Public Policy and the Internet
LBJ School of Public Affairs "Politics and Process" Seminar
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The LBJ School course, "Politics and Process: Public Policy and the Internet," is a graduate-level seminar on topics about U.S. policy related to the Internet, the global network of computers and software. The course will cover a variety of public policy controversies, including federal telecommunications legislation; state and local telecommunications policies; privacy; digital encryption; copyright and intellectual property; Open Source software; equity and access; and the future of the Internet, among other topics.
The course will have five major requirements: readings, class participation, a midterm writing assignment, an oral presentation in class on a regularly scheduled class topic, and a written paper on the same or a different topic as the oral presentation.
Students will be expected to do the readings assigned for each class session and be prepared to discuss the content of the readings assigned for each class. Students must consider the major policy controversies that they find reflected in the readings and be prepared to ask or answer questions related to such controversies. The assigned readings are introductory in nature -- for some subjects, students may need to supplement the assigned readings with material they find on their own or with material recommended by the course.
Some class sessions will feature assigned readings lists that are quite extensive. It is up to each student to determine how to manage these readings—i.e., whether each assigned reading should be skimmed, reviewed or read closely.
Approximately halfway through the term, students will be asked to write an opinion-editorial article of less than 1,000 words, on a topic that will be chosen from a list passed out in class.
The course will be run as a graduate seminar, therefore class participation by everyone in the class is imperative and required as a component of the final grade. Students will be expected to discuss, query, challenge and agree or disagree with the assigned readings, the instructor's lectures, and with each other. The aim of the seminar is to provide lively and instructive discussions about the controversies the course will cover.
Each student will be expected to choose one of the topics scheduled in the syllabus and prepare a brief oral presentation on this topic, and also take responsibility for stimulating class discussion about the selected issue. Students can expect that the readings required for preparing this oral presentation will be more extensive than those assigned for the class session.
Students should model these presentations on a short briefing they might give to a policymaker or policymaking committee, which means that the presentation must cover the basic background of the issue being addressed, its history, the various developed positions surrounding the issue, and an argument about what should be done, in terms of policy recommendations. The oral presentation should be approximately 20-30 minutes in length, with more time allotted for team presentations.
Each student will be required to write and submit a final course paper, to be turned in on the last class day of the term, July 8. All student papers are due on the same day, without exception. The paper should be an in-depth, graduate-level research and briefing document on an issue of interest to the student which also encompasses something about the Internet and public policy. Course papers must be far more specific than the broad topics set for each class session, and, as such, paper topics must be approved by the instructor no later than the class session of June 24.
Student work will be evaluated on the basis of class participation, the oral presentation, and the two writing assignments, the midterm paper and the final course paper. The rough breakdown of the final grade will be: oral presentation, 30%; final course paper, 30%; midterm paper, 20%; class participation, 20%.