PP290-4 (3) Special Topics:Information Technology
and Public Policy
Fall 2011
Tuesday, Thursday | 5:00-6:30PM |Room 105
Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley
Instructors: Prof. Michael O’Hare and Jason Christopher, Dir. of IT, GSPP
Technology pervades our personal and professional lives. Our students need to be IT literate (GSPP Program Review)
Policy problems are increasingly addressed with IT tools (Experiments of Concern Portal)
Adoption of a new technology or information system will have anticipated and unanticipated implications… (Stanford, UCB)
Learning IT skills will develop your IT conceptual literacy. Our philosophy is that in learning real IT skills, you will gain an invaluable IT literacy that will inform your public policy thought and decision making.
PREMISES
Technology Pervades: Climbing Mt. Technology Pervades: Climbing Mt. Everest this Summer? Don’t Forget your Everest this Summer? Don’t Forget your Cell Phone.Cell Phone.
Pasi Koistinen, chief Pasi Koistinen, chief executive officer of Ncell, executive officer of Ncell, Nepal’s first private telecom Nepal’s first private telecom company speaks on a cell company speaks on a cell phone at an Everest base phone at an Everest base campcamp
First 3G (Third Generation) First 3G (Third Generation) cell phone call from the cell phone call from the
summit of Mt. Everest on 6 summit of Mt. Everest on 6 May 2011.May 2011.
Technology pervades our personal and professional lives. Our students need to be IT literate (GSPP Program Review)
Policy problems are increasingly addressed with IT tools (Ex. Biosecurity: Experiments of Concern Portal)
Adoption of a new technology or information system may have anticipated and unanticipated implications…(Stanford, UCB)
Learning IT skills will develop your IT conceptual literacy. Our philosophy is that in learning real IT skills, you will gain an invaluable IT literacy that will inform your public policy thought and decision making.
PREMISES
IT TOOLS FOR POLICY
Technology pervades our personal and professional lives. Our students need to be IT literate (GSPP Program Review)
Policy problems are increasingly addressed with IT tools (Experiments of Concern Portal)
Adoption of a new technology or information system will have anticipated and unanticipated implications…(Stanford, UCB)
Learning IT skills will develop your IT conceptual literacy. Our philosophy is that in learning real IT skills, you will gain an invaluable IT literacy that will inform your public policy thought and decision making.
PREMISES
Adoption of a new technology at Stanford…““Sometimes I look and wonder if this wave of Sometimes I look and wonder if this wave of ERP (enterprise resource planning) software…ERP (enterprise resource planning) software…wasn’t a collective hallucination,” Stanford wasn’t a collective hallucination,” Stanford CIO Chris HandleyCIO Chris Handley
““By the time Handley was hired to oversee the By the time Handley was hired to oversee the Oracle and PeopleSoft projects, Stanford had Oracle and PeopleSoft projects, Stanford had decided to change itself rather than the decided to change itself rather than the software. This meant relinquishing forever the software. This meant relinquishing forever the convenience of technically superior mainframe convenience of technically superior mainframe software.”software.”
• ““Version upgrade gridlock” caused by interfering Version upgrade gridlock” caused by interfering software Oracle v Peoplesoftsoftware Oracle v Peoplesoft
• Techs supporting the software w/o enhancing the codeTechs supporting the software w/o enhancing the codehttp://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Projects-Management/Stanford-University-
Hard-Lesson/
UC Berkeley Calendaring and E-UC Berkeley Calendaring and E-mailmail• E-mail: 4 million offered/day, 1 million E-mail: 4 million offered/day, 1 million
servedserved• Calendar System: CalAgenda, a Calendar System: CalAgenda, a
PeopleSoft productPeopleSoft product• PeopleSoft bought by OraclePeopleSoft bought by Oracle• But Oracle already has a calendar systemBut Oracle already has a calendar system• No plans to further develop PeopleSoft No plans to further develop PeopleSoft
calendarcalendar• UC looks to open source (OS) UC looks to open source (OS)
development – Rensselear Polytechnical development – Rensselear Polytechnical • Project flounders for lack of high level Project flounders for lack of high level
staffingstaffing• UC system floundersUC system flounders• Lead tech for CalAgenda migration leaves Lead tech for CalAgenda migration leaves
for Twitterfor Twitter• UCB looks to Google and Microsoft for a UCB looks to Google and Microsoft for a
soltionsoltion• Google won’t make guarantees about not Google won’t make guarantees about not
hosting e-mail in China….Hello hosting e-mail in China….Hello Microsoft? Microsoft?
Technology pervades our personal and professional lives. Our students need to be IT literate (GSPP Program Review)
Policy problems are increasingly addressed with IT tools (Experiments of Concern Portal)
Adoption of a new technology or information system may have anticipated and unanticipated implications…(Stanford, UCB)
Learning IT skills will help you develop an IT conceptual literacy. Our philosophy is that in learning real IT skills, you will gain an invaluable IT literacy that will inform your public policy thought and decision making.
PREMISES
?What is your experience?
Student Introductions
HOW
Tuesday Sessions (Conceptual)
Primarily discussion based on readings and in-class presentation, see syllabus, find readings and links on bSpace, required and recommended material.
Thursday Sessions (Skills)
“Lab” session, project-oriented, experimental, what can you make the technology do?
Hands-on, demonstrations of applications and technologies, students sign-ups next Tuesday
First demo: google docs (Jason) First project: HTML-based, create a personal web page… http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/
TOPICST
echnology in our Personal and Professional Lives – Internet Filtering and Tracking
Internet and the Web
Property and Digital Goods
The Ubiquitous World of Data
IT as a Management Tool
Content Management Systems
IT Applications and Tools
Collaborative Tools
Writing IT functional specifications
HTML, python, Access, Plone and more…
TOOLS
Clickers
Notes
• A shared google doc document for each session
Whiteboard
• A shared google doc “drawing” for each session
What else?
GOALS OF THE CLASS Learn IT skills, add to your policy toolkit (HTML,
SQL, Python, collaboration tools, apps…) Learn IT concepts, converse constructively with
IT developers to build, rebuild or migrate Become familiar with the marketplace of IT
systems, their pros and cons, features and flaws, especially content management systems (CMS)
Learn about managing IT resources, write a functional specification for an IT/Policy project
More…
ADMINISTRATIVE
Pre-requisites: none Always bring your laptop Grades:
25% Class Participation 25% Quizzes (frequent), interim group or
individual projects 25% Mid-term exam 25% Final group project
ADMINISTRATIVE bSpace for:
Web-based syllabus Revised detailed scope and Word-based syllabus… E-mail archive Readings Announcements
Our course e-mail address: [email protected]
HARDWARE HANDS-ON
Three groups
Disassemble
Rebuild
Boot
FINAL NOTE
“Could you make the blue more blue?”…
