choose a different article.
     2. Submit a document as Assignment #1 on Blackboard that gives the full bibliographic citation for the article and a one-paragraph summary or critique of the article. The paragraph should be written according to the usual scholarly standards and be your personal work. Remember what you learned in freshman composition class! Also remember the instructions I gave on the syllabus about how to label assignments.
     3. Be prepared to deliver a brief oral report (one-two minutes) on the issue(s) raised by he article, the perspective it took, or why you considered this an important article. I will call on a few students randomly.
  3. In class: Randomly selected students give brief oral reports over their Assignment #1 papers. Class then discusses these issues.
  4. Related references on privacy issues:
     1. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
     2. Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT).
     3. Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
     4. Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).

• Fri 11 Sep: Privacy (continued from above)
  1. Preparing for class:
     1. If you did not read Chapter 2 of Blown to Bits (http://www.bitsbook.com/) for Wed, please read it.
     2. Be prepared to discuss the following issues: September 11 (today) is the 14th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. How much are you willing to give up privacy to achieve greater safety from such an attack in the future? Has American society gone too far? not far enough?
     3. Be prepared to discuss one or more of the issues from the "Recent articles on privacy" below in class using the ethical analysis framework (above).
  2. In class: Discuss issues described under Preparing for Class.
  3. Recent articles on privacy issues:
     1. Right to be forgotten
        • Jeff John Roberts. The Right to Be Forgotten from Google? Forget It, Says U.S. Crowd, Fortune, 12 March 2015.
        • Liam Tung. Google Ordered to Forget Nine Stories about the Right to Be Forgotten, ZDNet, 21 Aug 2015.
        • Wikipedia. Right to Be Forgotten, Wikipedia, accessed 9 Sep 2015.
     2. Wearable internet-of-things devices
        • Matt Hamblen. As Smartwatches Gain Traction, Personal Data Privacy Worries Mount, ComputerWorld, 22 May 2015.
        • Michael Singleton. Defining Privacy in the Age of Wearable Cameras, The Kernel, 14 Sep 2014.
        • Roberto Hoyle, Robert Templeman, Steven Armes, Denise Anthony, David Crandall, and Apu Kapadia. Privacy Behaviors of Lifeloggers Using Wearable Cameras, In Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp '14), ACM, New York, NY, USA, 571-582. DOI=10.1145/2632048.2632079 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2632048.2632079
     3. Privacy and security of social media data
        • Facebook Urged to Tighten Privacy Settings After Harvest of User Data, The Guardian, US Edition, 10 Aug 2015.
     4. Student data privacy
        • Jordan Shapiro. How to Think About Student Data Privacy, Forbes, 28 Aug 2015.
• Wed 16 Sep: Intellectual Property
  1. Preparing for class:
     1. Study Chapter 6 of the Blown to Bits textbook (http://www.bitsbook.com/).
     2. Using the above chapter and web resources below, familiarize yourself with the concepts such as: intellectual property, copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, software license, open source, fair use, public domain, etc.
        (added 16 Sep) first-sale doctrine, reverse engineering, software piracy, nondisclosure agreement
     3. Be ready for Quiz 2 over these intellectual property concepts.
     4. Be ready to discuss questions about intellectual property such as (subject to changes and additions):
        • Should software be free (in the political sense)?
        • Should users/readers be required (via micro-payments) to compensate items individuals place on "the web" when used by others (e.g., blogs, personal websites, videos, social media pages, software, etc.)?
        • Should we be compensated for the use of data about us collected by entities such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Kroger, etc.?
  2. In class: Discuss intellectual property concepts and take Quiz 2.
  3. Related references on intellectual property:
     1. What is Intellectual Property? by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
     2. What is a Trade Secret? by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
     3. Copyright and Fair Use, Stanford University Libraries
        Note: meaning of "public domain" and "fair use".
