Classes for the 2008-2009 academic year
I525 Economics of Information Security
Fall
Economics of information security is not an exercise in analogy. It is the application of the tools of economics, in particular modeling, measuring, and experimentation in the tradition of economics, to computer security. The class has a set of basic topics, and each topic will be explored and examined according to the interest of the students.
Health, Technology and Aging
Fall
undergraduate/graduate: C325/C625
MW 11:15-12:30
The combination of an aging population and ubiquitous technology creates the potential help elders stay at home longer, be more productive, and maintain autonomy. This class focuses on the creation of technology-based businesses that use emerging technologies to help elders. The final project presentations will be to a group of entrepreneurs who will evaluate the business idea as well as the presentation itself. Informatics students should sign up for INFO 399.
I130 Introduction to Security Informatics
Fall
An introduction to security which focuses on the topics that are part of the Informatics security minor. The professors who teach in the required and elective courses in the minor will introduce their subjects in the course.
I330 Organizational Informatics of Security
Spring
An introduction to security which focuses on the topics that are part of the Informatics security minor. The professors who teach in the required and elective courses in the minor will introduce their subjects in the course.
I130 Introduction to Security Informatics
Spring
An additional session of the introduction to security course. As in the fall, this course focuses on the topics that are part of the Informatics security minor. The professors who teach in the required and elective courses in the minor will introduce their subjects in the course. In both semesters, there will be at least one professional guest speaker to address the issue of careers in security informatics.
Classes for the 2006-2007 academic year
I537 Social Informatics of Security
Fall
Identity, trust, privacy, and therefore security are socially constructed. Privacy is contested, and identities are stolen because of existence of lack of information control. This course is for graduate students interested in an examination of security technologies in terms of social context, power contests, and human interactions. Undergraduate students who complete I303 in the fall may take I537 as the second required 300 level elective in the spring.
I330 Organizational and Social Informatics of Security
Spring
Organizational Informatics includes theories of organizations and an introduction to analytical tools with emphasis on intuition rather than application. Organizational Informatics of security requires understanding security as a strategic technology, rather than as a neutral technology. Social informatics of security requires understanding security as a technology of control, as one element of a larger cultural, social or political reality.
I130 Introduction to Cybersecurity
Spring
An introduction to the study of cybersecurity with particular focus on the undergraduate Informatics cognate. The professors who teach in the cognate will introduce their subjects in the course. This course is for one credit hour. This will be the second year the course is offered.
I130 Introduction to Cybersecurity
Fall
An introduction to the study of cybersecurity with particular focus on the undergraduate Informatics cognate. The professors who teach in the cognate will introduce their subjects in the course. This course is for one credit hour. This will be the second year the course is offered.
Classes for the 2005-2006 academic year
Organizational Informatics
Organizational Informatics includes theories of organizations and an introduction to analytical tools with emphasis on intuition rather than application.
Introduction to Cybersecurity
An introduction to the study of cybersecurity with particular focus on the undergraduate Informatics cognate. The professors who teach in the cognate will introduce their subjects in the course. This course is for one credit hour.
Economics of Information Security
The language of computer security suggest the range of analogies. A virus is a medical problem, while an invasive worm brings to mind the problems of ecosystems. Computer crime and intrusion detection argue that the problem is one of criminal behavior. Firewalls suggest that the network itself is a hostile force, that must be segregated into the conflagration beyond and the safety within. The construction of demilitarized zones (DMZs) between trusty local area networks and the wider network beyond argues that it is war, not flames, on the network. Yet for all that is involved in computer security, and all that is lost, there is a potential measure: dollars.
Classes for the 2004-2005 academic year
Organizational Informatics
A partial listing of the course taught by myself and Bill Aspray for undergraduates in Informatics.
Classes for the 2003-2004 academic year
STM 483: Information Management
Information management begins with an introduction to the unique economic implications of digital on-line information. The course provides an understanding of the concepts of managing digital information, then an application of these concepts in the final.
STP 308: Technical Design and Human Values
How are value and political choices designed into technology? How do distinct values emerge from the same technologies? How can policy makers recognize values and prevent hard-wired technological value choices? This class begins with two weeks of theory, but the focus of this class is a series of information technology case studies. 2001-2002 was the first year this course was offered, under the name Design for Values.
STP 301: Security and Privacy
Technology is being presented in popular discourse as a savior from the threats of terrorism, and conversely as threat to democracy with the hard-wiring of big brother. Accountability and anonymity seem to be inherently opposed. The course identifies necessary trade-offs, and illustrates that many of the current security and privacy exchanges risk reducing both. Wireless identifiers on every article of clothing and the Federal Total Information Awareness program are topics in this course as they will be integral parts of our lives in a few years. Framing the class discussion are the basics of choosing security technologies for federal systems.
CANCELED FOR 2003-2004
STP 304: Telecommunications Modeling Commerce
Who bought the first fax machine? How did e-mail arise? This course will focus on systems with feedback. The course will begin with an explanation of feedback, and then a series of lectures will focus on specific mechanisms for feedback in the economic and technical realm. Readings and cases will provide real world examples. Dynamic cost-based modeling with technical uncertainty. Technical change presents an interesting set of problems for quantitative modeling. This course was originally offered as "Information and Telecommunications Protocols: Modeling and Policy Analysis" in 2002. Analysis of technology policy problems in developing countries is a rich source of material for this project-based course.
Classes for the 2002-2003 academic year
During this year I was on research leave, therefore I taught only a core course on analytic methods Analytic Frameworks for Policy.
Classes for the 2001-2002 academic year
STP 304: Internet Commerce
What good are free goods, and what the business models for free software? What business models survived the boom? Why did other fail? What policy choices are being and have been made to balance and tilt the information markets? I developed this course in 1998-1999.
STP 308: Design for Values
This course focused on how value choices are designed into or emerge from the design of technologies. In particular this class will focus on protocols rather than the interfaces of particular implementations. 2001-2002 was the first year I offered this course.
STP 301: Communications Policy
Governance has had a critical role in shaping modes and methods of communications from Charlemagne to Prince Charles. In return, technologies have altered social patterns, including those of governance. In this course the continuing threads, repeating patterns, and new twists of communications technologies are examined. This course was based on the introduction to information policy two years previous.
Classes for the 2000-2001 academic year
STP 304M: The Mechanisms and Methods of Internet Commerce
offered in Spring 2001. Updated from the previous year.
STP 308: Information and Telecommunications Protocols: Modeling and Policy Analysis
offered in Spring of 2001. Listed as STP 308, ESD 127 at MIT and DHP P232 at the Fletcher School. Analytic modeling of technical uncertainty.
STP 301: Introduction to Information Policy for Fall of 2000.
Classes from the 1999-2000
STP 308: Internet Commerce: Technologies and Issues
Much of the material in this course can be found in Trust and Risk in Internet Commerce published the following year.
STP-307: Business and the Internet: Strategy, Law and Policy
This had been the only course previous taught on IT and policy. I took over this course for one year and then developed more focused courses. In part because this course was developed to ask the question about the potential of the Internet. By 2000, it was obvious this topic needed more than an overview course.