SIMS: Courses: INFOSYS 221: Spring 2006

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General course information (this page)


INFOSYS 221 CCN: 42736 3 unit(s)		Information Policy

Instructor(s)		Yale Braunstein E-mail: yale(at)sims.berkeley.edu Office: 203B South Hall Office hours: Thurs 3:30-4:30 pm & by appt. Telephone: (510) 642-2235

Time/Location		T-Th 2:00-3:30 107 South Hall

(Last updated 20 April 2006)

Course Schedule

Date	Topic / Major Readings	Section (*)
Jan. 19	Introduction to information policy & overview of the course	1
Jan. 24	The nature of "information policy": what it includes, who makes it, analytical tools used	1
Jan. 26	International aspects; cultural issues, including "The EU View"	2
Jan. 31 - Feb. 2	Digital covergence - Mass media, common carriage, media ownership - Broadband industry structure - Infrastructure & new technologies (VoIP, mobile, etc.) - Access, universal service, interconnection & convergence - Web neutrality	3
Feb. 7-9	Consumers issues (emphasis on health & medicine information--see below for links)	4
Feb. 14-16	Intellectual property rights: legal & economic analysis; Coase's Theorem; focus on extensions of IPR, especially database rights (ppt -- 95 kb); zip -- 24KB)	5
Feb. 21	Intellectual freedom	6
Feb. 23	No class
Feb. 28	No class
Mar. 2	Access to Information	7
Mar. 7	Privacy	8
Mar. 9	Public vs. private provsion of information; user fees	9, 10
Mar. 14	Information markets, externalities, competition policy	11
Mar. 16	Technical compatibility standards	12
Mar. 21	Trans-border data flows	14
	Presentations start
Mar. 23	National security (Jeff Kalvass) [also see "The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace" website]	15
Mar. 28-30	Spring Break
Apr. 4	Net Neutrality (Sharif Ebrahim)
Apr. 6	Scientiific & Technical Information (Dov Greenbaum)
Apr. 11	EU Information Society (Lori O'Brien)
Apr. 13	SPAM Regulation (Kirsten Chevalier)
Apr. 18	Aspects of Broadband Policy (Katie Lucas; Christina Nigro)
Apr. 20	Voting Machines (Joe Hall)
Apr. 25	RFID (Jeff Decker & Michael Lee)
Apr. 27	The Evolution of Telecommunication and Internet in China (Andy Yuxiao Li)

NOTE: (*) These sections are numbered to match the web version of the course outline.

Additional Links

Case study: Health and medical information on the Internet (updated 2/6/06) The PPT file for this lecture is over 5 MB, but can be downloaded.
It may be easier to download the "zipped" version (also 5 MB).
A short version (with 32 slides) of the Health Information lecture is available at the University of Pittsburgh "Epidemiology, the Internet and Global Health Supercourse" web site.

General Information

Preference will be given for SIMS students. Permission of the instructor required for all other students.
Prerequisites and specific information:
- SIMS students -- A link to the official course description is above. There are no prerequisites.
- Class format: Mix of lectures and student-led classes
- Required readings: Mix of course reader, online sources, and additional readings
  - The course reader will be available at Copy Central on Bancroft.
- Basis for final grade: Research paper, class presentations, and class participation. One-page PDF file with information and due dates. Click here for another version of essentially the same information (from Fall 2003).