Technology and Policy

Good technology policy is difficult to formulate for many reasons, among them, that technologists are often unaware of the policy implications of technologies they develop and policymakers are often unfamiliar with technologies they are asked to regulate. This course will consider several different types of information technologies and specific policy issues they raise. The principal goal of the course will be to facilitate cross-disciplinary communications and collaborations between policymakers and technologists so that technologists can embed good policies in the technologies they build and policymakers can regulate technology more appropriately and effectively.

This course will feature a series of speakers on technology policy issues. Confirmed speakers include Mitch Kapor, Brewster Kahle, Lawrence Lessig, and Les Vadasz, as well as several Berkeley professors from SIMS, Law, and Computer Science.

Students will be expected to write one ten page paper on a technology policy issue as well as to be active participants in class discussion.