Menu of case study discussion topics
From the syllabus:The second round of case studies will follow a discussion format. Again in pairs, students will lead 20-minute discussions based on longer-form reading from news and magazine articles. The leaders will do some additional background reading and frame the question, but the whole class will be expected to participate in the discussions. Each student will lead twice. The unit will be worth 10% of the course grade (5 for each discussion led).Pick five top choices and email them to me by Saturday.
- Privacy/health: Getting Googled By Your Doctor Is the New Normal
- Privacy/artificial intelligence: Row over AI that 'identifies gay faces'
- Privacy/employment: Workplace monitoring gets personal, and employees fear it's too close for comfort
- Censorship/Google: My @YouTube account was suspended for uploaded/embedded portions of AQ vids used for analysis for U.S. v Pfc. Manning
- IP-copyright/classical music: Sony Finally Admits It Doesn’t Own Bach and It Only Took a Bunch of Public Pressure
- IP-copyright/scientific research: Scientific research piracy site hit with $15 million fine
- Communication/health: A hospital without patients
- Vulnerabilities/ethical disclosure: Microsoft Calls Out NSA For 'Stockpiling' Vulnerabilities
- Vulnerabilities/voting: In Georgia, a legal battle over electronic vs. paper voting
- Cheating on regulations/Volkswagen: VW engineer sentenced to 40 months in prison for role in emissions cheating
- Programmer error/legal system: Judges refuse to order fix for court software that put people in jail by mistake
- Programmer error/scientific research: A Bug in FMRI Software Could Invalidate 15 Years of Brain Research
- Psychological manipulation/phones: Tristan Harris believes Silicon Valley is addicting us to our phones. He’s determined to make it stop.
- Psychological manipulation/advertising: How Online Shopping Makes Suckers of Us All
- Psychological manipulation/health: The code I’m still ashamed of
- Data aggregation/voting: Trump voter-fraud panel’s data request a gold mine for hackers, experts warn
- Data preservation/military: How the military is making it hard to remember our wars
- Race and gender/Gamergate: SXSW Cancels Panels On Harassment In Video Game Community After Threats
- Race and gender/Google: So, about this Googler’s manifesto
- Race and gender/credit scoring: Modern-day redlining: How banks block people of color from homeownership
- Race and gender/effect vs intent: How white engineers built racist code – and why it's dangerous for black people
- Automation/abuse: Thermostats, Locks and Lights: Digital Tools of Domestic Abuse
- Automation/employment: A World Without Work
- Automation/markets: The robots-vs.-robots trading that has hijacked the stock market
- Automation/airplane control The untold story of QF72: What happens when 'psycho' automation leaves pilots powerless?
- Automation/self-driving cars/trolley problem Should A Self-Driving Car Kill Its Passengers In A “Greater Good” Scenario?
- Automation/self-driving cars/transition Car companies' vision of a gradual transition to self-driving cars has a big problem
- Automation/military Elon Musk leads 116 experts calling for outright ban of killer robots
- Automation/self-checkout Self-checkout is terrible: why Walmart, Target, and others still do it