     4. Bitlaw Legal Resource, by Daniel A. Tysver.
     5. Making Sense of Software Licensing, by Ariel Gilbery-Knight, TechSoup Global.
     6. Open source software
        • The Open Source Definition, Open Source Initiative (OSI) [licenses]
        • The Philosophy of the GNU Project, the original open source movement.
        • Software Freedom Law Center resources. (SFLC describes itself as providing "pro-bono legal services to developers of Free, Libre, and Open Source Software.")
        • Creative Commons describes itself as "a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools." [USA]
     7. (added 16 Sep) The University of Mississippi Department of Licensing oversees the use of University copyrights, trademarks, logos, scripts, images, etc. and licensing their use to other organization and individuals.
     8. (added 16 Sep) Nondisclosure agreements, a form of contract to protect trade secrets: NOLO Law for All, Wikipedia.
     9. (added 16 Sep) Software piracy, the unauthorized copying of software in violation of licenses and/or copyright law: Webopedia.
     10. (added 16 Sep) Reverse engineering, extracting design information about a product for the purpose of reproducing or enhancing it or otherwise using the information in another design: Wikipedia, NC State Ethics in Computing.
• Fri 18 Sep: No class meeting -- Gather ideas for writing/updating your resume next week
• Wed 23 Sep: Job search workshop conducted by Toni Avant, Director, Career Center, and Dr. Lindsey Yaserer, Career Planning Specialist, School of Engineering
  1. Assignment #2 due one week after workshop
     1. Write your resume appropriately for use in seeking jobs and internships (such as in the Career Fair on 30 Sep).
     2. Submit an electronic copy via Blackboard before class on 30 Sep.
  2. Miscellaneous references for curriculum vitae (CV) and resumes:
     1. Resume Tips for Computer Science Students, a blog post by Patrick Cozzi.
     2. Curriculum Vitae, Colorado State University, The Writing Studio.
     3. Curriculum Vitae, by Alison Doyle, About.com Job Searching.
• Fri 25 Sep: No class meeting -- Work on Assignment #2 defined above (i.e., resume) to turn in next class. Also read the materials on Freedom of Speech identified below for next class.
• Wed 30 Sep: Freedom of Speech (Expression)
  1. Preparing for class:
     1. Study chapters 7 and 8 of the Blown to Bits textbook (http://www.bitsbook.com/).
     2. Study what freedom of speech means and its history (in the USA and beyond) using related references below.
     3. Be prepared to discuss some of the questions below.
  2. In class: Discuss what freedom of speech/expression means and its history. Organize Assignment #3 debate groups.
  3. Related references:
     1. Wikipedia, Freedom of Speech.
     2. United States Courts, What does Free Speech Mean?
     3. English Bill of Rights, Article 9, adopted 1689 (Modern History Sourcebook, Fordham University).
     4. U.S. Constitution, First Amendent, part of the U.S. Bill of Rights, ratified 1791 (Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School).
     5. United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted 1948.
     6. Beckman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University Law School, Freedom of Expression on the Internet.
     7. Defamation Law Made Simple
     8. Libel vs. Slander: Different Types of Defamation.
     9. Wikipedia, Common carrier article.
  4. Discussion question related to freedom of speech/expression:
     1. How do we balance the conflict between freedom of speech and protecting the vulnerable?
     2. Revisit the "Right to be forgotten" issue under Privacy above from the perspective of free speech
     3. Should Edward Snowden be prosecuted?
     4. Is the control that companies like Google has over the internet a threat to freedom of speech?
     5. Should there be net neutrality?
  5. Assignment #3 for 7 October: Exercise 3.4 from Baase's A Gift of Fire (See handout or website.)
     1. Three groups of three-to-five volunteers. Each group will take one of the parties in this case study (male student, female student, University) and present its arguments in favor of the position in a five-seven minute presentation in class on 7 October.
     2. Everyone else present a one-half to one page singlespaced paper to either support one side or another or to analyze the case from several perspectives. This will be due in Blackboard by midnight on 11 October.

