Class Meeting Format:

With the exception of the first and last two weeks of the semester, we will divide our weekly class meeting into two parts. We will kick off a new topic each Monday with a lecture given during the second half of the class meeting. Then, during the next six days, the class will complete the reading assignment for that week. On the following Monday, we will devote the first half of the class meeting to a group discussion on the topic and the readings, before moving on to a lecture on the next topic.

Readings

Many of the assigned readings (e.g., those from the ACM Digital Library or IEEE) are licensed by the Berkeley Library, and can be accessed from a computer with a campus IP address. You can also access these materials from off-campus by using the library's proxy server.

Discussion Leaders:

Starting on Sep 29 (week 4), the discussion portion of the class meetings will be facilitated by about three students assigned to be discussion leaders for that week. The responsibilities of the discussion leaders include:

• post a list of discussion questions, based on the lecture and readings, on the class blog, on the preceding Thursday;
  
• lead the class in a group discussion, taking notes of the key points made during the discussion;
  
• post a written summary of the discussion on the class blog on the Wednesday following the discussion.
  

The instructor will assign the students to the topics, alphabetically by first name, based on the official class list on September 15. The discussion leaders for each week might want to meet in advance to coordinate their plans. All discussion leaders for a given week will receive the same score for their efforts. You need to seek instructor approval if you wish to trade assignments with other students.

Project:

Working in teams of two or three students, you will do an in-depth analysis of the economics, strategy, and/or public policy of a chosen information technology or IT industry. You can propose and evaluate a new economic model, business model, or policy recommendation. Alternatively, you can also critique an existing economic or business model or policy recommendation. A project in the form of a survey of the literature is discouraged.

Topics may include, but are by no means limited to:

• from individual tastes to the long tail -- what is the connection?
• novel business models for music, movies, mobile apps, or other content
  
• aligning incentives of stakeholders in the music/movie industry
  
• ISP business strategy in a net-neutral versus non-neutral world
• wireless broadband business strategy after FCC Auction 73
• clean-slate network architecture design: evolution and adoption
  
• wisdom of crowds: the design of prediction markets
• authorship, reputation, and incentives: Wikipedia versus Google Knol
  
• competition, market power, and anti-trust for Internet search
• which platforms are more valuable than others?
  
• economics and strategy of social networking platforms
• economics, strategy, and policy of botnets
• insurance for risk management in network security

You will present your findings at the end of the semester in two formats: (i) an oral or poster presentation (format TBD based on class enrollment); and (ii) a written report.

Doctoral students can seek instructor approval to propose an individual project.

Important dates:

• Each individual contributes 2-3 project ideas to class blog by Friday Oct 3
  
• Project proposal due on Oct 13 (week 6)
  
• Project presentations on Dec 1 (week 13) and Dec 8 (week 14)
  
• Project final report due Friday Dec 12
  

Some "how to" advice:

• Davis, M., That's Interesting! Towards a Phenomenology of Sociology and a Sociology of Phenomenology, Phil. Soc. Sci. 1 (1971), 309-344.
• G. Polya, How to Solve It, 2nd ed., Princeton University Press, 1957, ISBN 0-691-08097-6. (A good summary can be found here.)
  
• Varian, H., How to build a model in your spare time.
  
• S. Keshav, How to read a paper, ACM Sigcomm Computer Communication Review, July 2007.