Course Description

Instructor: Prof. Seth Fogarty Email: sfogarty@trinity.edu Office: CSI 270M

Meets: Northrup Hall, Room 40 Time: Monday 3:55-5:10

This is a 0-credit course for computer science majors, focused on a broad exploration of topics related to professional ethics and social responsibility. This course meets once a week, and has no out of course work. The general structure will include an initial small-group discussion, a presentation of information, and a concluding discussion. Because of these discussions, it is important to be on time for class. Discussion groups will be randomly assigned and projected at the beginning of class: please consult the projector to find out where to sit. You will need to bring a phone or laptop to class.

Attendance Policy

Students are expected to attend class regularly. There are 14 scheduled classes, and your grade is primarily determined by attendance. Up to two absences may be taken with no penalty. After that point, each absence results in a course letter grade reduction. Attendance will be measured by a final Google Form linked below.

Accessibility

In line with the Trinity University policy on equal access and equal opportunity, this course will be made accessible to all students. Any student who feels they may need attendance accommodations based on the impact of a disability or long illness should contact me and the office of Student Accessibility Services to discuss your specific needs.

Colloquium Topics

• 12/5 - Disruption and the Global South

  • First Reading:

    • Technological Disruption in the Global Economy - Institute for New Economic Thinking

  • Second Reading:

    • ‘Disruption’ Is a Two-Way Street - Rida Qadri

    • Global South startups can do better than Silicon Valley - Rida Qadri

    • Delivery Drivers Are Using Grey Market Apps - Rida Qadri

    • African WhatsApp Modders -Cory Doctorow

  • Attendance Form

  • Optional Reading:

    • Interoperability: Fix the Internet, Not the Tech Companies - Cory Doctorow

    • Unix and Adversarial Interoperability - Cory Doctorow

    • Seeing Through Silicon Valley’s Shameless ‘Disruption’ - Noam Cohen

    • The cyber frontier and digital pitfalls in the Global South - Niels Nagelhus Schia

• 11/28 - Protocols not Platforms

  • First Reading:

    • "Protocols, Not Platforms": A Mantra For The (We Can Only Hope) Post-Twitter Internet - Riley Shahar

    • No, JWZ, Discord is not “IRC with pictures” - BaronHK's Rants

    • Optional: Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech - Mike Masnick

  • Second Reading: Mastodon and Federation blog post - Jamie Zawinski

  • Attendance Form

• 11/14 - Careers in Software Development and Innovation

  • Attendance Form

• 11/7 - Student Lab Spaces

  • Student Lab Designer's Room

  • Attendance Form

  • Paper

• 10/31 - Machine Learning and Explainable AI

  • Attendance Form

• 10/24 - Impossible Programs

  • Attendance Form

• 10/17 - Synthetic Media

  • Meta-DALL-E Commentary

  • Discussions Prompts

  • Attendance Form

• 10/3 - Internship Panel

  • Attendance Form

• 9/26 - Social Impact of Media

  • Readings

    • Survey Paper

    • Literature Review (optional)

  • Attendance Form

• 9/19 - Technical Debt

  • Unintended Consequences Room

  • Attendance Form

• 9/12 - Adventures in Electronic Voting Security (second try!)

  • Attendance Form

• 8/29 - Adventures in Electronic Voting Security

  • Attendance Form

• 8/22 - Course Context and Approaches to Ethics and Morality

  • Black Mirror Writer's Room

  • Attendance Form