• Fri 2 Oct: No class meeting -- Work on Assignment #3 described above.
• Wed 7 Oct: Freedom of speech (continued from above)
  1. Preparing for class:
     1. All students, study the issues surrounding Assignment #3 described above.
     2. Debate groups, meet and prepare your presentations.
     3. Nonmembers of the debate groups, formulate your own responses to the debate issues for your papers.
  2. In class: Debate/Trial about sexually oriented pictures on website.
  3. After class: Nonmembers of debate groups, upload paper to Blackboard by 11:59 p.m., Sunday, 11 October.
• Fri 9 Oct: No class meeting -- Work on Assignment #3 paper
• Sun 11 Oct: Assignment #3 paper due
• Wed 14 Oct: No class meeting (Dr. Cunningham hosting seminar speaker)
• Fri 16 Oct: No class meeting -- Prepare for next class
• Wed 21 Oct: Errors, Failures, and Risks
  1. Preparing for class:
     1. Study Chapter 8 of Sara Baase's A Gift of Fire. See the course's Blackboard pages.
     2. Study Updates and Extras for A Gift of Fire Chapter 8.
     3. Prepare for Quiz #3 over chapter.
     4. Consider and prepare to discuss the question in the Jason Millar article on robot cars linked below.
  2. In class: Discuss chapter and take Quiz #3 over chapter. Organize for the next assignment.
  3. Assignment #4 for the Therac-25 Mock Trials [description].
  4. Related references on errors, failures, and risks:
     1. Robotic vehicles
        • Jason Millar. An Ethical Dilemma: When Robot Cars Must Kill, Who Should Pick the Victim, Robohub, June 2014.
        • Patrick Lin. The Ethics of Autonomous Cars, The Atlantic, October 8, 2013.
     2. Nancy G. Leveson. An Investigation of the Therac 25 Accidents, IEEE Computer 26.7 (1993): 18-41.
        [slides by Catherine Schell]
     3. The Risks Digest, Forum on Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, Peter G. Neumann, Moderator.
• Fri 23 Oct: Class time for Assignment #4 teams to meet
• Wed 28 Oct: Errors, Failures, and Risks (continued)
  1. Preparing for class: Each team expected to meet to prepare its case for presentation in the next class.
  2. In class: Present Assignment #4 Therac-25 Mock Trial cases.

• Fri 30 Oct: No class meeting
• Wed 4 Nov: Give and discuss Term Paper assignment
• Fri 6 Nov: No class meeting. Work on term paper.
• Wed 11 Nov: Guest speaker Brian Young, Engineering Reference Librarian
  1. UM Williams Library CSci 300 Research Guide
  2. Other scholarly search engines and directories
     • CiteseerX
     • DBLP Computer Science Bibliography
     • arXiv.org Computing Research Repository (CoRR)
     • Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
  3. Avoiding plagiarism
     • Avoiding Plagiarism, Purdue University Online Writing Laboratory (OWL)
     • UM Plagiarism and Academic Honesty Video
  4. Instructor's Research Methods in Computer Science course website (with material on scholarly communication and professional issues in computer science education and research)
• Fri 13 Nov: Topic Statement Due!. No class meeting -- Work on term paper
• Wed 18 Nov: No class meeting -- Work on term paper
• Fri 20 Nov: Term Paper Due Soon! No class meeting
• Mon 23 Nov: Term Paper Due at 8:00 a.m.
• Wed 25 Nov, Fri 27 Nov: Thanksgiving Break
• Wed 2 Dec: No class (No assessment exam)
• Fri 4 Dec: Closing Class Meeting
• Fri 11 Dec: No Final Exam (Term paper fills this role)
• Other materials not used Fall 2015
  1. A Vision of Crimes in the Future, TED talk by Marc Goodman, TEDGlobal 2012, Edinburgh, Scotland
  2. The Best Stats You've Ever Seen, 2006 TED talk by Hans Rosling, Karolinska Institute and GapMinder Foundation [direct to video]