I'm delighted that I will be teaching a class in the fall in Stanford's computer science department. Its goal is to teach computer scientists and engineers how to get involved in policy and law making. I'd appreciate any advise anyone has for developing the syllabus. I've never done this before. The class runs 10 weeks, twice a week for an hour and 15 minutes. My plan is to break it into 5 segments-- courts, congress, agencies, advocacy, and corporate counsel's office-- with one week on how policymaking works in the venue and the next week on case studies of how scientists and technologists engage in making policy in current, live policy issues.
The course description looks like this:
Understanding and Participating in Cyberlaw and Policymaking
CS203, 3 units
Tues/Thurs 2:15
Fall Quarter
A growing body of technology-oriented law and policy regulates what
computer scientists and developers can research, the tools they can
use, the devices they build, and the publication of their work. Many
technologists want to participate in the law and policymaking
process, yet do not understand how the process works, or how they can
best make their voices heard. This course will offer a primer on how
law and policy is made in the courts, Congress and agencies, and how
organizations and companies participate in the process. It will
cover a wide range of cutting-edge substantive cyber law -- including privacy,
free speech, and intellectual property -- relying on case studies of how
technologists are participating in a wide variety of important
debates currently on the cyber agenda.
thoughts?