Course Offerings
In this class, students will first learn some fundamentals of cultural heritage informatics and be introduced to the major kinds of institutions in this space: galleries, libraries, archives, and museums. Students will also see case studies of how fundamental concepts like access or metadata get used in contemporary examples.
This course we will explore the concepts and values of open knowledge and knowledge equity and how they intersect with the ongoing evolution of digital environments. Open knowledge can be described as information that is freely available to the public to use and redistribute. Knowledge equity extends beyond information access and use to also include what is valued as knowledge, whom that knowledge represents, and who creates it.
Engage in modern ethical dilemmas within archives, libraries, and museums, considering issues of collections management and preservation within changing cultural frameworks. This I 320C topic carries the Cultural Diversity in the United States flag. The purpose of the Cultural Diversity in the United States Flag is for students to explore in-depth the shared practices and beliefs of one or more underrepresented cultural groups subject to persistent marginalization. In addition to learning about these diverse groups in relation to their specific contexts, you’ll also reflect on your own cultural experiences.
This course introduces digital archival collections that can be accessed and used as data for research and inquiry. Topics will focus on the transformation, analysis, and interpretation of digital cultural heritage in archival contexts, including digitization, web archiving, software emulation, and data archiving. From text messages, Spotify playlists, to the President's tweets--how are digital traces collected, preserved and managed by archives? What are the ethics of managing digital archives and making them accessible to researchers, the public, and machines?
An introduction to sociotechnical perspectives on information systems, their effects, and how we intervene to make them better.
No description provided.
Online communities are important to our cultural, social, and economic lives and especially to how we find and share information. Yet they also threaten our well-being and may undermine critical social institutions as well as the integrity of public discourse. This course is an interdisciplinary inquiry that seeks to understand online communities. It covers the history of online communities from their origins in the pre-Internet to the rise of social media platforms and contemporary challenges and also the social, psychological, and human-computer interaction research that both explains the practical barriers to building an online community and motivates technical and organizational designs that aim to overcome them.
Explore common data collection, management, and sharing practices around information technology and emerging technologies such as AI. Students will gain hands on experiences with collecting, analyzing, and managing user data in ethical and responsible manners. Students will design data-driven systems that are centered around user consent, transparency, and social responsibilities.
Critical exploration of the intersection between digital technologies and information access in emerging economies. Investigate the historical, socio-economic, and ethical dimensions of digital adoption in the Global South, analyzing its impact on governance, economies, cultures, and societal dynamics. Emphasis on critical thinking, ethical considerations, and collaborative approaches to address challenges such as the digital divide(s), data sovereignty, and technology-driven inequality. Through case studies and practical exercises, students will develop skills in digital research, global cultures, policy analysis, and technology innovation with a focus on promoting inclusive and sustainable digital transformation in Global South contexts. Also offered as I 320J.
Practical skills and understandings required to effectively work with open source software and understand the projects that build them. Includes git-based collaboration as well as conceptual understanding of licenses, security, technical and social processes in open source development. Class projects involve working with digital trace data from open source repositories. Also offered as Informatics 320D.
This course examines disability beyond digital accessibility (i.e., web accessibility, user interface design) and focuses on disability from an organizational and socio-technical point of view. Students will learn about the legislation and policies impacting accessibility, the models that shape our perceptions of disability, and review case studies of disability in several contexts. In addition to the broader types of disabilities, we will consider other forms of disabilities (permanent, situational, temporary). Students will engage in class discussions, small group activities, homework assignments, and give oral presentations. Students will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to apply methods and models of accessibility in the workplace in various fields, including software design, data science, AI, and library science.
This class explores how to make arguments about and through design. The first half focuses on values, criticism, ethics, and analysis of technology, the latter portion aims to help a soon-to-graduate technologist envision positive social impact in a mission-driven enterprise. Students will practice synthesizing ethical tech considerations – as they will have to do for the rest of their careers – and combining this with an organizational mindset. Through exercises, role-playing, discussions, guest lectures from activist technologists, and wide-ranging readings, students will practice connecting broader implications of their designs with technical choices. Design for Social Impact seeks to arm students with diverse ways of reflecting on their authorial relationship to technology, drawing from art and design to political science and anthropology. Course participants will be encouraged to focus on areas of personal interest, enumerating the social, political, and economic parameters of particular technical systems: parameters that are as important as power consumption, usability, or efficiency.
Effective application of social and technical methods of analysis to specific existing systems with inseparable technical and social components to enable improvement. Covers techniques such as modeling, interviewing, observation, trace analysis, and benchmarking.